Waffle Flower has a new release that includes a new version of their popular grip mats. Testing them out gave me good reason to get out some products I’d recently bought from their previous release.

First - New Grip Mats

Have you used the grip mats? I’ll admit that I wasn’t sure when they first came out, so I got a small one to try… and really liked it! I have bought them in two sizes. I really like the functionality of the surface to hold paper and stencils. I also think it makes a great support surface for stamping. After I tried my first small one, I bought the 6.5” x 8.5” size that is perfect for the standard MISTI size, and replaced the foam in my MISTI with it, and keep it in there for that purpose.

I really appreciate that they hold things in place securely as I’m ink blending or stamping, yet I don’t feel at all like the paper will tear when I remove it. Waffle Flower recently sent me two new ones to try out, and I think these are even better than the first ones. (There is nothing wrong with the originals, but they had to change suppliers and made some improvements in the process.) They have added some size options, and I think these new ones have an even better level of grip. For the card below, I tested it out by stenciling on a small scrap of paper. Everything stayed securely where I wanted it, yet was easy to remove or reposition when I needed to. To clean them (if I get ink on them) I just wipe them with my damp stamp shammy and give it a few seconds to dry.

Next - A Birthday Card with the Inquisitive Gull

I wanted to make a card as I tried out the new Grip Mats, and had just received my order from their beach release the other day. (I have a hard time resisting beach products. The beach is my happy place.) Look at these great beachy patterns for the water and sand - which were super easy to create with a single stencil and a stamp.

I wanted to use the large gull (I like the impact of that scale on the A2 card) and the stencil with fries. The background was created with the Sea Foam Stencil and the Wavy Edge dies to create the water, and some Kraft cardstock with the sand pattern stamp on it for the beach at the edge of this water. After ink blending the water, I also spritzed it with some water from my spray bottle (making sure to get some fine and larger droplets) and blotted those up, which I think enhanced the water/sea foam feel of it.

I thought that rather than using the fry stencil in the stamp shape, if I made it round I could make it like a thought bubble for the gull. I was able to use the die cut circles from the gull’s eyes, and inked them with Blueberry (on a Grip Mat) and used them to complete that idea.

There’s a really perfect greeting in the stamp set that goes with these. I was originally going to put it on the front of the card, but decided to move it inside and let the card front be about the fun water pattern and images. To connect that with the images, and to make the card more engaging, I die cut a circle from the card front, and a slightly smaller circle from the ink blended french fries that I stenciled, so the fries are inside the card, but popped up to be just as much a part of the front of the card also.

I used Connect Glue at the base of the gull, but used foam near his head to pop that up for more impact and interest.

Let me know if you have any questions about the new Grip Mats, and I’ll do my best to help.

Thank you for visiting! I hope you get some time to create something soon.

Links are below if you’re interested in any of the products I used.

Supply list*:

(Listed by company, with links to Simon Says Stamp. Affiliate links are used with no additional cost to you.)

*Affiliate links do not cost you any more when you shop, but it is beneficial to creators when you use them, so thanks in advance!