Kristin Victoria Creates

Christmas Gift Ideas: Bookish Edition As Christmas is just around the corner again, I'd like to share with you some of my favorite books to give as gifts.  I've given these little treasures out many times and they're great options when you want to give something unique that pretty much anyone would love.  I've linked each book to goodreads.com so that you can read more about them there. Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World by Ella Frances Sanders The Illustrated Book of Sayings: Curious Expressions from Around the World by Ella Frances Sanders Turn Around and Run Like Hell: Amazing Stories of Unconventional Military Strategies That Worked by Josheph Cummins The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps by Edward Brooke-Hitching An Atlas of Countries that Don't Exist: A Compendium of Fifty Unrecognized and Largely Unnoticed States...

Care Package Addition: Letter to Santa  I saw a Letter to Santa 'patterned' paper at Hobby Lobby and it made me smile like the Grinch.  The idea to fill it out in a slightly comical way was too great of a temptation to resist.  I could have also made my own either on the computer or by hand, but I honestly didn't think to do something like this until I saw it in the store, so I got it there. The letter also has a section to fill out for what to watch out for around the house and a place to sign it.  I added a P.S. to the letter as there was room at the bottom of the page.  This would be a great little thing to recreate if you have kids or not.  I think it's the humor that makes this great. I got a kick out of filling it out, and I'm sure hubby will get a kick out of reading it. Happy creating, and care package creating! For business inquires, contact me at: KristinVictoriaArt@gmail.com To view prints on various ...

Deployment Distractions: Musicals Some of my favorite things to watch while hubby is gone is a musical - good or bad.  The music is a great distraction to fully get lost into or have on a back ground music while doing other projects or cleaning. Here are some of my favorites: Singing in the Rain Sister Act (I & II) The King and I Moulin Rouge Les Miserables Chicago Grease Help The Yellow Submarine The Phantom of the Opera Meet me in St. Louis Rent Mary Poppins Scott Pilgrim vs the World Anchors Aweigh Labyrinth An American in Paris Across the Universe The Rocky Horror Picture Show The Muppets Pitch Perfect On the Town Tangled Walk the Line La La Land The Wizard of Oz Sweeney Todd The Sound of Music Cry-Baby Oklahoma! Robin Hood: Men in Tights West Side Story  Hairspray My Fair Lady What are some of your favorite self care remedies for when the distance gets you down? Happy crea...

Dino - November Mini Care Package As an in between of Halloween and Christmas, I really couldn't help but send a little something non holiday themed. Don't get me wrong, I love holidays and holiday themed care packages, but I wanted to make something that would stand out in the midst of holiday greetings.   For the inside of the box, I cut a piece of printer paper down to 5 1/4 inches by 8 1/2 inches.  I decorated it with a pun, as hubby loves puns, and an adorable pink dino from the stamp set.  I finished it all off by adding the cloud stamp in light blue.   For the out side of the box, I added a few of the dino stickers and then covered them with clear packing tape.    I can't seem to send anything without sending cards.    The cards I included were dino themed and you can check them out here. Inside, I wrapped everything with medium pink tissue paper.  For this mini...

Card Making: Dino November  I have loved Dino November since I found out that it was a thing.  They're so cute and have been tempting me to buy dinosaur toys for years now.  In that spirit I found a stamp set from My Favorite Things.  It was on sale this summer, so I couldn't help myself.  I've been eyeing different dino stamps for a while, but these dinos just stole my heart. The envelopes are pre made and the cards measure 3 3/4 inches by 5 1/4 inches. For all of these cards, I went a little crazy with the envelopes.  I used stamps and dino stickers to decorate both sides.  I sent these off to hubby in a small care package, which is why I decorated the fronts of the envelopes so much. For the red card, I tried to mimic fossils because of the sentiment. I paper pieced the dinos and leaves, coloring them with Prisma colored pencils. The yellow card, is the only card that does not feature dinos.  I meant for it o...

Card Making: Thanksgiving and Fall Cards I decided against adding sentiments to these cards so that they can be potentially used as Halloween cards, Thanksgiving cards, fall cards, or really anything. For these first two cards, I used scraps of origami paper that I stamped with various leaf stamps in oranges and reds.  These are similar but a more simplified version of some of the Halloween cards that I created earlier this year. For these two cards, I wanted to add water colored elements and ribbon.  Lately, I've been wanting to add ribbon to almost anything I can. (Restraint has been hard, let me tell you.)  Anyways, for the water color paper parts, I used scrap pieces of water color paper and cut them down to fit onto the colored card bases.  After the water color washes dried, I added oak leaf stamps in a chocolate brown ink before mounting and adding ribbon. On the back of the cards, I like to initial them and put...

Non Fiction November - 2017 For Non Fiction November this year, I've decided to do it a bit differently.  I'm hoping to read at least two books, as this month is proving to be rather busy and crazy.  However, I'd like to talk about more than just two books, because, let's be real here, I can't help myself around books. So, I'm going to break this into two parts. First in a few sections: books I've read (or read parts of), new books this year that I can't wait to read, and books I'm going to hopefully attempt this month. And second, two books for each of the Nonfiction November reading prompts: Scholarship, Substance, Love, and Home. The Goodreads page for Nonfiction November is lead by Olive and Gemma. I love Gemma's booktube videos found here . If you're interested in either, I highly recommend you check out the links. Two non fiction books I've read - Beyond the Pale by Emily Urquhart I read this last year an...