Autumn Alpaca

The small things in life that make me so happy - picking an apple off the tree and eating it. Even better, transforming the apples into apple crumble, and having it with vanilla ice cream and home made salted caramel sauce (in case you feel tempted, I used this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker. The thing is, when you make salted caramel, I think you have to keep tasting it every step of the way. Just to make sure. I wouldn't want to serve my Culinary Consultant sub-par caramel sauce. The downside is I only have half of the caramel sauce left after all that tasting... But it did turn out very delicious!

Today's card is inspired by several autumn themed challenges. As I love love love love looooove (I think you are getting the idea here) the Lawn Fawn alpaca stamp, and I thought he would be adorable with a little cap to go with that lovely scarf he is wearing. And I thought he would enjoy an outing in the autumnal woods. 

The layout of the card was inspired by the sketch over at Fusion card challenges and the autumn coloured inspiration pic. I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is Autumn is in the Air, Time Out challenges where the theme is Autumn... the year's last, loveliest smile, Stamping Sensations where the theme is Colours of Autumn, Cupcake Inspirations where the theme is Forest Friends and Lawnscaping where the theme is to make the sentiment your focal point.

To create the background and the hills I started by dabbing some Distress Paints in Barn Door, Festive Berries, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed onto my craft mat. Then I spritzed it with plenty of water, and dabbed pieces of card in the mix of colours. Gradually, I added more water to get a lighter colour and to use up all the colours on my craft mat. I used the brighter coloured cards to die cut the rolling hills and the lighter for the background which I cut with the Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling card die. I stamped the trees, the alpaca and the mushrooms in Memento ink and coloured them with Copics. Last, I die cut the sentiment in kraft card and inked it with Vintage Photo distress ink. I stamped the leaf (the only(!) leaf stamp I seem to own) from a Hero Arts set in Versamark and heat embossed in white. I stamped the leaf and mushrooms in Versamark onto kraft card and adhered the front panel using foam tape.

Card: kraft card, 160 gsm Hobbycraft white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca and matching die, Joy to the Woods and matching dies, Critters in the Arctic and matching dies, Critters in the Forest, Hero Arts Layered Flowers
Inks and Colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Paints Barn Door, Festive Berries, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Distress ink Vintage Photo, Copics, Tsukineko Versamark and Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Lawn Fawn Forest Border, Stitched Journaling Card, Stitched Hillside Borders, Scripty Hugs dies, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder