GIU Day 3 - Watercolor Because I Care

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Day 3 of my Growing in Unity week! I'm the Growing in Unity gal this week over on the Unity Stamp Co. blog, which means I'll be sharing a project created with my Unity stamps with you every day. I invite you to come back each day and leave a comment for a chance to be one of the (2) lucky people to win a bag of (25) Unity stamps! Woohoo! If you're new to my blog, I'd love it if you became a follower and join in the fun over on the Caffeinated Papercuts Facebook page or followed Caffeinated Papercuts on Instagram. :)

I am still on my flower kick - who's up for some stamped watercolors?

These are FUN to make - grab two Distress Inks and your stamp. Start with the lighter ink and cover the roses, then come in with the darker ink to make the middles. Now spritz with water (make sure the spritzer is pointed away from your face...just saying...) and stamp onto watercolor paper. Look what you made!

Now continue stamping until you fill a sheet with roses. Or is that just me? When you finally run out of paper, trim them out and arranged artfully on cardstock stamped with the wood grain stamp, which is also super cool. Snip the leaves out separately to stretch your placement and help balance them back out.

Heat emboss your sentiment, then go to town with foam tape and gluing down the little leaves. It actually goes super fast. Add some sequins (because, sequins!) and you're done.

Thanks for stopping by today! Remember to leave a comment every day this week to better your chances of winning those stamps, and I'll see you tomorrow for Day 4.

Happy Crafting!

DieNamites and So Suzy Stamps Blog Hop Day 2

Good morning everyone, and welcome to my stop on Day 2 of our fabulous So Suzy Stamps & DieNamites Blog Hop! You should be arriving from Marina's blog. If you've simply wandered in because I'm awesome, you can see the full blog hop lineup here. Also, we're surprising Suzy today with a special Birthday Blog Hop as well - check it all out here!

Much like yesterday's card, I knew what stamp I wanted to use with the Flower Vases as soon as I saw it. However, today's card strays away from the sweet side of So Suzy and jumps right into the snark pit. So if you're sensitive about such things, just keep scrolling past the inside of the card, ok? Ok.

I die-cut watercolor paper and used my Distress Inks to color in the vases and flowers, resulting in such a soft look. A bit of Sea Glass ink through the Abstract Squares stencil set the perfect background for them.

I glued down most of the die-cut, but left some of the petals and leaves loose to add easy dimension. The I'm Sorry... sentiment was heat embossed onto some yellow patterned paper for a great pop of color.

And the inside...oh the inside...hehehehehehehe

I still love that saying! Just some mild snark for your Saturday morning. The Flower Doodle corner stamp I used is now retired (sob) but you can find some of its cousins here.

Now you're off to Henryka's blog to continue the hop. Be sure to swing by our surprise Birthday Hop for Suzy as well!

Of course, what's a hop without prizes?? Be sure to leave each designer some blog love both days for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Die-Namites or one to So Suzy Stamps. There are two prizes on the line!
If you're loving what you see here in my caffeinated corner of the internet, I'd love it if you became a new subscriber. Links are on the sidebar!

Happy Crafting!

So Suzy Stamps Friendship Hop

Good morning, everyone! Are you enjoying our So Suzy Friendship Hop?? Hard to believe we've only known each other for a year now...seems like it was just yesterday these ladies were hearing for the first time that I was going to mail them my Jasper cat. LOL

As a special 'thank you' to everyone who has been on the team, followed our blog and made new friends, we are doing a Friendship Blog Hop with some of our past and present Design Team members. Be sure to leave a comment on everyone's blogs for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to So Suzy Stamps! Woohoo!

You should be arriving from sweet Martha's beautiful blog - I just love that gal. One day I'll get to hug her in person!

For my card, I broke out the Distress Inks and water to do some water coloring. The first time I saw that lovely rose hanging in Suzy's shop, I knew what I wanted to do with it!

Distress Inks - Wild Honey, Abandoned Coral, Twisted Citrus

I hear some of you giggling...you know already what stamp I used for the sentiment, don't you? It was just so fitting for my teammate loves!

Stamps - Rose, Open Sketch Heart, Weird Stalker

Hehehehehe, I truly do love them all in a non-stalker way. Ok, off you go to my dear Monica's blog to continue on the hop! You have until December 4th to leave us some love for a chance at that gift certificate to the shop.

Happy Crafting!

Happiness is...COFFEE!

Happy National Coffee Day, my friends! Fall is here and it brought with it cool air, warm coffee, and my baby in kindergarten. Say what?!? That's ok, I'm the mama with the cup of coffee at the bus stop...especially since it comes before 8am. Whimper.

And, AND, the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop is in full swing!

You may have already seen the card I created for Super Sponsor a2z Scrapbooking, but I had to make one with my So Suzy Stamps goodies as well. And I was in the mood to get messy...soooo messy...LOL

The card base reminds me of cozy sweaters and I went with fall, jewel tone ink splatters on my background paper. Don't forget the coffee cozy for that hot coffee!

I used Distress Inks and a paintbrush to make my splatters (ahem, gotta love how well the inks clean up off your desk, brushes, stamp packaging, the cat...) and a die set from Top Dog Dies that I won a while back. Gee, wonder why I picked it? LOL And if anyone asks, that's totally pumpkin spice latte in the cup.

The stamps are from So Suzy Stamps and utterly perfect for this card. Ok, and my life in general. Those I heat embossed with the gorgeous Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder.

It needed a heart, so I colored a heart die cut from the same die set with my Spectrum Noir DR3 marker and added on Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents. A few cups of coffee later it was dry and the perfect touch for the card. Oh, and the brown ink splatters? The new Ground Espresso ink, naturally.

Be sure to check out the entire Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop here - there are some amazing creations, and more keep being added!

Supply List:

Happiness Is...	Coffee	Top Dog Dies Mini Coffee Die Set TC096	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad GROUND ESPRESSO Ranger TIM43270
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad FOSSILIZED AMBER Ranger TIM43225	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Ink Pad DUSTY CONCORD Ranger TDP39938	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Ink Pad TUMBLED GLASS Ranger TDP40248	Ranger Embossing Powder LIQUID PLATINUM EPJ37484
Neenah Classic Crest 110 LB SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets	*ZIG Wink of Stella GLITTER CLEAR Brush Tip Marker 025320	Mini Glossy Accents

InLinkz.com

Some links are affiliate links, which simply means I receive a small commission if you purchase something using them. Please see my full disclosure about these links here.

Happy Crafting!

Cards, Cards, Cards and an Update

Well hello there - oh boy am I behind in sharing my creations with you! I had foot surgery the beginning of the month which has left me much more tired than I expected. Darn healing process...I want instant gratification!

So, here's a whole bunch of pretty cards and ATCs with their links so you can read all about how they came to be. That should brighten anyone's Tuesday, right? ;)

Ink Smooshing Butterflies at So Suzy Stamps

A Little Hello at a2z Scrapbooking

Shake it, Pluto! at So Suzy Stamps

Ok, I think we're all caught up now. Summer is drawing to a close (not that the weather has noticed, thank goodness) and my little dude starts kindergarten in just a few weeks. Wowza! Maybe by then I'll stop feeling like I'm playing catch-up all the time.

I've started booking fall craft shows as well, though the sidebar needs updating. I'm sending a batch of stuff off to the annual Champlain Valley Expo in Vermont. If you're anywhere near there, take a day and go - it's pretty amazing!

All right, til next time - happy crafting!

Watercolor Congratulations for So Suzy Stamps

Morning everyone! I'm blogging over at So Suzy Stamps today about how I created this 'grown up' dinosaur card:

Be sure to head on over and read about some funny things that happened while creating the card!

I'm also linking up to:
CAS-ology Week 151 - Kids
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Use Your Favorite (for me, my Distress Inks and heat embossing)

Happy Crafting!

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That Darn Cat...Coffee Lover's Blog Hop

Good morning everyone! I just couldn't let a good Coffee Lover's Blog Hop pass without entering at least one card, so I'm here today with my first entry.

Now here's the thing; the theme is spring, but right now in the Northeast we just got hammered with yet another snow storm. Yeah, not very spring-like outside...and when it is spring, you get mud. So instead of flowers and butterflies, this one is more reminisce of going stir-crazy waiting for spring to come!

If you've been here before, you've heard I have cats. When Newton's Nook came out with their new Naughty Newton stamp set, one cat in particular came to mind:

I'm shocked he's not sleeping in the clean laundry...

Meet Jasper. Jasper is...well, overall a good cat. Other times, however, Jasper is a bit of a jerk. Anyone who's been to my house learned fast never to leave any beverages unattended when Jasper is around. The little furball has broken two of my coffee mugs over the years and wasted countless amounts of caffeine.

Looks just like him...I clipped out the flower pot Newton there knocked over and replaced it with the coffee mug from the Verve Holiday Treats stamp set that I won during the last hop.

I colored in Jasper with my Spectrum Noir markers, fussy cut him out and added in the coffee cup. I then figured out where I wanted him on the watercolor paper and grabbed my Distress Inks and water brush to paint in that poor, wasted cup of coffee.

While it dried I used the Mama Elephant frames to die cut the deep chocolate (or is that coffee?) brown cardstock and add it to the kraft base card I created. I die cut the watercolor paper to fit on top, then stamped the little sayings in black Versafine ink. The word bubble is a set I won from My Favorite Things and the patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye. I heat embossed the 'bad kitty!' in Ranger super fine black powder and then broke out the foam tape to add it and Jasper to the card. A little Ranger black enamel for his name tag and the front was done!

And for a change, I stamped the inside, too:

I love how it turned out, and may need to frame it as a warning to others...LOL

Also linking up to:
Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes
Virginia's View Challenge 13 - Embossing

Thanks for stopping by, and happy crafting!

Watercolor Butterfly

Good morning everyone; it's the first day of March, which means it's release day over at So Suzy Stamps! It's also time to announce the next challenge; Watercolors

I absolutely adore the new fancy butterfly this month, so I paired it with one of my favorite sentiments:

I heat embossed the butterfly & sentiment on watercolor paper (the bumpy side to keep the texture) with white embossing powder. Then I smooshed some Distress Inks onto my craft mat - I chose the new Cracked Pistachio, Mustard Seed, and Picked Raspberry. Using a water brush, I simply painted over the embossing to make it pop.

When that was dry, I used a smaller brush to add splatters of the same colors. I mounted my watercolor paper to a white card base, added a few sparkling clear sequins and this card was done.

Supplies used:
So Suzy Stamps You are my forever and ever, Fancy Butterfly
Distress Inks in Cracked Pistachio, Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed
Ranger Watercolor paper
Hero Arts White Embossing Powder
Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear Sequins in 4mm & 6 mm
Foam Tape
Neenah Solar White cardstock
Ranger Water brushes

I hope you'll break out your watercolors and join us this month.

Also linking up to:
Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes
Virginia's View Challenge 13 - Embossing

Happy Crafting!