Friday, 15 May 2026

Christmas Kickstart — mid month already!


My first card for this month’s Christmas Kickstart challenge featured a robin in snow. For my mid-month card I thought I’d keep the snow but switch to a rather different bird so may I present: penguins in snow! 

Cute as they may be, they presented a serious challenge when it came to photography — for some reason they absolutely did not want to be captured for posterity. I had four separate photoshoots with them and realised when I deleted all the photos off the camera having finally got a usable one that there were 84 pictures 😱 

The penguins were stamped on white, coloured with pencils and fussy cut. I stamped the image on the black panel as well and added heat embossing for the flakes above their heads and the snow around their feet. Some white pencil adds a bit extra snowiness and a die cut flake gives the sentiment a bit of a lift.

Stamps:
Bundled penguins (Stampendous)
Merriest Christmas Wishes (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board , smooth black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Love Letter)

Other:
Coloured pencils
Detail white embossing powder (Wow)
Snowflake die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Stitched rectangle die A6 size (Paper Rose, one die cut modified to fit a longer sentiment)

Thanks for stopping by! Jo and I would love for you to come and join us with your festive birds if you’re getting ahead with your Christmas cards:

 

 

3 comments:

ionabunny said...

Oooh, these are penguins are adorable and i love the chalkboard effect background. Hugz

Linda W. (ScrappinBari) said...

Gorgeous chalkboard behind your penguin pair, Joanne! Thanks for the CKC inspiration!!

Greta said...

Absolutely adorable and so creative! Glad I'm not the only one who can take a ton of pictures to get one I can post.