Fall Forest Alpaca

Today's card is inspired by the mood board over at Lawn Fawnatics, the colours over at Color Throwdown and the sketch over at AAA Cards.  I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Stamp It On.

I rummaged through my pile of scrap pieces of Lawn Fawn patterned paper for die cutting the fall forest scene. It always feels great to be using up those leftover pieces which you can't quite bring yourself to throw away just in case you could use them for a future project. I coloured the alpaca with Copics and paper pieced his little scarf. 

Card: white 250 gsm white card

Patterned paper: Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Chill, Knock on Wood, Knit Picky, Let's Polka in the Dark, Perfectly Plaid Fall

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca and matching dies, Thank you Tags

Ink and Colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Circle, Stitched Tree borders, Simple Puffy Clouds

4 Crafty Chicks - Tags

Time for those last minute Christmas presents. And nothing completes a beautiful hand wrapped present like a handmade tag. This week's challenge over at 4 Crafty Chicks is Tags so we would love it if you shared your tags with us if you are making any this week!

I created a big batch of tags using my favourite Lawn Fawn stamp sets. I started by stamping the snowy background from Snow Cool in Versamark and heat embossed it in clear powder onto tags I die cut using the Tag You're It die. Then I inked the background using distress inks. I stamped lots of cute little critters and coloured them in the same colour scheme as the background using Copics. Last, I stamped the sentiment in black ink and added some pink and blue twine from my stash.

I'm linking up with the current challenge over at Lawn Fawnatics where the theme is to use your favourite stamp set. I'm slightly cheating as I couldn't choose whether I like Winter Alpaca or Winter Unicorn more - so I'm linking up both tags!

Card: 200 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca, Winter Unicorn, Critters in the Snow, Toboggan Together, Critters in the Arctic, Winter Penguin, Snow Cool and matching dies

Ink and Colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Inks Blueprint Sketch, Broken China, Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Copics

Other: Lawn Fawn Tag You're It dies, Ranger Clear embossing powder, Signo White Gel pen 

4 Crafty Chicks - Monochrome

I'm very excited to be guesting over at 4 Crafty Chicks for the month of December - thank you very much for having me, ladies! The challenge this week is Monochrome.

I've seen some awesome cards and tags out there in blogland lately with pink skies, and felt I wanted to try this gorgeous look for my monochrome card, so I inked up some card with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick, and cut a starry, snowy sky using the Lawn Fawn Snowy Backdrop die. Then  I created some snowy hills and stamped and coloured the cute critters. Last, I added a sentiment and scalloped background using Perfectly Plaid Winter paper. 

Hope you will come and play with us, I can't wait to see what you make inspired by the monochrome theme.

Card: 250 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card, scrap of pink card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Unicorn, Winter Alpaca, Critters in the Arctic, Joy to the Woods and matching dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Copics
Dies: Lawn Fawn Scalloped Rectangles, Stitched Rectangles, Hillside Border, Forest Border, Snowy Backdrop, Merry Christmas Border
Other: Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Winter

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

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

Alpaca my scarf

I am so excited my selected bits and bobs from the Lawn Fawn Christmas release arrived just in time for some weekend crafting. I am trying very hard not to fill my craft room too much, but every time Lawn Fawn comes out with a new release I just want every single bit of it. Sigh. Talk about first world problems. But this time they really outdid themselves. There is an alpaca stamp!! Alpacas are so awesome, they are my favourites. A while ago the Culinary Consultant arranged for me to have a day out at an alpaca farm, and I got to see hundreds of alpacas, including a baby that had been born that day. It was amazing, I put a few pictures from my day on my photo blog here. So I put in my pre-order for the alpaca stamp as soon as I saw it, and was very excited to get to play with it.

This card was inspired by a few challenges. First of all, the layout was inspired by the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and the colours were inspired by Cupcake Inspirations. I'm also linking up with Crimbo Crackers where the theme is Small and Cute, and also with Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge where the theme is 'twas the night before Christmas. Last but not least I'm linking up with the Anything Goes challenge over at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long.

I created the background for my card using Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours DSP and Tim Hotlz distress inks in Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot. I created the snowy hills from hammered white paper using Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Dies. I stamped the alpaca and coloured him with Copics and paper pieced his scarf from the new Lawn Fawn Let's Polka In the Dark paper. I stamped the cute sentiment from the stamp set onto green card and heat embossed it in white. Last, I used the new small snowflake dies from Lawn Fawn to create a few ornaments for the corner. Last, I added a band of the same green paper for the background that I used for the alpaca scarf. It's a small card, only 10x10 cm but I think it's a perfect for this wintery scene. And I just love the funny sentiment that comes with this set, and the alpaca is so unbelievably cute in his little scarf. 

Card: White 300 gsm hammered card, white 300 gsm card
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka In the Dark
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Tim Holtz distress inks Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside borders die, Mini Snowflakes die, Papermania Seafoam White