Rock-a-Bye Big Shot Card (Reverse Die Cut Technique) & your chance to be featured on my blog!

As I was playing around with my Big Shot yesterday making my faux die-cut/laser cut paper, I stumbled across another way to use my Swirly Big Shot Decorative Strip die – I used the reverse cut (i.e. what’s left-over after you die cut the swirls) to create the look of waves in my baby card.  Now I do have to say that this was an “Aha” moment for me and that I personally have not seen this die used in this way before, so I decided to take the liberty of naming this the “Reverse Die Cut Technique.”

That’s not to say someone else hasn’t already come up with this idea – you know the saying “there’s nothing truly original.”  If you are reading this, and you have already used the die in this way, then please do leave me a comment and in the comment make sure you include a link to your card because I’d love to see it.  If you’re like me, and using the reverse cut of this die is an “aha” moment for you too, I’d love to challenge you to make a card using this technique and leave me a comment with a direct link to your card or project in the comments section of this post. It’ doesn’t have to be with this die in particular, it can be with any die. Of those that participate in the challenge, I will randomly draw 5 names, and “feature you”  on my blog. If you are one of the ones featured I will post your card (or other project), a small picture of you (if you want), a brief bio (whatever you want to tell others about you) and a link back to your blog.  I will let random.org choose my winners on Friday, and then the winners will have one week to email me their info and I’ll feature the winners next Friday.

I’ve put together a couple of pictures to show you the first few steps of creating this card, as it’s kind of hard to explain using only words.  The first thing I did was take a 2 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ strip of Pacific Point CS and lay it across the center of my Swirly Sizzlets Decorative Strip Die.  I then die cut it using my Big Shot.  The picture below shows you what you have when you separate the “swirls” from the reverse cuts:

To create my first card (I have another one to show you at the bottom of this post), I used the piece that’s shown on the bottom of the above picture.  I took that piece and laid  it across my 4″ x 5 1/4″ Bashful Blue CS piece (see picture below).

As you can see from the picture above, the blue reverse cut is bigger than the Bashful Blue CS piece.  I deliberately made my strip bigger than necessary because I wanted to be able to play with the best placement of the reverse cut on my card.  Once you have it positioned, stick it down, and then trim off the excess with your personal paper trimmer.  To create the rest of my card I did the following:

1. I positioned the rock-a-bye baby greeting just above the CS “waves” so that the curve of the greeting followed the curve of the “waves”, and stamped it in Pacific Point Classic ink. 
2. I took the boat image from Nursery Necessities, inked it up in Pacific Point ink and stamped it onto a piece of Pacific Point DP.  I did this because I wanted a bit of the DP’s pattern to show through the ink and give the boat bottom some texture.  I then trimmed out the boat with my paper snips, and stuck it onto the crest of the wave, just to the left of the greeting. 
3. I cleaned the boat image, inked it up in Versamark and stamped it onto a scrap of So Saffron DP.  While the VersaMark was still wet, I used the shine of the ink to help guide me in cutting out the sail.  I did the same thing for the smaller sail on a second pattern of DP.  The large sail was mounted with a Stampin’ Dimensional and the small sail was stuck on using 2-way glue.  To create the small Pumpkin Pie piece of sail, I stamped the boat stamp in VersaMark ink onto a piece of Pumpkin Pie CS, cut it out and stuck it on using 2-way glue.
4. Once my image was complete, I matted the Bashful Blue CS onto a 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″ piece of Pumpkin Pie CS.  I punched two holes in the top right corner using my 1/16″ handheld circle punch, and inserted two small Pumpkin Pie corduroy brads.
5. I matted the Pumpkin Pie CS onto my 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ So Saffron card front (created by folding a 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ piece of CS in half). 
6. Finally, I drew a thin line of Crystal Effects glue along the top edge of the waves, and added on some white Chunky Glitter from the Chunky Essentials Glitter Collection.  That’s it.

The other way of creating a similar card is by using the actual swirls to create the look and feel of waves.  As you can see from the picture below, I took the swirls and lay them across a piece of Bashful Blue CS, stuck it down with 2-way glue and trimmed it.

I followed pretty much the same steps for the rest of the card and created the card you see below.  Now I do have to say, of the two of them, my personal favourite is the first card.

I hope you enjoyed this post.  Once again, here’s the details of my Challenge to you for your chance to be featured on my blog:  Create a card or other project using the Reverse Die Cut Technique, and leave me a comment with a direct link to your card or project in the comments section of this post. It’ doesn’t have to be with this die in particular, it can be with any die. Of those that participate in the challenge, I will randomly draw 5 names, and “feature” you  on my blog. If you are one of the ones featured I will post a picture of your project, a small picture of you (if you want), a brief bio (whatever you want to tell others about you) and a link back to your blog.  I will let random.org choose my winners on Friday, and then the winners will have one week to email me their info and I’ll feature the winners next Friday.  This is a great way to get your blog “out there”  even more. Whenever I’ve featured other stampers on my blog, I’ve had them tell me that they got an increase of up to several thousand “hits” (i.e. new visitors) to their blogs.  I hope you participate!

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Stamps:  Nursery Necessities
Ink: Pacific Point Classic ink, VersaMark ink
Paper: Pacific Point DP, So Saffron DP, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Pacific Point CS
Accessories:  Big Shot, Swirly Sizzlits Decorative Strips Die, Crystal Effects, white Chunky Glitter from Chunky Essentials Glitter collection, 1/16″ handheld circle punch, Pumpkin Pie Corduroy Buttons