TLT - Anything Goes and a break

Hello Ladybug lovers...are you all ready for Christmas? I'm not...no surprise there lol. I finally put up my Christmas trees on Sunday...took 6 hours! I've got a 6 ft tree in my tv room and a 10 ft tree in my hall...why I felt the need to have a 10 ft tree baffles me. Do you know how many branches I had to fluff up??? Made me think that maybe having a real tree isn't such a bad idea as long as I have a vacuum to suck up the needles. I really believe there's a need for an umbrella Christmas tree..you know...that goes up just like an umbrella, lights and decorations included lol. I kid you not...watch this space ;-)

Apologies if your entry from our Sparklicious challenge hasn't yet received a comment from a Ladybug. We are trying our best at this busy time of year. As always the quality of entries is second to none...you are all fabuliciously talented :-D

Our last challenge for the year is perfect...ANYTHING GOES!!! It's also going to be our last challenge until February. The Ladybugs have worked so hard over the year to bring you fabulicous inspiration and I think they deserve a little rest to recharge their creative batteries. We will still be crafting but at our own leisure and without the pressure of deadlines so please keep visiting and leaving your lovely comments. I have lots of fabulicious ideas I hope to bring you in 2013 so I'll be busy busy busy!

This is my card for our Anything Goes Challenge...

I've used Christmas Robin Delight digi and colored it with my Copics adding glitter for lots of sparkle though you can't really tell from the picture.

I haven't forgotten about my birthday present for one of you...tree trimming took over on Sunday but I will get a winner posted this week :-D

Thanks so much for popping by. I hope the rest of this week isn't too stressful for you :-S

Catch ya later x

Midway Reminder - Snowflakes

I'm back with a midway reminder for our Snowflakes Challenge using another clear box. This is the one I told you about last week...I made it for a magazine and used an image I meant for the Christmas Delight release but forgot and put another one in doh! Story of my life really lol.

Anywho, here it is....

I used the mid sized square clear box covering the front and back with green Bazzill and made a belly band to fit around it. The pp has been in my stash since the beginning of time lol.

From the side you can see there are 4 cards and envelopes inside

This is the forgotten image....do you like? 

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

The Paper Shelter - Christmas

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Embossing

Copic Marker Europe - Christmas Card

Crimbo Crackers - Anything Goes, must be Christmas

Cute Card Thursday - Snowflakes

Simply Create - Anything Goes

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Do you fancy winning the image? It hasn't got a name so all you have to do is leave a  comment with the name you think suits it best and I'll choose the winner and post it on here Monday December 3rd. Make it a good one...mind you anything's better than the one's I make up lol.

 Rocky and Ruby are in Doggy Daycare today which means I can craft in peace woo hoo!!!

The sale 70% off cling stamps is still on and Christmas is getting closer (too close!) but you still have time to get a few stocking stuffers for your crafting buddies or yourself.

Catch ya later x

Happy Tuesday! Just a quick post to remind you that the new Christmas Delight blog hop has another 2 weeks to run. If you've missed it and want to join in the fun head on over to the Challenge Blog to start hopping collecting a letter or 13 along the way. Once you have all the letters mix them about until you find the word/s (just a little hint lol) and email me with your answer to lcichallengeblog@aol.com and you could be in with a chance to win all the images or 2 images of your choice!

I've made a card using Christmas Wreath Delight. I had such fun coloring all the baubles....whaddya thunk?

I used a bit of left over Bazzill Bling from Nicole's wedding favours (remind me to show them to you) for the main card and mount of the image. I coloured the image with my Copics adding a computer generated sentiment. I used the new pink and cream check ribbon and tied it in a fabulicious bow!

You can just about see the glossy accents on the baubles...

Yum!

I've been busy being a tourist since my friend Sharon arrived from Vancouver last week. We went to the beach in Troon with the dogs on Friday. It was cold when we left Glasgow but it was beautiful when we arrived at the beach...really warm :-D Here are a few photo's of our day...

Isn't the sky amazing in these!

I say a few because there were a lot more than this. I took these on my phone but Sharon had taken a load on her camera. When I was transferring the pictures from her camera card to my ipad I managed to delete ALL the pictures from her card....hundreds of them!!! Thankfully she had already downloaded all her photos bar her holiday snaps from here but I still feel really bad :-( I have been barred from doing the downloads from now on lol.

Sunday we went to Stirling Castle where I tread the boards Queen Vicky once walked but I'll show you those pictures later this week along with the ones we take today at Edinburgh Castle.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by

Catch ya later x

I need a holiday!

Boy oh boy I really think I've lost the plot. A friend I went to school is coming to stay with me for two weeks. I got it into my head she was coming on Saturday of the weekend just past but when I checked her email I saw she was leaving on Monday and arriving on Tuesday . Great...that gave me an extra few days to tidy the house lol.  Yesterday I cleaned like mad. Vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms etc. I went food shopping and and whilst putting it away found jars and cans dated 2008 and 2010 so I started checking everything in the cupboards. When I was putting the food in the fridge I thought it was looking a bit grubby so hauled everything out and cleaned all the inside. Then I went through all the piles of papers etc I had dotted over the kitchen and polished the counter tops. After dinner while hubby held the ladder and my legs I changed 12 light bulbs in the ceiling (I've done this a gazillion times before on my own but thought I'd just let him so he felt he was being useful lol)! Feeling absolutely pooped I thought I'd check her email again for flight number and flight time only to discover she's leaving TODAY and arriving on TOMORROW!!!!! I've also got the 16 year old daughter of a friend arriving Wednesday for 5 days :-O Wish me luck lol.

This was the first card I made using Christmas Handbag Delight from the new Christmas Delight release. I really love how it turned out....

I've got some news ... I'm starting a new venture at the end of the month. I've signed up to be a Pampered Chef demonstrator yayyyy!! For those of you who've never heard of PC before we do in-home cooking shows using the PC products to make a recipe and the guests get to sample the results! I LOVE gadgets and I LOVE their products...especially the potato masher lol. I'm having my first show August 6 and will be a fundraiser for The Teenage Cancer Trust for Sophie. If anyone is interested let me know ...they are so much fun :-D

That's it from me for today. I better get back to my tidying from yesterday for tomorrow lol.

Catch ya later x

ps Can anyone help...I seem to have a toolbar that appeared from nowhere and it covers most of the top buttons when I'm typing my posts (I can just about get the arrow to touch the buttons) and I can't for the life of me get rid of it. Normally it's a right click and poof it's gone but this one is stubborn. Any suggestions?

Holly & Ivy Take 2 and a Sophie Update

I don't know about you but I had great fun on the blog hop. The Ladybugs really rocked these images...not sure if you noticed how much M Pee liked her image ... she was so excited I thought she was going to faint lol.

I'm back with another card using Holly & Ivy that I made on Monday night which I had planned on posting with my other card but I ran out of steam to photograph and then edit the pictures so here it is....

I printed a larger version of Holly & Ivy and colored it in with my Copics. I embossed snowflakes for a background and used my BRAND NEW light green and cream check ribbon to tie a bow adding a sentiment using a sentiment from Stampin' Up!

I used my Wink of Stella clear pen to add sparkle to the ivy. You can just about see it in the pictures but of course you can't see HOW sparklicious it is :-(

I colored the berries with my Copics but when I was rooting around for glitter I came across some long neglected Glitter Ritz Opaque Micro Fine (I'm talking micro)  glitter in Fire Red I decided it would be a change from GD. A spot of Glossy Accents on each berry and a dusting of GROMFFR glitter and the berries came alive. Not that you can tell from the picture but they are berrylicious lol.

This ribbon is totally gorgeous and ties like a dream. Apart from light green it also comes in brown/cream and pink/cream check which you can find here

I punched a pine leaf border to decorate the inside.

I haven't given you an update on Sophie since I posted her story here. First I'd like to thank everyone who has sent Sophie a card and please be assured she's loved every single one. Sophie's mom Karen has been so touched that you have taken the time to make such beautiful cards for Sophie and both say a big thank you. 

Sophie has now had two months of treatment and a recent scan has revealed that the tumors have shrunk (they kind of knew when Sophie was able to button the top of her school shirt for the first time in months) and the cancer activity is negative!!!! This is the best possible news they could have hoped for and she still has 4 months of treatment left but this has given the family a huge boost as you can imagine it's not been easy since her treatment started. 

If you would like to like to send Sophie a card, email me at ladybugcraftsink@aol.com and I'll give you the details of where to send it.

Thanks for stopping by :-D

Catch ya later x

TLT - Christmas In July - New Release AND a Blog Hop!

Woo hoo!!! It's TLT and it's a NEW RELEASE and it's a BLOG HOP!!!! What more can you ask for lol??? It's been a long time since we had a hop so we're all super excited here at LCI Central :-D I thought M Pee (aka Michele) was going to faint with excitement she loves her image so much lol. 

Before I tell you all about it I want to thank everyone who entered our Double Trouble Challenge...all the entries were fabulicious and if you want to see if you were the Overall Challenge Winner, Winner using an LCI image (both £10 shopping vouchers) or a Top 3 winner make sure you check over at the Challenge Blog.


One more thing before I start. If you already haven't noticed we have a brand new Ladybug on board...Susan aka Paper, Card, Ribbon and Flowers. I couldn't resist when I received her email begging (slightly embarrassing I know) to be part of the team...the sizable cheque didn't hurt either lol! So please give Susan a humongous Ladybug welcome...I think she's a little bit nervous and a whole lot excited and we are so happy to have her on our team :-D

Ok I can't wait any longer to tell you about our Christmas in July hop.  The rules are easy peasy...

1. Leave a comment on each of the DT posts as you hop

2. Each DT member will have a letter for you to collect... once you have them all they will spell a word which you then email to lcichallengeblog@aol.com

3. Leave a comment on the Challenge blog letting us know which image you like best

4. Display our badge in your side bar to spread the word.

I'm the last stop on the hop and you should have arrived here from Laurie but if you want to start at the beginning go back to the Challenge Blog. 

The winner will receive all 6 images and there will be 5 runners up prizes of 2 images of your choice each...how's that for an early Christmas prezzie! Of course there will be the usual challenge prizes of Overall winner and LCI image winner so there's plenty for everyone

Are you ready for my card? Here you go...

The range of digi images is called Christmas Delight illustrated by Floral Delights fabulous illustrator Jan White. We had such a blast with these images. The one I'm using today is called Holly & Ivy Delight and have used it twice on my card, flipping it so they're like bookends. I couldn't decide whether to have the vase on the outside or the ivy and swapped them about a dozen times before I settle on the ivy. Now I'm looking at it again I wonder if it should have been the vase lol.

I had one sheet of this pp left over from last year or the year before....or was it the year before?? Not sure when but I remember loving it when I bought it lol. The red stripes are lovely and glittery :-D I sized the images quite small, colored them with my Copics and cut them out with a square Nestie and the flourish with a 

Die-namics die.

I added Siam Swarovski crystals for berries

A peek at the inside

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything Goes

Lollipop Crafts - Christmas in July

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

PanPastel UK Challenge -  Use a Digi

The Paper Players - Christmas in July

The Squirrel and The Fox - Christmas in July

So Now you've seen the new collection twice and I hope you love it as much as I do. It is a bit different but that's what it's all about right? 

As it's the summer and everyone will be busy with their kids and holidays the Christmas in July challenge will be for a month so you have plenty of time to rearrange the 13 letters you've collected and enter our challenge. 

Remember the summer sale is on too where you can purchase ALL cling stamps at 1/2 price!

Thanks for hopping by...

Catch ya later x