A final Ozzie scrapbook

This is a scrapbook that I made for a fellow crafter who I met up with while I have been in Australia.  Kylie kindly put me up for the weekend in April, which was when the photos were taken.  I hope she receives the scrapbook soon- I posted it on Saturday.

another scrapbook

Getting into this 'scrapbooking' thing- lol!  This is one that I made a friend of mine who has been great to me while I have been in Australia.  We have been on a fair number of trips together and it is thanks to his car and driving that I have been able to see so many things.  Not sure how much he will think I am crazy when I give him this (he knows I am a bit odd though)...! ;-)

One more scrapbook to come (finished but I want to send it to the recipient before posting photos of it here).

Photo wall hanging

My last but one weekend in Australia and I have been making things to give to people I have met here when I leave as thankyou gifts.  I'm taken with the Kaisercraft beyond the page range and scrapbooking since I have been here.  This is a piece of altered art I guess (or to me, a wall hanging) for my housemate.

Another scrapbook

This time I made this for my housemate to give to her Mum as a gift.  (Her Mum recently turned 60 and had a party.)  I was hopeing to get this done in time for Liz to take it with her this weekend when she met up with Polly, but that was a tall order only having 2 evenings to do it in.  I finished it 2 days late, but we can always post it.  I hope Liz (and her Mum) like it.

Getting into this whole scrapbooking thing....  good job too the number of photos I have taken the last 4 months!  I could have a fully time job to scrap them all when I get back home!

Shock horror...

... I have actually done some crafting down under.  Not a lot, but a little.  Thought I would share some with you today.
These are a couple of cards I made before Easter to say 'thankyou' to a few people:

And this is a mini scrapbook I made today for my housemate to say thankyou for taking me away over Easter:

All supplies are from Kaisercraft in Geelong, which is an awesome shop!

More pictures...

.. of plants.  This time I went to the botanical gardens in Melbourne with my camera.  Many of the plants were the same and so limited opportunity for more 'arty' shots unless they were along the same lines as before.  But I did see a few interesting things.
For example, ever noticed how many different types of tree bark you can get (at least in Australia)?

I likes this weeping type of pine too:

And these plants were used to make an 'under water' scene for children (imagination needed):

And as a little extra, I went to the beach yesterday evening with Liz, my housemate, to walk her dog, Nala.  Liz found some awesome green seaweed which was really rubbery.

'Arty' photos

In the absence of any crafting while I am away I thought I'd share with you some photos I took today at the Botanical Gardens in Geelong.  I went with two other PhD students in my group, one of whom had a fancy camera and was taking some serious shots of the flowers.  I'm not too good with photos normally but am quite pleased with the way that some of these have turned out.

If you want to look at other pictures from the gardens then they are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/117241777583773967499/albums/5835436209218702881?authkey=CO_T1b2_qITCdg

I'm off...

...for a bit. Catching the plane at 10.10am from LHR tomorrow morning and so all packed and ready(?) to go.  I'm an art journalling novice and this is probably something which would be better made into a journal page than a card (who am I going to send it to), but I made a card to mark my journey and 5 months away in Australia which is coming up.  I most likely won't be crafting while I am away (20 kg is just too small to allow me to include craft stash as well as clothes and other essentials for 5 months), or at least not card making.  I might try my hand at digital scrapbooking and/or I have packed quite a lot of cross stitch to keep me busy in the evenings.  But of course I am going all that way to work on the final stages of my PhD and it would be a shame not to have a bit of a look round too, so spare time might be in short supply...

I am back in the Uk on 31st May and will probably hit the craft 'table' like made then to make up for lost time! (and as a distraction/to keep me sane in the months of 'thesis writing').  Keep in touch xxx
I will enter this card into this weeks Passion for Promarkers and Cute Card Thursday (something new) challenges.

Thanks

You can never have too many thankyou cards!  I was inspired by Deb's challenge for January on CMLI (noughts and crosses) to make this card.  I will also enter it into this weeks MAWTT (thankyou), Sweet Sketch Wednesday (sketch) and Willow Sketchie (anything goes) challenges.

Baby Boy

So many 'new' challenges out there this week.  I don't actually know anyone due to have a baby in the near future but thought I would make a card with this cute image that was given to me by Debs- thanks!
I will enter the card into this weeks Cute Card Thursday (something new), Passion for Promarkers (something new), Willow Sketchie (anything goes) and Sweet Sketch Wednesday (sketch) as well as this months Ready Teddy Go (something new) challenges.