The Middle Name Game

I was tagged by Kathy for the Middle Name Game! These are the rules:

• You must post the rules before you give your answers.
• You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter.
• If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name (or make one up).

After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details. My middle name is MICHELLE. (Why couldn't I have a short middle name?)

M - Master's degree (in Instructional Technology)

I - Inpiration (I'm always looking for inspiration - in my life in general and in scrapbooking and card making)

C - Christmas (my favorite holiday)

H - High maintenance (yeah, I admit it)

E - Energetic (usually)

L - Little dude (what I call my little brother)

L - Lost 28 pounds so far on my diet (and still going!)

E - Eastham (my maiden name)

Alright, I am going to tag:

• my SBS-8 sisters who haven't played yet!
• Casii
• anyone else reading this who wants to play

From the Heart / Friend

There's nothing like a productive weekend, and I figure if I can't be productive at cleaning the house, reading a book for work, or doing school work, I mind as well be productive at card-making! Here are 2 more I made last night. The first one is from a sketch that, of course, I now can not find. I'm still into playing with sketches and the different angles they bring. The second card was from me playing with my new Cuttlebug - love the embossing templates. :)

PS - Does anyone know what I need to do on Blogger to make it so that when you click on a picture on a post, it opens a dialogue box with that picture enlarged? I'm able to do that on other people's Blogger sites when I view theirs, but when I view my blog, it doesn't do it. I'd love your help! Thanks.

Valentine's Challenge

After making the first 2 cards this morning, I found more on-line inspiration and made the one below. It meets Marlou's challenge on her blog that says:

The challenge is simply to make a valentine card, and to make it a bit more interesting, I ask for 3 things to be included on your card:
1} It must have red or pink embellishment
2} ribbon
3} the word "love"

Sketchin' Away

The 2 cards I made today are based on the sketch from my SBS sister Su's new website, Stampin Up Challenge UK. I love the way sketches get me away from doing the exact same thing that I always do (although I still pulled out the pink paper and ink - old habits die hard). Good luck with your new site, Su.

The first card uses SU's "Simply Said" stamps, Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, Doodlebug rub-ons, and "Sprinkles" paper from the new new Basic Grey line Two Scoops. (I was very excited to play with the new paper today!)

The second card uses SU's "Seeing Spots" and "Warm Words" sets, more Distress Ink (Worn Lipstick and Faded Jeans), and Stickles (Cotton Candy) for a little bling.

Have a great weekend.

"Spread the Love" award

My dear friend Casii has done me the honor of giving me a Spread the Love award - very cool! This award is meant to spread blog love to others through support, comments and really all-around blog love. Since I love so many of the blogs I read all of the time, I thought this was great. I may not always comment on every blog I read, but I try to do the best I can because if you're anything like me, you love to hear from other like-minded people.

So, with that in mind, I give this award to the following great gals:

• Gwen and Kim, who not only have great ideas and cute cards on their sites, but who leave the nicest comments on mine
• Leonie, who encouraged me to make my first cris-cross card (and now I love them)
• Can I give the award back to Casii, too? She is one of my favorite creative inspirations, with a wonderful blog, awesome projects, and a friendly way of making her a person I love to see.

Pass it on, ladies. Happy crafting!

"Love Ya Much" stamps

I just got this adorable set of stamps from All That Scraps in the mail today, so of course I had to play with it right away. (That darn internet makes is way to easy to enable my crafty spending without even leaving the couch.) Anyway, I think the puppy one's my favorite - no surprise there.

I also made another criss-cross card because I liked making the first one so much. I like them because they're fun and different. Have a great long weekend!

Pay It Forward

I was checking out Nikki's blog, and I have won a PIF gift for being one of the first three posters on her entry!!!!

Here's how it works....I will send the first three posters to this entry a little stamping goodie package! The catch: you have to have a blog because you then Pay It Forward to three lucky posters on your blog!!

On your mark...........get set.........go!

7 Random Facts About Me

Since Gwen tagged me in the comments of one of my posts, here are my 7 (very) random facts:

1) My father is 6'4", my brother is 6'6", and my sister-in-law is 6'1". In a picture with them, I look like a shrimp at 5'8", and I'm never the short one.
2) I am terribly allergic to cats. (Thank God for inhalers!)
3) My former friend of 12 years and I are finally talking again after a falling out over 2 years ago. I've really missed her.
4) I have a scar on my left knee where my brother (accidentally) pushed me into a screw on our swingset when I was 5 years old. I guess that's what happens when a 3-year-old tries to give you a push on a swing.
5) Even though I'm a high school English teacher, I liked math in high school and even did well in college Calculus; however, I hated high school Chemistry.
6) I am very bad with blood and most things medical, but I married an EMT.
7) I left the eastern time zone for the first time in December of my senior year of college (flying to California). I was so excited that my friend had the pilot announce it was my first time leaving the time zone when we crossed it. To this day, I've never left the country, but I would love to go to Europe some day.

Kim, now I tag you! :)

Happy Birthday Samm (and my first criss-cross card all in one!)

One of my new SBS-8 sisters, Samm, is running a challenge on her blog. To enter, you make a new birthday card (in honor of her birthday) and post it on your blog. Below is my card. Hope you have a wonderful birthday, Samm!

This card is also my first attempt at a criss-cross card, and I'm happy with the way it turned out. I was inspired by the ones on Leonie's blog and Cherylann's blog (as well as an encouraging email from Leonie). Thanks for the inspiration, ladies! If you're interested in making one, Beate has an easy-to-follow tutorial here. Enjoy!

Target Mailboxes

I'm sure most of you have seen these, but I still feel the need to start with the following warning: this project is addictive: easy, cheap, and cute!

Last year, my friend Casii turned me on to the Valentine's fun at the dollar spot at Target. We made cute frames, and I bought a mailbox but never made anything with it. This year, I searched for "Target mailbox" on Splitcoast and saw lots of adorable ideas - so, of course, I had to play.

My co-workers and I are going to make 30 of these tomorrow morning as thank-you gifts for the presenters at our upcoming in-service. I'll post some of those later this week, but here are 3 I made as samples. I had fun with Stickles (who doesn't love glitter?), but I may go back and add some ribbon to the flags to dress them up a bit.

PS - I'm going with "FLOURISH" as my word of the year. Did you pick yours yet? Let me know on my previous post - I'd love to see it!

Word for 2008

Ali Edwards does this great thing where she picks a word and uses it as inspiration. I've been thinking about it and haven't picked one yet, but I'm currently liking:

• Flourish
• Embrace
• Opportunity
• Inspire

So what will your word be for 2008? If you need some ideas, there's a great list on Ali's blog. Enjoy --- and let me know which one you choose!

Spell with Flickr

Ok, so since the little things entertain me, I thought I'd share one I just found. Cathy Zielske posted a link on her blog to something called Spell with Flickr. My first attempt is the picture above. It'd be cool to create titles on digital pages or print for paper scrapping. Just thought I'd let you be entertained, too, at 4:30 in the morning.