Mama Elephant Arctic Penguin Christmas card

Hi blogging friends  

When Mama Elephant released their Arctic Penguin stamp set recently, I couldn't help myself and just HAD to get the set - those little penguins had captured my heart!  I love how the set has alot of penguins in different poses PLUS it has tons of little extras like the Santa hat, winter hat, present, cup, mistletoe, 2 sizes of floating ice and a few other little images.  Cute, cute, CUTE LOL!  I also bought the matching die set which makes putting together a little scene nice and quick.  And here is my card:

To do the background, I used a Lifestyle Nesting Circle die to diecut the My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland snowflake designer paper and Ranger watercolour cardstock - then used one of my WPlus9 Landscape border dies (which comes in a set of 3) to cut the designer paper where I wanted the edge of the horizon to be then adhered the designer paper to the watercolour cardstock circle (I hope that makes sense!).  I scribbled Evergreen Bough and Peacock Feathers Distress Markers on an acrylic block, added some water and painted the watercolour paper to look like the sea.

I stamped all the images using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink onto watercolour cardstock and coloured them with various Distress Markers and Tombow Pens, then diecut each piece.  

I used a Red Wink of Stella glitter pen on the Santa hat, skates and top of the present and Clear Wink of Stella on the floating ice and green part of the present.  I added Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter to the pompom and cuff of the hat.  I added Glossy Accents to the penguin's nose.  Here is a little close-up so you can see the detail a bit better - the photo is a little dull as it is very stormy here today and I had try and take photos inbetween squalls:

The floating ice was glued on using Tombow Mono Multi glue and the penguin and present were popped up on dimensionals.

The scalloped circle main image panel is a gorgeous die by Spellbinders from their Majestic Circles die set.  

The snowflakes are dies from the Poppystamps Christmas Baubles die set.  I glued down the centres then bent the arms up a little and added red and teal Fun Fair Glitter Colours Adhesive Enamel dots to the centres which I bought 2 weeks ago at Scrappy Hollow in Croydon, Victoria.  You probably can't tell from the photo but these enamel dots are very glittery and are absolutely gorgeous!  There are quite a few colours and sizes in the set which makes it good value for money.

The twine, chipboard sentiment and large brad plus the designer paper on the card base are all by My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland which was released in 2012.  Here is a close-up of that gorgeous brad:

Gosh, I love the colours in the My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland set - right up my alley and so perfect for cool, winter/Christmas scenes.  Yes, I know it is summer at Christmas where I live but I am just crazy for snowmen, snowflakes and snowy scenes.  I have never felt very attracted to images of Santa on a surfboard or Santa wearing shorts for Christmas cards - they just don't appeal to me - and I am blissfully singing "Winter Wonderland" or "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" no matter how hot it is!  I just bought some more of this MME range online from Scrap Therapy in Queensland, Australia as I was getting a bit low - they have great customer service - prompt and the goods are really well-packaged for the postal service (I have no connection to the company other than being a regular customer).  

The teal card base and burgundy cardstock layers were trimmed to 1/8" and 1/16" respectively using my Perfect Layers Tools.

As always, I added Fray stop to the cut ends of the twine to stop them from fraying and unravelling.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following Challenges:

Splitcoaststampers - Free for All Friday F4A248 - Grab and Go - grab the most recent thing you have purchased and haven't used and use it.

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - November - Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins set

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black

Designer Paper:  My Mind's Eye (MME) Winter Wonderland (2012) 6" x 6" pad

Dies:  Lifestyle Nesting Circles, Spellbinders Majestic Circles, Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins, Poppystamps Christmas Baubles (snowflakes), WPlus9 Landscape Borders die set

Accessories:  Big Shot, Ranger Watercolour cardstock, Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with fine Crystalina glitter, dimensionals, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape, Fun Fair Glitter Colours Adhesive Enamel Dots (by Helz Cuppleditch), Brad from MME Winter Wonderland Decorative Brads set WW1063, Chipboard sentiment from MME Winter Wonderland Decorative Buttons set WW1064, Twine from MME Winter Wonderland twine set WW1068, Perfect Layers Tools, Glossy Accents, Distress Markers - Evergreen Bough + Peacock Feathers + Festive Berries, Tombow Pens, #2 round paintbrush, Cardstock - burgundy and teal, Wink of Stella glitter pens - red and clear