Toiling with a Doily!

Who has been using any of the doily dies out there for card making (or scrapbooking)?  I had bought a doily die from Paper Trey Ink a while back...this one is called Parisian Doily but I had yet to use it.  I decided that it was time to break it out and try it! 

I had also bought the punch out tool to help remove the teensy punched out pieces but still am not sure exactly how that is supposed to be used.  I did find (after a few attempts) that running the die through my Cuttlebug several times and even rotating the die on each pass through helped me get the best cut.

I made two cards both the same with just different background papers.  The papers I used were from Crate Paper's Portrait Collection.  The sentiment and the butterfly which were both embossed with gold Zing embossing powder were from Bevy of Butterflies by Unity Stamps.

I inked with Pumice Stone Distress Ink (Ranger) and used a little American Craft dotted ribbon. 

I love that doily die...look at the detail here:

It really is lovely, isn't it?

and here is a picture that shows the embossing...I know that you know what embossing looks like but I thought it turned out so cute!  And sometimes it's just fun to put up more than one picture! :)

Is it hot where you are????  I played tennis today for just an hour and thought I was GONNA DIE!  We have had one hot summer so far...and I think it is going to be worse tomorrow!  But I'll take the heat over cold any day....

Happy Crafting!