Mini Envelope Bookmark and a Book Review

I am having a lot of fun playing with and figuring out my Silhouette Cameo!  Today I made this cute little bookmark out of scrapbook paper.  Two sides are open and two are closed, letting it rest easy on the corner of the page.    

It makes finding your place even easier than a traditional bookmark does!  On the back side, I added a polka dot stamp and am now thinking I need to order the sketch pens for the Silhouette so I can finish it off with an address.

Have you read any good books lately?  My latest read was Diary of a Mad Fat Girl by Stephanie McAfee.  Although I really didn't care much for all the profanity, sex, and infidelity, I found myself turning page after page to find out what was going to happen next.  I didn't enjoy the book, but I couldn't put it down either.  I give it 2 stars.

Loud, outspoken Graciela Jones, aka Ace, is a young high school art teacher who recently left her boyfriend and returned to Bugtussle Mississippi with her chiweenie, Buster Loo.  The drama begins when her best friend Lily bails out on a trip to Florida to spend time with a man she has been very secretive about.  Lily is also a teacher and the next thing you know, she's being accused of sleeping with one of her students and is fired.  The ridiculousness continues and escalates with the discovery that another friend's husband Richard has been cheating on her.  Ace and Lily set out to document his immoral actions and are successful.

All the while, Ace struggles with her body image and won't let herself accept the love of her ex-boyfriend who appears at her doorstep to woo her back.  In the end, Ace finds happiness and so do her two best friends.    

BlogHer Book Club provided me with this book and I was compensated for this review.  All opinions expressed are my own.  To read more about Diary of a Mad Fat Girl and how Stephanie McAfee self published it, visit BlogHer.

An Unconventional Christmas Tree

200 + book pages rolled and glued to a heavy cardboard cone then attached to a wooden dowel.

And a 3D star for the topper.  If you missed the tutorial, click here.

Although the rolling and gluing were very time consuming, the hardest part of this tree proved to be the base.   My original idea of sticking the dowel in a piece of styrofoam and covering it with burlap, completely flopped.  It was top heavy.  So, I thought about it and experimented with different things and finally decided on some scrap wood I had laying around.  And guess what?  There was already a hole which was the perfect size for the dowel!! How lucky is that?  I spray painted it Rust-Oleum Metallic, sanded it down a little and my tree is now finished!  What do you think, good use of an old book?

Create Thank You Cards with My Memories Suite

Think to thank this holiday season with a simple card.

  

I designed these thoughtful gestures using My Memories Suite.  This digital scrapbooking software is not only great for documenting life's most memorable moments, but you can also make a lot of other things too-like calendars, slide shows, and cards to name a few!

To make these cards, I used the following two Designer Packs, which I got for free because I liked the My Memories FB page (get a $5.00 credit just for liking them!)

After downloading the embellishments to my computer, I opened up the software and came up with this design.  I saved it as a JPEG and inserted into Microsoft Office where I decreased the size and arranged it so that when printed it could be folded into a card.

Turned out cute, don't ya think?!  I thought the printing quality was excellent and will be designing up some more.

Use the code on my sidebar for an awesome discount! ($10.00 off purchase of software + $10.00 credit to store)