Got Craft?

(With appologies for dodgy formatting - actual blog looks nothing like the preview!)

Thought I'd share some of my recent craftwork.

The first photo is of the card I made for my Mum (identical one for my Mother-in-Law), for Mothers Day. I just love how easy Rollagraph stamps are, and I love this colour combination.

I really am very slack with my scrapbooking - I've yet to scrap any of Cheyenne's birthdays and years of photos are piling up ! I've got plenty of pages planned out and I've bought co-ordinating papers and embellishments for several... I just need to sit down and do them!

To combat my procrastination, I meet with a few other ladies once a month to scrapbook. The aim is to complete a single or double page layout and maybe even finish off some other pages afterwards.

Left to my own devices, I prefer clean, simple pages, where the photo is the dominant feature, however I really liked these particular layouts, which were Kaszazz workshops.

The red and blue layouts combined scrapbooking with a couple of my other loves - stamping and embossing.

They are probably more "fussy" than I would normally do, but I think they work well with the black and white photos.

I'm not normally a big fan of circles in scrapbooking... well, circles in general are ok, just not circular photos. It's a bit like having 70s style, rounded corners on photos - it dates them, and everyone will know you were following a fad.

This is one half of a double page layout, done at a workshop. I'm not so fond of the circles, but the colours matched my chosen photos perfectly.

Isn't it funny where inspiration comes from? KaiserCraft have a nice range of rhinestone words and "believe" is just one of them. I'd had this stashed away in a drawer.

This workshop was showcasing the watermark stamping technique, using VersaMark ink. (background is randomly stamped with watermark butterflies)

I had several photos of Cheyenne, in her fairy dress, and "believe" seemed like the perfect title.

This one is not a workshop - it's all me. My usual, clean, simple style, showcasing one of the best photos I have of Cheyenne, taken by my friend Lauren. I find it hard to get any decent shots of Cheyenne, mainly due to her inability to stay still for more than a few seconds, and her unwillingness to do anything I ask... combined with a less-than-stellar camera.

Once again, "serenity" was one of a number of random chipboard words that I've bought (compulsively) from various craft shows, and it just seemed a perfect fit for this page.

In God's Care

My Auntie Roslyn passed away yesterday afternoon, after a very long and difficult battle with breast cancer.

In its third and most recent strike at her, the cancer had formed tumours along her spine and failed to respond well to treatments, as it had the two previous times. She was brave and determined, and she fought long and hard, but finally succumbed to other complications, heightened by her chemo-weakened immune system.

Although saddened by her passing, I am glad that she is no longer in pain, and that her soul is finally at peace in God's care.

The whole family will miss you, Auntie Ros.