A little Add-On magic

I'm being wined and dined tonight so this is going to be speedy quick!

It's not magic but a little computer wizardry. I thought I'd show you Add-On Magnum with one of the add-ons from the set. What do cats love??? Fish! so thought I'd give him a little can of tuna to fill his belly. I also used the image to create a border at the bottom which I'm quite pleased with :-D

Doesn't he look happy with his dinner lol!

I found this button from Doodlebug and thought the colour matched the cs perfectly.

I'm getting hollered at so I better go. Hope you've had a great holiday weekend.

Catch ya later x

Hanging around!

This is for all you tom-boys out there! When I was thinking of different designs for Robyn a few of the ideas came from when I was a little girl. Robyn whizzing down the hill on her bike with her legs out and Robyn hanging upside down from a tree are based on me....I was the son my mom and dad never had lol!!! I don't think I stayed in the house much. If I wasn't riding out my bike I was playing kick the can with the neighbourhood kids. Or I was rollerskating on my metal skates with the key to make them longer or shorter...remember those??!!!

So this is me....I mean Upside Down Robyn

What??? Never seen a sparkly tree before???


What do you think of Robyn's friends? You know I had to have at least one ladybug in this collection :-D

I'm off to CB with the dogs. Have a great night.

Catch ya later x

SATC

Hubby and I went on a double date with Nicole and Ben last night to see Sex and The City. I thought it was really good and there were some really laugh out loud moments as well as some 'OMG...how can she do that?' moments. I really don't know how Kim Cattrell can do some of the scenes she does...I'm not going to spoil it for you if you haven't already seen it but I'm sure you can use your imagination and you'll know what I mean when you do!

I didn't get any samples done yesterday...it was another 'bitty' day so today I was determined to get some done. Some turned out to be one and here it is....

This is Wellies Robyn...don't even ask why she's called that! It felt silly even typing her name lol so I'm going to have to think of another one. What little girl didn't like splashing in puddles? I think she's just too cute!

As usual I went a bit mad with the glitter. If only you could see it IRL as it's much prettier...the sparkle is gorgeous. I've got Ruby Swarovski crystals on her raincoat and a new colour Khaki on the top of her umbrella. A little Glossy Accents for the water and rain to finish it off.


If only you could see the sparkle ....

Tomorrow's another day and I am determined to get a couple more samples done once the dogs have been walked.

Hope you're enjoying your holiday weekend and your weather is better than ours. The temperature has dropped dramatically and the rain is on and off like a light switch!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and again for your lovely comments.

Catch ya later x

Front Page!!

Before I show you another sample I wanted to show you this....Karen made the front cover of the new issue of Creative Cardmaking using Ruby Fairies! This is so exciting and Karen was over the moon when she heard the news. She never knows where her projects will end up in a magazine...I guess this is like winning an award in the craft world so well done Karen for another fantastic project.

This is Best Friends Nikki....I love these two together...or should I say 3 with little Buttercup in tow lol.

No pp this time...just Bazzill, ribbon, crystals and of course glitter! I used my Copics to colour them in.

I love Nikki's friends hat...very cool :-D I guess I can't keep calling her Nikki's friend so I'll have to come up with a name for her.


I've been out all day doing various things....no I haven't been 'doing lunch' unfortunately. All my time is taken up colouring in and emailing these days so my social life is non-existant at the moment but hopefully that will change in another week or so...just in time for the launch lol.


I must get my skates on a do a bit of a tidy up. Oh...I had an email from Steven this morning...he and Ryan are having a great time. The weather is all blue skies and sunshine and they don't want to come home!


Catch ya later x

Feast your eyes on these...

I'm going to be quick tonight because I've a pile of ironing that needs my undivided attention and I can't put it off any longer.

First off is Bon Appetite Magnum...

He's eyeing up his dinner!

Don't know why I felt the need to glitter the cage...it doesn't look this bad IRL...promise!

LOL...what a tease the bird is sticking his tongue out at Magnum!

And here's the oh-so-cute Dressing Up Robyn. Can you remember dressing up in your mom's clothes when you were a little girl?

OTT on the glitter...again lol...but I think I can get away with it on this one :-D

That's me...I told you it was a quick one. Keep the lovely comments coming....they're all very much appreciated.

Catch ya later x

Magnum and Lily...oh and Robyn too

I got into trouble yesterday from my big sister Tracey. She's not very happy that I called my new cat Magnum as she said he looks more like her cat Nubs. Shelly's (my little sis) cat is called Magnum and when she heard I had a new character that was a cat she said I HAD to call him Magnum. Bit of a dilema but I thought I do the right thing and write both names on a piece of paper and get Nicole to pick one out of bowl and Magnum is what she picked! I guess I should'a known I'd be in trouble from one of them...imagine still getting into trouble from your sister at 46 lol! I promised if Magnum ever had a friend I'd call him Nubs or Nubber as she calls him. Wait till she finds out that the mouse in this card is called Lily!

So onto the card...This is Scaredy Cat Magnum and Lily (boy am I in trouble!) I absolutely adore this image...it makes me laugh out loud. Imagine a big fat cat being scared of a little ole' mouse lol. What's great about this image is that there is a mini Lily in the Add-Ons so she can be used as a background.

I love this pp...it's by MME and I got it from Hayley


What a wussy pussy lol! You know how I'm not overly fond of make men's cards, well Magnum is perfect for that! I sent the Magnum holding the birthday cake card to my nephew who's 27 tomorrow. Hopefully he'll overlook the glitter lol.

Big baby!

Here's Robyn introducing herself :-D Such a cutie!

A closeup of Robyn and my epoxy dot. I've got to hold back using them or I'll have none left to sell!

I've got a few things to do before I head out. Hope you like these ones. Thanks for showing your appreciation so far.

Catch ya later x

Double Whammy

Thought I'd show you two new samples today...boy am I spoiling you :-D The first one is Robyn on her pink shiney bike whizzing down a hill with her feet out. I had a vision of this from when I was a little girl. I loved my bike. I remember when my sister Tracey and I got them...it was on Christmas day I think I was 9 or 10. We went downstairs to the basement and there they were under the tree (well, not UNDER but you know what I mean lol) Mine was my favourite colour...purple...with a banana seat and a high bar at the back to lean against. It was THE coolest bike in the world and I rode it every minute I could. Those were the days lol. Anywho with those memories in mind I asked Matthew to come up with something to remind me of the 'old days' and he did it brilliantly!

Every time I look at this image I say 'wheeeeeeee' lol. My new buttons go perfectly with the pp.

Here's a close up of her bike...I used Glossy Accents to make it shine.

No little girl is complete without a sparkly skirt and hair bow!


Here's the fabulous Make A Wish Nikki ...Love her! :-D


I wonder what she is wishing for...

She's got such a pretty face.

I hope you like these new additions. Thank you for your lovely comments so far...I think I've converted a few non cat lovers lol!!

Catch ya later x

Magnum +

I got an email from Ryan this morning saying they arrived safely though his bag got lost between the airport and the bus journey to the hotel...not sure how that could happen??? The weather forecast for the two weeks leading up to their departure and up until Thursday of this week had been showers and thunder and lightening storms so you can imagine they were none too happy. But yesterday turned out really nice for them and guess what?? They both got burnt! That was part of 'mom's chat' but obviously they weren't listening or they were just pretending to lol. They were heading out last night but he said not to worry 'they'll behave'!

We had a barbecue last night with Nicole, Ben and a friend of theirs Tony. All was going well until I was slicing the onions and almost cut my finger off! I thought I'd have to get stitches as it took about 4 hours for it to stop bleeding. Luckily it's my left hand so I can still colour with no problem. Then today I was cutting small pieces of card on my guillotine and I almost cut my index finger on my left hand off. I'm not sure how that happened as there is a safety guard and again I was lucky as my nail got the brunt of it. Maybe someone's trying to tell me something?

This is the card I was working on at the time....

This is another Magnum but with a twist. The main image is Magnum holding his hand up but it will come with the birthday cake add-on the sentiment 'Wishing you a purr-fect birthday'. There will also be an add-on set with 7 mini images you can interchange and a Magnum sentiment set. I thought this would be a fun set to use and I'll post more samples using some of the other add-ons.




As I don't have the stamps yet I had to play around a bit to get the cake to sit on Magnums hand and it worked out quite well...eventually!


It's another beautiful day and I had a great walk with Rocky this morning. The heat really affects Ruby and she usually flops down in the middle of the road to rest so I only took her on a short walk. We have a road that goes all around our village we call the circuit and its roughly 3 kilometers. Nicole and Ben live at the half way point so we stopped there for a quick cold drink then set off back home. I thought Rocky's heart was going to jump out of his chest he was panting so much. I'm not sure how much longer this weather is going to last but fingers crossed we'll get a good run of it.

Well that's me...I've been in most of the afternoon so I'm going to sit out for a bit before it's time for dinner.


Thanks for stopping by.


Catch ya later x

Sod's Law

Isnt' it typical that when I have so much work to do for Monday the sun is shining like there's no tomorrow and the temperature is 23 degrees! I haven't been buried in my workroom the whole day...I took an hour out to sit in the sun and top up my fading tan :-) I don't need a lot of time in the sun to go brown which really bugs the heck out of my family and friends. I know it's not good for you but I do use a minimum of factor 15 on my body and 30 on my face and let's face it, we do feel better when we have a bit of colour.

Now I promised you a new image from a new illustrator and here she is....

This is Robyn and her illustrator is the very fantastic Matthew Harding. I'd wanted a little girl for ages (not a real one lol) and once I had Nikki and Ruby established I went on the hunt. Like with finding Moira I googled illustrators (what did we do before Google??!!) and went through dozens before I found Matthew. When I thought he was the one for the job I emailed him and that was that! We were a few weeks (4 to be exact but that's my fault because I'm so particular) getting her face right but once we did everything just flowed.

There are 8 different styles of Robyn...I can't wait to get the rest coloured up and show you!

I just love her...she's so stinkin' cute lol!

These epoxy dots have been a great find :-D

I hope you like Robyn....I would love to know what you think of her so drop me a comment.

I'm going to fire up the BBQ and get the burgers ready. Enjoy the sun but remember to wear your sun cream!!

Catch ya later x

Bye bye babies

My boys left this morning for Cancun {sniff, yay!} Sniff because I will miss them (who else is going to help with the dishes and take the dogs a walk??) and yay because there will be food in the fridge, the bathroom will be clean and the house will be tidy! All joking aside I did give them the 'mom chat' ... stick together, no fighting, don't drink too much you don't know what's going on around you, be careful with girls...don't want any surprises in 9 months time! Pierce just looked at me with a raised eyebrow when I said that last one but I just said if more parents spoke to their kids about these things there wouldn't be so many kids having kids!!

Enough of that chat...how about a new Nikki?

I think I'll call this one 'Gossip Nikki'....wha' d'ya think? Gorgeous!

I love Nikki's friends bob...very chic lol. I got my Copics out for this one and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I like the fact that the areas are quite big to colour so you can really get stuck in with blending and see the results.

Tomorrow I'll show you an image from a fabulous new illustrator I found....I think you'll love her!

Hope you have a great weekend and the sun shines wherever you are :-D

Catch ya later x

New images coming soon!

Finally! After much too-ing and fro-ing between Moira, Matthew and Allan (my very talented illustrators) and myself (chief colourer inner lol) over the last few months, I have got some fabulous new images...fingers crossed they'll be landing on my doorstep week commencing June 14th. Over the next few weeks I'll be posting a sample of each of the new designs and from June 1st I will take pre-orders for anyone wishing to add to their collection! The pre-order price will be £5.50...a saving of £1 off the retail price.

So without further ado, adeaux, adeau, adew, adu....

I'd like you to meet Catflap Magnum...Do you love him??!! I've been asked for a cat for months now and I have bowed to the demand lol. I'm not sure if this is what everyone had in mind but when Moira and I got our heads together this is what we came up with. I think he's fat and fabulous!!

Moira has done a fantastic job of translating what I wanted onto paper. When she sent me the first roughs I burst out laughing. Wait till you see the others. There are 4 Magnums in total but there's a bit of a twist with one of them.

I love Magnum's expression!

I'm so happy and excited to be finally showing you the new collections. I would love to hear your thoughts on each of the images as I post them. I'll be having a little competition later on where you have the chance to win EVERY image I'll be posting. I think that translates to about 16+ stamps!! Anyone can enter and it doesn't matter what country they live in so I hope all my visitors outside of the UK will enter as well.

That's it folks! I'm exhausted with the excitement lol. Hope you all have a great rest of Thursday.

Catch ya later x

Website

I'm going to be dismantling the Blog Store very shortly and if anyone wishes to purchase Nikki & Friends, Ruby Fairies or Swarovski crystals can do so at my new website

Ladybug Crafts Ink

I'll be leaving this post at the top of the page for a little while so scroll down to see the post of the day!

Something new

When I've had the time (what is that??) to do a bit of blog surfing I've come across a lot of cards made using these fantastic digital Bugaboo images and decided I had to have some for myself. This one is called Ruby (go figure!!!) - Coffee and comes with the sentiment 'Is there life before coffee?' There are plenty of characters to choose from...I'll have another one for you

tomorrow :-D

Just look at how fabulous Ruby is. For a change I decided to put the sentiment on the inside of the card. The pp is one of my favourite by Bo Bunny which I bought from Hayley at Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn (rumour has it Hayley now stocks Penny Black stamps and has just added new MME papers to her website!)

I got a bit carried away with the glitter lol! Notice her fabulous pink Swarovski crystal earrings :-D

To finish the card off I added one of my new embellishments!

Hope you like it.

Catch ya later x

Mystery solved...

It wasn't exactly a mystery but remember when I was on holiday and Pierce and I went to see Jennifer Lopez's new movie and I couldn't for the life of me put a name to the sitcom of the actress who played Jennifer's grandma? The actress was Linda Lavin (I think I put Lanvin in the post) and she played a waitress. Well I was out with 1/3 of Noah's Ark this morning at CB, my walking buddy Susan. She has the 3 mini poodles Starsky, Hutch and Miley (and all gorgeous though Starsky is in Ruby's bad books because for some reason he took a real and I mean REAL shine to her today...need I say more???!!!). I hadn't seen Susan since before my hols so we had a lot to catch up on but one of the first things she said to me was 'Alice' ... the name of the sitcom!!! Does anyone remember it? I think...and maybe Susan can help me on this one too...Hal Holden was in it too but then I have been known to make things up lol.

I'm meeting with my friend Marlene tomorrow. She became a grandma for the second time at the beginning of April and this is the card I made for baby Will.

I've said before that I really love these Penny Black stamps...there are 5 in total with the little bears holding their blank cards in different poses. I made a card for Will's big cousin Oliver last year using these stamps and from what I hear the card is in a frame in Oliver's room :-D

The bears take little effort to colour and the card was pretty quick to make. My favourite kind lol.

That's me for tonight. Hope you had a good weekend and the coming week is stressfree!

Catch ya later x

Epoxy Dots & More!

I had a bit of time last night before I took Rocky and Ruby for their last walk...I was really tired from all the late nights so I wanted an early night...so thought I'd give my website a quick tidy up. Not so quick was my tidy up. It's like when you think it's a great idea to clean out a cupboard which leads to another then another then another and before you know it you've got everything all over the place and you've made more of a mess than when you started! Two hours later and not the early night I planned I had my website looking the way I wanted...or so I thought. I was thinking about it on the way back from CB with the dogs when I realised I got all my categories back to front and I'd have to start all over! That's me just finished...I hope. I've got the buttons on there and now I've got these gorgeous epoxy dots...

As usual my photographic skills have let me down so although in the picture the dots are pretty they don't really show just how pretty they are. They are 10mm and come in packs of 10 of one colour. They will look fab in the centre of flowers. I don't have a lot as I wanted to see how well they sell but if they prove popular I can get them pretty quickly.

I've also got some gorgeous nailheads on the website. They've all got a lovely subtle etched pattern on them. Don't get too alarmed when you see the pictures of them...remember these are closeup's so it makes the pattern bigger than it is. There are silver, gunmetal, brown, pink, light pink and black and the sizes range from 4mm to 6mm. You have to see them IRL to appreciate how pretty they are. Again they'll look great in the centre of flowers and dress up corners. I'll be making up samples using all the new embellishments and I might even spoil you by giving you a sneak peak at the new images that will be coming out soon!

Have a look and tell me what you think www.ladybugcraftsink.co.uk

Catch ya later x