Alpaca my plaid scarf

Sometimes it's the small things in life which make me confused (although I admit I'm easily confused, so maybe it's just me). Like the division of people into morning showerers and evening showerers. I know most people take a shower when they wake up. However, I cannot get my head around this. To me, it makes more sense to shower in the evening for multiple reasons. Firstly, you get dirty during the day, and you would want to wash off said dirt before you get into bed so you don't bring all the grime and dirt of the day with you between your clean, white sheets (although I'm happy to admit that these days most people won't really get dirty in the sense of proper dirt, unless you are a keen gardener, farmer or maybe a building worker). The second reason is time. I'm much happier showering in the evening and the sleeping in that extra time in the morning. Three, if I shower in the morning I get so incredibly cold as soon as I step out of the shower, and this chill follows me most of the day. I was just reminded of this great divide yesterday morning as I actually had to take a morning shower, and then was cold most of the day. Oh well, we are all different. Just one of those small funny observations in life, particularly as I live with a morning showerer. 

I'm not the only one who is easily confused, my potted plant
has decided now is the time to flower again. It clearly doesn't
know it's winter from it's spring... 

After this deeply philosophical thought I should probably get onto today's card. I really wanted to play along with the Plush&Plaid challenge over at Curtain Call. And I thought the little alpaca from Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca would look absolutely adorable in a plaid scarf. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and the colours over at Your Next Stamp.

The card in itself is quite simple, I stamped the winter alpaca onto Whisper White card, coloured with Copics and die cut with the matching die. I also stamped it onto the plaid paper and fussy cut the scarf. I die cut the circles using Lawn Fawn Stitched Circle dies, and stamped the sentiments from the Winter Alpaca set. Last I stamped the little snowflake and heart from the alpaca stamp set in Versamark all over the background, and die cut two snowflakes using Lawn Fawn Mini Snowflakes dies from the blue plaid paper. I added two mini adhesive rhinestones from my stash to the snowflakes for a bit of bling-bling.

Card: Coloured 240 gsm craft card beige, Stampin' Up Whisper White card, Vanguard card 010 Buff

Paper: Stampin' Up Sweater Weather

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark and Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics E34, E43 and E99

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Circle and Mini Snowflake dies, adhesive rhinestones from my stash

You can't have too much moose

I loved the Retro Sketch this week so much that I made another card for it after the one I submitted yesterday. This is actually the first card I was making for the sketch but discarded it as failed. I initially tried to make a 6x6 in card, but it just didn't work. Unwilling to give up my cute moose I had so lovingly coloured with Copics, I decided to give it a second try a a 4x4 in card. So I resized the DSP panels a bit and rounded the edges. All of a sudden it looked much better. I also stamped the speech bubble onto the beige card, as I had first made it white and it just didn't work. 

Lesson of the day. If at first you don't succeed, just try, try, try again. I'm also entering this card at Clear it Out Challenge where the theme is Orange and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and The Pink Elephant Challenge where Anything Goes.

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card beige, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Creatures in the Arctic, Stampin' Up Just Sayin'
Ink: Tsukineko Memeneto Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango
Colouring: Copics E24, E34, E39
Paper: Stampin' Up Sweater Weather DSP
Other: Lawn Fawn Creatures in the Arctic dies

I am the walrus

So there is a bit of a story to this card. It's an epic tale of coincidences and artistic inspiration, taking place in the exotic countryside of Cambridgeshire. And so it happened that the parcel from Stampin' Up arrived exactly on the same day as the new Poppy Sketch Challenge went live. And it had also happened that the DSP called Sweater Weather had been in the Stampin' Up Clearance Rack, so I had finally decided to get myself a pack (I only buy DSP on sale, as otherwise I think it's too valuable to actually use for crafting, and it just sits around in my stash). Further, coincidence on a galactic scale also would have it that one of the patterns in the DSP was Houndstooth, which is the Pop of Pattern for the current Poppy Sketch. This paper also happens to be the only crafting supply I have with Houndstooth, so no going back and forth between multiple choices. I did turn the sketch upside down though. Finally, a fun Finland fact of the day: the houndstooth pattern in Finnish is called kukonaskel which translates to "the rooster's step".

As the DSP was called Sweater Weather I immediately started thinking winter. Because that's when you wear sweaters (see what I did there, free association, very artistic indeed!). And thinking winter the first thing you think is obviously "Winter is coming", the Stark family motto (ignore that if you don't watch Game of Thrones). And what goes with winter better than the Lawn Fawn stamp set Critters in the Arctic? Nothing of course, so I inked up my stamps and coloured them with Copics. And when it's winter, you need a warm hat, one that matches the DSP, so I paper pieced the hat. I liked the hat so much I stamped and paper pieced it several times on the inside of the card. Sometimes finding inspiration is just that easy!

Card: Stampin' Up Smoky Slate, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters in the Arctic and matching dies
Colouring: Copics B00, C1, C3, C5, E09, E34
Paper: Stampin' Up Sweater Weather