Hello friends! Background dies are becoming fairly popular of late, and I wanted to share a technique that you can do with certain background dies to create inked backgrounds!

Certain background dies are open in the areas between the cutting lines; other dies are solid-backed. Depending on the die, you can use this technique with background dies you already have. Or you can use the die I’ve used today, which is the Neat & Tangled Polygon Cover Plate die.

With some Distress Inks, I was able to create ink blended backgrounds through the open areas of the die, which gave me the same effect as if I had used a true stencil! The result looks awesome and is a great example of how you can stretch the use of your supplies even further with a little out-of-the-box thinking!

I did not have any trouble using the die as a stencil and the die did not stain with the use of the Distress Ink. I cleaned up the die by using a damp baby wipe and all the ink was easily removed. I have not tried this technique with all inks, so keep in mind that using a different ink could lead to potential staining (particularly alcohol-based inks). However, most water-based dye inks should clean up just fine.

I hope you will be checking out the video below to see how these cards came together! I will be back again next week with another guest video for Neat & Tangled, so stay tuned for that!