My Other Pages

To make it easier to read about our trip to Ireland, I have made a page that is just for that. There is a tab above for Ireland Trip 2014 or click on the Home tab to read my other posts. I have also created a new page for My Weight Loss Journey if you are interested in that, click on the tab above.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Christmas Shaker Card

Hi all!
It's a Christmas Card today.
I love shaker cards and decided I wanted to make another one.
I have a 12x12 paper stack that has a couple pages full of
"Poloroid" frames, sorry I don't have that stack
here and don't remember the name of it.
I used one of the Poloroid frames for this card.
I cut the center out and adhered some acetate to the back
of the frame and used foam tape to give it the depth to make
it into a shaker.
 I put sequins from my stash into the frame and then 
stuck the red card base to the back.
I stamped, colored and fussy cut the
"Round Ornament"
for the front of the frame,
added dash lines around the card with a 
silver pen and the card was done.
Now that I look at the card,
I'm thinking that I should have 
stamped a sentiment inside the frame
or maybe a tree or a scene.
Next time that's what I'll do.

Thanks for stopping today, hope you were
inspired in some way and enjoyed my card.
Hope I see you again soon.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Birthday Card For Mom

Hello crafty friends!
Today is my Mom's 91st birthday!
She is an amazing woman and one of the 
strongest and kindest people I know.
I wanted to make her a card, so I 
used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the 
Happy Birthday on black card stock.
I covered a scrap piece of white card stock with 
1" wide double sided tape, like Score Tape.
I pulled all the backing off the tape and stuck it to the
back side of the black piece so the sticky part was against the 
Happy Birthday cut out.
I sprinkled glitter over the sentiment,
the glitter stuck to the tape,
I shook off the extra and burnished it with 
my finger.  This helps to be sure it sticks and
gives it a nice shine.
You can see a little more of the shine in the 
picture below.
I punched out some flowers with a coordinating paper
and put "pearls" in the centers to finish off the front panel.
It was then adhered to a white card base.
This didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned it,
but I do like it and hopefully she will too.

Thanks for stopping by today,
come again soon.
Until then, Happy Crafting!



Friday, November 20, 2015

SSS prize

Hello crafty friends!
In October on
I love a good blog hop, so I hopped along
and commented on all the blogs.
There was some wonderful inspiration and fabulous
 ideas, techniques and tips.
A few days after the hop was finished, 
I was surprised to find that I had won one of the 
prize packages.
This is what I received in the mail a week or so later.
It's one of their card kits.
I was thrilled to win this kit and knew I'd be able to put
all these goodies to good use.
There is an "inspiration sheet" that comes with the kit
that shows 6 cards that Kristina Werner made with the
supplies in the same kit.
How could I go wrong?
A kit from a company I love and 
inspiration from one of my favorite designers!
The other day I made a couple cards and barely put a dent
in the supplies.
I used strips of various papers to make this
pretty card.  
"What A Beautiful Day" was stamped
Some of the strips were adhered with foam tape 
to give a little dimension to the card.
This second card is very clean and simple.
With the beautiful papers in the kit,
I couldn't go wrong,
a few thin strips of paper and the
"Just a note" stamp made for a quick and
easy card.

Thanks to 
Simon Says Stamp
for the great prize they sent me!
If you aren't familiar with them,
pop over to their blog linked above or to there 
where you'll find just about anything you will need 
for paper crafting and more.

I'm glad you stopped by today,
I hope you will come again soon.
Until next time, Happy Crafting!


Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Fixing an angel

One day a little while ago, I got a phone call
from my friend, Diane.
She was asking a favor, she needed an angel "fixed"
Some of the ladies in her church, look for 
Christmas decorations at garage sales,
then they "fix" them and sell them at their
annual bizarre. 
Someone had picked up this angel, she is 
actually in pretty nice shape, but was holding a 
really ugly poinsettia.
Diane removed it and needed something 
for her to hold.
Of course, the first one she thought of was her 
crafty friend.......me!
A scroll, perhaps?
Of course, I can make a scroll.
I created a file and cut the words and "scroll" 
with my Silhouette Cameo.
I covered the back sheet with double sided adhesive tape
and adhered it to the back of the cut out scroll.
I covered the words with gold glitter,
since the back piece was covered with the adhesive,
the glitter stuck to it.
I burnished it with a bone folder to be sure it was
stuck down nice and secure and wouldn't flake off.
I used my bone folder to curl the ends and 
low and behold I had a scroll for the angel.
Here she is with her new scroll.
And a closer picture.
Here is a close up showing the scroll from 
an angle to show how it curls and how the words 
sparkle.
I didn't glue the scroll into the angel's hands,
I think Diane wants to fuss with her a little bit more, 
then she'll glue it on with some hot glue.
I think this is a pretty good "fix"

Thanks for stopping by today.
I hope you've learned something or been inspired 
to fix something yourself.
I hope you'll stop by again soon.
Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Santa Shaker Card

Hello!
Today I have another shaker card for you.
I used "Santa Snowman" from QKR Stampede
for this card.
I colored him with colored pencils and fussy cut him.
He is adhered to the acetate with 
I also used this glue to adhere the acetate to the 
back of the frame.
I used a double thickness of foam tape to create
the space for the sequins.
I added a few sequins to the outside of the
acetate to give a little dimension and so there would
always be a few sequins around the Santa.
I also used some Clear Wink of Stella on the
white part of Santa's hat for a little shimmer and shine.
You can see in the top picture, I'm having a little
trouble with the sequins sticking to the foam tape.
I did use my anti static powder tool to take away the
stickiness on the side of the tape, but guess I didn't 
use quite enough.
Next time, I'll use more and maybe it will
work better for me.
It's a cute card anyway.

Thanks for stopping in,
hope I'll see you again soon.
Have you ever made a shaker card?
Why not give it a try?

Happy Crafting!

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Share Handmade Kindness Challenge Week #2

During the month of November
Jennifer McGuire is hosting a 
Share Handmade Kindness Challenge.
Be sure to check it out at
This weeks challenge was "Community"
I decided to thank our mail carrier with a little gift.
I wrote a note in a handmade card saying,
"Cold weather is on the way,
use this to warm up.
Thank you for your service to our community."
I enclosed a gift card for 
Tim Hortons
which is a coffee shop and cafe.
I put the card on the mailbox where it couldn't
be missed and it was gone when I got home,
so guess he found it.

Thanks for stopping by today.
I hope you'll join in the challenge to
Share Handmade Kindness.
See you again soon.

Joy Shaker Card

Hi y'all!
It's that time of year and today I have another 
Christmas card to show you.
I wanted to make a shaker card and decided to use the
"Joy" stamp from QKR Stampede
I stamped, colored with colored pencils and fussy cut the
JOY and adhered it to a piece of acetate with 
I cut the window and adhered the acetate to the back
of the window and used foam tape to 
create the space for the sequins.
I think I would have liked more sequins in this shaker.  
Ah well, live and learn, right?!?!
I think it turned out nice anyway.

Thanks for stopping in to see what I'm up to.
Have you started your Christmas cards yet?
I'm ahead of the game this year.
I finished most of mine a couple weeks ago,
and now I'm working on a few extras that I know I'll
end up needing.
With these I'm just having fun creating them.

Have fun with whatever you are creating,
I know I am.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Sharing some more quince

Last week I shared
A different kind of fruit
with you.
Well, the quince supply is dwindling.
I decided to try some cobbler.
All the cobbler recipes I found with quince also contained
apples, so off to the store I went.
Of course I did find a whole bunch of other things to 
purchase while I was there, but that's a whole other story.
Here is what my cobbler looked like, and I must say
it was pretty tasty.
We had an all day crop at My Happy Place on Saturday, 
so I took it with me.
Unfortunately, none of it got eaten.
Not because people didn't want to try it,
but because it was my birthday and my lovely friend,
Danielle, brought in an ice cream cake for us to
celebrate with.
So my cobbler came home with me.
I even had squirty whipped cream to put on it.
That's okay, the ice cream cake was so good and
I got to have some cobbler this afternoon for lunch.
So if you ever find yourself with a bunch of quince,
make some cobbler, top it with whipped cream and
dig in.

Thanks for stopping by today,
come again soon.
You never know what you'll find on 
Kristie Kreates!

Monday, November 9, 2015

Mitten Card

Hello crafty people!
Today I have a Christmas card to share with you.
When I started this card I had no idea what I was going to do,
or any kind of design in mind.
I started out by stamping "Mitten Line"
from Biblical Impressions onto card stock.
I colored the mittens with colored pencils,
then fussy cut them.
I used "Christmas Blessings" from Eureka Stamps
for my sentiment.
I embossed the piece of card stock at the top where
the mitten line is attached with a small dots folder and
used May Arts twine for the line to "hang" the mittens.
The mittens were attached with foam tape at the lower part
of the mittens and with  Ranger Multi Medium Matte Glue 
at the clothes pins.
I like how this card turned out.
Sometimes I "fly by the seat of my pants" and it
comes out great.
I hope you like my card 
and maybe got a bit of inspiration here today.
Thanks for stopping by,
come again soon.
Until next time, Happy Crafting!




Friday, November 6, 2015

Birthday Banner

Back in August, just a bit before my son's birthday, his girlfriend,
Sara, told me that her family always had a birthday banner,
that came out for each person's birthday.
She would have loved to make one for Jaryd's birthday, but didn't have 
time to get it done.
She mentioned that she would like it to be a 
Dr. Who banner since they are fans.
Her birthday was November 1st, so I made a Dr. Who birthday banner for her.  
I talked to Jaryd and got the suggestion for the red bow tie
from him, I already knew I needed to put a couple Tardis on the banner.
I found a Tardis online and used it as a guide to create one with
 Silhouette Design Studio
I had created a bow a while ago, so I had that file already 
in my Silhouette library and used that for the bow tie.
I found the "Dr. Who" font on dafont.com and used that 
to cut the words.
Here is the banner hanging in their apartment.
They will be able to take it out for birthdays for years to come.
As long as they store it someplace safe 
and don't forget where they put it.
Once I decided what I wanted to do, it really didn't take
too long and I had fun doing it.
I think they both loved it.

I'm glad you stopped today,
I hope you'll be back soon.
You never know what you'll find on
Kristie Kreates!

Thursday, November 5, 2015

A different kind of fruit

Do you have any idea what these are?
I wouldn't have if my husbands cousin hadn't given them to me.
These are quince, they are not a very common fruit
and I guess that most of my family and friends don't have a clue
what they are and have never had them.
They have the look of an apple, but have a kind of fuzzy skin.
They are very hard and fibrous and extremely tart.
I had to try a small taste and although I could eat it, it isn't something
I'd want to take a big bite of.
Now, what to do with these quince?
I checked the internet and found a basic recipe for preparing them.
Here are several cut up in slices.
They turn brown quickly, even though I did put them into 
water as the instructions suggested.
They were easy to peel, cutting into sections wasn't too tough,
but cutting the core out was not so easy.  I did lose a bit of the
fruit doing this, but I got it done.
Next step was to cook them. 
They needed to be cooked for about an hour in a saucepan
in a water and sugar mixture with a little bit of vanilla.
After simmering for a good long time, they were soft and 
had made a syrupy liquid.
This picture doesn't show it too well, 
but they have a pinkish orange color once they are cooked.
Now for the taste test.
Hmmmmm!  Interesting!  They kind of have a bit of
flavor of apple, pear and peach combined.
At least that's what I got.
My husband didn't care for them though.
Me?  I liked them, but not enough to seek them out in the future.
Now what am I going to do with all this quince?
I'm going to share it with family and friends.
I think it would be good over some shortcake with whipped cream.
I might also make a cobbler combined with some apple
and take it to an event I'm going to this weekend.
I'm entering this for the 
Share Handmade Kindness Challenge
Go check it out, you might want to participate.

So there you go, my experience with quince.
I will probably never see one again in my life,
but I'm glad I got to try them.

Thanks for stopping by today,
I hope you've learned something today.
Have you tried any "different" foods lately?
Hope to see you soon, you never know what you'll find on
Kristie Kreates.


Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Card Box

My husbands cousin and her husband have sold their home
and will be living and traveling in an RV.
We wanted to give her a little something at the party her 
niece gave for them.
Now, they have just sold most of their belongings and
will be living in this small space, what do you give someone
like that?
I think she'll probably still be sending out cards,
birthday, thank you, anniversary, what ever,
so I decided some of my hand made cards would be a good gift.
This is the box I made for the cards.
And here is the back of the box.
The top lifts off and inside there are 8 cards and envelopes,
along with 8 forever stamps.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.
Hope to see you again soon.