Bellas and challenges

After weeks of envying everyone else's Bellas (and then 2 more weeks of waiting for them to ship), I finally got my own in the mail today. Yeah! Here they are:

The first card is my entry for the blog candy on Going Buggy's blog. The card needs to have black, white, and one accent color. (I think she's my favorite Bella.)

The next card (with my other Bella) is for the challenge at My Paper World to use this sketch:

And the last card is for the Artz Girlz Challenge, using circles somewhere on your card. I used a white gel pen to doodle on the circles (an idea I saw in this month's CK magazine). Very fun!

No more pictures - please!

If she could talk, I'm convinced that's what Daisy would say - "no more pictures, please!" We took 109 pictures in the first 24 hours with our new camera, and, of course, all but one or two are of the pup. Here are 2 of my favorite pics from the batch. I thought I showed great restraint in only printing 34 of the 109 pictures. I'm not so sure Lou agrees. Now I'll just have to work on scrapping them for her puppy album. :) Happy Friday.

Blue and purple

Before I run off to work, here are 2 cards I made on Sunday. The first one is for my SBS sister Kim's Grandmother's birthday. Hope she likes it. The second one is a belated card for the Papertake Weekly's spring challenge. Have a great day!

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

I'll save the best part (the "oh boy!" part) for the end. Nothing like building suspense! I'll start with a thank you card I made for the principal I shadowed the other day for my internship. She's not a girly-girl, so I looked past the pink into my newly-organized ribbon jars for inspiration.

Then, I played with a sketch from Page Maps and some pink twill I forgot I had (the best part of cleaning - forgotten treasures). I also set eyelets with my crop-a-dile for the first time, and I couldn't believe how easy it was. (How sad that I've had it for a while and only used it to punch holes.) Anyway, here is the sketch and card.


Here's a picture of my newly-organized ribbon. A while ago, I read about the idea of wrapping your ribbon on clothespins and putting it in jars, but I never got around to it. Then I saw Samm's ribbon on her blog, and it inspired me to get the clothespins and just do it. I also moved them closer to my table, so hopefully I'll remember to use the ribbon more often.


And finally....the "oh boy" part. After saving for a few months, we finally splurged yesterday and bought a digital SLR camera - the Cannon Rebel XTi. Very excited! Lou and I took many, many pictures of our dog last night testing it out (poor Daisy). I haven't installed the software for uploading pictures yet, though, so the pictures on this post are still from the old camera. It also came with free digital photography classes at the local camera shop, so I'm very excited to start those next weekend! Thanks for listening - happy Sunday!

More Pink Glitter Cards

I had fun making these 2 cards for the challenge at Pretty Pink Cards. She wrote, "I would very much like you to do a 'pink' card (as my blog is pretty pink cards)." No problem there. :)

Pink cards are everywhere!

Hmmm...it's a Friday morning, and she's making and posting more cards....must be another snow day in central Maryland. Yup - I've found more challenges and ways to procrastinate the cleaning and school work, but it's my new favorite way to start snow days.

The first card meets NattyK's blog challenge to create a pink birthday card. Of course, this one was easy for me, but I challenged myself not to use any stamps on the card. I just got my new Tim Holtz design ruler last night and used it to make the holes for the faux stitching - very fun.

Below is a video of Tim Holtz showing all the fun things you can do with his design ruler. (I didn't think I needed it until I saw the video - good thing ebay ships right to my door!)

The next one is for a RAK I saw on Beate's Yahoo Group. (I love this place - such great ideas!) One of the ladies asked for people to send birthday cards for her 90 year old mother, in hopes of getting 90 cards. Hope she gets all 90 - I'm sending this one off today.

This last one is for my old boss - just found out that we all missed her birthday last week, so I made this one for her. Better late than never, I suppose. This is my current favorite paper (although I'm sure you can tell as this is the third post where I've used it).


If you're off today, too, enjoy the long weekend. If not, happy Friday!

Post-it Note Keychain and Cards

Yup, another day off (Happy Presidents' Day) means more fun in the scrapbook room. I tried my hand at the post-it note keychain I saw on Kathy's blog, and I love it. What a quick (and cute) gift idea - must remember this! There's a great video tutorial on making them here.

The next thing I made is a card for the challenge at Daring Cardmakers - "Keryn and Rachel are daring you to make a card in the theme of love and friendship for one of the special people in your life." I'm still playing with the Magnolia stamps from Nikki's PIF and hope the ones I ordered online come before I run out of the stamped images I have.

The other card meets Katharina's challenge for blog candy, using the sketch she posted. I used some different colors than I usually use and had fun with a tab and some fake jewels for the flower center.

If you're off today, hope you're enjoying the day!

Inspired by Challenges

Once again, I've been inspired by challenges on so many fun blogs. (Thanks to my SBS-8 sisters for listing the challenges/sketches/blog candy on their blogs for me to find!) Here's what I made this morning:

This first card fits Di Hickman's Card Sketch February #2. I'm going to use it for my friend's daughter's baby shower. (Love the new DCWV Nursery paper - 1/2 price this week at JoAnns!)

The next card uses the Anniversary challenge from Caardvarks, along with the sketch from Isamki. I think I'll save this for my brother and sister-in-law's anniversary in May.

The card below uses a Magnolia that Nikki stamped for me in my PIF gift (love the Magnolias!). It meets the challenge to use your favorite color from Pretty Pressings (love pink and brown together) and sketch #4 from My Paper World. I would love to win the Magnolia stamp from Pretty Pressings and have one of my own. :)

This card is inspired by the challenge at Scrummy Stash Cafe to "create a project focused on just one shape." I chose circles (obviously), and while it's a little funky and different, this card's growing on me.

The final card is inspired by this sketch at CPS and the challenge to use stripes from Papertake Weekly. On the sketch, I changed the heart to a flower and took out the swirl (because the Heidi Swapp flower was too big), but it still works.

Hope you've enjoyed my take on some of the fun challenges and sketches I found out there. Thanks again to those who helped me find them. Maybe you'll be inspired to try a few yourself!

Lilac Challenge

Happy Friday! I created this card from the challenge at the blog Slumber Cards. She challenged anyone interested to make a card with her favorite color - lilac. Here's my take on the challenge. (It's a birthday card for our niece, Aven.) I once again had fun with a Cuttlebug embossing template - and daisies!

More Valentines and a Puppy

Here are some last minute Valentines I made yesterday. I've been having fun with my new Cuttlebug embossing folders, and I especially love this adorable little pup with his head tilted to the side.Another pink and embossed creation - of course. If one is good, two is better, right? :)

And finally, here's a picture of the princess on her throne, surrounded by her favorite things. I piled all of her toys on the ottoman so I could vacuum, and she jumped up to hang out with them. As soon as I finished vacuuming, she started pushing them off the ottoman with her nose, one by one. Gotta love it. It's a good thing she's cute.

Playing with Challenges

Since today's a snow (well, really ice) day, I'm home with an unexpected day off. I should clean, but heading to my scrapbook room to try a few challenges sounded like a lot more fun. Here's what I made this morning:

My SBS-8 sister, Su, created a blog with regular SU challenges, so this one meets her Valentine, no pink, no red challenge. (It worked well, because my husband's favorite colors are orange and blue.)I also made a card for the challenge at Sketch This: Cards, which is based on a sketch. (Check it out!) It's different for me, even though it has flowers, and I like the color combination. It's the perfect card for an old friend of mine who's been having a hard time, so I'm putting it in the mail to her today.

The last card I made meets a challenge from Daring Cardmakers to follow the sketch on their page. I realized I forgot a thank you note from Christmas, so this was will also be written and sent today. Oops!

The last thing I have to share is a mailbox I made the other day for my hubby. Snoopy is his favorite cartoon character, and since I filled the mailbox with caramel dove candies, I hope he likes it!

Black and Pink Daisies

I made this card a while ago and thought it'd be a good one to post on this cold and dreary day. It actually snowed about an inch here last night, but the school central offices are still open, so I'm off to work. Have a great day.

Mother's Day Challenege

I know it's a bit early for Mother's Day, but this card and matching tag are the challenge on Han's blog. I used my first Magnolia stamp (compliments of the Pay It Forward from Nikki's blog) and love it. I thought it was especially fitting since I had brown ponytails as a little girl.

Musical Musings

My friend Casii tagged me to post 8 musical musings - any thoughts/things I like about music. So here we go.....

1. The song "Butterfly Kisses" can make me cry at the drop of a hat. It always has. My dad insisted on dancing with me to this song at my wedding, and I couldn't say no, but I knew the tears were coming.
2. My first concert was Gloria Estefan. My Aunt Debbie took me to see her when I was in the 9th grade, and even though we were really far from the stage, we sung along to every song and had a great time.
3. Nowadays, I love country music. It's what I listen to most days, in the car, at work, or in my scrapbook room. I started listening to it my first year of teaching when I lived in a hick town (that I love) and could only get the county station on my clock radio. When my brother first got in the car and heard country, he said, "What is this crap? You're from Ellicott City. You didn't grow up listening to this." Too funny.
4. One song that makes me think of my husband is "I Melt" by Rascal Flatts. Love that song. We heard it one day when we were dating, and it became a special song. However, we ended up dancing to "Love Will Keep Us Alive" at our wedding so family could join in later and it would still fit.
5. When we were dating, Louie (my husband) called on night and played Madonna's "Crazy for You" in a voicemail message - the whole song, no talking. I still smile when I hear it. He also doesn't usually like to dance, but he asked me to dance at his cousin's wedding. They were playing "Glory of Love" (which I've always loved), and he sang the whole song to me as we danced. Of course, I was crying. (No shock there.)
6. My friend Mel from college introduced my to the Indigo Girls, who I've loved ever since. Whenever I hear "Closer to Fine," I think of her and college. The line that especially makes me think of her is "and the best thing you've ever done for me is to help me take my life less seriously. It's only life after all." Hi flaypellow - I miss you!
7. One of my college roommates, Knorr, loves showtunes. A lot. More than anyone else I know (and I know some big musical theatre fans). We both are English teacher and theatre geeks (and scrapbookers), so we have a lot in common. Whenever we get together (like we're going to this weekend), she loads up her i-pod with show tunes and sets it up all weekend. "A Chorus Line" is one of our favorites - and we have to sing along.
8. The first music video I really remember seeing was "Thriller." My parents didn't like us watching MTV, but I remember my brother and I saw it in our uncle's basement. All those zombies and Vincent Price's voice were a little too much for me, but I remember thinking the dancing was very cool.

OK ladies. I now tag all of my wonderful SBS-8 sisters to play along and post your musical musings. Wouldn't this be great inspiration for a scrapbook page (or a whole album)? Thanks for the tag, Casii. I really liked this one.

Two Scoops Birthday & Another Mailbox

Good morning, ladies. Hope everyone had a good superbowl weekend. My friend Anita came over to craft on Saturday, and we had a great time. I mostly helped her make mailboxes as Valentines for the girls in her Girl Scout troop, but I did have time to make a few fun things. Enjoy - and happy Monday!

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!