Melanie's blog hop and my frog prince...

Melanie Muenchinger is celebrating two years of blogging and illustrating for Gina K Designs, and today she has invited 25 designers and YOU to join the party!

First hop through the following designers' blogs using every set she has created since January 2008, from the first to the 25th! Then go to Melanie's'blog to leave a comment for a chance to win a number of different prizes! So let's get hopping!

Here we go!

Just So Hippy-Charmaine
Just So Hoppy-Donna
What's in Your Tin 1 & 2-Donna
Hip Hop Accessories-Bee (you are here! :-))
Jumping for Joy-Barb
Cuddles and Hugs-Jessie
Little Tees-Cat
Just So Sporty-Pam
A Year of Flowers-Theresa
Say it with Flowers-Selma
Have a Cookie-Carolina
Tee Talk-Gabby
Hand in Hand-Ally
The Best Things in Life-Shannon, Sankari
A Charmed Life-Cathy
Wee Tees-Libby, Laura Jean
Arranged with Love-Selma
Sporty Accessories-Tina
Inspiration Mosaic-Jennie
School Sports Spirit-Melissa
A Year of Leaves-Geri
Hip to Be Square-Karen
Festive Frame-Linda
Tech Talk-Tech Talk- Lee


Finally, Nina and Jessica from the GinaK Senior Design Team have joined in, too!
You can also get in on the hop yourself and increase your chances of
winning a prize by creating your own project with any one of Melanie's sets and linking it in the Mr. Linky in her post, see full details here.
Hope you can join the fun! Enjoy your first hop of the year!

As for my card, it's pretty straight forward. I chose the little frog in honor of the new Disney movie "The princess and the frog" that I enjoyed with my daughter the other day. I made a simple pop-up inside with a little heart that says "kiss me".

Wishing you a wonderful NEW YEAR! May it be happy, healthy and peaceful! :-) <3>

Flowery vellum window

This is another card for "my soldier". It's a little hard to see on the picture but it's a piece of vellum cardstock that has been Cuttlebugged and then colored with Prismacolor markers, and affixed as a window on my card (so you actually can see the writing through the flowers). There's a tiny bit of glitter that doesn't appear on my pic, even though I took it in the sun... ;-)

Simple Holidays

A simple holiday card I made for "my soldier". The medallion is heat embossed with silver powder, and I used a silver sharpie for the dots on the cuttlebugged card front. The deep blue cardstock is from PTI and has this gorgeous metallic silvery shimmer (I took the picture with a flash to try to catch that shimmery effect). The stamp is from Stampendous and one of my favorite, this is all I wish everyone for the Holidays, Peace on Earth.

(as always click on pic for details).

Simple flowers for Soldiers' Angels

This is a special project for me for 2 reasons. First I LOVE this card because it is so simple! Making simple cards is actually a challenge, but they're my favorite! Second, this is the 1st card for a special someone: my "adopted soldier".

Soldiers' Angels (http://www.soldiersangels.org/) is a great organisation run by volunteeers, trying to make the life of deployed soldiers a little better. They have a lot of various team projects, and also give you the opportunity to "adopt a soldier". Basically it means that for the time of a soldier's deployment you agree to send them at least a letter/card a week and a care package a month. If you don't want to commit to this schedule or to a person in particular, there is also a "Letter writing Team" so check them out! :-)

I was lucky to have been assigned to a woman, because male cards are out of my comfort zone, LOL... So I suppose you will see some more simple (feminine!) cards on my blog very soon... ;-)

Holiday treats boxes

By now you know how much I love Lauren's templates (through PaperTreyInk until now, and soon through her own company My Time Made Easy). This one is called "Tucked away" and is perfect for chocolates and such. At first I was afraid it would be too small but you actually put more in there than I thought before it was assembled! I was able to squeeze 6 Ghirardelli squares and 10 Lindor truffles in the big size, (making sure to have a few that wouldn't fit in there, LOL!)... :-P Those are just so incredibly easy to put together and decorate, and it looks so much more polished than just giving the bag they came in!

Winter window

You know me, I don't make Holiday cards, it's way too time consuming... But sometimes you just need to make one... ;-) I had fun with this one, creating the window with a Nestabilities rectangle, and then using light blue vellum paper. I like the opacity it creates on the window like there is frost, but on the other hand as you can see, it makes it difficult to see through. So next time I'll try with acetate for a change...

Foil wedding card

Another "foil fun" card, this time for the wedding of my friend Catherine. The idea for the foil came from the fact that her wedding reception colors were silver, red and black. The middle is heat embossed with silver powder as well. A very simple card but I love how the light plays on it. :-)

Foil engagement card

My husband's cousin recently got engaged and this is the card I made. I used one of my favorite technique here, the kitchen foil embossed in a Cuttlebug folder, results are always stunning. The medallion is heat embossed with silver powder and the hebrew letter in the middle is then carved out, revealing the cardstock underneath. This letter means "life", I thought it was only appropriate for a couple starting a life together. :-)

Birthday Fold

A very belated b-day card for my sister-in-law (better late than never, right?!...), made using one of Lauren's templates (My Timeless Templates). I swear the colors aren't so ugly in real life(or so I hope!!)... ;-)

Wedding Planner

A friend of mine just got engaged, and I thought she might have fun jotting down notes about her wedding preparations in this little planner I made for her, using My Timeless Template recipes holder... :-) I made my own mini notebooks to fit inside the pockets. That's something easy to slip in a bag so you can add ideas when they come to you! ;-) (as always, click on the pic for a bigger size).

Air ballons birthday

Another card with the same easy basic layout, and with another PTI set, designed to be used with buttons! I am not really a fan of sewing buttons on projects so I just colored in the holes to match my epoxy buttons.. ;-) This one is for my Dad's birthday.

Tulips birthday

Thanks to a belated birthday gift, I got some new stamps... :-p... This is vintage picnic from PTI.

The basket is paper pieced twice (used the PTI wrapping and distress ink), and the flowers once. I like that it add a little dimension but very subbtle... the image is colored with Prismacolor alcohol markers. That one was for my Mom's birthday.

Toothfairy Tin

My niece just turned 5, and I expect she will lose teeth soon... so I made her a little toothfairy box to put under her pillow... I made a little "cup" for her tooth with a prima flower and added a little pocket to leave messages to the toothfairy... I used Melanie's tins stamps set and drew the tooth by hand. I think she'll have fun with that... ;-)

Belated birthday

A simple birthday card for my niece...

Strawberry briefcase

Yet another one with the same template, this time for Naomi. I used velcro instead of ribbon to keep it closed since she isn't so crazy about tying knots! ;-)

Father's day coupon book

This is a little set I made for father's day with Naomi's help. The little briefcase is to put hubby's credit card receipts, the little booklet is full of coupons we made with Naomi. They include stuff like "one kiss anytime", "one back massage", "your favorite dish" "one afternoon nap"..etc... and i think my hubby's favorites are those 2 that I made just for him "no shopping today" (to use on the week-ends! LOL) and "no nagging today". He complained there was only 2 of each but hey, a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do!! ;-) Sorry the pic is really bad, I'm having trouble with that lately. As always click on the pic for larger view.

More briefcases...

Told you I loved this template, right?... ;-) Still have a few to make!... You can click on the pic for a better view.

Chocolates briefcase

This has to be my favorite template so far from My Timeless Templates (papertreyink.com). It's so cute and so easy to decorate afterwards... I added a little handle, to make it look more like a little briefcase. This one holds chocolates (Ghirardelli squares fit perfectly in there!) and was for the sonogram tech at my doctor's office. She was so nice during my whole pregnancy and a great support. It is so much nicer to give treats in a cute little packaging like that, than the bag they come in! :-)

Mail file holders

An attempt at being more organized, thanks to another one of Lauren's templates... ("filedwithflair", My Timeless Templates at papertreyink.com). I kept it very simple and gender neutral since we both use it... ;-) Of course it only accomodates part of the junk mail that overflows the mailbox everyday, but that's a start! :-)

Basket of chocolates

If you haven't tried Lauren's templates ("my timeless templates") yet, you don't know what you are missing, they are fun and so easy & fast to put together!!! (you can find them at papertreyink.com), and the best part is you just print them from your computer.

This one here is packapicnic, and I used it to make a basket of chocolates for my doctor's office. It's the perfect size for a big bag of Ghirardelli squares, leaving a few for you to eat while assembling the project! LOL... ;-)

Butterfly baby

A card I made for my cousin who had a little girl...2 months ago...the card hasn't left the house yet...Ooops.... This new set by Melanie is gonna be perfect for my scrapbooking pages of baby Nathan! :-D The butterfly wings are covered with flock. (Awesomely cool paper by DCWV Nana's nursery baby girl)

Teacher's giftcard holders

Not really any time for papercrafts lately...but it was the end of year and its inevitable teacher's gifts. I have to say I go the easy route. Amazon gift cards seem like the way to go, that way I am pretty sure everyone can find something they like. So I just made very simple holders with their names on it. I wanted to avoid stamping on it, aside from the name (used JustRite Stampers for that), so that they can re-use it if they want, as a little card holder (I'm sure I'm not the only one giving them giftcards! ;-)) or even to put wallet size pics. It's really nothing complicated or impressive but making that kind of little things make me happy!... :-)

That's what papercrafting is all about... :-)

Good luck birthday

This is my hubby's Grandma's birthday's card. She's from Morocco so I used a Fatma hand which is a symbol for good luck (keeps the evil eye away). The hand and sentiment are embossed with silver powder, then the hand is colored with prismacolors markers and I added a little rhinestone for the eye. The background is simply some heavy duty aluminum foil cuttlebugged. The foil is beautiful IRL! :-)

(BTW Gina K. has a tutorial about foil in Cuttlebug on Stamp tv)

Ladybug 2

This is the "reverse" card from the one I made for Naomi's birthday, I used the opposite frames.I think it will likely be my Mom's mother's day card...

For the little 'Lady Burg"

I made this card for Naomi's 8th birthday. The paper frames are done with the Nestabilities, the white background is cuttlebugged with leaves and pierced, and the ladybugs are covered with crystal effect.

Birthday bow

A birthday giftcard-holder for one of my son's teachers, to be used by the class. I wanted it to look like a gift box and unwrap like one, so I played around a little bit... :-)

One of the panels is glued to form the gift-card pocket (after being embossed with my cuttlebug), the opposite panel folds over it and is used for us all to sign the card, and the top and bottom (embossed with a diferent pattern) actually form the "gift". The ribbon wraps all around the card, just like it would around a gift box.

Floral wallpaper birthday

The last one in my "DCVW + Damask" serie, this very simple birthday card for my sister in law uses only a tiny flower detail from the stamp set as a medallion (the circle sentiment is from a Stampin'Up set) but I really loved this paper too and I wanted to keep it the star of the show... :-)

I used the leftovers of the cardstock to make a little holder for the earrings I was sending, I love it when things match!... ;-)

Simple floral birthday

When you start it's hard to stop... I used the same paper collection (love, love, love this wallpaper effects) from DCWV and "Damask" again for this simple birthday card.

Damask Thank You

A few months ago I was the lucky winner of a stamps set on the Lizzie Anne Designs blog. When I mentioned I already owned that set, Tricia (the "Lizzie part" in Lizzie Anne ;-)...) very nicely offered to send me another set instead. :-D

I chose "Damask", and I thought it was only appropriate that Tricia would be the recipient of the 1st card made with that set, so I made her this Thank You card.

I just love that card. I adore this paper by DCVW, and I thought it was going well with those stamps. The colors are very "spring" to me and it was one of those "put-me-in-a-good-mood-card".

I am pretty confident it will put Tricia in a good mood too! ;-)

(as always by clicking on the pic you'll get a giant version, this will enable you to see the details of that cool paper)...

Polka-dots

I'm gonna take a chance posting this card before I know that the recipient got it but I think she is way too busy to visit my blog right now...

Chelsea asked if I would sell her a custom card to send her cousin Laura (a.k.a "the stampin' soldier") who's in Afghanistan. I was quite flattered that someone would offer to buy a card from me, and even though I didn't take her up on that offer, I was more than happy to make a card for Laura.

Since Nathan was born there just isn't time for cards or scrapbooking and I welcomed the excuse/motivation... ;-)

Chelsea mentioned the polka dots Prima she saw on another card and I started with that. Then I got the idea to add those adjectives (from a Cuttlebug folder) and I ended up with this strange card that I like a lot.

If you don't read Laura's blog yet (http://www.lauraevangeline.blogspot.com/), you should pay her a little visit. She shares her creativity and her experience as a soldier and she is a pretty amazing person.

Thanks Chelsea for the ego boost and making me a part of this! :-)

V-card for Naomi

Long time no see... Adjusting to life with one more family member is proving to be challenging! LOL!... Needless to say the creativity is on hold, not that I don't have the mojo but I just don't have time and the sleep deprivation makes me functionate at a sloooow pace...

Anyway, here's a little card for the fun, for my 7 1/2 years old daughter Naomi for Valentine's day... slightly flashy but it was intentional... ;-) The colors of the pics are slightly off because I used the laptop and I'm not familiar with the photo editing there...oops...

I used JustRite stamps for my custom sentiment. And funnily enough the superwoman stamp from the "kindred spirits" collection by Gina K. is called "Naomi"'!

Birthday gift-card holder

With the "new (little) man in my life", there just hasn't been time for scrapbooking or making cards!... But one of Noah's teacher's birthday is coming up so that gave me an excuse to make a gift-card holder for the class to give here. Obviously I went with simple and old design, things have to be fast these days! ;-)

(And sorry I took the pics at night so the colors are off...)

I will find the time to scrap and make cards again one day, before he enters kindergarten, right? Right?...

Now back to thank you cards and birth announcements...

BABY News!!! :-D

He's here!!! :-D

The latest member of the clan made his apparition Thursday January 22nd 2009 at 8:00 am via a planned C-section.
Nathan Eli Samuel was 22 inches long and tipped the scale at 9 lbs 14 ounces (he is actually the lightest of our babies at birth! thanks to the gluten free casein free diet I followed during pregnancy...).
He is, of course, the most beautiful baby ever, with his plump little round face, his soft little fuzzy head, his curious eyes and perfect little hands and feet...
We are ecstatic and so grateful to have been blessed with this new little miracle in our life. <3

Baby Lamb frame (PTI Guest Designer Submission)

When I came across this paper with the hills and the little sheeps I instantly thought about the card Nichole made when "Punny Valentine" stamps set came out last year and she made this little felt sheep....

So I just HAD to make this little frame for my (to-be-here-in-8-days) baby boy. I just wish I could have made a little lamb with his Mommy, I might have to try that afterwards.... (if baby takes long naps! LOL ;-))
I had to tweak the frame since I couldn't find the shadow box I wanted, but in the end it worked. I made 2 hills layers and added some nice clouded paper, all separated by pop-dots, and cut my little felt lamb with nestabilities. I cut some fringes in the paper to look a little more like grassy hills and inked the edges.

The outside is framed with a large green grosgrain ribbon and then another layer of PTI blue rain Gingham ribbon. (it's hard to see on the pics!).

As you can guess this is a hard to photograph project because of the reflections...

It was not intentional, but I think it is a pretty good match to my baby keepsake box made with the PTI heart box! :-D

I didn't make it for the guest designer submission but decided afterwards to submit it anyway...