Barb Wire Crawl - Spartan Shadowbox

 

I love it when I am able to combine two of my hobbies together, and if you've been following my blog for any period of time you've probably noticed.  Even though it might take me a bit to get my shadowboxes completed after a race I still get them done....

 

Today's shadowbox is from the Spartan Sprint that I ran with my oldest daughter and her boyfriend this past March in Atlanta.  It was the boyfriend's first, my daughter's second and my third Spartan. 

 

 

 

This year featured several new obstacles and that presented it's own set of challenges.  Not to mention that this was my first race since completing physical therapy for a shoulder impingement that had me reduced to about 30% mobility.

 

Needless to say, I wasn't worried about time - then again I never am.  I just get out there to have fun, challenge myself and do it safely.  And I am happy to say that I was able to do every obstacle with the exception of the rope climb, but what else is new there? 

 

Back to my shadowbox though......for this one I decided to use a picture from my barb wire crawl.  I'm not sure what the distance was for this year's section but it was broken up in two parts this year and each section was full of the typical mud, bumps and fun.

 

To compliment the picture I chose to showcase I used the following files:

 

• Dark Barbed Wire from the Cricut cartridge Old West.  This had a small section and I needed a longer one so I welded together four of the sections to create the length needed.
• Girl in the tire (without the tire) from the Mud Run file by Marjorie Ann Designs.  Since I was crawling through the mud I wanted my girl to do the same so I cut a small slit in the 'mud' that I could fit my girl into so as to give her the look of doing the same.

So why do I run these crazy races you ask?  Aren't I too old?  Absolutely not!  You're never too old to do what you enjoy.   And well I do them because I want....

 

 

 

MS Spartan Shadow Box

Happy Tuesday everyone.  I sure hope that wherever in the world you are you are enjoying beautiful weather much like we are here in Florida.  I had so much fun being outdoors this past weekend and even got in some training for my next OCR (obstacle course race) but before I tell you about that I want to share a shadowbox I finally put together from the first race I did with my 19 year old son. 

 

We did this race last October in Kiln, MS and if you've been following my blog for any period of time you've seen some scrapbook pages from this race as well.  As you can tell this is us after the race and I definitely enjoying my banana.  :o)

 

For my shadowbox I used a couple of different files.  I used the Mud Run file from Marjorie Ann Designs for my boy.  Admittedly I did change him up just a little bit.  In the file he's has mud in his hair but I swapped that out for a headband and he's also holding a trophy which I swapped for a medal.  The medal is from the Cricut digital cartridge Track and Field.

 

Hopefully my next Spartan Race for this year will be a Super this October, and if all goes well my oldest daughter and I will be running that one together.  In the meantime I have a few runs in FL and AL that I'm doing.  My next one is coming up on the 16th so in preparation I spend some time outdoors with my "toys" doing some functional training.  I can't afford the time and expense of a Crossfit gym and this works so much better for me because I can go at my own pace.  So this weekend I was out there doing circuits of

• tire flips with a 200+ pound tire - 5 flips one way and 5 flips back
• Hit that tire with my 8lb sledgehammer, alternating arms as I swing for 20 hits
• slinging some battle ropes and I have no idea what those things weigh but they are heavy and it's not as easy as the pros make it look ;o)
• 20 squats while holding on to my 30lb sandbag
• bucket carry - I didn't measure my distance but I just walked the length of my yard and back at its longest point.  And I have no idea what my bucket weighs but it's 3/4 full of rocks like they made us carry at the Atlanta Sprint this past March
• finished it all off with a few spear throws as this is an obstacle that is nicknamed the burpee maker and I for one am tired of doing those burpees

Later I was off to the gym for a 3.56 mile run so that I could complete my Remember the Fallen virtual race.

 

And that was my Sunday Funday......

You're a Mean One.....

 

I have to admit it.  Other than Rudolph and the Miser Brothers the Grinch is my all-time favorite Christmas character.  So as I had some free time I decided to create a Christmas shadowbox that was inspired by this T-Shirt I saw when I was at Universal Studios last month. 

 

 

And it all comes just in time for some great challenges that end this week as well.  (But more about those later.)  First let me tell you how I created my shadowbox.  I started with an 11 x 14 frame that I picked up from Michaels.  Then using Excel I created the line-up back drop on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of white cardstock.

 

The Grinch cut out is from the Krafty Nook and the Ornament in the Grinch's hand is from the Cricut cartridge Simply Charmed.

 

To create the mugshot placard I simply cut a piece of black cardstock and had my Cricut Explore write the verbiage.  The Grinch and Who-ville Police Dept. verbiage I cut out from vinyl and adhered to the outside of the glass.  The font used in both cases is called Grinched and I downloaded it from dafont.com.

 

And now I'm going to enter this shadowbox into the following challenges:

 

Christmas Carol Inspired - Die Cuttin' Divas - Ends December 21st

     not necessarily a "carol" but it is one of my favorite Christmas songs....

 

 

 

 

Christmas Ornament Challenge - Bitten by the Bug 2 - Ends December 21st

 

Anything Goes - Fantabulous Cricut Challenge - Ends December 21st

 

December Linky Challenge - DL Art - Ends December 31st

Elf,  (project inspired by the holiday season) - Red Carpet Studios - Ends December 31st

Emerald Coast Mud Run Shadow Box

Anyone who knows - or follows - me knows that my favorite sport right now is Obstacle Course Racing.  There's just something about the excitement of setting your fears aside for a while and pushing yourself to do things you never thought you could or would do.  Up until a little over a year ago I never thought I'd "play" in the mud for fun.  And I certainly never thought I'd go crawling under several yards of barbed wire or scale slippery muddy walls......but I do and I love every minute of it.

 

The only drawback to it all is that there aren't a lot of them close to where I live.  That means I don't get to participate in that many, but that's probably a good thing because I'd go broke from all the entrance fees. LOL

 

So today I want to share with you a couple of pictures I put into a shadowbox from my last Obstacle Course Race (aka Mud Run) in May.  The Emerald Coast Mud Run is a local obstacle course race that is put together by Heart of the Bride ministries to help support their missions work in Africa.  And let me tell you, these guys put on a great race every year.

 

Anyhow, for my shadowbox I used two cuts.  (Sometimes simple is better)  The tennis shoe is from the Cricut digital cartridge Track and Field.  This is a cartridge that while small in number of cuts has come in rather handy for scrapping my race pictures.  Oh and that mud - well that's from an SVG file I purchased from Kadoodle Bug Designs.  It's actually the top of what was a mud pie.  How fitting is that?

 

And since there's no time like the present and time is running out I'm running off to go enter this into the Take Me Out to the Ball Game Create a sports related project challenge that's going on over at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge.

July 4th Color Run Shadow Box

Ah, the fun runs of summer.  As you all know by now I love being outdoors this time of year and while I'm not really much of a runner I enjoy signing up and doing the fun and mud runs.  So when I found out that a special edition of the Color Run was coming to town on July 4th I didn't hesitate to sign up.  And this year I got to run with my good friend Millie so that made it even more fun.  We had a great time and pushed each other to keep on running.

Of course my husband was there to cheer me on and take pictures as he always does so when I got home I chose my favorite shot and went to work creating this shadow box.  Thank goodness I had the foresight to keep my water cup at the last water station and my girlfriend thought to pick up some of the confetti as we crossed the finish line.

I used the running border cut from the Sports Mania cartridge and cut it in three different colors to represent the Patriotic spirit of July 4th and the colors they threw on us throughout the race.

And since this was a summer time event I'm going to enter it in the Summer Time challenge over at Craftin Desert Divas where anything summer goes.

Spartan Shadowbox

I had a little bit of time to play in my craft room today so I decided to finally put together a shadow box from the Spartan Sprint Race my daughter and I did together in Atlanta a couple weeks ago.  It was a very fun experience and I look forward to doing more Spartan races, but am definitely bitten by the obstacle course racing bug.  I will spare you the details on this blog but you can read more about our first Spartan race here on my fitness journey blog.

So why am I sharing my shadow box with you on my craft blog  you ask?  Well if you take a look at the bottom left hand corner of the frame you'll notice a wonderful Spartan cut I made.  This is only one of the many wonderful cuts you'll find on the Cricut Team Spirit cartridge.  Needless to say I'm sure I'll be cutting more from this one as the need arises.

And now it's time to step away from the crafting and go enjoy some more of this wonderful sunshine and mid-70 degree weather we are having today here in Florida.  But first I will share just one picture from our race....

of course you can see more of them on my other blog, A Journey Into Fitness, where I share with others about my journey back to a healthier, more active lifestyle.

Race Day Memories

Last year I was bit by the 5K race bug and participated in my first ever mud and color runs.  My husband participated in the mud run with me and decided that running wasn't for him.  So now he sticks to lifting weights and being the photographer at any run I decide to participate in.

After several months though I finally made myself sit down and create shadow boxes of each event.  Just in time too because I will be participating in my first Spartan run next month, and that will kick off my year.  Not that there are that many races in which I'll compete but there are at least three: the Spartan, the Mud Run in May and the Color Run which will be in November.  Heck I might even find another one or two to squeeze in there somewhere.

But I digress.  This blog is about crafting and not my fitness journey.  (You can find that blog here.)

So for these shadow boxes I used two cartridges for three different cuts: 

I used the Track and Field (mini digital exclusive) for the runners in the top right of the two mud run shadow boxes.  In my husband's shadow box I cut off the "ribbon" part of the original cut and added some bakers twine to give it a little pop of color and texture.   Then for the "mud" splashes behind the runners I used the Home Décor cartridge.

For the color run shadow box I wanted to have the "splashes" of color like when they throw it on you as you go through the stations.  So using Home Décor I cut the same cut I used for the mud splashes but this time  I cut  it in two different sizes. The smaller ones I embossed with coordinating embossing powder/glitter from Stampendous.  I then pop dotted them on to the larger cuts and BAM, I got my pops of color. 

My husband had a great idea of hanging these on the wall in what is going to be our workout room (once our son moves out in a couple months).  This will also give me plenty of space to add more as I continue to run my races and maybe one day branch out to other fitness arenas......