I'm WHAT?!!!!!

The news yesterday from my fitness club was not good. While I'm chronologically aged 44, my "physical" body age is 53!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's how old my Body Age Analysis testing indicated I was. Is that a total downer, or what? No wonder I've been feeling old lately....it's because my body says I'm old (I mean no disrespect to those of you fabulous women reading this who actually ARE 53, it's just old to me because I'm not supposed to be that age yet!!!). The good news is that I can get this turned around relatively quickly by not eating and exercising 24/7. Just kidding. On the agenda for this old girl? Cardio 3x per week, muscle conditioning at least 2x per week, and a nutritional overhaul. I can't say I was surprised by the high number, I just didn't think it'd be THAT high. With such a prominant history of heart disease in my family, I really have no other choice than to get this taken care of, do I? I know it's time, and I'm ready for the challenge. I know I will start to feel so much better soon. And that's motivating!

Anyways, I'm sharing two cards with you today that I made last weekend when I was on my black and red kick. I love red and black together. And I wasn't afraid to put these two red and black designer papers together either. I know the patterns are busy, but they are the SAME pattern, just different colors, so that made it easier to pair together. Both papers are Foof-a-la by Autumn Leaves.

The first card starts out with a black base. This is the double sided cardstock I use when I want a black cardbase. It's black on the outside, and white on the inside, which makes stamping and writing on the inside of the card super easy. I first made the scalloped bottom using the black Foof-a-la paper, and then laid a piece of the red Foof-a-la in the middle part of the card, and then used the waste paper from the scallop at the top of the card, on top of the red paper. Does that make sense? Super easy. I took a piece of my black and white gingham paper and rubbed Ranger Ink in Walnut over the ribbon to make it black and cream instead. I tied the bow separately and then glued it on top of the ribbon strip using glue dots. The sentiment was stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock and then I rubbed Ranger Ink in Tea Stain all over it to age it a bit. It's matted with black cardstock, and then adhered to the front of the card using dimensional tape. Super elegant, but super easy at the same time!

The second card is a bit different from the first. The card base is Real Red. I cut off about a 1/2 inch from the front panel of the card. On this front panel, I glued a piece of the black Foof-a-la, and on the inside panel, I glued a scalloped edge of the red Foof-a-la for contrast. I punched a hole on both the inside and outside panels and then thread a piece of black grosgrain ribbon through to tie the card closed. You just have to untie the bow to open the card. The scrolled floral stamp on the front of the card is one I picked up at the Inkadinkado booth at CHA. It is from their line of unmounted rubber stamps. They had a bunch of these stamps sitting in baskets for people to grab, so I don't know what set this particular stamp comes in, but I love it! It stamps so nice. And it has a picture of the stamped image on the BACK of the stamp so you can see what the image is through the acrylic block. I stamped this image on a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, and again, aged it with my Ranger Ink in Tea Stain. The sentiment comes from SU's Small Sayings set. It was stamped in Read Red ink.

I hope you like today's cards. Another two for one day, woo-hoo! I plan on going to the club this morning for outdoor water aerobics, yeah! Then we'll stay at the pool for a little while after that so the boys can swim (my youngest had a sleepover last night, so they'll come with me to the club to work out and then swim for a little bit). I have to pick up Eldest Son at 230p when he arrives from his final week at camp. Now there's nothing but school on the horizon! Yippee! I'm going to get my stampin time back!

Have a great day!

Hugs,
Amy