Vive le Tour!

For three weeks now I've been thinking "Hmm, I really should make a Tour de France inspired card!" and today I finally did it. On the very last day of the Tour! If you've been with me for a while, you know that I'm a bit of a fanatic, although I'm not sure I've actually said anything about it on here yet this summer!? My husband is a bigtime sports fan, he'll watch pretty much anything! Back in the summer of 1999 he tuned into a bike race and told me a guy from Austin was riding, and he was a cancer survivor and used to ride for Motorola - the company we were both working for at the time. Actually, back then there were photos in the lobby at work of some guys on bikes, but I had never really thought much about them. But I was intrigued by this story. So I watched it with him. AND LOVED IT!! And of course I went on to watch Lance Armstrong win seven consecutive Tours! The man is completely amazing, I believe the greatest athlete of our time. Some speculate he's doped - the sport has been plagued by many scandals - but I choose to believe he's clean. He's just super human. :-) After his 7th win in 2005 he decided to retire, and I was very, very sad. I watched the next three summers, and though I still loved it, it just wasn't the same (plus more doping scandals left me very frustrated with the whole thing!). And then - Joel told me (he's the one who actually reads the sports page, not me!) - Lance was going to make a comeback this year!!! He wanted to ride again to continue to raise awareness for his foundation, which provides tremendous support for people battling cancer, encouraging them to LIVESTRONG. I tried not to get my hopes up too much - three summers off from the Tour, and now riding against some really great younger riders (Lance is the same age as me - an old fart in cycling!!) - but then the Tour happened and Lance was amazing and *sigh* all was right in the world once again! It was tough not seeing him in yellow this year, the color of the race leader, but fighting his way to a 3rd place podium position in Paris, while also showing great sportsmanship and working hard for his teammates - AMAZING! As his team shared on Twitter: "Congrats to Lance for 3rd in his amazing comeback to cycling. He's shown athletes & the world what a true champion he is."

So the way I celebrate such happy things? Why, making a card of course! This is more of a Lance-inspired card than a TDF-inspired card. Lance has worn an awful lot of yellow in his lifetime!! I used the "inspire" definition from the Stampin' Up set "Define Your Life" - because he does indeed inspire me - it's stamped very subtly with Versamark. I think of roses when I think of Lance - one of his fundraising events is called Ride for the Roses - so I used Fifth Avenue Floral, again very subtle on Kraft paper. I stamped the roses in Summer Sun then watercolored them in with very watery lid ink. I created the "be strong" sentiment with my Karen Foster snap stamps.

Another thing I love about the Tour de France is getting to spend my July living vicariously through the cyclists riding across the beautiful French countryside. We were lucky enough to visit France back in October of 2003. I have a dream of *someday* watching a mountain stage of the Tour in the Alps! But here is a photo from Paris - the view from atop the Arc de Triomphe. Oh how I wish I was in Paris today!!Thanks for indulging me if you read this entire post (!), and thanks as always for stopping by!

• Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Define Your Life, Polka Dot from SU, Karen Foster snap stamps
• Paper: Yoyo Yellow, Kraft, White
• Ink: Summer Sun, Versamark, White Craft ink, Memento Tuxedo Black
• Accessories: SU scallop edge punch, Making Memories DP, SU library clip, yellow embroidery floss, Janome Sew Mini