Life Is Grand!! How About A Challenge? Grab your ribbons, grab your bling!! :)

Woooo-Hoooo!!  It's nearly the end of another FANTASTIC Friday!!  I tell ya, I had a big ole pile of things to do today, BUT...  The-Girl-Child leaves for college in 13 days and, although she originally made plans to go hang out with some friends, I was surprised when she popped into the room and started this little conversation...

TGC:  "Wanna go on a bike ride?"
ME:  "I thought you were going to the lake with your friends?"
TGC:  "I was...  But I'll see them later.  I thought maybe we could spend the day together instead."
ME:  Nothing...  I was already lacing up my tennis shoes before she could change her mind!! :)

And so we biked here, and we biked there...  And then we biked back that way and this way...  Nothing better than an afternoon of bike-riding, eh?  We stopped for lunch, and then we stopped later for ice cream...  And when we finally started the return ride home, we were good and tired!!

It was not dark though...  Thank goodness for that!!  Last night we rode home in the dark, dodging the bugs and...  BATS!!  I had to laugh as we took the same path home this afternoon...

Just last night we peddled furiously through the night, scrunched down to our handlebars and squinting in the darkness, hoping the deer would not jump into our paths and the bats would not swoop into our hair (yeah, yeah, yeah, I know they don't really do that, but you'd hunch down too if you were out there!!)...  Anyway, I had to laugh...

The path we take to get to 'town' on our bicycles winds through a forest of trees, behind a housing development, over a creek, and around the sanitation facility before dropping us on a long, uphill climb on a gravelly road surrounded by more trees and that same creek...  This path in the daytime can be troublesome enough -- Fun, but troublesome.  When the shadows are long you find yourself peeking over your shoulder to see who else might be on the path behind you.  But when the darkness sets in, you try hard not to think of the last frightening movie you watched that had characters hiding in shadows or monsters hiding around the bend.  Scary movies have NOTHING on that ride in the dark...  So the ride last night was quite different than the ride today.  Today we rode tall and took some time to soak in the scenery and remember that...  Life Is Grand!!

And so I came home and made this card...

I used my "Positive Thoughts" Stamp Art Set from K Andrew Designs for the sentiment...  Did you know that Kristal is releasing THREE NEW Stamp Sets???  We'll be introducing the NEW members of the Getting Cricky Design Team with a FABULOUS Ustream Event and Blog Hop next Friday, August 19th at 9pm EST!!  Woot-woot!! 

Mark your calendars NOW, cuz you definitely will NOT want to miss all of the excitement!!  All of the FUN will start with the Ustream (click on the blinkie to Join The Getting Cricky Crowd on Ustream!!) at 9pm EST...  Okay, now back to the card...  :)

This card is on a 4.25"x5.5" card base.  I embossed the BLACK cardstock (measures 4.25"x2.75") with a Sizzix floral embossing folder (I apologize - I do NOT know the actual name of this folder as it was gifted to me without packaging), added a strip of red grosgrain ribbon to the top edge, and adhered it to the bottom half of the card.  I tied a bow with the same ribbon and attached that to the strip of ribbon with a glue dot before adding two of my handmade stick pins.

The sentiment is stamped on a 1.5" oval with Stampin' Up!'s 'Real Red' ink.  The label punch is a new find from EK Success (also embossed with the floral folder).  And finally, I added three small red gems to the bottom right of the card (Creative Charms).

That's it!!  So now I have a question for ya...

What's on YOUR weekend agenda, my fabulous friends?  How about a challenge?  Wanna make a card?  How about a layout?  Maybe even an altered art project?  Whatever you're making, add a ribbon and some BLING and link it up using the Inlinkz button below (see the little blue froggie button down there?)...  This challenge will run until Thursday, August 25th at 11:59pm.  You may link up as many NEW projects as long as they fit the challenge theme AND your post includes a link back here so that others may join in and play along!!  One person will win a little goodie from me (the prize gets larger when we have more participants, so please spread the word!!)...