As promised.....

I don't know where the time goes. I thought I'd have loads of time to do crafting and blogging today but someone stole the hours between 8 and 4 and I haven't got half the things done I'd intended.
What started as another sunny but frosty morning deteriorated into a really manky, grotty, foggy afternoon. Now I can barely see the trees on the other side of the road.

So, I've done half a card today, walked along to town to do a little extra shopping, waffled to a friend on the phone, and? well there must have been more, surely?

Anyway, I do have a few minutes before heading to the kitchen to do my housewifely duty andmake hubby's dinner!
So first off I have my Crafty Templates pictures to share - I'm going to try and be more organised about my CT stuff. I always seem to be there at the last minute trying to get my photos off to Leo - I know she's got some wonderful new stuff in the pipeline for Crafty Templates so I need to stop being Last Minute Minnie - mind you, it's probably impossible to change the habits of a lifetime - at school and college I was always the one scribbling away the night before an essay had to be handed in, so I'm promising NOTHING! But I'll try.

As I said yesterday the February Design set has an Easter/Spring theme and there are some fab and funky templates to play with.
I used the chick ( - or is it a fluffy duckling?) template to make this Easter card.
The chick's head is cut from felt and stuck onto a piece of card. The folded piece is the body - I painted this first then fixed the fluffy feathers with dst - I knew there was a reason for keeping that drawerful of feathers all this time.
I used a bit of Jo's doodling on the little message card, the letters were cut with Mr Robo.

Among Leo's templates this time was a fabulous great big layered flower design. I was desperate to use this but it took me ages to decide how. I knew I wanted it to have lots of dimension so wasn't sure that a card would be the best way to use it. My first idea was to make a big extravagant flower topper for a gift box - I think I still might do this next time I need to "dress" a gift because it would look stunning. In the end though I caught sight of the pile of paper scraps I end up with when I make the inserts for my cards and always keep to scribble notes or sketch ideas and I decided to make something for ME!

The board is a piece of mountboard - I got a huge bag of the stuff from a local picture framers for £1. My December (I think) Self Addressed kit was still lying around and caught my eye with it'szingy green, yellow and blue colours - perfect for Leo's Spring Templates. I covered the board with a sheet of paper that's been lurking in the box for years but was perfect with the kit colours.
I've layered up the gorgeous flower with plenty of 3d foam and putting it to the side of the board means it really stands out well. I Alcohol inked an old bulldog clip and a giant brad (to fix it to the board) and added some ribbon and buttons etc to pretty it up some more. I'm really chuffed with how it's turned out - now I just need a hook to hang it on.


You can check out and order the templates here, visit the Crafty Templates blog for loads more ideas here and do keep checking back there because Leo is launching some fab new and exciting stuff really soon