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. :-)