*Pretty in Purple*

Let me start out by apologizing for not being around this past weekend. We packed up the kids and the car on Saturday afternoon and drove down to Sparwood BC (about 2.5 hours from Calgary... in the Crowsnest Pass) for a Tae Kwon Do Tournament.

The boys and I started Tae Kwon Do in September. There were two of my girlfriends and their boys plus a bunch of other people we knew when we started. My one girlfriend dropped out pretty quickly and her kids stopped coming in the last month or so. We have a lot of laughs, a good workout twice a week, and some fun. I also love that I am doing something with my boys. We are all yellow belts currently... and are hoping for our green stripe or green belts next month.

So, this weekend was a mini-tournament for our "club". Our Club is the Kootenay Region... Calgary is not part of the Kootenay region geographically but we are a member of this Club as our instructor (master) is a part of it (his Master is the head of the Kootenay Region Club). There were 10 competitors that made the trip from Calgary to compete on Sunday. I was too chicken to do it and Matthew was totally uninterested, but my oldest son Alex was keen. He competed both with his pattern (there is a routine for each colour of belt) and in sparring (non-contact). He didn't place with his pattern, but I didn't expect him to since it was all of the yellow belts in the mix.... adults and children. Sparring is broken down into belt -> gender -> age group. Alex was in a group with two other boys (one other from our Calgary Club) and he placed 2nd in the fights. I was so proud of him. He lost to the other boy from our Club. Out of 10 competitors from our group, we had 3 first place winners and 4 second place. Everyone else got 3rd place (or tied for 3rd) as everyone went home with a trophy. We are very proud of Alex (who will be 12 next month, btw)!

So, on to the card....

Once again I designed my card around ribbon! I received this ribbon from Gina in a blog candy package I won awhile back. I decided to do a tone on tone card with a little white thrown in for good measure. I used Almost Amethyst and Lovely Lilac. I started with an Amethyst card. I sent a piece of Lilac through my Cuttlebug with the Bloomin' Dots embossing folder. I then took a paper towel and dabbed it into my white Craft ink pad and lightly swiped it over the raised areas of my embossed piece. I set it aside to dry while I stamped my images from Big Pieces and Little Pieces. I cut my circles using a variety of tools... two circle punches from Stampin' Up, my Marvy Giga Scalloped Circle punch, and finally my Fiskars Shape Cutter. I poked holes in each of the scallops and added purple dots to decorate the stamped pieces using my SU Markers. I put together the layers of circled, wrapped the ribbon around the Lilac piece and put it all together. To add a little something more, I added a little gem in the centre of the Small Pieces image for some "bling".

Thanks for stopping by!