Taking things at face value, literally...

My oldest son Noah takes Karate every Tuesday and Thursday here at our local ATA. He is 4 years old and a Camouflage belt already so he has worked very hard to learn his moves as most kids were much older than he to begin with. The problem with him, and many kids his age is they take things literally. Which don't get me wrong that can be one of the joys of childhood to see things at face value however sometimes it can work against them. Yesterday in class, they were testing for their "red" stripe, before I go further I will explain striping. For each lesson they learn a particular series of moves they get tested once they pass that lesson(moves) they get a "black" stripe, then once they learned all the lessons (moves) they get a final overview of all the lessons(moves) and if they pass, they get the "red" stripe which means they are ready to be tested to move on the the new belt. The teachers set up this awesome obstacle course type thing in which every obstacle to pass they must do a series of their moves to go further. Noah kicked but the entire course until he had to do a double kick (two kicks without putting your foot back down) which I know what you are thinking that takes balance and a 4 year old doesn't have balance. Actually Noah has already mastered the double kick, you can ask his brother Edward who is often on the receiving end of it :) but apparently when his teacher asked him to kick twice he did just that kicked twice. So she asked him again to kick twice don't put your foot down and as children often do he took her literally, kick, foot down, kick, held foot up :/ Needless to say he did not get his red stripe... was not in attendance as I wasn't feeling great so when Noah got home I asked him to "kick twice" he did flawlessly....next week that stripe is ours!

So enough about me and on to the good stuff! This is a layout I completed about a week ago. I worked on it for several days as it was my very first attempt at a "vintage"  feel layout. I don't have much supplies in the area of vintage however armed with my making memories distressing kit, Tim Holtz distressing inks and crackled paint I feel I did a decent job....well actually I ABSOLUTELY LOVE MY LAYOUT! So much I think I am gonna frame it!

"Where ever you Lead, I will always Follow"

I used the sander in the making memories kit to "rough" it up and make it look like it has seen some better days, I love how some white holes came up here and there! Then I used my ink blender tool with some distressed ink as well as some stains to enhance the aged look. This photo started out so bright and colorful I am so proud of myself looking at it now!

 Hand made flower close up, I am in love with that flower it is just so gorgeous to me! I had seen several of them on various layouts and tried and failed to make it so many times I was so happy when I finally figured out the secret!

 

Hope you enjoyed my layout! Thanks for reading and please leave a comment and let me know what you think!