Waffle Flower April 2019 Birthday Release Blog Hop

Hi everyone!  This is a such a fun month for Waffle Flower!  Not only are we rolling out the fun April release, but we're also highlighting the Creativation products!  For our April release, we have a sentiment set called Be Her Sentiments (stamp) to go with our popular Be Her (stamp, die, combo) and Be Him (stamp, die, combo) sets. We also have Bold Sentiments (stamp, die, combo) that is great for graphic cards. Grateful (stamp, die, combo) is our take on Mother's Day projects for 2019 with some warm hand drawn kitchen items.

Did you know that Waffle Flower will be 5 years old this month? It's no wonder we have birthdays on our mind! Over the years Waffle Flower has had a variety of floral birthday sets, so this time we've expanded on the birthday theme with some fun and special occasion birthday stamps and dies this time! And of course, we've got lots of other fun stuff too!

April marks the beginning of baseball season and we are ready to hit one out of the park with the fun Batter stamp (stamp, die, combo). We've also got the sweetest gymnasts partying with flips in Tumble On (stamp, die, combo). For the birthday theme, we have the cutest hamsters celebrating their co-workers in Office Birthday (stamp, die, combo). The We Herd (stamp, die, combo) is a reminder that when it comes to birthday parties, the more the merrier! For die lovers, there's the Box Card Die that is an interactive way to give a birthday surprise right on the card (this is one of my faves this month)!

Every year Waffle Flower releases several Back to Basics dies. Usually they are simple, nesting shapes that can be used as mattes, accents or even card bases.  This year we have the A2 Layers and A7 Layers dies for clean and timeless rectangle dies that will be a staple in your stash. For those who like fun shaped cards, layering shapes or paper crafting projects, we have the Speech Bubbles and Nesting Hearts dies. You can never have too many frame dies! So this year we added the Picture Frames and Ticket Frames dies.

Last but not least, Waffle Flower has a special set for animal lovers. (This is one of my designs:) I designed the Rainbow Bridge (stamp, dog die, cat die, combo) sets to create messages of comfort to friends and family who have lost their beloved pet.

This is going to be a whopper today, so let's get to the cards!  My first set of cards uses a die and stamp set I designed for Creativation called Rainbow Bridge.  Sometimes its the cards of comfort that mean the most when they are handmade.  We are a family of animal lovers and we have lots of friends with furry family members, so this design is close to my heart.  For those who don't know the story of the rainbow bridge, it tells us of a peaceful and happy place where pets who have passed away await to be reunited with their owner.  When they meet again at the rainbow bridge, they cross together never to be separated again. I designed two dies and a coordinating stamp set for Rainbow Bridge.  This first card uses the cat version.  I'm going to show you a couple ways you can create the rainbow for this card.  This first one just has strips of rainbow paper behind the die cut.

For this version, I used the dog version of the die and inlaid the rainbow pieces that were cut from colored paper.  You could also die cut white paper and color the rainbow pieces with pens or paint.  

This last version is made with a simple cloud stencil and Distress Oxide inks in a rainbow spectrum.  You never really want to have to send a card like this, but I hope that it will give friends and loved ones some comfort in such a difficult time. 

The next set of cards highlights another stamp and die set I designed called Bold Sentiments (stamp, die, combo). I really wanted to do some sentiments with a fresh and graphic feel, and this is what happened;)! As the name says, these sentiments are BOLD which means they work great with colored backgrounds made with Distress Inks and alcohol inks. For this card, I heat embossed the sentiment and then used Distress Oxide inks to blend a rainbow background. I used one of the Ticket Frames dies to highlight one of the sentiments. So, so easy but packs a punch!

For this next card, I paired one of the Bold Sentiments with the Box Card Die to make a gift card holder. The more that I use the Box Card die, the more I love it! It is an interactive die cut that you can open up to reveal a popup, sentiment, or in my case, a gift card. I decorated my gift box with some floral stamps from the Be.You.Tiful set that came out earlier this year.

The die cuts a slit inside that perfectly fits a gift card like this.  

For my last card, I used one of the Bold Sentiments and the large Ticket Frames die to make another rainbow card. I blended a rainbow background with Distress Oxide inks and then stamped over it with the sentiment. A couple white enamel dots and a little die cut elephant, and we're done!

One last card before I go!  This one uses the new Be Her Sentiments (stamp). This set coordinates with the Be Her stamps and dies that came out earlier this year. This is my favorite stamp from the set:)

Whew!  Thanks so much for stopping by!   Here's a list of everyone hopping today and you don't want to miss any of the amazing release projects!

Waffle Flower (Nina) ~ Amy Rysavy ~ Keeway Tsao 

Jessica Frost-Ballas ~ Emily Midgett ~ Alix Davis ~ Kelli Cool 

JJ Bolton (you are here;) ~ Caly Person ~ Channin Pelletier  ~ Rebecca Keppel

To celebrate the blog hop, Waffle Flower is giving away $25 gift certificates to THREE lucky winners. You can leave comment on my blog and along the hop by 11:59pm ET on 4/7/19 for your chances to win. Winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on any of the posts on this blog hop and will be announced on the Waffle Flower blog on 4/9/19.  Customers will receive a FREE Mini Egg Die with orders at $50 or over.  Limited 1 per customer, while supplies last (valid through midnight 4/7/19).  

Mahalo and aloha!

JJ