Butterfly Spring

     Grab a cuppa, this is a long read today but I do want to share it all.  :-D   I have to brag on both my granddaughters today!  A couple of weeks ago, I shared with you about my younger granddaughter's Competitive Cheer team taking First Place in their division and her gym program taking overall Grand Champions at the competition held that weekend in our state capital, Sacramento.  This week, her team received an unexpected invitation to "The Summit," for the national Cheer championships held in Orlando, Florida, the first weekend in May!

     As it turns out, each team from her gym which competed throughout the season has now received an invitation to one level or another at the national championships.  Some of those invitations are fully pre-paid and others are just the invitation to compete.  My granddaughter is on a team which must pay their own way so we're now scrambling around, doing fund raising since that trip will cost about $3,000 for each child (with their chaperone) on the team.  Yikes!   Makes me wish we lived in Florida instead of California.  Or at least had more time to raise the funds.  We have barely three weeks before everything has to be paid.

     But she has worked so hard this year, keeping up with the team's choreography and practices despite an injury which sidelined her for almost all of the fall schedule, and despite facing changes in the entire coaching staff at her gym, and losing several team members who had been with the program for the previous 3 to 5 years.  Everyone expected this to be a "building" year for all the teams so their high scoring so consistently that it led to getting invitations to the national competitions is really incredible!   Somehow, we have to find a way to send her to Florida!  She's gone above and beyond everything asked of her and her academics have stayed above a B+ throughout the year.  She's a freshman in high school so there was also the adjustment to new school, new teachers, new curriculum, and all the other things which go with turning 15.  :-D

     If you're interested in reading more about her goals, you can find a letter she's written on her "Go Fund Me" site.  Here's a link: https://www.gofundme.com/summit-2017-rebeccas-wish

     Now, as for the older granddaughter, she's the one who spends time coloring with me and she's truly an artist in her own right.  She's a senior in high school and will be graduating in May.  She's already focused on college and a career working with Special Needs kids.  She's so caring, so gentle, and has an inner strength that always amazes me!   For several years, she has saved every card I've made for any of her family members, treating them as though they are some kind of golden treasure.  :-D

     Last week, I posted a card with an image she and I had colored together.  I was pretty impressed with what she did because it was really the first time she had worked with colored pencils.  Today, I've made a card with an image from Ching-Chou Kuik which she colored entirely by herself.   See what I mean about her being an artist?  She's fantastic!

     I took her colored image, cut it with a Gina Marie die, and mounted it onto a pink card base.  I added sheer polka dot ribbon and bow.  The sentiment is computer printed and hand-cut, then matted.  The butterfly is double layered (dies from Presscut) and adhered as a complement to the butterflies in the image.

     The die cut frame is so elegant and lovely that I let it be the primary embellishment, minimizing the other things to some degree.

      Challenges:
A Bit More Time to Craft
A Perfect Time to Craft
Card Mania
Ching-Chou Kwik 
Craft-Dee BowZ 
Creative Ladybirds
Cute Card Thursday
Dies R Us
Do-All Creatives
World Wide Open DT

     Thanks for bearing with me during that long read but you know how 'proud Nanas' can get!  I'd love it if you'd pass along the info about my granddaughter trying to get to Florida.  Every little bit helps and I will be heart broken if we can't raise enough for her to go.  She's worked so hard and she deserves it.  The entire team deserves it. :-D  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie