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

Jennifer McGuire Ink

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 

Ranger Multi Medium Matte Glue

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.

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!

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!

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!

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

at Jennifer McGuire's Blog.

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.

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.