Peeking Out!

BOO!

Halloween is getting close,

and here is the last card in my 

Halloween series

Again I was inspired by Vicky at Clips-n-cuts

who made a card similar to this one.

I used paper from my stash,

cut slits into it and tore and distressed them 

to leave the holes.

I drew on the spiders and cut out the bats

after drawing them onto black card stock.

Inside, I stamped the sentiment using 

a 7 Gypsies alpha stamp set that was in my stash.

Sorry I can't find a link to this anywhere.

I used a couple different sizes of google eyes

that I got from one of the craft stores.

I love how this turned out and I think

my Godchild will get a kick out of it too.

Thanks for stopping by,

hope you'll be back soon.

I hope you have enjoyed my

Halloween Card Series.

Until nest time,

enjoy some crafty time!

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,

except where specified,

and you may find better prices elsewhere,

I am in no way promoting any particular site.

All Wrapped Up

Hi All!

Today is day 3 of my Halloween cards.

I was inspired by Vicky at Clips-n-Cuts

when she made a similar card.

I used Crushed Olive and Gathered Twigs

Distress Inks to distress some 

green card stock, then tore it into 

strips, then used ATG tape to adhere it

to a black piece of card stock.

I stamped the "BOO" with an alpha set

from 7 Gypsies, I couldn't find a name

on the package and can't find them on their website,

they are a quite old set, so may no longer be available.

I love the gold google eyes that 

I used from my stash.

(I may have picked them up at The Dollar Store)

I used the same alpha set to stamp the 

sentiment inside the card.

I love the distressed look, I think it's perfect for 

a Halloween card.

I used Gathered Twigs Distress Ink

for the stamping.

Thanks for stopping in today,

I hope you are enjoying my 

Halloween cards

Come tomorrow for the last card

in my Halloween series

Until then

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,

except where specified,

and you may find better prices elsewhere,

I am in no way promoting any particular site.

Monster face

Hi there, welcome back!

Today is the 2nd day of a series of Halloween cards

that I made.

These 2 are for a couple great nephews.

I started with pieces of green card stock,

I used Distress Inks

(Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint and Gathered Twigs)

to get the color I wanted for the faces.

I simply tore the black card stock to make the 'hair'

I punched circles for the eyes and 

cut strips of scrap black card stock for the mouths.

Then glued them all together to make the face.

Inside I stamped this cute sentiment,

I have no idea what company it's from,

I borrowed it from a friend and forgot to make note

of it.

These cards were easy to make and could even

be made with kids.

I love how they turned out.

Thanks for coming by again today,

there will be another Halloween card tomorrow,

so be sure to pop in.

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,

except where specified,

and you may find better prices elsewhere,

I am in no way promoting any particular site.

Boo!

Hello blog friends!

I have a few young great nieces and nephews

and this year I decided to send out Halloween cards

to them.

Today I'm showing you the 2 ghost cards I made for a

couple great nieces.

I used a die to cut the "body" of the ghost.

To make the fold at the top, I simply made sure that the

cutting edge of the die was off the fold so it didn't cut.

Since the die cut was a little smaller than a standard size,

I adhered it to a piece of black card stock.

I hand cut the eyes and mouth from scraps.

Here you can see better that I embossed the front 

of the ghost, by running it through the Cuttlebug with

an embossing folder.

Inside the cards I stamped BOO and drew in

the little spiders.

I think these cards turned out adorable,

I hope the girls I'm sending them to do too.

Thanks for stopping by today,

in the next few days I'll be posting the 

other Halloween cards I made,

so be sure to come back and see 

how they turned out.

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,

except where specified,

and you may find better prices elsewhere,

I am in no way promoting any particular site.

Shaker Cards

Hello friends!

Today I have a couple Christmas cards to show you.

I was inspired to make these when I saw

this video from Jennifer McGuire

For both cards I used  Christmas papers

from my scrap stash,

which happens to be quite extensive.

I really shouldn't keep everything, 

but it served me well in this instance.

I decided to make them into shaker cards.

I do wish I had put more bits and pieces

into the shakers, but I haven't done that many shakers

and it sure looked like more than there actually were.

I used some bakers twine to string the 

Christmas Lights together as well as at the tops

of the ornaments in the second card.

For both cards I cut the openings with 

Sizzix Dies.

Thanks for stopping in today to see what

I've been up to.

Come again soon,

until then

have some fun 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,

except where specified,

and you may find better prices elsewhere,

I am in no way promoting any particular site.

Caring Hearts Card Drive

This is the 7th year that Vera Yates and her crew

have organized the 

Caring Hearts Card Drive 

This card drive is near and dear to my heart.

This will be the 3rd year that I will be helping to 

distribute cards to 

Brothers of Mercy Nursing Home and Rehab Center

and 

Sacred Heart Adult Care Home

where my Mom lives.

Many people in nursing homes and assisted living

centers don't receive many cards and visitors.

This is one way to bring some cheer into their lives.

When Mom receives her cards, she has been thrilled

to show them to me and tell me where they came from.

They are always a big hit in the dining room where the

residents find them at their places.

They share them and compare them and are so 

excited to receive them

Be sure to follow the link above and see how

you can help with this card drive.

Here are some cards that I've made to send in for the

drive.

(click on the pictures to see them larger)

I stamped this cute snowman

(Skinny Snowman from QKR Stampede)

onto white card stock and also a piece of 

Post It paper to use as a mask.

I covered the snowman image with the mask

and used my MISTI stamping tool to 

repeatedly stamp the Holiday Wishes sentiment

onto the card.

I'm sorry I don't know what set that sentiment

is from.

On this card I stamped 

Patchwork Holly

from Biblical Impressions

and used the same process as above to 

stamp the Holly Jolly Border 

from 

CAS-ual Fridays

This one I used 

"Holly" from QKR Stampede and

a border stamp from 

Holly Jolly Borders

I colored the images on all the cards with

watercolor crayons.

Thanks for stopping in today,

I hope you will join me in donating to

this very special

card drive.

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,

except where specified,

and you may find better prices elsewhere,

I am in no way promoting any particular site.

Simon's Inspiration

Hello, I hope you're having a wonderful day!

I have a friend who has 3 boys, 

she is always posting things on facebook

about them.

One day, I guess she was having a tough time with

something and her 9 yr old son

told her

"There's is no running out of tries.

As long as you are alive

you have forever tries."

I have that quote on my desk in my office,

just as a reminder to not give up if I am frustrated.

I'm sorry for the quality of this picture, I placed this 

in a scrapbook page protector and the glare is impossible.

I used 12x12 water color paper for this project.

I wet the paper with clean water and used watercolors

to drop color onto the paper.

Once it was dry I used a brush to flick

more color onto the project.

I love how this background turned out.

I used my light box and a colored pencil to 

trace the quote onto the painted piece.

This is one of my favorites of my 

inspirational series, I just love how it turned out.

Thanks to Simon for this wonderful quote!

Thanks for popping in today,

hope to see you again soon.

Take Simon's advice and keep trying

at whatever you want to do.

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.

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge

Hello everyone!
This month is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Did you know that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed

with breast cancer?
That is why the Cas-ual Fridays Challenge

 this week is to use 8 of something on your card.

I'm entering the 2 cards below into the challenge.

This first card was made using the 

"Smile"

stamp from the
"Sassy Smiles" stamp set from

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps

I used Versa Mark Ink to stamp Smile

down the panel of the card.

Then I used Pan Pastels and 

made colored stripes over the words.

The words show up beautifully with this 

technique.

There are 8 different colored stripes on this card.

This is the inside of the card, the sentiment

is from the same Sassy Smiles set..

Love that sentiment, it never fails to make me smile.

For my 2nd card, I used the same technique,

but this time I have stamped "Smile" 8 times

The sentiment on the inside of this card is also from

the Sassy Smiles set as is the little heart next to the sentiment.

I love this stamp set and have already used it for a few cards and

only got it about a month or so ago.

CAS-ual Fridays has some great stamps and dies

so why not pop over and take a look,

you might find something you love too.

And while you're at it, stop in to the 

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge Blog

and see what they are all about.

Join along in the fun and maybe you'll win 

a prize, someone has to win, so maybe it could 

be you.

Thanks for stopping by today,

come again soon and see what I'm up to

in my creative world.

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.

Except when I specify that site, as above with CAS-ual Fridays.

More Inspirational Quote Projects

 Hello all!

My last post was about some inspirational quote projects

that I made for our scrapping/crafting studio.

Today I have a few more to show you.

This is one of the walls at My Happy Place.

The banner at the top says CREATE,

I made that banner quite a while ago and it was 

hanging in a different spot, so we moved that over on

this wall.

The background of this piece was created

 with watercolor crayons.  I colored a few colors onto

my craft mat, added water and 'smooched' the 

watercolor paper into the color to pick it up.

After it was dried I used my light box to 

trace the words and painted them with 

pearlescent watercolors.

I adhered the project to a piece of matting and strung

the ribbon through holes around the sides and to make

the hanger.

This one was done by stamping the flowers onto

Bristol Paper.

I love the smooth surface of this paper for coloring.

I used VersaFine Onyx Black ink for the stamping,

did the coloring with my Fantasia Colored Pencils.

The words were painted with pearlescent watercolors.

This last piece was the start of my whole

"journey" into making these projects.

It started with this inspiration

from Kristina Werner.

As I said in my last blog post,

It's all about 

Inspiration not Re-creation.

I'm not as talented as she is,

so I used my light box to trace 

the words that I had printed onto a 

piece of computer paper using

pearlescent watercolors.

(Can you tell that I love them?)

The background was made 

with the 'smooching' technique I 

mentioned above using Distress Inks.

Thanks for stopping by today to see what I've

been up to.

I hope you'll come again soon.

I have one more project to show you in this

"series" ..... well, until I get some more done that is.

I hope you are enjoying them and have gotten some 

inspiration from them.

Until next time:

Make Pretty Things!

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.

Inspirational Quote Projects

Hello my blog friends!

A while ago I showed you this project

and I wasn't sure how I was going to hang it.

Well I figured it out.

What I did was put the 12x12 project into a scrapbook

page protector, I used some scrap matting to cut 

strips for the top of the piece.

I punched holes where the holes were in the 

page protector and adhered the project between

2 strips of matting with ATG tape.

I then used a ribbon to make a hanger.

Here is a close up of the final project.

My daughter and I went over to 

My Happy Place,

the scrapbooking/crafting studio that a 

couple friends and I run, to hang it and some

others that I've made.

Here is Kelsie, bravely standing on the table

to find the correct spot for this piece.

"How's this Mom?"

Perfect placement!

These 3 that I'm showing you today are all

on walls at the end of the tables where we create.

The next wall says Laugh, unfortunately, my camera

dies and I didn't get a picture with the whole wall,

but this is the one I placed there. 

Not sure if you can read that last line, 

it says

"Projects Half Done"

Don't we all have some of those?

I had fun creating the elements on this,

but it was difficult to leave things half done.

That little knitting project was fun.

I took a couple bamboo skewers and made little 

knitting needles and knitted that piece with 

embroidery cotton and rolled up a little ball of it

to glue onto this project.  

The last one is the word Create and I thought this was 

appropriate for that wall.

This hangs right above the end of the table where I always

work.  I do draw a lot of inspiration from different

beautiful things and projects that others have done.

I think it's very important to remember this,

use it as inspiration and don't try to 

re-create it.  I think trying to re-create things exactly

makes for disappointment.

Inspiration is the key,

see something and then put your own twist on it.

For all these projects I stamped or traced onto the

paper and colored with colored pencils.

For the last one, the writing was painted on with

pearlescent watercolors.

That's it for today.

All in all, Kelsie and I hung 7 projects.

I have a few more in the works and will be posting 

them all in my next few posts.

I like the idea of having some inspirational projects

hanging where we are creating.

I sure hope the ladies at 

My Happy Place

will enjoy them.

I had a wonderful time creating them and plan to 

make plenty more.

I hope you have enjoyed my projects and are 

inspired in some way by them.

Thanks for stopping by today,

hope you'll stop by again soon.

Now go create something and have fun! 

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.

Give Thanks

Hello all!

Today I have a fun technique to show you and 

a couple cards I made using it

I started by covering a piece of card stock with 

double sided tape.

Here you can see where I have removed the top half of 

the release paper and still have 2 pieces covered.

I had chosen 4 different fall colors and cut strips of

card stock in different widths.

Once I removed all the release papers, I started by laying

down one of the strips on an angle.

I then laid down more of the strips.

I decided to follow a pattern with the colors and 

continued applying the strips until the entire piece of 

card stock was covered.

And at this point, my camera died.

So I will have to explain the rest without pictures,

but I think you'll understand what I did when you look at

the finished cards.

Once the card stock was covered, I turned it over and

trimmed the extras off the edges.

I then used a die to cut out the pumpkin with orange

patterned paper and embossed it with a matching 

embossing folder.

I did the same thing with a piece of green paper,

then I cut the stem and leaf off and glued it to the 

pumpkin.

I also used Distress Inks to add a bit of shading and

highlighting to the pumpkin and the leaf.

Then I used the same die to cut the pumpkin out of the 

center of the striped piece.

I used the same technique with the leaf die.

I used foam tape to adhere the striped panel to the card

base.  I then put glue on the back of the pumpkin and leaf

and glued them to the card bases through the die cut opening

on the striped panel.

Here you can see from the side that the leaf is sitting 

down inside the die cut space.

I stamped the

"Give thanks"

onto a coordinating color with

Brown Color Box Chalk Ink

and fussy cut it and adhered it over the

pumpkin and leaf with foam tape.

The give thanks is part of the 

Give thanks stamp (#34109) from Biblical Impressions

The entire sentiment reads

"Give thanks 

to the Lord"

I masked off the part of the sentiment

that I didn't want and stamped the part I needed.

I love how these 2 cards turned out,

I think they will make great Thanksgiving cards.

Thanks for stopping by today,

I hope you will give this technique a try.

You can use any kind of paper to make the stripes,

plain colors or patterned papers, you'll be surprised

how easy it is and how great it turns out.

Come again soon,

until then have some fun trying something new.

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.