We Bought a House!

Yesterday My husband and I went to contract on our very first home - we are so excited!!  We are buying into a brand new town home/condo community in Loudoun County, VA.

 our home site

I've decided it was time to get back in blogging so I could chronicle this exciting process.  I can't wait to share our selections for the kitchen, bathrooms, and all the other little details in the next few months.  After that, I'll be getting into some decorating and DIY projects.

I guess you could consider this a semi-custom home.  There are a ton of items we get to select and customize, but there are also quite a few that we cannot change until after we are living in the house.

So far we have made all of our upgrade selections as far as the level of materials we are going to use and at the end of the month we will be choosing the exact colors and finishes.  We went all out and chose just about every upgrade possible - gourmet kitchen with granite and stainless steel appliances, a 1/2 bathroom on the main floor,  a jetted soaking tub in the master bathroom and a whole bunch more.

We are scheduled to break ground in August and move in December.  Thanks for coming along for the ride!

  

Linking up to:

Between Naps on the Porch

Sparkley Christmas ATC Tutorial

Today I am sharing the ATC cards I made for the November Swap at Your Paper Pantry, Enjoy!

Step 1)  I cut my patterned paper down to size (3.5"x2.5")  This is from a DCVW stack from 2 xmases ago.

Step 2) I inked over the whole paper piece with Festive Berries Distress Ink from the Winter 2011 Limited Release.  The polka dots on this paper have a glitter coating that worked as a great resist.

Step 3)  I misted the whole piece with Pearl Glimmer Mist.

Step 4)  I inked some small pieces of white card stock with Forest Moss Distress Ink.  I did this before cutting my shape b.c of how delicate the die cut is.

Step 5)  Here you can see the die cut.  I used Sizzix sizzlets Christmas Tree #5.  After they were cut, I misted them with Evergreen Chalkboard Glimmer Mist.

 Step 6)  I covered the little star on top with Silver Stickles.

Step 7)  I adhered my paper to light weight chipboard bases for stability.  Then I used my 1/4" corner chomper on all four corners.

Step 8)  Seems I missed taking a few photos, oops!  I cut white card stock using Spellbinders Labels 18.  Then I used a Silver Ranger Dabber to paint the whole shape with two coats. 
Step 9)  I used Staz-On in Jet Black to stamp a sentiment from Inkadinkado's Warm Holiday Wishes. 

Step 10)  Here are all the pieces so far adhered together.

Step 11)  The corner needed a little something, so I stamped these holly leaves on white card stock in Memento Tuxedo Black.  The stamp is from a $ bin set at Michaels.  I colored the leaves with Copic BG78 and the berries with R27.

Step 12)  I stamped Perfect Medium all over the entire piece of paper and dusted on Perfect Pearls in Pearl.  Don't forget to set them with water like I almost did :)

Step 13)  I cut out each little leaf set and adhered it with dimensional adhesives to the corner.  Tip:  I like to run the marker I used around the shape after cutting out to sharpen the edges.

Step 14)  I still wanted some more glitter so I used white glue all around the edges and dipped them into some chunky silver glitter.

Step 15)  I still needed a bit more sparkle so I randomly adhered some rhinestones to the trees.

Have a great day!!

Back with some Mini Cards

Hi there!  It's been a long time since I've posted anything.  What can I say?  I lost interest in posting and then I found it again.  I've gotten really into paper crafting over the last 2 years and most recently Copic Markers.  Here are two fun little cards I made recently.

Both cards have a 4x4 brown card stock base and a piece of 3.75x3.75 white card stock divided into 5 sections.  I also trimmed all the edges with a Fiskars postage stamp decorative scissors.

The hearts, sweetie, lollipop and cupcakes are from a stamp set I found in the Target $ bin a few years ago.  The fudgesicle is from Pink Paislee Hometown Summer stamp set and the dotted lines are from Lawn Fawn's Ornate Ornaments.  For the coloring I used copics - R81, R83, R85, E15, E18, E31 and spica clear over all the hearts, letters and bow.

For this card I used all Lawn Fawn stamp sets - Ornate Ornaments, Making Frosty Friends and Winter Fox. I used B000, B02, B05, YR68, and W1 on the snowman; G82, G85, R46 on the ornament; G85 on the branches; B000 on the snowflakes; E13, E15, E00, B000, B05 and W1 on the fox.
I then inked the background using Iced Spruce from the new Tim Holtz Winter 2011 distress set and sprayed the whole thing with Pearl Glimmer Mist.

I hope you liked my cards!  I'm a little rusty, but I'm looking forward to getting back into blogging:)

eBay Listings

I have two chipboard mini albums listed on eBay - click on the picture to check them out!!