97 miles down - 85 left to go

I am very happy to report my brother made it through the first day without having to use the butt cream. He breezed through the first 97 miles in just five hours. Once the riders arrive in La Grange (the half way point), they are told to take a shower and sign up for massages. There are several shower trailers lined up but the lines are still long.

Each team has a tent where the riders and their families eat lunch and dinner. For those riders who were not lucky enough to reserve a hotel room they sleep in the tent as well - my brother was one of them. Some of the teams have the most interesting bbq pits. This one belongs to a sanitation team.

Unfortunately there is a flash flood watch in La Grange this evening. My brother was told to remove any items from the floor to avoid getting wet, which was very funny seeing as how his blow up mattress was on the floor. But looking on the bright side of things, he could turn this bike ride into a triathlon if the flood waters do come. That is on his bucket list as well. 

Below is a card I made him for the second day just in case he needed a little pick me up.

MS 150

The MS 150 is a bike ride from Houston to Austin. It takes place over a two day period. Riders ask for sponsorship to help support this great cause. Although it is called MS 150 the ride is over 180 miles. My brother has been training for the MS 150 since October of last year. He took it up as a form of inexpensive exercise. Little did he know the bike, the shoes, the gear, the training classes, the butt cream, and cycling classes would add up to over a $1,000 - but he has loved almost every minute of it - the times he has had to use the butt cream - not so much :)

This will be his first year in the event and he is so excited - I am nervous. There are thousands of riders every year and unfortunately its raining and a bit yucky this weekend. I know he is well trained and he will be carefully but it's the people around him I'm most nervous about. He is part of an awesome team The Hammer Heads. His team leader has been doing this event for many years and is very detailed oriented, qualities both my brother and I admire in a leader. For example, below is one of many emails my brother has received leading up to this event - notice this is a MINIMUM packing list. 

Here is the suggested minimum packing list...

Bike and both wheels

Helmet

Cycling clothes (both days)

Cycling shoes

Cycling gloves (2 pairs)

Cycling socks (2 pairs)

Cycling sun glasses

Change of Clothes for after ride (both days)

Change of shoes

2 Towels

Toiletries

Cool weather clothes (jacket, tights, etc.)

Ride packet (including numbers)

Cell phone - please leave it off while riding unless you are on call or need to make an emergency call

Plastic grocery bag (for bike seat in LaGrange)

Rain jacket

Bike computer

Saddle bag

Water bottles

2 (or more) spare tubes

Prescription or reading glasses

Aspirin, Advil, Tylenol etc. (we will have Ibuprofen in the tent and a first-aid kit for small items)

Medication (as needed)

Lip balm and sunscreen

Cash and a credit card

Copy of Identification & insurance card (put this in your seat pack)

Cable & lock (optional, if used, be sure to NOT lock or block any other bikes) 

As of 9am (central time) he has completed 38 miles and has 62 left for the day. There will be a small group of us meeting him for dinner in La Grange. I can't wait to see him. This will be such a wonderful accomplishment for him.

Below is a card I made for him to help kick off the event.  Hopefully it helped calm any nerves he might have had this morning. 

The sentiment was stamped using two different stamp sets. The dragonfly is a brad and the border was made using a fiskars border punch. I really liked how it turned out. I hope he did too. I will be taking pictures of the event throughout the day and posting them this evening and tomorrow. I have no doubt he will successfully complete this bike ride and be able check it off of his bucket list. GO HAMMER HEADS!

Patterned Paper

Patterned paper has multiple uses. The primary use, in regards to cards, is to add some visual appeal. In this post I will discuss a second use. 

The images themselves can be used directly. In the card below, the square cutouts were punched (using 1.5 inch square punch from fiskars) from two different types of patterned paper and lined up in two rows.  They were adhered with raised pop dots to add interest to the card. The scallop border on the bottom of the card was cut from a patterned paper that consisted of nothing but scalloped lines. I selected a brown scalloped line because I liked how it looked with the pink card stock. I adhered it to the bottom of the top flap with tombo mono adhesive. The top flap was cut a bit shorted to accommodate the scallop. The sentiment, hugs and kisses was added using a stamp and brown chalk ink. 

Take a second look at your patterned paper and see what images you jump out at you.

Just a Note

I am experimenting with different weight, texture, and types of papers. For this card I am using kraft paper. One of the other blogs that I follow (kwernerdesign) absolutely loves kraft paper. So I purchased a 20 pack of cards from Michaels (at 50% off - coupons are your friends). I figured, worse case, I can use them for template cards. I have to say, I am not impressed. I loved all the cards kwerener designed with kraft but it was not inspiring to me. I think it's all the brown. Maybe it will grow on me over time. 

The card below is a very simple card. I used a floral punch from fiskars on the green card stock to add a decorative element. The owl is a stamp that was cut out and raised using a pop dot. The dotted "flying" line was created using a fine tip 0.5mm black pen. A rounded corner punch was used for the bottom two corners and ribbon was added for interest. 

A note about stamping - it is important that you go straight down on your paper. You don't want to rock or push too hard down on your stamp. It could cause your stamp to bleed or not stamp correctly. As you can see, I had some issues with my sentiment. 

(Lighting is getting better I think)