QKR Stampede 12 Blogs of Christmas Blog Hop

Welcome to the QKR Stampede 12 Blogs of Christmas Blog Hop.  If you have come to my blog first, you may want to go to the QKR Stampede Blog and begin there.  You won't want to miss any of the design team posts!  We have some wonderful designers on our team that will be sure to inspire you!

If you are following the hop you should have arrived from Ceal's blog.  She is such a wonderful designer, don't you think? 

I have a couple projects for you today. So let's get to them.

You may recognize this image, as it is the one I used on the card I showed yesterday.  It is called Best Friends (#23502) from QKR Stampede and I think it is just adorable.  I started with a large ornament that I purchased at Crafts 2000 while I was visiting my friend in Toledo.  We don't have a Crafts 2000 anywhere near the Buffalo area, so when I visit Mary, a trip there is a must. I'm sure they can be found at many of the craft stores or even places like Target and such.

This ornament measures 6" across, so it is a very large ornament. It is also a very reflective silver, so I had a tough time photographing it.  Sorry about that flashback, but I just couldn't figure out how to not get either the flashback or a reflection of me in the ornament. 

I used StazOn black ink to stamp the image onto the ornament.  I put the stamp onto a stamping pad, the kind that you put under your paper when you are stamping, then I could make it conform to the curve of the ornament.  You have to be very careful as the StazOn is permanent and once you stamp it, you are 'stuck' with it. 

I then used acrylic paints to color in the image and used Diamond Stickles to give the snowman some sparkle and a bit of Icicle Stickles on the trim on the hat and jacket.

Since I had painted in the face, I used a black Zig pen to draw the eyes, nose and mouth on the girl.  To get them just right, I stamped the image onto a piece of scrap paper, then holding it up to the light I traced the features onto the back with pencil.  Then I went over them with the pencil to make a heavier impression on the paper, I lined that image up with the one on the ornament and drew over it from the front.  This transferred just enough of the pencil mark from the back onto the ornament so I could see where to draw them on with the Zig pen.

I freehand painted the snowflakes in the sky.  I think it looks like the snowman is rejoicing that there is more snow coming down.  I had to give that little gal red hair since my daughter is a redhead.

Another Christmas project that I have to show you is a few of my Christmas cards.

These are some of the different papers I used

This is the inside greeting.

I used cards from Ta Da Creative Studios, these are from their Fiddle Dee Frames Card Making Kits.  I didn't use the entire kit, just the cards and will keep the frame parts for other projects.  I used the Holly (#15701)  in the cut out window of the card and Merry Christmas (#8717) for the inside sentiment.  Both of these are images from QKR Stampede. 

I stamped the images with black Versa Fine ink and colored them in with watercolor crayons and used a bit of red Stickles for the berries. 

I created a template with my Sure Cuts A Lot 2 program and cut the frames for the front of the cards on my Cricut Expressions.  I used Christmas papers from my stash and also some that I found on clearance at Joann's.  At $.10 a sheet, I couldn't pass them up. I simply used glue sticks to adhere the paper frames to the front of the cards.

I hope you have enjoyed my Blog Hop projects, I am the last stop on the hop from here you will be hopping back to the QKR Stampede Blog. 

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of todays projects and we would love to hear on the QKR blog what you thought of our blog hop.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!