Achy Valentines! (WOYWW)

My stinking cold still has not gone and sadly the rest of the family has come down with it too, so much so that poor Alex came home early from holiday club on Monday having been coughing so much he was retching. However, despite that he was keen to go yesterday, and when I dropped him off, he ran straight over to a friend and they started playing badminton together.  This meant that I had a day at home yesterday with Tim to celebrate Valentines Day.  I was given some new Lavinia stamps and the rare opportunity of time to play with them and experiment with inking techniques etc.  As you can see from my desk (being shown as part of WOYWW) I got all my Adirondack inks out and attempted to do some brayering and scene building with the Lavinia stamps, whilst being fortified by mugs of tea. 

Well all I can say is what a mess I made!  Several hours later, 10 aborted attempts in the bin, and following a lovely romantic Chinese meal at our favourite restaurant, I eventually came out with two scenes that sort of worked!  The first one used two of my new stamps (trees & carriage), and a brayered background in Adirondack sailboat blue and egg plant.

The second one used a brayer to do a mirror image/reflection of the horse & carriage stamp, as well as a brayered background using sailboat blue & eggplant again.  There are three things wrong with this one to my critical eye; a thumb print, the line marking the reflection point is too heavy, and there are too many lines in the water. I guess it is called a learning experience, and I have got better at the brayering as a result of all my inky fingers...you should have seen the state of them! 

The photo doesn't quite do the shear scale of the ink stain justice, but gives you the general idea...my right hand was even worse!

I have managed to do some other crafting, including this leaving card for a clinician who has been doing a PhD in my lab, but will be going back to the clinic at the end of the month.  I used the image from the graphic fairy for the focus and stamps from the darkroom door for the background. The cogs were stamped in versamark ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder and then the card covered with teabag and vintage photo distress ink before adding the word stamps (explorer, inventor, scientist & clinician).  I am entering this into SSSS 'Anything goes', Creative Card crew 'masculine', and stampin for the weekend 'cream, brown & blue' challenges.

I also made a clean and simple scrapbook layout using scraps of papers I have had for ages, as well as embellishments I have had for at least 3 years.  This layout features my nephews and Alex playing with a tractor and trailor at my parents house. I am entering this into Kaboodle Doodles 'where the boys are' and All sorts 'free & easy' challenges.  That is all from me for now. Have a lovely rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
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