See the 2 answer words debuted by Roy Greim.
C | A | S | H | I | M | P | S | O | S | C | A | R | ||
O | H | I | O | N | E | A | T | N | A | O | M | I | ||
D | A | R | T | S | E | G | A | R | U | R | A | L | ||
W | H | I | T | E | K | N | U | C | K | L | E | |||
I | L | I | A | D | R | E | U | S | E | |||||
M | A | R | R | E | D | T | H | R | A | S | H | |||
B | L | U | E | P | R | I | N | T | S | S | H | E | ||
E | A | R | S | O | A | R | S | T | A | R | ||||
A | T | E | G | R | E | E | N | T | H | U | M | B | ||
D | E | L | E | T | E | S | P | R | I | T | E | |||
G | R | A | S | P | R | O | P | E | D | |||||
F | I | N | G | E | R | P | A | I | N | T | S | |||
A | R | E | N | A | A | N | T | E | L | A | C | E | ||
T | A | R | O | T | S | K | E | W | O | V | A | L | ||
S | N | O | G | S | M | O | M | S | G | E | R | M |
The theme came to me literally right before bed when I realized that BLUEPRINTS could have an alternate meaning. From there, I quickly thought of GREEN THUMB and FINGERPAINTS, but I struggled to round it out. I couldn't think of a way to incorporate getting "caught red-handed," so I went with WHITE KNUCKLE, which I landed on around 5 in the morning.
The fill is completely different from what was first accepted. About two months ago, I tested out some new constructing software by ripping out everything except the theme answers, and I managed to put together the new fill in a few hours. I sent it to the Times, and the rest is history.
Special thanks to my dad, who has been doing crosswords for years and has always supported my constructing efforts. I also wanted to acknowledge Evan Birnholz, who has gone out of his way to give me helpful feedback on this puzzle and many others. Lastly, shoutout to my friends who put up with unsolicited emails every time I make a new puzzle (many of which can be found at my site, crossedup.net) and to my nearly two-year-old niece, who is going to be a fingerpainting prodigy.