Partial Die Cutting: Hot Mess!

By now you've heard the news: There are two new Leading Ladies over at Ellen Hutson LLC!

These fabulous Ladies are the awesome creation of Brandi Kincaid, exclusively for the Essentials by Ellen line. Today I have another example of partial die cutting, along the right edge of this card:

Here's how she was created: First, I used my Misti to stamp the Hot Mess Lady onto watercolor paper. The rough texture of watercolor paper sometimes prevents a crisp, fully stamped image. If that happens, it is easy to re-stamp the image again using the Misti! I'm loving my new bar magnets (wrapped with glitter tape for easy handling) and easy wipe mouse pad made for the Misti!

Next, I placed my top die cutting pad along the right edge of the paper, where I wanted to cut away the area around Hot Mess's hand using her coordinating die. When you run this sandwich through your die cutting machine, it will only cut the paper where the top plate covers it:

Next, use your paper trimmer to finish cutting a straight line above and below her arm, trimming away the excess:

Here, I placed a piece of bright paper behind her arm, so you can easily see the cut:

Then I pulled out my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors and colored the Leading Lady, plus an extra 1-1/2 inch strip of watercolor paper with donuts stamped on it:

This is how the card looks open:

I drew a straight line next to Hot Mess using a black Copic Multiliner, to create a table she could sit her drink on (which is popped up with foam tape):