Treasure Box for Kids Logo

About the Artist Jan McCraw better known as Ladybug

Welcome to the Magical World of Ladybug

Who is Ladybug?  Just as the little bug she is a tiny person with incredible energy with unique abilities. She possesses an overwhelming desire to share or teach her methods of learning art with others.

Jan Mc Craw, known by most as Ladybug, is the creator behind Ladybug Creations ® .  Although she was formerly educated as a nurse (BNS), she later obtained her MFA along with other art degrees.  Her training began at an early age under the influence of her artistic mother and aunt.  From this background she learned to develop her own skills in sculpturing, interior decorating, crafts, drawing and painting to include different mediums long before entering the art field as a career.  She has worked as a commercial artist and designed for many well known company's over the years.  A few of them are Hallmark Greeting Cards, Sally Foster Gift Wrap, American Airlines and the New York Times.  She has had her own TV show, newspaper column, illustrated children's books, taught for the University of Virginia, Holden School of Art and was an art director for a branch of the New York Times.  She is an accomplished artist and has won top recognition in the ceramic , decorative painting and commercial fields.  She has authored many magazine articles and pattern books, as well as her own designs, CD Books, and published book line which is sold in the United States and internationally under the name of Ladybug Creations ®, since 1972.

She is a member of many art organizations and they include the Society of Fantasy Illustrators & Artists, Society of Color Pencil Artists, Society of Illustrators, Artists and Designers, Children's Storybook Writers and Illustrators and a business member and teacher of the Society of Decorative Painters.  She is the founder of the " Treasure Box " Program for sick children.  (Be sure to explore this worthy program right here on this web site.)

Ladybug has been teaching art since 1969, has taught at many well known art conventions and has traveled around the world giving seminars. Most people favor her lovable whimsical animals , sweet children or her faery designs for classes, but she prefers to teach skill building lessons. After all the years of travel teaching in both the ceramic and decorative painting fields, she now only does a very limited few per year.

Jan has always been known to both family and friends to march to the sound of a different drum, and so it is with her art work. She doesn't do the usual florals or serious paintings one would expect. She has always believed that art doesn't have to be ultra serious, and that it's okay to be light hearted and use a sense of humor, which you will find shows up in her designs. One of her favorite sayings is: "doesn't matter how you do it, it's the end result that counts", and this busy little bug dapples all six of her legs into many forms of art proving this very point.

Jan, currently lives in a small town in South Carolina with her husband and a small herd of miniature dachshunds, which she bred for many years. She has four grown sons and four grand kids. Her love of decorating, antiquing , going to estate sales, lead her to own an antique shop for many years, but closed it in the late 90's. After retiring from a full time commercial art job and her antique shop in 1998, Ladybug decided to devote full time to developing a internet business. Her web site business is primarily run by Jan and her husband with the help from two of her sons, a dear friend and a webmaster, One of her main goals is to share her art with others and to give back to the art fields that has blessed her with so many dear friends and lots of wonderful experiences for doing something she dearly loves.