She's outta here...

Not Roadster Nikki but Jeanie aka The Spotted Chick. When I first emailed Jeanie (after popping my brave pill!) asking her to be a Guest Designer for LCI I was so happy when she agreed...I didn't even have to twist her arm or pay her {only with rubber} or nothink lol. Then Jeanie dropped da bomb...she'd only be able to be a GD until the end of August because she was shutting up shop for two months (TWO MONTHS!!) as she and her husband were doing some renovations to their house. Included in those reno's was a brand spankin' sparkly new craft room so I could forgive her her absence because I think I would do the same thing for a brand spankin' sparkly new craft room lol. Although she'll only be off the radar for a couple of months she will be greatly missed for her amazing work and her fabulous sense of humour. In the short time I have 'known' Jeanie I feel like I've made a new friend and she has been very generous with her time and help with my photography (it is slightly better isn't it?).

I've known for a couple of weeks now that Jeanie's final card on her blog until she starts back in November is going to be one using an LCI image and I can't tell you how honoured and excited I am about that and I don't think she could have picked a more appropriate image than Roadster Nikki....

Did I hear a gasp or three? I know I made a noise when I first saw it the other day...though it was probably more likened to a squeal lol. How fabulous is this card?!!! I love everything about it...from the fab pp to the colouring of NIKK1...and what about that bow!!!! This isn't the end though because once Jeanie has her brand spankin' sparkly new craft room she'll be back in her Guest Designer roll!

Thank you Jeanie for yet another beauty :-D

That's it for today. I'm off to Troon with Nicole and the dogs for a walk along the beach. Be sure to leave some Ladybug Love and let me know what you think of Roadster Nikki :-D

Have a great day!

Catch ya later x

Magnum & Lily

We're having a beautiful day here in Glasgow. The sun is shining and I've already had Rocky and Ruby up at Cathkin Braes for their walk. We met up with 2 newbies to CB...Boxers called Floyd and for the life of me I can't remember the other one's name!!! My memory is shocking these days...I think it's short circuiting with all that's going on lol. Anyway Rock and Ruby had a great time though at the beginning of the walk it was very much a case of sniffing each other out but once they got that out of the way they had a great time. It's always better when you meet other dog's yours get along with because they exercise each other for you and you can get home to that coffee sooner than you thought lol.

I made 2 cards yesterday...get me churning them out lol. This is the second one....Magnum & Lily building a snowman.

I got this gorgeous Bo Bunny paper from Hayley (one of my DT girls :-D) though haven't used it much. It's not Christmas pp but I thought it was perfect as it was already glittered up and the colours lend themselves to Christmas. On hindsight I probably should have stamped the image on cream card but hey ... next time maybe.

I used a combination of Copics and Promarkers and I'm leaning more towards the Copics these days. I was moaning about how the markers bleed over the line even though I try and keep clear of them and I had a few suggestions to change my cs. I have tried a lot of cs over the years and this is the one that I've found the best so far...maybe it's the best of a bad lot! I've read a lot about Neenah cs in the States which is supposed to be really good and now Copic have brought out their own cs which apparently doesn't bleed at all!!! I'm sure I saw on someone's UK blog recently that they used Neenah but I can't remember who it was so if anyone is reading this can you let me know if I can get it in the UK please. I'm going home next year...yippee!!!!...and I'm going to stock up on the Copic cs when I'm there.

Right..back to the card lol. I absolutely adore Lily and I think she's about the only one who can keep Magnum under control lol. I used Glamour Dust on the hats and snow and the buttons on the snowman are Jet Swarovski crystals.

I have a busy week ahead of me. I'm demoing at Craft World this weekend and I have a few samples I still need to make with the new images. I'd like to think I can make 2 a day so wish me luck :-D

Enjoy the sunshine wherever you are.

Thanks for stopping by :-D

Catch ya later x

Bad Hair Day & Queen Whiplash!

I'll address the second part of the title first! When I sent out the confirmation emails to the new DT members I said 'we'll be starting off gently then I'll be cracking the whip!' One of my girls...who shall remain nameless ... decided to have a bit of fun with this and posted something on the DT blog. ANOTHER one of my girls ... who also shall remain nameless...decided to rename me Miss Whiplash!!! We are posting our pictures on the DT blog and a late one came in last night and she was wearing a tiara and looked rather beautiful. My comment then was 'I love the idea of you wearing a tiara while making cards' so now it's all escalated to me being Queen Whiplash and Lisa has now given us all tiara's as we all wanted to be wearing tiara's while making cards lol!I do believe I have picked a great bunch of girls all with a fabulous sense of humour!

On to Bad Hair Day! I thought I would try to colour another Jack with blonde hair...I almost ripped it up but as I left the hair to the last there was no way I was starting over again! The main problem being my Copics and Promarkers bleeding over the lines. I do try and stay as far away from the line as possible but the colour somehow knows how frustrated I get with bleeding and it speeds up and creeps over!!

This is Hide & Seek Jack... I bought this Bo Bunny pp when I was at Craft World yesterday. I thought it suited the image perfectly :-D

There's always one that has to tell...bad owl lol!!

Here's my blonde hair...it's better than it was...hard to believe I know but trust me on this one...but you can see how the colour bled over the line at the top of Jack's head. I used the blender pen to try and push the colour back but it made a bit of a mess so I tried one of Paula's tips putting a 'glow' around some of the image. Anywho...what do you think of Hide & Seek Jack? Another winner?

This next card is from Tams, one of my new DT girls, thanking me for choosing her for my team. She originally tried to bribe me with her ipad knowing I've been wanting one for a while and

although I was extremely tempted I decided I would choose her on her talent instead :-D That's not to say I couldn't be bribed with an ipad on another occassion lol.

I love Catflap Magnum and the colours of pp are gorgeous! Thank you Tams :-D

I'm making a lazy dinner tonight...heading out now to pick up a couple of cooked chickens from Morrison's. Well, I think I deserve to...I did make TWO cards today!! I'll be posting the second on tomorrow and boy have I got a treat for you. Jeanie's last card until she's finished her renovations in November!

Thanks for stopping by...enjoy the rest of your long weekend :-D

Catch ya later x

Design Team Revealed!!!

Morning everyone!!! Today's the day...the big reveal :-D But before I do I want to thank everyone who applied for my DT. I wasn't expecting as many as I got and it has been extremely difficult as every one was of such a high standard.

I'm not going to waffle on so without further adu/adeau/adiu/adeux/ado here is my team:

Lisa

Tams

Sue

Pinky

Michele

Gaelle

Anita

Mary J

Hayley

I think you'll agree when you check out their blogs that they are all incredibly talented ladies and each will bring their own uniqueness to my team. As I know nothing...and I mean nothing about DT's and how they are run I have enlisted Lisa (she had no option as she got me into this in the first place lol) as my coordinator to teach me the ropes. I wouldn't say things are going smoothly ... the phrase 'old dog new tricks' comes to mind lol ... but with a little patience (on Lisa's part!) I'll get the hang of it.

Not forgetting my amazing Guest Designer's:

Jeanie

Meahni

Karen

Due to other committments Jeanie, Meahni and Karen will be popping in when they can manage but they are so fabulous I'm extremely grateful for the time they can give to LCI.

Now if that wasn't enough I have fabulous Monthly Guest Designers lined up starting in October right through till next year who I will reveal closer to the time :-D

I have a bit to do today but hopefully I'll have that last image of Jack coloured in and assembled to show you.

Thanks for stopping by...have a great Saturday :-D

Catch ya later x

Long overdue...

My neighbour's daughter had a baby boy back in June and this is me just getting around to making the card!! I've said it before and I'm saying now....better late than never :-D

I've gone for a bit of colour in this one and if you look really close at the pp the white stripes are all glittered up...it wasn't me...nope...came like that so that just means you're ALLOWED to use glitter on baby boy cards cuz this paper is from the DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy paper stack and if they do it then it's gotta be ok lol.

I grabbed a stamp from one of my favourite SU! sets...there's very little colouring involved so you can make a super duper quick card if need be. Of course that goes against MY grain but still...an hour for this baby wasn't too bad :-D

I used GA on the bubbles and dusted with my glitter...cuz it's officially allowed now lol.

I'm going to take this and the present to my neighbour later before the kids starts school!!

Big announcement tomorrow...The DT will be revealed!!!! Woo hoo...finally you'll be able to see who's creations you're going to be seeing here every week. There's a real international mix...we've got girls from the USA, Scotland/Canada (that's me!), Ireland, South Africa, France and the UK!! How's that for a bit of a 10 pence mixup lol. Make sure you check in tomorrow.

Think I've enough time to make the final Jack card for tomorrow's post so I'll love you and leave you. Have a great weekend :-D

Catch ya later x

2nd post...Happy Birthday Sis!

Another birthday... this time my little sis Shelly. This was us a couple of years ago when I went home to surprise my mom for her 70th birthday. I was hiding out at Shell's until I was un-veiled!! or is that revealed lol!!!

Happy Birthday Shelly...love you xx

{sigh}

Have you ever made a card and without any hesitation thought...love it!!...?? Well, this is one of those for me. I'm not sure if it's the image, pp, colours or all of the above but every time I look at it I have a happy {sigh}. Of course you might not think that lol but that's ok...I'm happy :-D

I bought this Basic Grey pp a couple of weeks ago in Craft World...this was the one that came in 3 colour ways and I had to have all 3! Nothing new there I'm afraid lol. When I chose Guilty Jack for my next sample I thought of this pp straight away. What do you think?

{sigh} lol
This picture is in the wrong order ...oh well. I love making little sentiments and punching them out with my SU! word window punch (I hope that's what it's called)

Do you think Jack looks guilty? Have I miss-named him? I coloured him with a combination of Copics, Promarkers and Prisma Pencils. I added a little bit of glossy accents on his running shoes, the J on his top and the centre of each flower. Of course I had to have a bit of glitter so sprinkled it on the flower centres.

Since I always colour the hair of my images brown I thought I'd try blonde for a change. I don't think I did very well but will keep practising. Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks silly!!

I have one more image of Jack to colour up....make sure you take advantage of the special pre-order price of £5.50 which lasts until Sunday.

I'll be demoing at Craft World on September 4th and 5th so if you're in the area make sure you pop in and say hi :-D

That's it for today...have a good one!

Catch ya later x

Hot stuff, baby card and Pre-Order...

Now now girls just calm down!! It's just as well I only posted a picture of Ryan and he didn't meet some of you in the flesh because I don't think there would be much left of him lol. Some of your comments and emails left him a bit pink in the cheeks and I think I might just be banned from posting any more pictures of him! But on the up side it did bring my stats up big time lol so now I know I have to either beg or post pictures of Ryans to get the figures up lol.

Here's a card I made yesterday but I'm not too sure about it. Apart from red I find blue a very hard colour to match as there are so many different shades and tones. I guess this isn't technically blue but what I went with in the end!

The embossed cs is Lasting Impressions I've had for donkey's years...in fact I had to blow the dust off it I've had it that long! It's supposed to be white but it has a bit of a blue tinge to it...hmmm...maybe it's age lol. The image is Forever Friends and I used the computer for the sentiment. I used the twill that I sent Jeanie which she loved. It is so soft and ties lovely bows :-D
Even though it's a male card I love glitter on a baby card....boy or girl!

I mentioned the new Jack images coming this week. There are three in total and I will be putting them onto my website this morning to pre-order until this Sunday for the special price of £5.50.

Onto some exciting news...I've picked my DT!!!! Yaaaayyyyy :-D It was so difficult as all the applicants were fabulous. I have notified everyone and am just waiting for a couple of replies (what's taking you so long???!!!!) and then I will reveal them at the end of the week/weekend.

Have a great day!

Catch ya later x

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday Ryan!!

Another year another birthday! Ryan's 23 today... where did the years go? The picture below was taken when I was home visiting about 22 years ago. My mom was emptying the dishwasher and when her back was turned Ryan climbed onto the open door ... I wonder if he wanted to clean his cup lol.

And this is him today... would you have recognised him from the little boy above?

I made him this card for today. I know it's not really 23 year old appropriate but this image of Jack reminded me of Ryan.

This image of Jack and his pup will be available this week along with another 2 which I hope to show you later. You will LOVE them!

Jack's little red wagon isn't so much red as orange!

Jack is such a cutie

Pup looks happy enough :-D

We're going out for a birthday dinner tonight to our favourite local restaurant then home for some birthday cake and more decision making! I'm getting there and will have some DT news for you soon :-D

Thanks for stopping by.

Catch ya later x

She's done it again!

I got Jeanie's email while I was still on the train travelling home yesterday. And wouldn't you know it the wi-fi was playing up as it did on my way down so I could only see Jeanie's card on my little screen on my phone :-( I zoomed so much I could almost see up little Robyn's nose lol but even on my little screen I could see the card was a beauty. Was I wrong. No siree Bob!! Take a looky...

Hands up who love it? OMG...how gorgeous is little Birthday Robyn! I love everything about this card...the colours, the image (of course) and Jeanie's colouring is amazing! Her party hat looks like its shiny for goodness sake!!! Notice the epoxy dots? Match perfectly :-D I must remember to use my white gel pen for those added little accents though I never know where to put them hmph!

I think this card deserves a lotta ladybug love. Make sure you check out the card on Jeanie's blog too.

Right, I've gotta lotta important decision making to do starting today so I best be off.

Catch ya later x

ps Just to let you know I think I've managed to add paying by debit and credit card to my website for those of you who aren't so keen on Paypal :-D

Birthday pictures and DT news

Just a quick post before I jump in the shower and get ready for my hopefully unadventurous train journey home!

This is a BFF card I acquired during the week.... I won't bore you with the details you'll be happy to hear lol. I absolutely love these colours together...they are so bright and cheery.

Again Karen's colouring is fab :-D

I thought I'd show you a couple of pictures from Friday night.

Here is the birthday girl!

I have had permission to show this picture! The waiter was serving the veggies and was leaning over Joy to put them on the table. Next thing I heard a burst of laughter and when I looked around Joy was pointing to her lap...un-beknownst (I'm absolutely positive that's a word though spell check doesn't seem to think so!) to her, her Spanx had made an appearance and the waiter had full view lol! Of course me being me never misses a photo opportunity :-D

This is yours truly and my sil...hubby's sister Emily :-D

It was a great night as was last night where we out again for dinner (I could get used to this) with mil, sil, sil, niece and a lovely friend of sil's, Theresa.

I have been overwhelmed with DT applicants. I never in a month of Sundays expected as many...I thought I'd be lucky to get one or two. I want to thank every one of you who took the time to email me with your details and beautiful cards and for wanting to be on my DT. The standard is extremely high and I don't know how I'm going to choose! I would love to have all of them on the DT but I think it would be far too large so I'm going to have to think of something so everyone gets a turn :-D

I'm going to spend a few days going through everything and will post all the details and send emails to everyone with my final decisions by Friday.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend :-D

Catch ya later x

I'm away...

This was supposed to be posted yesterday and it wasn't for lack of trying! I travelled to my sil's by train yesterday to celebrate her 50th birthday. It was an all girls event as her husband got a new job abroad. I had my bag of clothes, laptop, lunch and magazines and handbag to carry...in the pouring rain. I got up early and took the dogs out so I didn't feel guilty about leaving them...what's with that btw???? and set off on my travels just before 10am.

I'm lucky as it only takes 30 seconds to walk to the train station from my house...unless you're packed like a mule like I was. I managed that ok, got on the train with a little help from a very nice gentleman. Once I got to Glasgow Central I had to leg it up to Queen Street station to get the train to Edinburgh with a quick stop at the PO. Just as I got outside the heavens opened and so I trudged through the rain, puddles and dozy pedestrians. By the time I got there I was definitely needing some caffeine but with only 4 minutes to get my train I had to skip it. Got on the train and settled myself down for the 50 minutes journey to Edinburgh and hoped the platform for the last part of my journey wasn't too far from where I was getting off...yeah right! But I got my priorities right and got myself a Flat White from Costa (my new coffee love!) and headed off to the other side of the station got my seat, got organized and tried to set my laptop up to do some work including posting this card. By the time I got the wi-fi working I only had about an hours worth of battery and it died before I could post anything. Then when the ticket collector came I couldn't find my ticket and you know when someone's standing over you waiting and you're rummaging around trying to find something you know you're not going to find it. He proceeds to tell me I was going to have to buy another ticket even though I had my reserved seat ticket and my return tickets!! There was no way I was forking out another £80 so stepped up my seach and thankfully found it.

Got to York where sil, mil, sil and sil's friend met me. Last night 12 of us went out for dinner and had a great time. I'm staying with my niece Ciara just outside Harrogate....She's making my breakfast for me as I'm typing :-D

The rest of the gang are heading over shortly so I'd better wrap this up. This was supposed to be quick but I don't seem to do quick anything these days!

Here's a card I made my my nephew that's a month overdue. Believe it or not this was quick as I was bringing it with me and I only made it Thursday in between all my running around!

I used the birthday cake from Add-On Magnum. I wanted to show you that you don't have to use Magnum in the set and of course the Add-Ons set gives you more choice to make backgrounds.

I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder to make another background instead of using pp.

If I had more time I would have 2D'd the cake

I punched this sentiment with a SU! punch I've had for ages (like years!) and have never used. I quite like the fact it's not round or square or perfectly rectangular.

I've really gone on far too long so I'd better go and jump in the shower before the gang arrives. I'm heading back tomorrow afternoon and will make a post about the DT. You've only today and tomorrow to apply so if you want to give it a bash send me an email.

Have a great weekend.

Catch ya x

Nee naw nee naw nee naw

This is just a quick post as I a million things to do today! The new stamps arrived yesterday and all the orders have been posted...PHEW!! They normally come in the morning so knowing this I booked a collection between 2 and 4pm with Parcel Force for two parcels to go to the Netherlands. What time did the stamps arrive? 1:35pm!!! It was all hands on deck (mine!) to get the stamps out, counted and packed up into the boxes and what time did PF come? 4:05 pm...hmph!

This is one of the new releases...Policeman Jack...How cute is he?!

Believe it or not these papers are from one of the Nitwit Christmas Collections I bought recently but they're perfect for little boys :-D

Here's Jack in action

Blowin' his whistle

This is the bubble number that goes with the number set (Hopefully it will be available soon..just tweaking a few things!) I realised once I'd downloaded and cropped the pictures that I missed a few spots with the glitter :-s I thought I'd raise the number so stamped it twice, coloured both in then cut one of them out. I don't think Gaynor will ask me to help her with her 3D cards lol.

Ok, that's it. Oh, before I forget, thank you so much for your Ladybug Love on my shaker card :-D Now I know all I have to do to get some is beg lol.

Catch ya later x

Ladyubug Love

You know how I said I might sit out in the sun yesterday before it disappeared altogether? I should have known better because the sun shone for all for 5 minutes then we had torrential rain for the rest of the day! Suzy Q and I were walking around CB like drowned rats and there's no need to tell you what the dogs looked like. Starsky, Hutch and Miley are normally cute fluffy poodles (unless they've been attacked with the doggy shears but that's another story for another day!) but they were a soggy mess looking more like long haired rats!

I've been referring to comments as Ladybug Love...I thought it was a cute play on words with both the name of my Blog and comments :-D There has been a lot of LL lately and it's been appreciated so much and today I implore you for more of the same...even if you don't like my card lol. Lie if you have to but I feel I deserve some because this card has taken me 6 hours to make. Yes, you read right...6 HOURS!

Ever since I saw this image of the bird sitting on Buttercups head I knew what I wanted to do with it but as we all know sometimes things don't go to plan for various reasons. I'm not going to bore you with the details of my mishaps (I've been doing that a lot lately lol) but let's just say I'll think twice before attempting this one again!

This, my friends, is my very first shaker card! Please, please...your applause is overwhelming LOLOLOLOL (sometimes I do find myself quite amusing though at this minute I think it's because I'm limiting my intake of food to get rid of my ever expanding muffin top and I'm feeling a bit giddy!)

I only owned one set of Nitwit papers but after BFF sent me this card I had to shop for more. This set is called Snowfolk and has 22 papers and lots of other bits and pieces that go with it. You can buy the papers on their own for $2.99 or something called an FQB for $5.99 which has all the extras as well. For an extra $3 you get loads more papers than just the paper bundles and all the buttons etc that go with it. And no I'm not getting paid for that little bit of info lol.

I stamped my image, coloured it in and then followed a Hero Arts video tutorial to put the shaker card together. This is different from the ones you stick on top of the card and are raised...this one sits flat on the front of the card and goes into the card.

I used some seed beads for snow. I meant to put some glitter in as well but forgot and sealed it up before I remembered doh!! The blue snowflake is a brad I got in a Dollar store when I was home a few years ago. And yes, this is probably the first one I've used lol. I glued a silver rimmed AB Swarovski crystal in the middle of the snowflake and a few more in each of the corners. Unfortunately the camera (not me!) hasn't picked up how gorgeous the crystals are.

I took this picture as the card was lying flat so you could see how the shaker part looks.

I hope you like my card...and I'm not ashamed to ask/beg for some LL...even from those who haven't commented before!

I'm off to get something to eat before I get even sillier :-D

Thanks for stopping by.

Catch ya later x

PS TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO PRE-ORDER THE NEW CHRISTMAS NIKKI, JACK AND MAGNUM & LILY CHRISTMAS STAMPS AT THE REDUCED PRICE!!!!

Guest Designer #2

I'm so excited to show you this card. I told you the other week I had another guest designer that agreed to design cards for me using my images. This came on the back of a comment I made to Jeanie and before I could believe my luck Meahni from Animal Factory was on board!! Being in South Africa wasn't a problem as the internet is a wonderful thing but the mail isn't! We waiting impatiently for the stamps to arrive and this was the first image that Meahni decided to use...

Tiptoeing Lily! I just love this image and it cracks me up every time I see it. Lily must be very brave if she thinks she'll get away with stealing the cheese right from under Magnum's nose but then I don't think he's in the best of shape to catch her either lol.

The papers Meahni used are from October Afternoon...I love the brown and green together...you know me a green lol. Meahni used Prisma pencils (a girl after my own heart) to colour the image and look at the grass...perfect! I definitely need to practise my grass more.

So what do you think? Make sure you leave some Ladybug Love as it is always appreciated. I can't wait to see what image Meahni uses next :-D

Thanks for stopping by today. Don't forget the pre-order special finishes tomorrow!

Catch ya later x

We had a great time at our friends birthday party yesterday and arrived home late this afternoon. The weather was beautiful...especially today although we spent most of it in the car! I think it's supposed to last a couple of more days and I'm going to try and take advantage of it by sitting out tomorrow for an hour or so before we get the rain back.

Here are two more of Karen's beautiful cards. I love the Bo Bunny paper's she's used in the first card with Gossip Nikki.

I'm seriously thinking I've got to get more flowers onto my cards...

Flowers For You Nikki is certainly looking pleased with herself! Karen used more of the Nitwits papers for this card.

I've got two more of Karen's cards left to show you tomorrow and I'll be working on some new stuff to show you later in the week.

There's still time to apply for the DT team so don't be shy. I've had some fabulous emails with beautiful cards and I'm itching to get the team together and get started! Also don't forget the pre-order for the new stamps ends on Tuesday.

That's all for today...thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great week.

Catch ya later x

Happy Saturday! Hope you're all having a great weekend. We've got our friend's 50th birthday party today and we'll be heading there soon. The present is wrapped and the card safely tucked inside..I just hope I don't forget to take it lol!

Here is another one of Karen's fab cards that arrived yesterday. I love the design of this card with Football Jack. The green and black are striking (no pun intended lol) together.

He really is the cutest little fella! I'm going to put in for some Copic lessons next time Karen comes to Scotland...


I love these epoxy dots and I don't use them enough. I've just ordered more and I should be getting them next week.


That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by :-D


Catch ya later x