Happy Birthday Carolyn!!!

For my dear friend Carolyn for birthday.  I met her when I first started cycling.  She's been a great mentor and is always willing to help you better your cycling skills.  On her birthday she met be out on the dirt trail for my first time to learn some gravel riding skills.  It was so much fun!

I feel like this Hero Arts Desert Road Stencil was made just for me, lol!  I just love using it for my cycling cards.  The inks I used are- Distress Oxide Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers, and Cracked Pistachio.  I stamped the bike from Woodware Craft Collections in black.  I mounted my layer on Pumpkin Pie then on a white card base. 

Me and Carolyn.

Thank you for having a look at my blog.

TTG Thank You Cards...

Card Order for the Tucson Tri Girls.  I was asked to make thank you cards for the Tucson Tri Girls Sponsors that resemble their 20th Year Cycling Kit.  This is what I came up with..

I used my new cacti stencil on Gorgeous Grape with Gorgeous Grape ink  I layered it on a white, then mounted it on a black card base.  I cut little strips of black cardstock (the hardest part of the whole card, lol) and applied them to the white layer.  Next I stamped my custom made Tucson Tri Girl stamp in Gorgeous Grapeand die cut it with a circle die and mounted it with a black circle.  Then I mounted it on pop dots.

How'd I do?
I also made a thank you card for the order.

Thank you for having a peek at my blog!

 

Valley of Green...

When one card order leads to another card order...  I posted on my fb page the thank you card that I made for my friend to thank you for her card order.  Shortly after I got a message asking me if I could make some thank you cards...why of course!

These are CAS cards and fairly quick to put together.  I used Crumb Cake, Shaded Spruce, Black and White card stock.  Denami Design Thank You Circle Stamp in Shaded Spruce, stamping Hero Arts bicycle in black in the center.  

Have a Happy New Year!

 

Purple Power...

A custom card order and a thank you for the card order.

A dear friend of mine asked me to make some thank you cards for the local triathlon club.  I just happened to have a custom stamp with the club's logo from when I was on the board a few years ago.

 

Gorgeous Grape was perfect as the clubs color is purple!  I stamped my image in Gorgeous Grape and ran the main image panel through a cuttlebug folder in Gorgeous Grape.  I did two sets of 3, one set in Smoky Slate, the other in Black.

I made a coordinating thank you card to thank my friend for the order and to also thank her for her patience/delay it took for me to make them.  We have been working on our home so my card making time has been limited.  I stamped the Thank You Circle in Gorgeous Grape from Denami Stamps and the bicycle from Hero Arts in black.

Thank you for stopping by!

Happy Birthday BadA$$ Brooke...

For one heck of a BadA$$ for her birthday!  If you have the pleasure of knowing Brooke, then you know that this girl does it all and puts it all out there.  She's a wife, a mom to two beautiful girls, a triathlete, a ride leader, and the list goes on.  She juggles a busy schedule with her family and still manages to train hard, do all the things and is a complete and total BadA$$ at it.  I wanted to make her a card to represent her badA$$ery and got her a t-shirt to match! 

I found a digital image on etsy that I purchased, and had my hubs print out 'case I'm so not tech savvy!  I colored it with copics.  I found a piece of EP paper that I used and had her age visible on the side.  The sentiment from My Favorite Things Sassy Pants Birthday Greetings #3 was just perfect for her card!!!

"BadA$$ Brooke" 

She said this was her knew favorite shirt, ha!

Thank you for stopping by!

Happy 75th Birthday Erin!!!

For my dear friend Erin for her 75th birthday.

I worked and worked on this card, didn't exactly go from my vision to paper.  I used My favorite Things die-manics, copics and copic opaque white gel ink for the background.  Mounted my panel on Real Red card stock.

Thank you for stopping by!

 

Thank You Joanie!!!

A thank you for my friend Joanie for her card order.

 I die cut the bike in Highland Heather.  I added Grape Soda Smooch and a Wink of Stella to it.  Put it on a layer of white then added it to a Pool Party card base.  The sentiment is from Pure Innocence Soldier Boy.  I kept this one clean and simple.

Thank you for taking a look at my blog!

Happy 75th Birthday Erin!!!

My friend Joanie put in a card request for our friend Erin a year ago, giving me plenty of time to create something special for Erin's 75th Birthday.  Joanie wanted a bicycle (and wanted me to replicate the paint job on Erin's bike) and 75 in the wheels.  Here's my finished product.

I started out with a die cut bicycle on neenah card stock.  I played with all the mediums I had to try and create the beautiful paint job on Erin's bike.  Her bike changes from purple to a soft teal blue color depending on how the sun hits it.  I ended up using copics for the base color of the bike then I added Grape Soda Smooch to the purple and a Wink of Stella to the teal blue.  I colored the rest of the bike with copics as well, adding Black Smooch to the tires, handlebars, cranks, and saddle.  I die cut Little Numbers in Pool Party, added some Stickles to the numbers, then mounted them on the wheels with pop dots.  I die cut Fast Track in Black, then mounted everything on a layer of white with a Pool Party card base.  The sentiment is from the Pure Innocence Piggy Bank Set. 

Erin racing earlier, she's an inspiration for sure!

Thank you for stopping by!

Good Vibes Only...

For a fellow TTG member who shared that she was going to be having a procedure on her heart to correct an issue after years of trying to figure out the cause.   

As soon as I saw her post I knew I had to make her a card using the My Favorite Things Heart Rays Die-namics.  I used various shades of Stampin' Up card stock starting from light pink to red.  I stamped MFT Distressed Patterns in Pink Pirouette then mounted the heart with pop dots on Neenah card stock which was die cut using the MFT A2 Stitched Rectangle Stax Die-namics.  I used MFT Essential Stiched Sentiment Die-namic, stamped the sentiment from the MFT Good Vibes Only set then die cut it.  I mounted my panel on a Sahara Sand card base. 

Her procedure went well and she's on the road to recovery!

 

Kind & Caring Canadian...

My sweet, kind and caring Canadian Friend, Cindy talked about these awesome warming socks all winter long.  They kept her toes and feet warm during her runs in the frigid cold temperatures of Canada.  She was not going to let COVID or the cold keep her from her training.  Even though I'm in Arizona where it's much warmer, I've had the hardest time keeping my toes/feet warm.  Cindy offered to send me a pair of her magical socks.  I was all for sending her some money as I couldn't find them here or online.  Instead of me sending her money, Cindy asked if I would mind creating a card in a cactus theme for her to display on her bookcase in her den that she was redecorating.  She sent me photos of the pot that she got inspiration from for her redecorating and I of course took inspiration for it for my card.  

I started off with the My Favorite Things Wonky Stitch Rectangular Stax Die-namics die cut on Neenah cardstock.  I then used the MFT Small Brick Wall Stencil and SU Cherry Cobbler ink.  Next I stamped the images from MFT Sweet Succulents stamp set with Memento ink on Neenah, coloring with Copics and used the coordinating die-namics to die cut them.  I used pop dots to mount the cacti and Copics to ground them. 

I made Cindy a thank you card for the socks she sent me.  Knowing she was doing a cactus themed den, I of course had to make a cactus thank you card.  Being that we met through a Tucson Tri Girl event and our color is purple...I wanted to make her card predominantly purple to remember her TTG friends by. 

I started off by stamping the three cacti and pots on Neenah card stock with Memento ink, coloring with Copics.  I then stamped the front two cacti and pots on Neenah with Memento ink, die cutting them with coordinating die-namics.  I then colored them with Copics.  I used pop dots for the front two.  Then I used and art gun and SU markers to have a splatter effect on the card.  I grounded the pots with copics.  The sentiment is from the MFT PI Soldier Boy set.  I die cut it with the MFT Essential Stitched Sentiment die-namic.  I did a border in black with the MFT A2 Rectangle Frames.

Her socks arrived to me before I was able to get started on her card!  

Super fast delivery!  Mine took 3 weeks to get to her!

 

Cindy and Me at the finish of El Tour de Tucson.
November 2018.

Thank you so much for stopping by.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!

Happy Birthday!!!

 Happy Birthday Brooke!!!  I hope you have an amazing day today!  Brooke is such an incredible athlete, mom, and friend.  She's always wanting to do, be apart of, lead, and take charge of things when things need to get done.  She has an amazing drive for her sport/sports and just did a Half Ironman last month.  What an awesome accomplishment!!!  I'm so happy to be teammates and friends with Brooke!!!

Splitcoaststampers holds a challenge every day to get your creative juices flowing.  I was the Featured Stamper FS716 on Splitcoaststampers the week of October 25th (completely took me by surprise!).  What you do for this challenge is look through the Featured Stampers Gallery and CASE (copy and share with everyone) a card, changing one or more things about the card.  You share the card in the FS's gallery and your card and what you changed.  I played along in the challenge too!!!  This is the card that I created for Brooke for her birthday.  I used Black, Gorgeous Grape and White card stock. My favorite Things High Rise Alphabet Lower Case and Happy Birthday.  My Favorite Things Sweater Weather in the Woods stamp set, stamped in Neenah, colored with copics.  SU sequins.

 This is the cards that I CASE'd.  I didn't realized it until my friend opened the card in front of me that I put the p's and y in the wrong position.  They're lower case letters, not upper case, lol.  It's bothered me ever since and I wanted to do the card justice!  I also changed the hot pink to purple, the image, and added sequins.

Me and Brooke last year, meeting each other on the loop to train for El Tour de Tucson.

Hope you have a wonderful day.  

Easy Peasy Lemmon Squeasy...

Every year the Tucson Tri Girls host "Easy Peasy Lemmon Squeasy".  It's a 6 week progressive climb up our beloved Mt. Lemmon.  Mt. Lemmon is ranked 33rd on the top 100 toughest road bike climbs.  It's a 25 mile climb with an elevation gain of 5,500 feet (depending on which "top" you go to).  This year we did Easy Peasy a bit differently since our mountain caught fire on June 5th from a lightening strike and burned 119, 978 acres over 48 days.  We held our annual EPLS virtually over Zwift.  It was a lot of fun being able to ride with our TTG and our sponsors, but our hearts ache for the devastation the fire has cause to our mountain.  I made Thank You cards for our ride leaders.  It wasn't easy trying to do this each week and I wanted them to know their time was appreciated.

And since there's a thing in my house called "Tanya Math"...I had to make one more card...ooops!!!

I used the current week's SC812 for my layout.  Perfect Plum for my base and Basic Gray Kioshi paper.  I had a custom made TTG stamp made with our emblem.  I stamped it in Gorgeous Grape on Neenah card stock.  Sentiment from SU Morning Meadow set.  

Pictures below are from the fire.  They are not mine, just ones I grabbed from Google.

You can see the fire retardant from many miles away on the mountain.  

The planes were dropping it and water non stop.

I don't know how something so devastating can also be so beautiful.

Amazingly no structures, homes, or lives were lost in the fire.

It's just heartbreaking to see the damage the fire caused.

The firefighters worked in triple digit temps day in and day out.

During the 25 mile drive (or in our case, bicycle ride), you'll got through four distinct habitats, from Tucson's desert up through grasslands, woodlands and finally to the forests at the top.  You'll climb a total of 5,500 feet.  In terms of ecosystems and climate...starting at Mile Post 0, it's like driving from Mexico to Canada in one hour.

TTG Monthly Group Ride...

I'm a Ride Leader for the Tucson Tri Girls.  Every month we have a raffle at our ride.  I thought it would be nice to make a little card to accompany the raffle prize to thank the winner for coming out to ride with us.  This month's winner was Brooke.

 I went to my retired stash of SU papers to go through some of my purple's (that's the TTG's color) and decided upon Eggplant Envy, Lavender Lace (did you know it's the EXACT same color as Highland Heather?!?!) and Gorgeous Grape.  I used Eggplant Envy as my base.  Ran MFT Rainbow Die-namics through the Cuttlebug three times, one time in each of the purples.  Then alternated the purples to make the rainbow.  I used MFT Flat Clouds Die-namics, ran it through the pin dot CB Folder then used Stickles on it for some glittery, sparkly clouds and used pop dots for dimension.  MFT High Rise Alphabet Lowercase Die-namics in Gorgeous Grape.  Finished it off with stamping a little bicycle from Hero Arts Stamp Set under the rainbow. 

Our A Group Ride.  We had a gorgeous ride up and over Gates Pass, around Saguaro National Park West, up and over Picture Rocks and back to our starting point.  We rode almost 38 miles with a total of just over 2,000 feet of climbing.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

TTG Mural Ride...

Once a month the Tucson Tri Girls hosts an all women's ride for cycling of all levels and abilities.  I'm one of the ride leaders for theier monthly ride.  This month we did something a little different.  We had one of our greatest supporters, Damion Alexander lead us on a Co-Ed Mural Ride of our beauiful city.  It was absolutely amazing.  He knew a bit of history of every mural.  Below are a few of my favorites from the day.

At our rides we do a raffle prize.  I thought it would be nice to make a little card to go with each prize to thank the recipient for coming out to join us.  I took the TTG's Logo and had a custom made stamp, which I think turned out really well!  I used Basic Gray as my base, white, and Gorgeous Grape cardstock.  Gorgeous Grape ink and nestabilities.

 The homeowners Tim and Leslie with their mural.

 I loved the deep colors of this one.

 This is a small portion of the mural, it was a block long!

 Hehe, gave me a giggle!

This reminded me of my daughter, she use to play the violin.  The colors were so beautiful!

Thank you for looking!

You Mean the World to Me...

I made these for two amazing women in my life- Carolyn and Amy.  They are such wonderful teammates that helped me achieve so much during the Triple Crown Challenge.  I honestly can't thank them enough for getting me through the three days of mountain climbing.

 I used Sahara Sand for my base.  Basic Grey Urban Praire and Very Vanilla card stock.  I used the retired set ALM You Mean the World to Me from My Favorite Things for the sentiment and the world.  I colored the world with copics then fussy cut it out from the other part of the image, using foam dots for dimension.  Denami Design Ribbon, SU Linen Thread.

 Carolyn and Me, Mt. Graham

 Me and Carolyn, Kitt Peak

 Me and Amy.  Funny for this picture-
Amy- Tanya, What are you focusing on?
Me- My butt...my butt hurts.
Amy- No, I mean are you focusing on your breathing, heartrate?  Not your butt, whaa, your butt hurts! 
We died laughing!

Amy, Me, and Carolyn on top of Mt. Lemmon at the Observatory- my bucket list!!!

Thank you for stopping by.
Have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Happy Birthday Steve!!!

For my friend Steve who's birthday is Tuesday.  He opened up a whole new world of cycling to me about two years ago with his climb and descend clinic.  I was terrified to go down hill at 17mph when I first met him...now I'm able to go 43mph!  He's also an awesome sponsor for the Tucson Tri Girls (Bicycle Ranch Tucson).  Happy Birthday Steve!!!  I hope you have a fantastic day and thank you for all that you do for the cycling community!  

I used this week's SC745 for my layout.  I picked Black, Real Red, and White for the card since those are the colors of Steve's shop and shop's cycling kit.  Hero Arts stamp set for the bike and MFT Sweet Succulents set for the sentiment.  Kept is clean and simple.

Steve and me at the Tucson Bicycle Classic 3/2019

Thank you for stopping by.
Have a wonderful weekend!