Christmas in July with Waffle Flower Cardinals

Dawn here today. It’s time for Christmas in July and I’m excited to share a festive card project featuring our fabulous sponsor this month, Waffle Flower.

When I was down at the Tauranga Create and Craft event, I picked up the Waffle Flower Cardinal Duo Christmas die. A card I spotted on the Waffle Flower website sparked the idea for today’s project, and I decided to pair the cardinal with the Waffle Flower Poinsettia Frame die that was already in my stash.

I started with a dark green top-folding card base, then cut the Poinsettia Frame die twice from light green card. Because I only wanted to use the corner sections of the frame, I did a little die-cut surgery and trimmed each one into two parts.

For the details, I cut the separate poinsettias from white card, the berries from red card, and the flower centres from yellow card. I also created a white frame using two dies from the Simon Says Stamp A2 Nesting Stitched Rectangles set.

Before assembling everything, I stamped a sentiment from the Waffle Flower Star Snowflake Sentiment set and heat embossed it in white. Once the frame was in place, I added the poinsettia frame corners, then layered on the white flowers, berries, and centres to build up the festive arrangement.

Next, I die cut the cardinal and used the matching stencils to colour it with Altenew inks. I was just about ready to attach it when I realised I had cut the bird facing the wrong direction! So, back to the die-cutting machine I went. I cut the other cardinal, coloured it up, and this time he was facing exactly the way I wanted.

Of course, that first cardinal wasn’t going to waste, so it led me to create a bonus card.

For this one, I used the other sections of the Poinsettia Frame die that I had cut away for the first card. I die cut the flowers again and added a subtle touch of Pink Crystal ink, then cut the berries from red card and added a few extra green leaves.

I gave the pieces a generous spritz of shimmer spray for a bit of sparkle, then cut a smaller white frame and added another sentiment from the Star Snowflake Sentiment set. A few white acrylic paint splatters finished the background before I added the cardinal. This one was coloured in slightly lighter shades than the cardinal on the first card, giving the bonus card its own softer look.

I love when a little crafting mishap turns into a second project. The Waffle Flower cardinal and poinsettia dies work beautifully together, and both cards have such a cheerful Christmas-in-July feel. Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope this inspires you to join in the festive fun at Die Cut Divas.