Hello, Crafters! Welcome to the blog! Today I’m honored to participate in the Waffle Flower Crafts May 2023 Blog Hop! 🎉 There are a lot of great products in this release, and I can’t wait for you to get your hands on them! Today I’ll be sharing some inspiration using the Window Trio 3 die, the Sweet Daisy die, the Outlined Balloons die, and the Honey Jar Stamp Set. This blog post is a long one today as I’ve got 10 cards to share with you! So, get yourself a snack and your favorite drink, and scroll on down! Links to the other fabulous Blog Hop designers will be at the end of this post!

Window Trio 3 Die

This die makes quick work of shaker cards and window cards! No fussing around trying to perfectly align three dies necessary. This die could also be used to create your own stencil, and fallout pieces could be used to make a fun mosaic background!

Diamond Mini Slimline Shaker

I am in my mini slimline era! I’ve made a couple mini slimlines lately, and I’m hooked on them. They make quick work of a card as you have a little bit less real estate to worry about, and their size is so cute! Immediately after looking at the Window Trio 3 dies, I thought the diamond shaped one would make such a cute off-center shaker. For some reason, it made me think of a midcentury front door, and I love it!

I started this card off by cutting down a piece of Sea Glass cardstock to 3 x 6-inches since I wanted a white mat around my shaker panel (so completed card dimensions would be 3.25 x 6.25-inches). I lined up the Tiny Dot stencil from Waffle Flower, and blended on some Sea Glass ink for some tone-on-tone goodness. Once the ink was dry, I die cut the panel with the diamond window die and glued a piece of acetate to the back. I built up my shaker walls using 1/4-inch foam strips I had on hand and cut them in half in areas that I needed thin strips. Since I created three shaker wells, I had to do more cutting of my foam strips than not, but Waffle Flower does sell thin foam strips which would make this all a breeze! I covered the rest of the back of my panel with foam tape, and filled my shaker wells with some sequins I had in my stash. To make building this shaker a little bit easier, I cut my backer piece to the same dimensions as my front panel, which I slid into the corner of my Scor-Buddy (thanks to a tip from Cathy Z) and stuck my backer panel down on the foam tape with ease. From here, I stuck my shaker element onto my card base, and moved onto the rest of the card.

I knew I wanted to incorporate some daisies with the Sweet Daisy die set into this card, so I die cut them out of Grapefruit cardstock, the centers out of Stardust, and the stems out of Evergreen cardstock. I decided to add some dimension to the blooms, so I blended on some Grapefruit ink to the flowers and Stardust ink onto one side of the centers. I glued the larger flower and the stems down, then popped the smaller flower up on some thin foam squares. For the sentiment, I white heat embossed the ‘thanks a bunch’ sentiment from the Jars Sentiments stamp set on black cardstock. I cut the sentiment down and stuck it on my card front. To finish this card off, I die cut some of the small flowers from the Shelves Additions die set out of the same Grapefruit cardstock and scattered them around.

Dry Embossed Diamond Background

Dry embossing is something that I definitely don’t do enough of, let alone with dies and stencils. When I started this card, I had nothing particular in mind, and was just playing around. I first dry embossed the diamond window die on the far corner of an A2-sized panel of white cardstock, then shifted it over and lined it up as best as I could. After repeating this a couple times (and noticing that my lines were not straight), I really liked the look of the panel being half embossed. I decided to use one of the A2 Layers dies to give it a good crop (3.5 x 4.75-inches) and planned to cover my ‘mistakes’ of not lining things up perfectly with some daisies.

I die cut my daisies with the smaller daisy die out of Powder, Lemon Chiffon (SSS), Lilac and Ballet Slipper cardstocks. The flower centers were die cut out of Honeycomb and Sunflower cardstocks, and the leaves out of Avocado cardstock. For the sentiment, I die cut the Oversized Friend Print die out of black for the shadow, and four layers of plain white cardstock for the greeting. I decided I would use the ‘Let’s Party’ sentiment from the Subsentiments Birthday Diecut (which is fabulous for quick & easy sentiments!) as a subsentiment because it could lean as a birthday card, or as a celebratory card for a friend.

I laid out my daisies and glued them down while staggering their heights and orientations, and popped the sentiment and subsentiment up on thin foam squares. I matted my panel on an A2-sized piece of Ivory (SSS) cardstock, and I love how this turned out! It’s such a happy, flower power-y card that can fit many occasions.

Hexagon Window Card

This is such a sweet and simple card, and it could be easily adapted to work for other occasions! I decided to use the hexagon window die in a horizontal orientation instead of vertical here, so a small portion of the hexagons on the sides got shaved off. I pulled out the Tiny Dot stencil again, and blended on Ballet Slipper ink to the 4.25 x 5.5-inch white panel. Since the sides of the outer two hexagons were cut off, I really wanted a stitching detail to still be there, so I pulled out the A2 Lacy Layers dies. I grabbed the largest (4.25 x 5.5-inch) stitching die and ran my panel through my die cut machine with it. At this point, I decided I wanted Ballet Slipper cardstock to be peeking through the hexagon windows, so I cut a panel down to 4.25 x 2.5 -inches and ran it through my die cut machine with the same stitched rectangle die. This way, I still have that faux stitching on my Ballet Slipper cardstock, but I also get to save some cardstock by cutting using a smaller piece. I glued the pink panel behind my stenciled card front, then got to work on my flowers.

Playing around with the dies I have, I thought the smaller flower in the Layered Flowers die set would look perfect in the hexagon windows. Since I didn’t feel like figuring out a different color for the blooms, I took my Ballet Slipper ink and smooshed it on some Ballet Slipper cardstock to get a deeper shade of the color. This way, it’s still similar but has enough contrast to not fall flat in the background. I die cut the flower centers out of some matte gold (SSS) cardstock and decided to only use one of the two centers that the die cuts out. I popped the flowers up on some thin foam squares and placed them as centered as possible in the hexagon windows, while also trying to rotate them a little so each one looked a little different.

Then I got to work on the sentiment! I pulled out the Oversized Friend Print die again, and die cut the shadow out of vellum and the the word out of three layers of plain white cardstock, and one out of the same matte gold. I glued my layers together and stuck the sentiment on the card front and finished it off with a ‘HBD to you’ subsentiment from the Subsentiments Birthday Diecut. I love how dainty and soft this card feels, and it could easily be transformed into a ‘welcome baby’/baby shower card, or even a wedding card!

Hexagon Card Front

I really wanted to get creative with this die and use it in a unique way, and this is what I came up with! I decided I would make my own coverplate, and I learned a bit along the way. First off, this can be a bit time consuming! That might just be a me thing because I got way too perfectionist-y with it (and it still didn’t end up ‘perfect’ 😂), but I really love how this ended up so different from the die. For my first pass through my die cut machine, I lined the hexagon window die up in the middle of my 110lb A2-sized card front. After this first pass, I shifted the die over to fill in the gaps of where hexagons would fall to the side of this first set of windows. I repeated this on the other side as well, then got to thinking about adding a fourth window to each side. I went about this in a difficult way by measuring/trying to make the windows as straight as possible when what I should have done was popped the top window of the die in the cut area above so that the middle window would cut my fourth window, and the rest of the die would hang off the card front.

With my coverplate panel done, I got to work on the background. I settled on blending Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers and Twisted Citron Distress Oxides in a diagonal blend on some smooth white cardstock. This is such a fun blend, but I wanted to add a bit of texture to the panel, so I spritzed it with some water. Once it dried, I glued my hexagon panel down over it. I love how fun this looks! It reminds me of a galaxy and makes me think I’m staring through the windows of a spaceship.

To finish this card off, I got to work on the sentiment. I die cut the ‘hi’ from the Oversized Hey Hi Hello die set out of black cardstock for the shadow, then three layers of plain white cardstock, and a layer of white glitter paper. I love the sparkle the white glitter paper adds here (though it might be a little hard to see in the photos). I added a ‘have a special day’ sentiment from the Subsentiments Birthday Diecut and called this card done!

Sweet Daisy Die Set

I love this die set! I have a weakness for florals, so I could be biased on this die set being great, but I don’t think I am haha! Included in the set are three different florals and flower centers, three different orientations of stems, and two different sizes of leaves. There is an unlimited amount of floral combinations possible!

Sweet Daisy Background

Now this card, this one might just be my favorite of the group 😍. I absolutely love how it turned out. I started this card out with the idea of making a background pattern, so I got to die cutting both the large and small daisy dies from the Sweet Daisy die set out of some plain white cardstock, the centers out of Stardust cardstock, and the stems out of Evergreen cardstock. I added some dimension to the blooms by lightly blending Dove ink on the center of each flower (this might look a little blotchy, but that’s because the paper I used is not what I would use for blending, it’s the paper I use for building dimension) and added some shading to the sides of the flower centers with Stardust ink. I assembled my flowers and grabbed a piece of Sea Glass cardstock to use as my card front panel.

I laid out all my flowers on the Sea Glass panel trying to make the layout feel as natural as possible with flowers facing different ways and different parts of them being seen. Mentally I think of it as ‘bouncing’, like your eye is playing pinball with the flowers—things flow and nothing catches the eye as being ‘odd’ (too linear, etc). After I had my flowers how I wanted them, I laid out where I would like my leaves to be, and once the layout felt right, I glued everything down! If you can’t tell, I’m an overthinker when it comes to placement haha!

To complete the card, I white heat embossed the ‘where flowers bloom so does hope’ sentiment from the Jars Sentiments stamp set on black cardstock. I love this sentiment and I think it really suits this background well. I wanted to add some detail to the sentiment besides it being a rectangle, so I took the smallest stitched rectangle die from the A2 Lacy Layers dies and die cut the sentiment out. I love this stitching detail, but I still wanted something a little more. I pulled out the lacy die that the small stitched rectangle is meant to be matted on and die cut it out of white cardstock. I layered the two together, popped some thin foam squares underneath it and stuck it on the card. This card makes me so happy! 😍

Hey Sweetie!

I love how this card looks like a piece of art! I started making this card with the purpose of using the side orientation flower from the Sweet Daisy die set. Since I started crafting with that in mind, I got to work on die cutting my flower out of Fig cardstock for the bloom, Artichoke cardstock for the stem, and Sunflower for the flower center. I decided to take one of my yellow alcohol markers (Y2 if you have Ohuhu alcohol markers) and stipple on some dots, I love this detail!

After some back and forth, I die cut the middle-sized frame from the Fancy Frames die set out of matte gold cardstock (SSS) and one white cardstock layer for some dimension. This gold really punched up the fine art feeling to this element, it reminds me of the chunky gold frames you see on art hanging in museums! Since I knew I wanted to use this frame, I got to thinking about my background before finishing this element. I decided to dry emboss the Tiny Dot stencil (using my Platinum 6 recommended sandwich and a cardstock shim) on Lilac cardstock, and when I tell you I was speechless for a minute after pulling it off my platform, I truly mean it haha! This detail is adorable, so soft and sweet!

With my background figured out, I glued the double stacked frame down in the center. I decided to keep the fall out of the inner corners of the gold frame, so I added it back in. I die cut a frame out of Ivory cardstock to use the inner portion of the frame as the place I can add my sentiment and flower to. I glued down the daisy off in the corner, and white heat embossed the ‘hey sweetie!’ sentiment from the Honey Jar stamp set on black cardstock. I added two strips of paper behind my sentiment strip for a little bit of subtle dimension and glued it down. To finish this card off, I added a couple Rock Candy Sequins for some shine.

Double-Stacked Sweet Daisies

I had so much fun with this card! It was one of my ‘bonus’ ones that hit me when I was cleaning up and thought I was done creating! And if you can’t tell that I’m a flower girly, this card might tip you off haha! When I was putting my dies away, I realized that the large and small ones could look pretty great layered. So I got to die cutting with blues in mind—a Powder cardstock background, Blueberry small daisies, and Blueberry and Harbor colored large daisies. For the flower centers, I went back and forth on color and die cut them out of Honeycomb and Sunflower cardstocks (the small Blueberry flowers got Sunflower centers).

After assembling all of my flowers, I chose my sentiment so I could work the placement around it. I decided on the ‘hello’ die from the Oversized Hey Hi Hello die set and die cut the shadow out of vellum, and the word out of three layers of plain white cardstock and one layer of white glitter paper. I glued the sentiment down onto the middle of my card front, though it seems this time my vellum got a little curly around the edges, so I probably should have slathered glue all over the back of the sentiment and stuck it down instead of just using glue behind the letters.

Just like the daisy packed background card, I laid these flowers out and alternated how much they were ‘in’ the card, and what side/orientation of them was seen. Once I had the layout to my liking, I glued all the flowers down. Since I used a portion of a cut off flower on one side of the card, I felt I had too much empty space on this card, so I dug out some Lemon Burst pearls from Studio Katia and scattered them around. I used four sizes of pearls on this card and I think they add the perfect finishing touch!

Outlined Balloons Die

This die set is great! It can be used for so much besides just birthdays— babies, new jobs, new homes, literally any celebration! If I had the time, I was honestly thinking of making an Up-inspired card with this die, these balloons are perfect to slap on top of a house (think the Outlined House die, JJ Bolton created a card with this same idea!). These balloons would look great coated in Glossy Accents, cut out of stenciled panels/patterned paper, or foiled cardstock.

Colorful Balloon Birthday Card

I had so much fun creating this card with a modified rainbow color palette! I started this card out by picking my color palette: Dragonfruit, Carnation, Nectar, Honeycomb, Sea Glass, and Juniper cardstocks. I love the tones to these colors, and thought they would be perfect for a birthday card! I started out by die cutting strips of paper with the Skinny Stripes die excluding Nectar since I wanted to use is as my background panel. Laying out my stripes on the Nectar panel, I decided I wanted to use two of each color to make a band of thicker stripes,

With my background ready to go, I got to work on my main element. I knew I was using the Outlined Balloons die, and I didn’t feel like sticking it on a rectangle, so I pulled out my Nesting Ovals dies. I die cut one (3.5 x 4.75-inches) out of Ivory cardstock and grabbed the die one size larger than it and created a matte gold frame (and I did cut out most of the inside of the gold oval to save some of that precious cardstock!). I die cut the Outlined Balloons die out of plain white cardstock and glued it (leaving the bottom of the strings without glue) down on the Ivory oval. When I was making the card, white felt right for the balloon outline and strings, but reflecting back on it now, maybe I should have chosen a different color so it could pop a little more off the Ivory, but I’m not mad about it!

I die cut the outline balloon die out of each of my colors, but decided on only using Dragonfruit, Carnation, Honeycomb, and Juniper colored balloons since it made it easier to have two balloons of each color and I didn’t have to overthink placement too much. The balloons that are overlapped (the ones with edges cut out) were glued down, and the balloons that are ‘in front’ I decided to pop them up on thin foam squares to add some dimension.

To finish the card off, I chose the ‘it’s party time’ sentiment from the Subsentiment Birthday Diecut and added some foam squares behind it. I pulled out some gold twine from my stash and tied a little bow around where the strings cinch together. To secure the bow, I put a tiny dab of glue behind it so it attaches to the oval, and a dot on the front of the die cut just under where the string is knotted. For some sparkle, I pulled out my Rock Candy sequins again and added a little arrangement on the upper right and bottom left corners. I really love how this card turned out! It’s so fun and colorful.

Outlined Balloons Shaker Card

If I’m not in my mini slimline era, I’m in my shaker card era. Making two while guest designing is the most I’ve made in a while, and I forgot how addicting and fun they can be! For this card, I really wanted it to be clean and simple (very much inspired by how Carly Tee creates). I die cut the Outlined Balloons die out of the center of a panel of white cardstock and held onto the fall out between the strings (this is super important to do). I glued a piece of acetate on the back of my shaker window panel, and glued down the white die cut and the fallout pieces that are between the strings. I set this aside and got to work on the shaker background.

I pulled out Dried Marigold, Kitch Flamingo, Shaded Lilac, and Salvaged Patina Distress Oxides and blended them in that order on a piece of smooth white cardstock. I cut this panel down to the same size as my acetate window (I believe this was 3.5 x 5.5 -inches) to make lining it up with my shaker window a bit easier for me, and created my shaker wells on the back of the shaker window panel with foam strips. I decided to make 5 wells so that my shaker fill wouldn’t all fall down, so it ended up being a well around each pair of balloons, then wells around the two single balloons (if that makes sense!). I filled the shaker wells with the Twinkle Twinkle embellishment mix from Trinity Stamps and closed up the shaker. Since I sealed my shaker up with a smaller panel, I glued an A2-size white panel on the back of it.

To finish off my shaker window, I die cut another white Outlined Balloon layer and a layer in matte silver cardstock. The silver pairs perfectly with the shaker fill and with the colors in the blended background 😍. I added a ‘birthday wishes’ sentiment to the middle of the card with foam squares and pulled the Twinkle Twinkle embellishment mix back out to add some more shine to this card. I randomly scattered them around the balloon cluster, and I think this was the perfect touch to this card!

Fun Balloons Birthday Card

I love how some simple stamping can alter the mood of this die set, and that’s just what the Honey Jar stamp set does! I started this card off working from the back to the front, which meant I was dry embossing a A2-size panel of Peacock cardstock with the Sunburst stencil. After dry embossing on the Peacock cardstock, I decided I wanted the balloons to sit on white cardstock, so I used the second largest stitched rectangle die from the A2 Lacy Layers die set to cut out a panel of white cardstock. I did my best to line this up with the stencil so that it would be seamless with the Peacock background, I didn’t get it exactly right, but I still think it turned out great! I thought the white embossed panel would look great with a lacy layer behind it, so I die cut the largest lacy layer and glued the stitched rectangle onto it.

I decided for this card that I wanted my outline to be gold, so I die cut a layer out of matte gold cardstock, and a second out of plain white cardstock. I glued these down in the center of the white embossed rectangle and got to work on my balloons! I wanted a bright and fun color palette to match the vibe I was hoping to get from stamping faces on the balloons, so I die cut Clementine, Carnation, Dragonfruit and Oceanside cardstocks and arranged them so I had two balloons of each color.

I decided for this card to go with a little bit more dimension than the other card I made, so I used thin foam squares on the balloons that are covered by others (the ones with imperfect shapes), and thick foam squares on the full balloons. I love how this is with the dimension! To finish the card off, I got out my acrylic block and some black ink and stamped the faces on the balloons. I love how fun this makes the card! For the sentiment, I white heat embossed the ‘happy b-day’ sentiment from the Honey Jar stamp set and called this card done!

Giveaway:

For today’s hop, Waffle Flower is giving away $25 gift certificate to THREE lucky winners. You can leave a comment on this blog and along the hop by 11:59pm EST on Tuesday May 9th, 2023 for your chances to win. Winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on any of the posts in this blog hop and will be announced on the Waffle Flower Blog on 05/10/2023.

Specials:

From now till May 8th, 2023, all orders placed at waffleflower.com will receive a mysterious gift (No code required!).

For those of you who are new to Waffle Flower, they have a Last Chance section on their website that lists many goodies for 25% off until they are gone! This would be a great place to start your collection! And don’t forget to check out their monthly Flash Sales!

Whew! Now that you've made it through my novel of a blog post, here is the list of other designers in the hop! Next on the list is Caly!

Amanda Rochaix (you are here!)

Caly Person <— next stop!

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today! And a huge thank you to Waffle Flower for including me as a guest designer this month—it was an absolute blast! I hope everyone feels inspired by all the beautiful cards shared along the hop, and I can’t wait to see what you make! 😊

Affiliate disclaimer: all links to Waffle Flower, Altenew, Scrapbook.com, and Spellbinders products are affiliate links. These links allow me to get a commission at no extra cost to you if you use them to shop! All other links provided are links to supplies and shops I am not affiliated with and I do not get a commission from.