I scanned in one of the illustrations from a Dover book of Medieval Tile Designs and saved it as a JPEG file. The Silhouette software allows you to trace a JPEG format picture and turn it into a cut file - there are some hints about tracing on the Silhouette School blog: http://www.silhouetteschoolblog.com/2014/09/how-to-perfectly-trace-photo-in.html and http://www.silhouetteschoolblog.com/2014/04/how-to-turn-any-jpeg-into-silhouette.html .
Well I played around with the trace settings and got what I wanted. All I had to do next was to set the design page and cut settings for the stamp material, load up the ol' mat and cut away.
I carefully removed the cut out pieces and arranged the stamp onto the larger of the stamp blocks that came with the stamp material starter set. I saved all the inside bits and put them on another block, so I have one where you stamp the rabbit and one where the background is stamped and the rabbit is left uncoloured.
Misti to the rescue!
As before I had trouble getting a good stamped image. However I had heard of the Misti stamp tool by then, and decided to spend the money on it. There are bazillion videos showing you all the things you can do with a Misti on the following forum - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/my-sweet-petunia-f424/video-table-contents-list-all-misti-videos-t598593.html
Misti is just the thing for these stamps add it lets you stamp more than once with accurate alignment - you can just put more ink on and keep going until the image is what you want.
As the stamp material is thin the magnets can't really be used with it, you need to build up the base of the Misti to get the stamp to touch the paper or cardstock you wish to stamp onto. My one came with the "mouse pad" - I recommend having that, it is a rectangle of foam with a wipe-clean top. I sticky-taped the paper to it to hold it very still. ( Why doesn't my spelling checker know that sticky-tape is a verb???). The stamp material being thin means you get a lot of stamp ink on the Misti or stamp block, unfortunately.
Tack n Peel
I then got some Tack n Peel, it is a sheet of soft plastic with reusable adhesive on one side and permanent on the other. Most people put it on stamping blocks to get their rubber stamps to stick on them. I put it on one of my smaller stamp material stamps, permanent side on the stamp and used the tacky side to hold the stamp onto the Misti. So the stamp is thicker and the ink pad doesn't brush against the Misti when I ink the stamp.
