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.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Inspired by Kristina Werner

Hello!  Hope you are having a beautiful day!
Today I have 2 cards to show you,
they were inspired by 
Kristina is one of my favorite bloggers and artists.
If you haven't discovered her yet, be sure to pop over
and check out her blog, she's really quite wonderful.
Now I have to start by saying that I goofed up both my cards.
This first one I adhered the vellum in the wrong spot for 
the style I was going for, but that's not really a problem,
because I love the way it turned out.
Kristina use a background stamp on her card, but 
I didn't have one large enough with me at the time,
so I used a patterned paper.
You can barely see the patterned paper in the pictures,
but in real life you can see it.  It's a fairly delicate purple pattern.
I cut the shapes on the Cricut from white card stock.
I then embossed them with silver embossing powder.
The sentiment, I did a little differently.
I covered a piece of card stock with Versa Mark ink
and silver embossing powder and heated it.
Once I had that done I used a die to cut out the sentiment.
I arranged all the pieces and glued them on with 
Although this wasn't as I intended it,
I do like how it turned out.
For the 2nd card I decided to go with a Christmas theme.
This one I put together the right way.
The snow flakes were cut on the Cricut,
adhered with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive
and covered with clear Wink of Stella.
I added a little bling on the centers of the flakes also.
The vellum opens to reveal this striped card front.
This is a piece I had in my stash that I had made a while 
ago when I was experimenting.
I made it using 
and 
I didn't add a sentiment to this panel yet,
I want to see about fixing my goof on this card first.
I'll show that in a bit.
Lastly the front opens at the top and shows the sentiment 
inside the card.
This sentiment is 
from Eureka Stamps.
I put this card together pretty quickly as I was running out of time.
It's not prefect, far from it, but I wanted to post it anyway.
I don't mind showing my mistakes and sometimes I think
it encourages people to try new things and continue trying
until they like the results.
Now for the goof on this card.
Here you go!  
When I was stamping the sentiment inside
the card, I got red ink on one of the snowflakes as well as
on the vellum.  It came off the vellum pretty well, but not that
flake.  Can't get that snowflake off either, that Quick Dry Adhesive
really sticks!
Oh well, it was a quick card and I wasn't crazy about those
flakes anyway.  
Things don't always turn out the way we want them to,
but sometimes they are fine anyway,
and sometimes we just learn from them.
Now, why don't you hop over to
and see what she has to show you.
I'm sure it's something quite wonderful.
Thanks for stopping by today,
I hope you are inspired in some way.
Remember to have fun with whatever you are working on.
Come again soon,
you never know what you'll find on 
Kristie Kreates.

Note the links are only to give a reference so you can
see what the products are.
I didn't necessarily purchase from these sites,
and you may find better prices elsewhere.
I am in no way promoting any particular site.

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Inspirational Quote Project

Hello crafty people!
Today my post is pretty photo heavy as I'm going to 
show you how I went about making this project
(click on any of the pictures to see them larger)
Recently I've been working on some pieces with 
inspirational quotes on them.
I'll be posting them as I get them done, I have
several in the works right now.
The first thing I did was decide which flowers I wanted
to stamp and color.
I stamped onto a 12"x12" piece of white card stock
and did all the coloring with colored pencils.
I stamped my first flower, which is an old one from 
Stampin' Up, into the upper corner of the page.
I also stamped it onto 
Inkadinkado Masking Paper, cut it out and used it as
a mask.
I had stamped the images I was going to use onto 
scrap card stock, colored them and roughly cut them out.
This way I could position the image and see where 
I wanted to stamp it.
I then laid the stamp over the cut out image and closed
the cover of my MISTI tool on the stamp to pick it up.
Placing the stamp over the cut out image also will prevent
any stray ink from getting where I don't want it.
As you'll see, most of the stamps were used more than 
once and that stray ink can ruin a project.
Here you can see where I used masking.
When I masked off a flower, then stamped over
it with another flower, then removed the mask,
the original flower appears to be in the front.
I just started coloring before I realized I hadn't taken 
a picture of the project with just the stamping on it.
Here it is, before I colored it.
I started by coloring a first layer of color.
This way I could plan out my colors then go back and
do any shading and intensify colors.
Here is what it looked like once I was finished
coloring the flowers.
Now it was time for the quote.
I printed the quote I wanted onto white card stock
from my computer.
I taped it to my light box and taped the project 
over it using Post It Tape.
Once I turn the light box on, I could see the lettering
and traced it.  Sometimes I put paints right to the
project, but since I wanted to use colored pencils, 
I felt it would be easier to trace it with pencil.
I traced all the lettering with a light hand.
Here is a close up of the traced quote.
Even though I used a light hand, I do wish I had 
used an even lighter hand.
Some of the pencil was a little darker than I needed,
it only had to be dark enough that I could see it to 
go over it with the colored pencil.
I think my project turned out nice.
I haven't decided how I will hang this project,
but I'll get that figured out soon and let y'all know.

Thanks for stopping in today to see what I've been up to.
I hope you'll let me know what you think of my project, 
and I hope you've learned something and/or been inspired
in some way.
Come again soon. 
Until then, make something pretty.

All the stamps are from my stash,
the ones I know are:
The flowers in the lower left corner 
"Poppy" from Our Daily Bread Designs
The roses in the lower right and upper left 
"Rose" from QKR Stampede
The 3 along the bottom
Anna Griffin Parrot Tulip Stamp
very old, I couldn't find a link for it.

Note the links are only to give a reference so you can
see what the products are.
I didn't necessarily purchase from these sites,
and you may find better prices elsewhere.
I am in no way promoting any particular site.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Snack container

Hello!
Quick post today.
My great nephew is going to Disney for the first time
next month.  Tonight his Mom brought him over so
I could cut some Mickey heads on my Silhouette.
They will be decorating the window of their room 
for Halloween with them.
I stopped at the Dollar Store today and picked up this 
little snack container.
I wanted a plain one to put Mickey on, but they didn't
have any, so I got the Minions.
I used my Silhouette to cut his name from vinyl
using the Mickey font.
I think it turned out cute.
Would have liked Mickey better, but ya gotta 
work with what you can get, right?
Thanks for stopping by today,
come again soon.
Until then, Happy Crafting!

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Pop Up Panel Cards

Hi blog friends!
Today I'm excited to show you a 
couple really cool cards.
(click on the pictures to see them larger)
I saw a video on another blog the other
day and had to try making some
"pop up panel cards"
(I'll link to that video below)
First I wanted to make a
get well/ encouragement card.
For the front of the card I stamped 
Eureka Stamps.
I colored it with colored pencils and
fussy cut it.
When I added it to the front of the card,
I used Glue Dots on the body of the butterfly
and put a couple layers of foam tape
under the wings to give dimension.
The exciting part comes when you open the card
and a panel pops out.
The sentiments are from
The little flowers are from
TaDa Creative Studios
I have no idea if it is available any longer.
I decided that I should also make a Christmas card
with a pop up panel inside.
I used card stocks from my stash.
Sorry I don't know the name of the stamp set I used
for this card.
The dotted border stamp that I used along the left side
All the stamped images were stamped with 
On this card I didn't use as many layers and it
still turned out beautifully.
I weighed each card and this one would be able to 
go through the mail on a regular stamp,
the other one is much heavier with the extra 
layers of card stock and would need extra postage.
For an excellent video on how to make this style of card

Thanks for stopping by today.
I hope you have found some inspiration here
and maybe you'll give this style of card a try too.
I hope you'll stop by again soon.
Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Note the links are only to give a reference so you can
see what the products are.
I didn't necessarily purchase from these sites,
and you may find better prices elsewhere.
I am in no way promoting any particular site.



Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Masked Sentiment

Hello all!
Today I have a card to show you that I used 
a couple masking techniques on.
Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of all of 
it, but hopefully I'll explain it so you understand.
The first thing I did was stamp the
"hello." 
onto the card stock panel.
I then applied a piece of Post-It Tape
directly over the sentiment.
I'm loving this tape,
it's great for masking, comes off easily
and doesn't damage the paper.
Next I began stamping the flowers.
I cut a few stamped images from
and applied them over the flowers.
Everywhere there is a flower in the background
there was a mask over the flower in the foreground.
Once I had all the flowers stamped, 
I removed the masks and colored 
all the images with colored pencils.
I used a very light blue to color the 
background of the panel.
I then adhered it to a white card base.
Inside I stamped
this sentiment.
I don't know what companies made any of these stamps.
They are all stamps that I found in my stash.
Thanks for stopping by today,
I hope you have found some inspiration here
and will come again soon.
Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Smile card.

Hello blog friends!
A little while ago, I posted about winning
Today I have a card that I made with some of
those supplies.
The stamps I used on this card are from
The foliage is from the
for all my stamping.
For the sentiment I used
on the inside I used the sentiment that says
"it's the one thing that always fits
no matter how many cookies you eat"
For the edge I used 
I love this angled die and the "stitching" it
leaves along the edge.
I added a few bits of bling from my stash and
adhered the panel to a card base and it was done.
A simple card, easy to make, quick to put together.

Thanks for stopping by today.
I'll be playing some more with my "winnings" 
so be sure to come back soon.
You never know what you'll find on 
Kristie Kreates.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Veils and Vengeance

I have a new post up on
Mashed Potatoes and Crafts
Pop over and see which craft idea
I've posted from
"Veils and Vengeance"
I love Rachelle's books and 
recommend them for a fun,
entertaining read.
Now pop over and take a look!
See you next time,
you never know what you'll find on
Kristie Kreates!

Friday, September 2, 2016

Real Beauty

Hello visitors!
Today I have a layout that I'd like to show you.
I happened to find some 12" x 12" watercolor paper a
few weeks ago and snatched that right up.
It is Master's Touch which is the
Hobby Lobby brand.
I have wanted to do some stamping and watercoloring 
on some scrapbook layouts, but hadn't seen any of the right 
sized watercolor paper.
I decided to do a layout of my beautiful daughter.
She is not only beautiful on the outside, but on the
inside also.
Here is the layout I made.
The pictures and the title are both matted with some
green paper from my stash, it matches nicely with the
ink I used ,which was
The rose stamp I used is
and were stamped with Versa Fine Onyx Black ink
which is water proof, so is perfect for watercoloring.
I colored all the roses with watercolor crayons.
I have 2 brands, Lyra and Neo-Colors
I love using watercolor crayons, they blend so beautifully.
The "baby's breath" is
I used my MISTI tool to do all the stamping
and it worked beautifully.
I hope you will try doing some stamping and/or watercoloring on 
your scrapbook layouts.
Thanks for stopping by today,
come again soon.
Until next time, try something new!

Thursday, September 1, 2016

New goodies!

Hello Crafty friends!
I have been very lucky recently.
First I got an e-mail from Jennifer McGuire that I 
had won a gift certificate from her for
My Favorite Things
on her blog.  I was so excited,
I love shopping when I don't have to pay for it and
there were some dies that I'd been wanting!
Here are the 2 die sets that I got with my gift certificate.
they are:
and
The GC was for $25, so I did have to pay a little bit,
but not much for a couple great sets of dies.
Can't wait to get some time to play with these!
Thanks to Jennifer and My Favorite Things!
Then I got an e-mail from Julia that I had won a gift 
certificate on her blog
This was for 
This GC was for $100!
YES!  That's what I said, $100
A big thanks to CAS-ual Fridays Stamps
and Julia.  I had a ball spending that on some wonderful 
stamps and dies.
Here's what I got with that GC.
I opened my package and this is how my goodies arrived.
How cute is that?  
Such a nice little courtesy that made me smile.
If you know me very well, you know I'll be saving that 
paper to craft with.
I can't wait to ink up these stamps and run those 
dies through my Cuttlebug!
Come back soon and you'll be able to see
what I make with all my new goodies.
I can't wait to get started.
Be sure to check out these 2 companies,
they have wonderful products and their delivery was
very fast.
Also go check out Jennifer and Julia's blogs
They both have some wonderful ideas
and videos
Hope to see you again soon,
Until then, Happy Crafting!