B-Day Card for my Man!

When I saw the colours for Design Dollies this week (Black, White, Grey and a pop of Orange), I thought they would be great for a masculine card, and seeing Jason's birthday is on the 6th, now I have a bit of a headstart. I really like the clean lines of this card, don't you? I was going to put it in for the Design Dollies elements challenge, too (which is clean and simple with brads and beads) but I don't have many beads, and definitely none that would go with this card.

Supplies (all CTMH): White Daisy cardstock, Exclusive Inks stamp pad in Black, Noted Backgrounds and A Little Everything My Acrylix stamp sets, and Irresistables bracket

Other: Cosmo Cricket blackboard asterisk, unknown chipboard button and heart, Creative Memories grey and black cardstock

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Mistletoe Cards

Just a quick post this morning. Here are the 12 cards I made with the Mistletoe Workshop-on-the-Go kit available from Close to My Heart. The technique featured is rock 'n' roll stamping, which I have played around with before, but rediscovered while making these cards. I really like how everything is included in the kit and I still have tons leftover for layouts. I am totally in love with the stamp set as well - I think I will get a lot of use out of it! We have a local hockey tourney this weekend, which means lots of volunteer hours. It is also -20 with several inches of snow on the ground. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

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Book Review Time!

A few people have said that they like looking at my list of books over in my sidebar, which is so cool! I've always been an avid reader, and I like books from many genres, but my last really exciting reads were surprising for me, because I wasn't expecting to like them so much.

First up is one from my library book club. We meet once a month and take turns choosing books. Last month was this one:

This book was just tremendous! I loved it, and I never would have chosen it on my own: weird title, and it's basically a compilation of letters, which I thought would be annoying, but for some reason worked really well. This is a definite must-read!!!

Next up is a series I got into by accident: The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare.

I don't mind admitting that I frequently choose books by their cover. When I picked up City of Bones last week, I didn't realize the target audience is teen girls, and I normally don't even go for urban fantasies, but for whatever reason, I bought it. After the first few pages, I realized it was probably going to be something like Twilight, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but again, not really what I was expecting. Well, I whipped through it in a couple of days, then bought City of Ashes and whipped through that one (it was even better!) and now I can't wait to get my hands on City of Glass. These books are not classic literature by any means, but are still a lot of fun, even if you're not into demons, vampires and werewolves.

Finally, I have one that I borrowed from the library and suggest you skip:

I don't really like the cover of this book, so I must've chosen it based on the title. I mean, this is so "me" right now: the main character is trying to fit in pre-pregnancy jeans, not sure if she wants to go back to work after mat leave, etc. But she's also really annoying. She whines about not having enought time to spend with her baby daughter, and yet she goes out binge-drinking with her girlfriends all the time. Ya can't have your cake and eat it too, Missy! Her misguided priorities and many, many typos made this one a pass for me.

It's my turn to choose the book at book club this month and I just started reading it. It's a debut novel from a Canadian author named Jessica Grant, and it's called "Come, Thou Tortoise". Now how's that for a title? I'll let you know how it was when I finish it!

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Layout #77 - Get Picky

This picture is from 2 and a half years ago when my mom treated me to a trip to Hawaii (yeah, she's pretty special!) That's her on the right, and my aunt came as well. We went to a luau, and this is the photo that they take of you as you get off the bus. It felt kind of cheesey, and then they sucker you into paying $20 or something to get the photo at the end of the night, but it is a good shot of the three of us! It was our first luau, and we laughed our butts off the whole time - it was a riot! I am entering this into the Get Picky inspiration challenge for November. The photo they have for inspiration is full of pastel colours, and banners, so I incorporated these into my page. I also added some glittery swirls inspired by their swirly lollipops. I used a sketch I saw on the Scrap-tures blog last week for Finally Friday sketches, and it is one from Got Sketch, although I couldn't find it on their blog. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Supplies: Bazzill and CTMH cardstock, CTMH Tickled Pink and unknown patterned paper, Little Yellow Bicycle letter stickers and epoxy button, CTMH hemp, Ranger Distress Stickles, Creative Memories and Sakura pens, unknown chipboard and fussy cut flower (courtesy of Mel!)

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