Tutorial for Mousescrappers template challenge on using cut outs

So I had posted here that I am hosting a template challenge over at Mousescrappers. Several people had asked for a tutorial on how I made the template. I was sort of surprised since most people don't come to ME to figure out how to do things, but I am happy to oblige! You can check out the challenge here to see the template. I used cut out mickey heads on my background papers. Here is how I did that.

First, I made a shape for my paper on top of my background paper.

On the right, you can see that I have my background layer and the shape covering that layer. Now, you want to make sure that this layer is simplified. So you need to click on your top layer, click on layer, and then scroll down to simplify layer. This will allow you to cut into this layer later.

Now, I am going to select my oval shape tool, and I will make a large circle followed by two smaller circles to make my mickey head. I actually make one smaller circle then I duplicate it so that my ears are the same size. I select all three of my circles at the same time, click on layer, then scroll down to merge layers to make my mickey head.

So now I have my mickey head, and I'm ready to cut that shape out on my paper layer. Remember that layer needs to be simplified through the layers tab. Then, I'm going to select my magic wand tool,  and click on my mickey head. This will make marching ants that outline my mickey head shape. This is the area that will be cut. However, I want to make sure that I click on my paper layer now so that I am cutting that layer. I will select layer, then new layer, then new layer by cut. It should look like this.

Now, you will see that there is a new layer showing the cut out.

You can now delete that selected layer with the mickey head, move your original mickey head, resize, rotate, whatever and make more cuts in your paper.

There you go, you can keep adding mickey heads until your heart's content. When you are done, you can delete that original mickey head you were using as your cutting template, and you are ready to clip papers to your layers and add photos, elements, etc. Easy as pie, right? Hope that helped! Happy scrapping!