Hello everyone! I'm participating in the Creative Blog Hop today! This is a blog hop about creativity and our love for creativity. Each Monday, a few bloggers will post on their blogs to share a little bit about their creativity and will also invite three other bloggers to join and post on the following Monday. Fun, right? Waffle Flower is all about making stuff and celebrating each other's creativity. When Katie asked me, I had to say yes. But besides the three ladies I named at the end of this post, I'm also inviting all of you who have a blog but haven't done this. Why not go ahead and post your answers to these questions on your blog next Monday and invite more friends to join? Frankly, we don't need an invitation to be crafty or creative, do we? Answering these questions helped clear my head and I hope that they will do the same to you!

What am I working on now

My list is long! LOL Waffle Flower releases its Fall collection on October 5 so most of my work is related to the preparation. I wish I could share more. One thing I can share is that I cut, punch and stamp our Thank You tags that go in our packages. I try to do a few everyday so we can keep up with the orders. I used the "Thank You" and heart stamps from our Notions Stamp Set.

How does my work differ from others in my genre?

I didn't think I had a style. My style changes with my design teams. I will do whatever it takes to make the product shine. But stamping and die-cutting is my favorite and my stamped cards are mostly clean and simple. I always try to use a product in a unique, unexpected way. As for product design, I think the versatility of our products makes them different from the others. I consider stamps and dies more as tools than as decorative elements. If I don't have at least 3 unique ideas to use a stamp/die, it will not make it to a stamp/die set. Take our Rock My World Stamp Set and coordinating Die Set for example. I've made strawberry, flower and ghost from them. You can find more samples on the product pages.

Why do I create what I do?

I started the company because I wanted to put together products I could play with. Well, the products are being produced but my "play time" has been limited. Haha! I'm an entrepreneur so I'm totally ok with that. But it does make it extra special every time I sit down at my craft table. I will only make something that will make me happy. To me, creating is about exploring and stretching myself. I've shared this video in this post but I wanted to share it again: THE GAP by Ira Glass from frohlocke on Vimeo.

How does my creative process work?

My projects usually start with trying something new... It can be a new product, a new technique , a new type of crafts, or a new combination. Sometimes I will have something very specific in mind but most of the times, I just play and see what I will get. As for product designing, I ask myself often: What haven't been done? How can I make my version different? Inspiration from my other hobbies, my everyday life and my past experience defines my design. For example, I had the song "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" playing in my head when putting together our Riverside Stamp Set and Riverside Die set. And I created this card with the help from our Be My Guest Stamp Set to complete the sentiment. I love being creative! I feel very blessed to be able to find this hobby and keep doing it. Now, to spread the love for creativity, I'm naming the following ladies to join this blog hop!

Kim Kesti

Kim Kesti is a self-proclaimed paper crafting addict. Her favorite thing to do is retreat to her cozy craft space and dive into new projects. She describes her style as bright, bold and a little bit funky. Kim started playing with paper when the scrapbooking craze was in full swing and was entered into the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame in 2005. After accumulating quite a bunch of supplies, she turned to card making and altered projects to get more mileage from her stash. Since then, paper crafting has become her first love. In addition to paper crafting, Kim also enjoys knitting, hand stitching, photography and organizing her scrappy space. She feels very blessed with the friendships this hobby has brought into her life. Kimmers and I live about an hour away. She is such a crafty and warm person that I want to be Kim when I grow up! Haha! Her creativity shows in everything she does. I admire her sense of style and design. Kimmers is a down to earth person and it reflects in her projects: there is no “showing off”, her projects are just clever, fun and original. You can find her happy creations on her blog: Kim Kesti – Think Fast.

Lorena Cantó

Hi! I’m Lorena Cantó: A Spanyard mother, wife, dog lover and full time journalist specialized in foreign affairs by day… and passionate paper crafter 24/7. We are currently posted in Bolivia, South America, and my love for all things ink and die cutting travels with me around the world. From the barest clean & graphic to the unbelievably inky and messy, there’s no creative technique I’m not keen to try! Lorena is an avid contributor to one of my favorite paper crafts magazines. She is often the creator of my favorite projects in an entire issue. I met her during my trip to CHA show earlier this year and enjoyed spending time with her. You can find Lorena’s artistic approach to card making on her blog: Paperella Plays.

Suzanne Dahlberg

I’m a 30-something crafty girl born and raised in the Boston area, where I currently live with my husband and our dog. By day, I work as a cancer researcher, and by night I spend lots of time in my craft room. I began papercrafting in 2005, and since then I have scrapbooked big events like my wedding and travel, but I have mostly focused on cards after meeting two other card-makers at my local stamp store. This hobby is the perfect stress release for me, and I cherish so many of the friends I’ve made as a result of it. I enjoyed all the design teams I joined. Not only did I get to work with wonderful products, I also got to meet some wonderful people. I met Suzanne in one of my previous design teams. Suzanne’s cards always speak Spring and happiness to me. I adore her clean and fresh style and think she’s the queen of mixing and matching patterned paper on cards. You can find her beautiful creations on her blog: Freshly Noted ____________________________________________________________ Thank you for stopping by! Happy Crafting!