Frequently Asked Questions

The Purple Ladybug Mosaic Builder turns any photo into a pixel-art brick mosaic — a hands-on building activity where you place coloured bricks one by one to recreate your favourite image.

It makes a great gift or family activity, and the finished mosaic can be displayed as a unique piece of home décor. The bricks can be taken apart and reassembled as many times as you like.

Our Mosaic Builder tool is completely free to use — no purchase required to generate your preview or download your assembly instructions. Upload your photo, see your mosaic instantly, and download a full PDF guide before you decide to buy a kit.

Most competitors require a unique code from inside the physical box before you can access your assembly instructions. With Purple Ladybug, no code is needed — upload your photo, generate your mosaic, and download your instructions freely, whether you've purchased a kit or are just exploring.

All brick elements are made from hard, odourless plastic. Our kits meet all relevant safety certifications.

Each mosaic is built on a 48×48 grid — that's 2,304 individual bricks. The finished mosaic measures 38 × 38 cm (15 × 15 inches).

The kit uses 5 carefully chosen colours: Black, Slate, Rose, Peach, and White. These colours are selected to work together to recreate the light and shadow in portrait photos as accurately as possible.

The best results come from:

✓ Close-up portraits — faces cropped tight fill the grid with detail
✓ High contrast subjects — strong light and shadow separate well into 5 colours
✓ Plain or simple backgrounds — keep the focus on the subject
✓ High resolution photos — more source detail = better output

Landscape scenes, group photos, and images with lots of blue or green tones tend to work less well because our palette is optimised for skin tones and warm colours.

No account and no payment needed. The Mosaic Builder is completely free. Upload your photo, generate your mosaic, fine-tune the settings, and download your PDF assembly guide — all at no cost.

No. The Mosaic Builder runs entirely in your browser — your photo is never uploaded to any server. It stays on your device at all times and is never shared or stored by Purple Ladybug.

Once you're happy with your mosaic preview, click Download PDF Instructions. A full assembly guide is generated and downloaded immediately to your device — no code, no account, and no waiting required.

The PDF includes a colour-coded grid showing exactly which brick goes in each position, plus a brick count for each colour so you know exactly what you need.

We're also adding email delivery soon, so you'll be able to have your instructions sent directly to your inbox as well.

The tool automatically sets all sliders to the best values for your photo. You can also fine-tune manually:

Contrast — strengthens or softens the difference between light and dark areas
Brightness — lightens or darkens the overall image
Sharpness — enhances edges and fine detail
Detail Zone Size — controls how locally the contrast is adjusted across different areas
Enhancement Strength — how aggressively shadow and highlight detail is pulled out

Use Undo Last Change to step back one adjustment, or Reset to Auto to return to the automatically optimised settings.

After you confirm your crop, the tool automatically generates 12 different interpretations of your photo using varied settings and crop zooms. Click any thumbnail to load that version as your starting point, then fine-tune with the sliders below.

Most builders complete a 48×48 mosaic in 4–6 hours. Working with a partner can speed things up considerably.

Many people enjoy spreading the build across several sessions — the brick counts in your PDF guide make it easy to pick up exactly where you left off.

Yes. Every kit includes a brick separator tool for safely popping bricks off the board without damaging them. Instructions for using it are included in the manual. Bricks can be removed and repositioned at any time during assembly.

Each kit includes 700 bricks per colour — significantly more than any mosaic design will use. You should never run short. If you do experience an issue, contact us and we'll make it right.

The mosaic kit is recommended for ages 8 and up. Children under 8 should be supervised by an adult due to small parts. Building together as a family is one of the best ways to enjoy it!

Every kit includes 2 removable wall tape strips for hanging your finished mosaic on any smooth wall surface. They hold firmly but remove cleanly without damaging paint or wallpaper.

The tape strips are the easiest way to display your mosaic, but the finished piece can also stand freely on a shelf or desk if you prefer.

Absolutely. The tool lets you try as many times as you like before downloading anything. Try choosing a different variation thumbnail, adjusting the sliders, or re-cropping your photo to focus tighter on the face. There's no limit on previews.

No — the joy of the product is in building it yourself. Creating it by hand is what makes the finished piece meaningful.

Kits are available at plbfun.com.

Reach out to us at info@plbfun.com and we'll be happy to help.