In the post...

In the end, of course, it all came down to time. Somehow Elka and I have had three colds already since Autumn, big ones that linger and require lots of cuddles and baths, and not much else. So when I had everything planned for weekend printing, and Elka woke up with a ridiculously snotty nose on Friday morning I was slightly panicked. Thanks to Joe- in a million different ways, I got all my printing done on Saturday, Sunday and finished it up while E slept at lunchtime today. Phew. And so I pressed it, folded it and hurried off to the postoffice and got it all in the mail by 4pm. Joe took Elka to the library and I am always amazed at how much i can get done on my own- seriously!

I used a lino stamp, and obviously it's completely imperfect, but I think being cats, it kind of works, it just looks a little like they have white cheeks (well, to me it does!), and I have plans to print some more and make Elka a little denim apron dress. The design was completely stolen from this one that I have loved since seeing it a while back, but I figure, like most things with design, everything is derived from somewhere, and it's not as if a designer designed a cat head... and most importantly, I'm not selling it, so I went with it.

The trickiest bit was figuring out why the paint wasn't as vibrant after a few stamps. After a lot of trial and error, I realised that you should just get a tiny bit of paint out of the jar at a time, enough for 4 or 5 five stamps. I think the paint was drying a little when I had a large amount sitting around waiting for me to roller it up onto the stamp.

This is the swap group flickr page.
And these are my swap partners: Susie, Sheila, Jane & Anna.

B.