Why MIA, Former PTI Challenge and CDT card.

Howdy everyone,

I'm sorry I haven't been around much lately.   Our Summer has been anything but lazy.  I have been suffering for about 5 possibly 6 months now with foot pain.  I have an abnormally large bone in my foot.  Ordinarily this isn't a problem but I did something to irritate the tendon and now it's rubbing against the bone causing a lot of pain.   The foot doc tried various things but nothing really helped.  So the last resort was physical therapy.  Thankfully it has made me feel sooo much better.   Since Tyler got out of school..he and Adoree have accompanied me to physical therapy sessions 3 times a week.    I also need to do exercises twice a day.  It's all worth it though my foot feels 10x better than when I started therapy about a month ago.  Bless those therapist!  I had taken for granted before being able to walk without pain and never really realized how a strong foot is important.  I couldn't believe how weak my foot was before starting the exercises.   One of the hardest things for me to get used to is wearing shoes in the house...I need the arch support so I must wear them.  It might be easier in the Winter but now that it's warm  I'm just can not get used to wearing shoes all the time!  I was thrilled though as we found sandals with built in arch supports in them at an Amish store for really cheap!  I love these sandals and my feet thank me for wearing them!  LOL!

After the 4th of July we decided to remodel our porch.  At first it was just going to be a paint job but after taking a good look at the condition of the porch we decided to tear down the awning, replace floor boards, posts and put vinyl railing and soffit up.  We have a rather large porch and not much DIY skills so this is a big deal for us!  Even with all those renovations it still left a lot of wood that had peeling and crackled paint on it.  So it is my job to get the wood ready for painting (hubby is going to help!) .  We tried scraping and sanding but the crackled paint wouldn't budge.  So we are now using a stripping gel.  It is working somewhat but takes off thin layers at a time so that means tons of scraping and reapplying the stripping until we get a paintable surface.  As I was telling hubby this is a very hard job..especially with my wimpy arms!  I repaired the horsehair plaster walls, sanded, cleaned, primed and painted the entire room mostly myself for my craft room and that was nothing compared to all this scraping!  I wish the temps would cool a little as this stripping gel is supposed to be used in temps ranging from 65-85 degrees and we have been hitting the 90s.  I think I'll get out there tomorrow morning before it gets too hot and then take a break and not go back out until after supper.  The gel is supposed to stay active for 24 hours so that should work out well.  Any suggestions on paint colors?  We have a white house and the posts along with the railing will be white but I want the porch and steps to be a different color.  I'm leaning towards a light olive green but I just can't visualize it.  Most of the porches I've seen are the hunter green and for some reason I'm not fond of that color.   I love the brick red but I think that looks better with a beige house and hubby already informed me we are not painting the house!  LOL! 

While working on the porch I managed to take some breaks and finish up the PTI's Make it Monday challenge..however...I didn't managed to get it posted on my blog by the deadline!  DRAT!  I love PTI stamps and really wanted to enter that challenge to win some.  Oh well I do love how my card turned out so I figured I'd share it with you anyway!

It really is a great technique.   You make your own stamp pad using reinkers so you can color one stamp with multiple colors.   I used distress ink reinkers to color the butterfly and leaves as that is one stamp.  I had to mix yellow and blue to get green since I didn't have any green but I love how that gave a lot of shading to the leaves.  I had plenty of ink left on my custom stamp pad to make several of these.  I wish I would of had the hindsite to stamp more of these for future cards.  Someone did mention you could possibly store your handmade stamp pad in a sealed bag for later use but I didn't think of that either. :(

Before I tell you a little more about my card...I'd like to share with you the video describing this technique.  Remember this challenge is no longer active but they do have a new challenge up for this Monday here.  I only have one PTI die that I used on the card above so I'll have to see if I can get creative with that die!




I started with my Card Base 4 file then added PTI stamps for the focal point.  The butterfly circle came from the Round and Round Anniversary Set (not available for sale anymore) and the frame came from the Mat Stack 2 collection and a Nestabilities Scalloped circle was added behind that for a pop of color.  The background paper was stamped with a french script stamp.  The patterned paper was made with the following PTI stamps:  Turning a New Leaf  (love...love..love..this set!)  and the separate butterfly the the Round and Round anniversary set.  This is my first time stamping my own background paper and I thought for sure I would screw it up but I think it turned out pretty well!  It is impossible to tell in the photo but I sprayed the yellow scallop circle, border and butterfly patterned paper with pearl glimmer mist.  I love the shimmer it added!  The tag is from my tags galore file.  The sentiment is from PTI's Round and Round anniversary set.  I added a few clear dew drops colored with a purple Copic marker and also some rhinestones to the sentiment.  Oh and see that baker's twine....guess..what....I made that myself!  Yep...all it took was my Dremel tool, a cup hook, crochet thread and embroidery floss.  (If you want to see a demo of how I did this let me know and maybe after the porch is done I can get one made up).    I do think I will use this color combo in the future.  I'm not a big fan of the color yellow for some reason but I love it paired with the purple and green.

My CDT member Johanne also had fun with my Card Base 4 file.  

I just love this color combo and the papers she used.  The stickles add just the right amount of pizazz to this great card!  It would be a great card not only for Valentine's Day but any time you want to let you loved ones know you are thinking of them.   Here is what Johanne had to say about her lovely card:

Cutting File:

                Card Base 4 from Shelly's Art

                I Love you from Barb Wire Designs (from the KNK complementary files CD)

                Fancy Hearts(Free_Feb_007) a freebie from one of the group

Paper:  Together Ruby from Chatter Box

Stickles

Tim Holtz Distress Ink brushed corduroy

So do you any of you want to come to my house and put a bed together?  LOL!  Adoree has been sleeping in Tyler's "crib".  It is one that converts into a day bed but she is a rather active child and the springs have started to sag plus she is getting really tall.  So we decided it's time to get her a big girl bed.  Her room is very small so we wanted a bed that had storage in it that way we wouldn't have to try to squeeze a twin bed and dresser into her room.  We found a great loft bed on Amazon.  It came in three boxes and now needs put together!  It is funny even the instructions say it's best to ask a friend to help!  Hmm I wonder if hubby and I can do this without too much frustration!  Wish us luck!  Adoree is such a girlie girl!  Tyler has always been perfectly happy with plain sheets.  However, Adoree just begged to have the Princess and Fairy sheets.  It's a good thing they were on sale at Kmart!  Okay now that your eyes hurt from reading this long post...I will bid you goodnight!

Thanks for stopping by and come back again.  If I get a chance I'll come back with some porch before and afters!  At this rate though the after might not be until the end of the month!

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