Kristin Victoria Creates

Mini Book of Mini Monsters In the spirit of sending hubby a Harry Potter themed care package, which you can see more of here, I couldn't help but make a book. And as there are many books in Harry Potter I had a great selection to choose from, but there was one that just stood out to me more than the rest: The Monster Book of Monsters.  I personally adore The Monster Book of Monsters. It's just so wonderful, weird, and creative that I want my own so badly! (I've actually been wanting to make one for a long time now.) But since this is for hubby and not me, I decided to make a Mini Book of Mini Monsters.  I've made hubby books before and mini books before, but none like this. It was so easy to make and rather enjoyable. I might make myself a Mini Book of Mini Monsters... or possibly a full sized version eventually... But anyways, without any further ado, here is how I made this adorable Mini Book of Mini Monsters! Materials for this project are ...

Card and Tag Making: Harry Potter Themed Here are the cards and tags that I made to go with the Harry Potter themed care package that I sent to hubby. The Cards: For the cards, I kept them rather simple.  I used pre-made card bases and added lettering to complete the cards.  I used a few puns of lines and characters that I love.  I didn't make as many themed cards as I normally do. But I supplemented the box with other cards and notes. I honestly had more fun with the envelopes. Oops.  On the main part of the card, I wrote "Owl Post, deliver to:" and then wrote some funny descriptions of where he is deployed to.  Basically, it's a great way to make a sarcastic flex of your OPSEC muscles.  On the upper right hand corner, I layered three postage style stamps.   On the back of the envelope, I, again, layered three different postage themed stamps.  By now you know I can't help myself when it comes to ...

Card Making: Cat Themed Cards  Cats are adorable. At least I've felt this way since I can remember.  So naturally, I can't help but make a few cat themed cards on occasion.  With these cards, I used stamps and origami paper from happy mail.  For the cats, I stamped then added color with Prisma color pencils and fussy cut them out, leaving a small border around them.  For the other papers, I simply stamped the paws and balls of strings to make matching patterned paper for each card.  So without further ado, here are the cat inspired cards! "Meow are you?" Is a play on words that I love, right up there with "I donut know." This simple rendition is pretty in pink, if I am aloud to continue the play on words. This is an inside joke between hubby and I. Smilodon, otherwise known as a Saber-tooth Tiger is a point of laughter for us that is ridiculous but simple.  It started with an episode of Friends and now we just giggle lik...

Deployment Distractions: Food I definitely go through waves of wanting to cook or making everything to absolutely not wanting to even go into the kitchen. To help combat abandoning my kitchen I like to go to different blogs and YouTube channels to get inspiration to start cooking again whenever I hit one of these slumps. I also like to find and test new sides and dishes for when hubby's back. One of my favorite food blogs is Jewish Food Hero. I initially found Kenden on Instagram, and love seeing the photos and blog posts.   I'm not vegetarian, but I love a lot of vegetarian dishes and this is always a great source of inspiration. On YouTube, there are a few people I love to watch cook and find their recipes wonderful additions.  Donal Skehan is one of these wonderfully delightful people to watch cook. I don't remember how I came across his channel, but I'm glad I did. Hubby and I even caught him on tv on a cooking show while we were in Ireland f...

Creative Confessions: Why I Haven't Been Art Journaling as of Late It is a little odd, as last year, I basically couldn't stop working on various art journal pages and booklettes. But as of the last few months, I've just lost traction in making art journal pages.  I have been doing a lot of card making and some intermittent quilting. I suppose that and the fact that for me art journaling can be pretty messy when I use a lot of paint. To remedy this, to some extent as I haven't even touched my art journals in weeks now... I'm hoping to set some journal prompts for myself.  I do have several selections to pick from, but I think I need to shake it up a touch.  If I get to the point of completion for these prompts, then I'll definitely share them with you here. I think I've also put off painting for some time. And more importantly, I think I'm okay with that.  Card making has taken a lot of my passion for art making lately, so I someti...

For these cards, I went with an 'April Showers' theme.  Hubby and I are from the Pacific Northwest and miss the rain when we are away.  So I took inspiration the saying and our love of that part of the country to make these cute and simple cards. For all three cards,I started with pre-made blank, white cards and envelopes and I used the following Copic markers: B23: Phthalo Blue, B41: Powder Blue, RV63: Begonia, V000: Pale Health. I realized after creating this cards as love notes and just because cards, if you change the sentiments, they would make great gender reveal cards or baby shower cards! For this card, I used scrap water color paper for the sentiments.  I messily covered one water color paper with pinks and the second piece with blues.  When that was dry, I used black ink and an alphabet stamp to make the repeating sentiment of "i love you." I mounted the water color pieces off center on a piece of...

Deployment Distractions: Comedians  Let's be honest, we all need a good laugh during deployments.  Emotions are high, things are stressful, and one of the best ways to let out some frustration is to laugh it out. I've loved watching stand up comedians for years. It really helped get me through college and it's been helping with dealing with separations and deployments. Before I'd watch them only on TV, but now there's this wonderful thing called Netflix.  I adore how they keep adding different stand up shows. And here are some of my favorites: Iliza Shlesinger, Confirmed Kills, Freezing Hot, and War Paint. (Hubby and I love all of her shows!) Noah Trevor, African American, and Afraid of the Dark. Ali Wong, Baby Cobra Patton Oswalt, Talking for Clapping Aziz Ansari, Buried Alive Jen Kirkman, I'm Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine), Just Keep Livin'? Craig Ferguson, I'm Here to Help Jo Koy, Life from Seattle, Katherine...