Functional Friday - Versatile Background

Hi all! Thanks so much for your positive response to the new series I introduced last week ... Functional Fridays. I'm really excited about it! In case you missed the post, I'm featuring one die from Top Dog Dies each month, and each Friday I'm sharing a different way to use the die. My hope is that even if you don't own that exact die, the ideas will translate to similar dies you do own.

This month's featured die is the Heart Border Die. The detail is amazing with hundreds of tiny hearts ... no way I would attempt that on the Silhouette, and I'd venture to say it's impossible with an exacto knife. To take advantage of the detail in a subtle way, I set about to use it as a background.



I cut one strip in the same color as my card base to make the heart shapes less apparent. We're just looking for texture here. Then I tore the border in thirds, making sure to remove all the straight edges. Not too much thought next, I just gathered the three pieces in the center of the card and adhered them down. I used the penguin from Winnie & Walter as the focal point and ended up with ...



... a card that has a little something extra than a penguin standing on a sentiment (which isn't a bad look either, I'm just happy to find ways to make it a little different than some of my other cards.) I think you could get this look with any tiny, densely patterned die.

  

The edges on top are adhered to the card base. I left the edges on the bottom a little loose. While not necessary, I also like that if someone notices that the holes are tiny hearts, it goes with the sentiment's love theme.

Here's the inside of the card. One more thing to point out ... just because it's a heart die doesn't mean that it has to be for Valentine's day. There's not a hint of red or pink on this card and it doesn't look out of place.

Well, so far we've seen the Heart Border Die used as a home for a stitched heart, and as a background. I've got another idea for next week that I can't wait to show you : ) Thanks again for visiting Functional Friday!

- Kelly