For My BTF (Best Twitter Friend!)

Believe it or not, today's card is inspired by another one of my Tour de France cyclists! What, you're thinking it looks a little too precious to be inspired by a guy on a bike? Well let me explain. :-) I have a new favorite cyclist!! Ok, no, not favorite, I haven't already changed my mind since yesterday (LOL!) but I guess I have a new second favorite...! I have to tell you a little story. During the Tour I became a bit of a Twitter fanatic. It turns out you can "follow" famous people on there - read their thoughts about what's going on - it's pretty cool! And I figured out I could follow a bunch of my favorite cyclists. So that was a whole fun new aspect to the Tour for me, reading "behind the scenes" thoughts on everything. If you're not familiar with Twitter, you can actually reply to these famous people too. I did it a couple times but felt like a big goofball - because really, like they care what *I* have to say, right?? But sometimes I just couldn't help myself...! So on Saturday, I was sitting here at the computer messing around, reading all the updates after the *AWESOME* stage on Mont Ventoux, when I see Cadel Evans share a photo that I thought was funny. I know, most of you stamper friends don't know who Cadel Evans is... he's one of the top riders, although this year's Tour did not go all that well for him (poor Cadel!). So I make a silly reply to him... AND OMG HE REPLIED BACK TO ME!!!!! I nearly spewed my water, and immediately had to IM Lydia and tell her about it (since she has held my hand as I've come up to speed on this new-fangled invention...). Here's a screen shot (read from the bottom up):I don't know if you understand how exciting this was for me. One of my cycling gods, basically having a (ridiculousy short) online conversation with me?!!? OMG! You know how geeked out I get about meeting stamping celebrities - it's like that! I ran into the livingroom to tell my hubby, and he just gave me this blank stare. Doesn't get it. *sigh* But at least Lydia shared my excitement. By the way - the fact that the conversation with one of my cycling gods involves me admitting I eat crap and look awful - um, not ideal. Even a little mortifying. But oh well, I'll take it!!! LOL!

So the card... you're wondering how on earth this is inspired by Cadel Evans, right? First of all he's Australian, so I got out this sweet koala from one of my favorite Melanie Muenchinger sets for Gina K - Cuddles & Hugs. I found a great tutorial on Melanie's blog for coloring the koala, to give it a soft & fluffy look (thanks Mel for being so awesome and helpful as always!!). I chose the main colors of the card - red & black - because those are the colors of the Silence Lotto team Cadel rode for this year. The sentiment - not that I'm actually going to send this to him, but he is Down Under, indeed across the miles. I actually would like to send hugs & smiles to him though - I think he's probably gotten a little beaten up over this Tour, and I hope it's not completely getting him down. He's an amazing athlete, no matter what happened for 3 weeks (or really just a couple of bad days!) in July. I'm totally going to be rooting for him next year, now more than ever!! Since he's my BTF and all (HA!) (Plus, I was poking around on his website, he seems rather smart and cares about some important things - I like those traits in a cyclist!) :-) The sketch for this card was inspired by the latest challenge on StampTV, although I didn't stay completely true to it. I have to tell you about the ribbon I used - it was part of the packaging on a set of Christmas washclothes. Lydia would also be proud of me for reanimating that! (as I imagine Cadel might be, too) ;-)

Ok, I promise - no more posts boring you all about cycling stuff. For a little while, anyway! :-) Thanks for stopping by today! And thanks to Cadel for giving this stamping stay at home mom cycling fan a thrill. :-D

• Stamps: Cuddles & Hugs from Gina K Designs
• Paper: Real Red, Going Gray, white, The Paper Studio DP
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics for coloring
• Accessories: Janome Sew Mini, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, Marvy punches, Making Memories stick pin, ribbon