Winter Wonderland

One of my biggest winter pet peeves is that there must be snow on the ground for Christmas. You'd think living in Upstate NY that would be a given, but there have been many a year we had a blanket of dead grass for Santa to ride on...not very picturesque or Christmas-y. So when the forecast calls for snow and the calendar says 'December' up top, I happily pull out my winter boots and wait. This weekend, Mother Nature did not disappoint.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Of course, it also meant it was time to write our letter to Santa! I have to say, having a 3 year old who is starting to realize the magic of Christmas is so much fun.

Write faster, Mom, I have lots of toys to include!

So with Santa and snow on the brain, I made up another set of journaling cards for you. Same rules as last time, please! Don't forget to share the projects you make with them on Facebook or Instagram!

Download Here

How are your holiday preparations coming? Tonight we're going to get wild & crazy and put ornaments on the tree!

Happy Crafting!

Razzle Dazzle with DeNami

Hi everyone, welcome to the next stop on the DeNami Razzle Dazzle hop! You should have come from Tammy's blog. If you're just joining in, be sure to head over to the DeNami blog for the full list of dazzling participants!

I've been dying to try making a shaker card, and when Pretty Pink Posh came out with her razzle dazzley sequins, it was a match made in shiny crafty heaven! Mix in some adorable DeNami chickies building a snow chickie, and the results are razzle dazzle snow fun!

The snow chickie ornament I filled with some crystal glitter to give the appearance of snow, then I filled the other ornament with some Pretty Pink Posh glitter (which I LOVE and am in the process of collecting all of the colors).

In the meadow they can build a snow chickie...

I used my silver gel pen to draw in the ornament toppers and strings holding them up, then added some sparkly baker's twine to hold them on.

Yes, they really shake!

I scattered some sequin stars around the background to break up all the blue and have it look like twinkling Christmas tree lights on the tree.

Topping it all off are some Season's "Tweet"ings, and you have yourself a gorgeous shaker card!

There are two more stops on this Razzle Dazzle hop; off to Lyndal's blog you go! Remember to comment on all of the blogs in the hop for a chance to win one of the TWO gift certificates DeNami is giving away!

Happy Crafting!

New Address and Some Fun Printables

Well, I finally did it - I bought my own domain name. Eep. Take a look at the address bar up there and you'll see that you've arrived at www.caffeinatedpapercuts.com, home of all things paper crafty and coffee-licious. What, that's a word. Really.

You'll also see that there are now some little page links up at the top of the page as well; one for the blog and one for the shop so far. I'll be adding more pages as the need arises...maybe even soon... ;)

So in the midst of craft shows, buying websites, and eating turkey (I do vaguely remember Thanksgiving), I also decided to try and complete a December Daily this year. You know, in my free time. Seeing as I'm starting so late (I kid you not, people have had books waiting for photos since October. What?!?) I do not have time to order pre-made journaling cards, so I went looking for printables. I did find some I like, but nothing that really matches my style. This year I'm loving the chalkboard trend, especially since it matches so nicely with the more traditional style I adore. So, I did what any crafty girl does when she can't find journaling cards she likes; I made my own. You know, in my spare time. Actually, once I got going, it was hard to stop! I actually made FIVE pages of journaling cards and man, they are CUTE if I do say so myself.

So in celebration of my figuring out how to link up the blog to my new web address and add in extra pages, I'm sharing the first of the card sets with you today. When you click the link you'll be taken to a download screen; they're saved as a PDF so you can just print and go! The cards measure 3"x4" and will not have the watermark on them, fear not.

Download Now

 Now, for the fine print & some tips:

• The cards are for personal use only.
• If you really and truly must use them for a project you're selling, drop me an email and I'll let you know how much the limited copyright license is.
• In order to not kill your printer cartridges, I suggest sending the files to Staples, Office Max, etc. It's typically only about $1 to get a color copy on card stock.
• Speaking of, make sure you print them on card stock. Ooo, or shimmery white paper that looks like snow.

If you use them, I'd love to see what you create! Feel free to post photos on our Facebook page or tag us on Instagram with #caffpaper.

Happy Crafting!

November Blog Hop with DeNami

Good morning everyone! You should be arriving at my little coffee-filled corner from Deb's blog. We're hopping along with DeNami again this month having fun with twine!

I'm actually off at a wonderful three day scrapbooking retreat up in the Catskills snd spent last night pulling this fun card together.

I have to brag a bit; the basket I drew myself and then covered with twine. I used those lovely DeNami cookie stamps to fill my sweet basket.

I stamped them with Memento Toffee Crunch, then colored them with the Distress Pen in Gathered Twigs and a water brush. The sprinkled are Liquid Pearls and the frosting is Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

In a word, YUM.

Thanks for stopping by today! Remember to comment on all the blogs in the hop for a chance to win the DeNami gift certificate. You're off to Wendy's blog next!

Happy Crafting!

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

Anyone who follows me on Instagram or Facebook will remember that yesterday I posted a teaser of spooky things to come:

Ghosts and owls and bats and spiders, oh my!

I have the joy of belonging to an art group locally where every couple months we get together and just CREATE. Tonight we meet again, and our "homework" was to alter a witch's hat and Tim Holtz clock. Tragically, the clock is barely started. I blame the fact that my boys want clean socks and spoons. Obviously they've become spoiled...my witch's hat, however, I'm bringing with me tonight to show off and I love it!

The really scary part is that messy craft table!

Oh this was a fun project! The base was a plain, kraft colored witch's hat ready for finishing. The top half of the hat I covered in 1" strips of scrapbook paper using Modge Podge. The brim was then coated in Modge Podge and topped with a glitter mixture I made myself; black, deep purple, and lime green all mixed together. I then hid my paper ends with some black grosgrain ribbon.

My little rat familiar

Once everything had dried, I added on my little rat friend here. I found him at Joann's and I love him. There's just something about rats and Halloween that just seem to go together. His little paws got glued down to the hat brim with the help of some 3-in-1.

My stylish owl familiar

Then I found my owl at Michael's. It's an owl. Wearing a top hat. Um, YES! His feet got tacked down with 3-in-1 as well, and he's so stinkin' cute. I think he and my little rat friend need names.

Boo! Meow!

Of course, since it's my hat, I had to have a Halloween kitty on it. There's little Salem, hiding behind the ghost tag ready to pounce!

Spoooooky Halloween tags

Speaking of those tags, are you loving them as much as I am? I inked up two of the freebie tags Unity loves throwing in with their orders. The large one is a mix of Concord Grape and Black Soot Distress Inks and the little one is Peeled Paint, Wild Honey, and Black Soot. The images were stamped with Black Soot as well, then when they were dried I added in liberal amounts of Rock Candy Distress Paint. I love how grungy and spooky they turned out! The ribbon I had stashed in a drawer and looks like it once came from the dollar bins at Target. Some Glue Dots holds them down nicely.

Scary spider bling

Finally, I added spiders; big, blinged out, spiders and their web. Yeah, they're pretty awesome.

I cannot wait to see what the other ladies came up with tonight! It's bound to be a good time. I'm linking up to Unity Friends With Flair.

Happy Crafting!

Distance Has No Meaning...

Hello everyone! I'm sharing one of the last cards I made up for Operation Write Home with my Unity Stamps today.

 I colored the sentiment and image using my Distress Markers and coloring the stamp itself. Especially an image like this, it's so easy! The texture is from my stamping it on a linen cardstock and I love the result.

Speaking of Operation Write Home, today was to be the day I announced the winner of the giveaway. Just one problem - there were no entries. Not a one. So, the short answer is that there is no winner. The longer answer is that I'm giving up on hosting contests for the foreseeable future. Either my promotion skills are severely lacking or I simply do not have a large enough audience or my giveaways are terrible and no one has mentioned it to me. Anyway you look at it, they are almost always a bust and I'm taking the hint.

As for Operation Write Home, I'll be sending in a nice bundle of cards to them, including many of the ones I've made for blog hops.

I'm linking up to the weekly Unity FWF today!

Enjoy the weekend! I'll be having a crafty one with my friend Rachel from Sheepish Shenanigans. :)

Happy Crafting!

DeNami Halloween Blog Hop

I love Halloween; the costumes, the candy corn, the spookables. What other day a year do we have the freedom to get dressed up and party while eating candy? So, I happily drank my pumpkin coffee and ate my candy corn while I came up with this cutie-patootie card for this month's hop.

You should have arrived here from Paulina's blog (once you were able to tear yourself away, that is...her work is amazing!). If you didn't, feel free to head back to the DeNami blog when you're done to see the full list of participants on this spooooky Halloween hop!

In case you've forgotten why you're here:

When: The blog hop starts on October 13 at 6 AM, PST. However, you have until October 14, 2013, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize).
Why: To be inspired by fun DeNami Design creations and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!
Prizes: We are giving away THREE $20 gift certificates to our website! We'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random participant (DT members not eligible) and then we'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!

So, what did my pumpkin and candy saturated brain come up with?

Trick or treaters and batty bats, ooooo!

Here's a secret; I love Halloween bats. Love. Them. So I had to use the vampire bat stamp and have them following that cute little band of chickie trick or treaters. A little seasonal glitter paper, some ribbon and Liquid Pearls, and those chickies are ready to get some candy!

Top view in my cruddy craft room lighting...sigh...

Thanks for stopping by today! Now you're off to see what kind of Halloween treats Wendy has for you while I go celebrate my husband's birthday. Yes, there will be candy corn. :)

Happy Crafting!

Winter Songbird Card

Happy Friday everyone! I'm hopping along again with the Unity FWF crew. I decided to get a head-start on creating some cards for Operation Write Home and World Card Making Day, and came up with this sweet little winter scene:

Not that I want it to be winter just yet, but still darn cute

The sweet little birdie and her sentiment are an Itty Bitty set from Unity and, as always, are absolutely adorable. No glitter, some layers, and some pretty paper means it's perfect for Operation Write Home.

Have you caught on that I'm pushing Operation Write Home? ;) In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the 4-1-1:

If we're all making cards anyway, why not send them to people who need them the most? Let's see just how many cards we can send! Mailing address is in the giveaway post, as is the deadline of Friday, October 11th. The holiday card deadline is fast approaching, hence my chosen date.

Oh, and I had 'help' photographing my card this morning...

No Mommy, I wasn't trying to knock the card off my windowsill...

She's lucky she's so pretty and affectionate.

All right, I cannot wait to see all of  your cards! Feel free to post them to our Facebook wall or tag us on Instagram at #caffeinatedpapercuts before you pop them in the mail!

Happy Crafting!

World Card Making Day and a Giveaway!

Happy Thursday everyone! The card making world is abuzz  with preparations for World Card Making Day this Saturday, October 5th. Seeing as I've been known to make a card or two, I thought it would be fun to get involved. But how, hmmm...

And then it came to me. You guys all like a giveaway, right? And making cards? So let's combine the two!

Up for grabs is a $10 gift certificate to Caffeinated Papercuts and all you have to do is make a card and send it to me.

Yes, that's it.

I, in turn, will turn around and send in all of the cards, plus some of my own, to Operation Write Home.

For those of you unfamiliar with the program, Operation Write Home sends the cards we make to our troops so that they, in turn, have cards they can send to their families. It's a wonderful program that needs cards year-round, and the deadline for holiday cards is quickly approaching.

So, your mission this World Card Making Day is to make a card (or two...or ten!) that falls into one of the following categories:

• Holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah, etc.)
• General Fall (no turkeys, ghosts, or pilgrims please)
• Valentines
• General Winter
• Birthday
• Love
• Thank You
• Missing You
• Thinking of You
• Blank (no sentiment)

You will notice that Halloween and Thanksgiving are not on the list; the deadlines for those holidays have already past and they are not collecting them for next year yet.

There are also guidelines that Operation Write Home asks card makers to follow when creating these little treasures.  Please follow the link for the full list of do & do nots; I've highlighted most of them below:

• No glitter! None! Stickles or glitter pens that will not rub off can be acceptable and they suggest rubbing it against a sweater to be sure that it will not flake off. That said, I think it's simpler to just leave the Stickles on the shelf this time.
• A2 sized cards only and please include an envelope.
• Line cards made with dark cardstock. Often all our troops have to write with is a pencil and that will not show up on the darker cardstocks.
• Some dimension is ok, and loved. They ask that we please save the "big vintage buttons and deep 3D embellishments" for another time or to use on AnyHero mail that doesn't go through the post office.
• Use quality supplies. Computer paper or thin designer paper is not adequate for letterwriting when a hero might be using the sand as a “table” . . . so please use good, heavy cardstock for your card bases. Do not use foamies, ittybitty stickers, or gluesticks – they don’t hold up to the rigors of the battlefront.
• Card Recipients. Typically these are to adults, from adults, and they ask that we stay away from 'mommy' & 'daddy' cards and the like.
• No handwritten sentiments
• No storebought cards
• No photo cards

 Nothing too horrible, right? ;)

Giveaway details:

• make a card following the guidelines above
• send me the card - I need it to be here, in New York, by Friday, October 11th to make the holiday deadline!
• your name goes into the drawing for the $10 gift certificate to Caffeinated Papercuts
• winner will be announced Friday, October 18th here on the blog

Our mailing address is:
Caffeinated Papercuts
10997 Mariaville Road
Pattersonville, NY 12137

Since we all love crafting with friends, feel free to invite them to join you!
Tweet it: http://clicktotweet.com/SkH8d
Post it on Facebook by sharing this blog article!
Feel free to tag us on Instagram - @caffeinatedpapercuts - while you're creating; we'll happily share your creativity with everyone!

I cannot wait to see the beautiful cards you create! Feel free to give a shout-out in the comments if you plan on participating. Happy Crafting!

Playing in Leaves Tag

Happy Friday and happy fall everyone! In my neck of the woods it has definitely turned into sweater and boot weather and the leaves have started changing colors. The perfect mood-setter for today's tag!

I'm playing along again with Unity Stamp Co.'s Friends with Flair Friday hop, and had to ink up this little cutie this morning:

Leaf me alone; so punny!

 Yup, a little snowball playing in the fall leaves. Too. Cute. I stamped her up in Memento Espresso, aka my new favorite ink color EVER. It's nice and dark for coloring, but not as harsh as the Black. I say 'her' as when I reached for my colored pencils I decided to color the hat & scarf set in sage green and pink. Hey, it's not often around here that I get to use pink, after all! The tag is actually one of the freebies that Unity likes to toss in with their orders that I inked up with Rusty Hinge and Wild Honey Distress Inks. The background is a leaf stamp from the dollar bin somewhere (worth it) stamped in Memento Toffee Crunch (another awesome color). The sentiment was stamped in Memento Tangelo and mounted on some chocolate brown cardstock I had in my scraps pile. Ta da! A cute, simple, quick & easy fall tag.

View from above, taken while I tossed cats out of the way...

I used some twine and yellow/green trim I had in that stash pile for the topper and called it awesome.

I'd love to see what YOU have made for fall! Feel free to share on our Facebook page, via Twitter, or tag us on Instagram at #caffeinatedpapercuts.

Happy fall and happy crafting!

Die Cuts, Doilies, Twine, and Buttons, Oh My!

Ohhh has it been a month of ups and downs! We were buying a house, then we weren't, then we were, then they buyers for OUR house fell through...aaarrrrgggghhhhh! So now we're staying put, renovating, and trying again next year. C'est la vie. One day I will have my larger house with a massive craft room and a double wall oven. Ah dreams...

Because of all the chaos (though omg, is my house CLEAN!) I really didn't have time to play in my craft room recently. I did find, however, my failed attempt at the previous 10 Minute Craft Dash. I meant to enter it anyway (despite it taking me 18 minutes, it still could have been a favorite) but, of course, I was busy packing. I'm pleased to share it for Unity's FWF instead!

Washi, doilies, twine, AND buttons?? Yummy!

 I scrap-lifted a beautiful card I found on, shock!, Pinterest, and came up with this beauty. It really does have all of my favorite things on here: kraft paper, twine, buttons, washi tape, Stickles...sigh. I love it. The sentiment is from Unity (of course) and is truly wonderful. It can easily be used as either an 'I care' or a sympathy card.

All right, I'm off to go shopping for my baby's 3rd birthday party tomorrow! I still cannot believe I'm the proud mama of a three year old. Sigh.

Happy Crafting!

Krazy for Kraft DeNami Blog Hop

Good morning everyone!  Welcome to September's DeNami Blog Hop featuring the oh-so-versatile kraft paper. You should be arriving from Lisa's blog. If you get lost along the way, just head on back to the DeNami blog for the full list of bloggers hopping along today.

When: The blog hop starts on September 8th at 6 AM, PST. However, you have until September 9th, 2013, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize).
Why: To be inspired by fun DeNami Design creations and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!

Prizes: We are giving away THREE $20 gift certificates to our website! We'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random participant (DT members not eligible) and then we'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!

So, here's a little secret - I love kraft paper. I buy it by the 100 pack. Yes, really. It's so versatile! I also had new stamps to play with...and I was hungry. Confused yet? Allow me to enlighten you:

Mmmm, holiday cookies...

 Yup, I was thinking of gingerbread. The sugar cookie set paired with the Gumdrops makes for quite a yummy card, don't you think? I hand-wrote the sentiment with gold Stickles and masked the area while stamping to give me a nice, clean surface. A bit of scoring on the top and bottom makes a nice border for the Visions of Sugarplums...

The cookies were stamped, fussy-cut, then decorated with Liquid Pearls and watercolor pencils. I wanted them to really look like they were covered in icing, so I added a layer of Glossy Accents for dimension. It's a massively long drying time, but so worth it.

How yummy do they look?

The gumdrops received some sugar crystals by way of Rock Candy Stickles. Just look at all of the shimmer and shine!

Ok, pass the coffee - these babies are getting eaten! Oh, they're still only paper...dang...

That's it for me this month! Your next stop is Amy. Enjoy the krafty tour!

Happy Crafting!

Rawr! Scrapbook Page Kit Release

Good morning everyone! I am loving this holiday weekend. My bebe dragon didn't have daycare Friday, so I have had four days off. Four. Days. Wooo! :D Better still, my dear friend Rachel from Sheepish Shenanigans is coming down to play. Since she's a rat fink and moved 3 hours away, it's been a while since we've been able to do this.

The sun even agreed with me yesterday and let me take photos of some new goodies for the shop. Today I'm sharing my latest scrapbook page kit with you - Rawr!

Rawr! That's dragon for "I love you"

I admit, I may have had my little dude in mind for this one. After all, he'll tell you what dragons say - RAWR!

The kit comes with everything you need to make the pages, though the dragon is a little tricky. If you'll bear with my craft room lighting camera phone photos, I'll walk you through it!

Dragon Pieces

All right, here are the pieces, arranged into their groups; head, body, wings, base. I used my Zig glue pen and the Mono Glue to put everything together. The nice thing about liquid glue is that it gives you a bit of time to shift the pieces if needed. Let's start off easy with the wings.

Assembled wings

Admittedly, these are some of the easier ones. See that dark spotting on the right one, though? That's what happens when you first attach them upside down...don't do that. It's messy.

Assembled torso

The body isn't too bad, either. The deep green is your base, followed by the yellow for the tummy then topped with the light green.

Assembled tail

The tail is next; again, dark green on the bottom, light green on top.

Assembled ears

The ears are pretty simple as well; one is all set, the other needs to be attached to the white piece to give it that 'shine'.

Now the head; this one is multiple steps.

Black oval to the back of the green snout

The black oval included is to make the black behind the nostrils and eyes. Start by attaching the snout to it, then attach both to the white piece.

Finished first piece of the head

Add the other green piece on top to finish off his cute face.

Fully assembled face

Now you can attach everything to the base!

Finished dragon

There we go! One adorable dragon ready for your page. If you're ready to get yours, they're now listed in the shop.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, and happy crafting!