Flowers and Stamps and Birds, Oh My!

Hi everyone! Yes, I know, I've been absent again...I'm also still waiting for the power to come back on from Wednesday. We had some massive thunderstorms up here in Upstate NY, complete with a few tornadoes! Oh yeah, fun fun...thankfully no one was hurt and everyone's possessions are safe and sound. It certainly makes you stop and appreciate life for a bit though, doesn't it? It also makes you hook up the coffee pot to the generator for your morning dose of caffeine! LOL

Despite all the excitement, I did manage to finish up a gorgeous wedding invitation order and I got my latest Unity Stamp of the Week in the mail. Now, I love stamps. I love getting new stamps to play with. However, I think this is the very first time I opened the envelope, saw the stamp, and RAN upstairs to immediately make something with it! The heck with no power, I had plenty of sunshine and ink pads don't need electricity. So what's the stamp that made me run upstairs? This little beauty:

I might have yelled 'squee'. Can't prove it though, the boys weren't home and the cats aren't telling. O.M.G. You have to understand, my family has gone up to the coast of Maine since my baby sister was 5. We always go and feed our leftover french fries to the seagulls at the beach and watch the little sparrows hop through the outdoor patios looking for leftovers. So this little stamp and saying made me think of all those fun times again. So instead of starting with a card, I decided to make a little canvas piece for myself.

Eek, mind the camera phone picture...

I used my Distress Stains in Tumbled Glass, Bundled Sage, Evergreen Bough and a bit of Frayed Burlap to color in my little canvas after stamping the bird with the Distress Paint in Picket Fence. This is a fun technique; stamp in acrylic paint onto canvas first, then let it dry. You can speed up the process with a heat gun, but only if you have power...which I didn't...so I attempted to be patient and let it dry. The paint resists color so you can then go color-crazy over the top of it! I just kept layering colors until it had the beachy feel I was looking for. Once everything was dry, I simply stamped the sentiment onto the canvas using my Memento ink.

Did I mention the canvas has a cute little easel? I scooped a whole bunch of these up at Joann's on Black Friday. They were so cheap, I couldn't not buy them!

Yeah, I love it. I'm keeping it. Look at that, I made something for myself for a change! LOL

I mentioned flowers, didn't I? Well, the baby poppy plants I added to my garden last year are starting to bloom. Yowza! Aren't they beautiful?

I'm linking up to the Unity Stamp Friends With Flair and Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.

Happy Crafting!

And the Winner is...

So I do hope everyone had fun with the sneak peeks of the Box o' Crafty Goodness and dreaming of what will be inside. I do have one last peek for you before we announce the winner:

One layer below, one layer still to come!

All right, and the winner (according to random.org via Rafflecopter) is... ANNETTE! All right Annette, kindly drop me an email within the next 48 hours to caffeinatedpapercuts@gmail.com to claim your prize! Thank you everyone for playing! I'll be back soon with new projects to share. Happy Crafting,

Cupcake Gift Tags

Happy Saturday everyone! I was feeling creative this week and decided to enter Pink by Design's Birthday Challenge. I thought I would share these adorable cupcake gift tags I made up:

Kindly note the yummy glitter 'sprinkles'

I made these up with kraft paper tags I found on clearance at...sheesh...Michaels, Joann's, one of those stores. Some simple stamping with my older-than-dirt cupcake stamp set (seriously; like the packaging disintegrated so I can't even tell who the manufacturer is anymore!) and coloring with my pencils and these babies were looking c-u-t-e! I inked up the edges with my Distress Ink and then added "sprinkles" with my Stickles. I then carefully put them to one side and let them dry for hours. Yes, I may have finally learned my lesson about how long it takes Stickles to dry...maybe...ok, probably not, but at least for now I have.

These little cuties will be listed in my shop soon, and in the meantime be sure to enter our Box o' Crafty Goodness giveaway!

I'm linking up here: PbD Birthday Challenge

Happy Crafting!

Happy Random Acts of Kindness Week!

 So apparently there is an entire week dedicated to Random Acts of Kindness...go figure. I'm sure if I walked into Hallmark they would even have cards on the subject, right next to the belated birthday cards for your goldfish.

Sadly, I do not have cards on the matter, but I'm hoping giving away a box of goodies will ease the pain. I'll take a moment for that to sink in...ooo, coffee! Ah, I see the squeals of delight have started; yay, giveaway!!!

So, what is there to win? How about a Box o' Crafty Goodness! The contents will be random, awesome, and there will be enough to share with a friend. You could easily open it to find handmade paper rosettes, tags, buttons...

Ok, why are you being coy? What's in there, Jennifer?!?

That's the thing - I really don't know! This is a spur-of-the-moment giveaway brought on by love of my fellow man and the fact that I was up until midnight making valentines for my son's daycare (yeah, apparently 2 year olds exchange valentines...wtf?) I have many handmade supplies & products laying around the craft room that need a good home and have decided that this is a great way to do it.

Here's the nitty-gritty: go ahead and enter below via Rafflecopter. The contest starts right now and ends next Saturday, the 23rd. If you notice, you'll see that some things you can do daily for more entries such as Tweeting about the contest. The winner will then be drawn at random and will have 48 hours to email me their address to receive their Box o' Crafty Goodies. If they miss out, then another winner will be chosen at random, yadda yadda.You must be a US resident aged 18 years or older to be eligible to win. Sorry, my international friends!

Got it? Good. Now go enter! :D

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Psssttt...might want to keep an eye on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for peeks of what might be in the box... ;)

Good luck!