Coverplate or not?

I saw Jennifer McGuire use a fauna coverplate die and that set this train of thought in motion. I've used the JND leaf die plate which is not really intended to be used like this - but I thought it would be doable.

Another part of the JM idea was she used a large pattered stamp to emboss over each of the die cuts as she had raised them up from the background. As mine were inlaid I decided to do that to the piece of card before I cut them out. Then I had a decorated background and leaves. Is this making any sense? Hopefully you can see from the photos the idea.

As you can probably tell once I got started I had an idea to put the negative into that, cut a frame from this and so on. Here's part of my workings below.

I also cut the leaves in three shades of green which means I haven't used them all. So I still had the original idea to use... I will be back as it's too much for one post.

Thanks for staying the course and I am now popping over to the Snippets Playground to share my homework. I'm also super pleased to be able to say I was a lucky winner over there last week. Once I get my prize I have an idea already to share!