Christmas down under

Austin: I love the way the sand is the banner and the background is to die for and the waves are blended.
The tree with the decorations are amazing makes the card especially the penguin.

The stamped background is awesome because its a grey and words on it makes it stand out.

Sally: This card is kind of a merging of two favourite card ideas, three if you include the banner scene element.

Years ago I was watching a Jennifer McGuire video where she reviewed a stamp release by My Favorite Things. As she was going through the stamps I kind of zoned out until she got to this Penguin in Paradise set. I knew Austin would love making Christmas cards with it & he has, he's made loads (although not as many these days because I struggle with fine motor control which makes fussy cutting difficult and painful, I never could get the hang of solid dies so we never got them for this set). 

Austin's favourite way to use this penguin set is on a 'beach Santa' card, like with this awesome die from Paper Rose.

So the palms are from a different set by Simon Says Stamp (Warm Christmas Wishes) which we have also used over & over & the sentiment is also from Simon Says Stamp.
The card is actually really simple to put together.

• First blend a background using Distress oxide ink in Salty Ocean & Blueprint Sketch. Flick Distress Spray Stain in Brushed Pewter all over the background to create stars
• Blend another piece of card in just Salty Ocean Distress Oxide ink & then use shimmery sprayers to add texture & shine. We used the Heidi Swapp ones but they seem to be being discontinued.
• Blend another piece of card all over with Distress Oxide ink in Antique Linen (the best sand colour we have found).
• Die cut each of them using the largest Simon Says Stamp stitched banner die & then cut waves (we use a discontinued WPlus9 die) & hills (Mama Elephant Landscape Trio out of the ocean & sand pieces.
• Taking a tall card base from Couture Creations, stamp the Simon Says Stamp Holiday bbackground stamp using Fog ink by Simon Says Stamp making sure to extend the stamping to cover the bottom of the card too.
• Lay out the layers of the banner until you are happy with them & then stick them down, add a coloured palm tree from Simon Says Stamp Warm Christmas Wishes & a penguin from the My Favorite Things Penguins in Paradise set holding a candy cane from Mama Elephant O'Christmas Tree.
• Finally add a black die cut Santa's Sleigh with Kangaroos from Paper Rose & a gold die cut of Painted Hugs by Simon Says Stamp & stamp a tiny Holidays from a discontinued set lol
• Make sure you add the glitter glue for the lights on the palm tree

I know it sounds like a lot of sets but it really doesn't take very long & we had a ton of fun making it 😊

Do you have any card ideas that you do over and over? Or stamp sets that you just totally adore & use all the time? Also do you have as much discontinued stuff in your crafting stash as we do? We seem to have tonnes lol.