Today I’m super excited to be participating in the Virtual Valentine’s Day Blog Hop!  A group of over 50 crafters has been organized by the fabulous Taylor Usry and we are all showcasing Valentine projects on our blogs today!  If you’ve just arrived from Wendy Price’s awesome blog, welcome!  If you came here for my weekly Paper Therapy challenge post, I hope you’ll take the time to hop to at least some of the other blogs in the group because you’ll be in for a real treat for your eyes.

Before I get to my card, I thought you’d want to know that there is a terrific assortment of 21 prizes from 19 different sponsors being given away in connection with the Hop.  Prize winners will be drawn from random comments on the participating blog hop posts – so, the more blogs you visit and comment on, the more chances for you to win!  You can comment until 6:00 pm EST on Thursday, February 17 to be eligible for a prize, and winners will be announced on Friday, February 18.  What kind of prizes are being awarded?  Check out this list:

– Stamp Insanity –  1 digital stamp set of the winner’s choice
– Meljens Designs – 4 digital images of the winner’s choice
– Pixie Dust Studio – 2 digital images of the winner’s choice
– Lizzie Anne Designs – $10 gift certificate to the Lizzie Anne Designs store (donated by Taylor Usry)
– Christian Paper Crafts – 1 year general membership
– Paper Pretties – 3 total winners: 1 person will receive Timeless Love acrylic stamp set; 2 people will receive 5 digital images of their choice from the store
– Karber Digital Images – winner’s choice of 2 digital images
– Di’s Digi Downloads – 5 digital images of the winner’s choice
– The Scrappychick Boutique – 2 6″x6″ Cosmo Cricket paper pads to one winner
– Stampendous – 4 cling rubber stamps from their new release to one winner
– Pink Cat Studio – 5 digital images of the winner’s choice
– Amber Ink – $10 gift certificate to the Amber Ink store
– Simply Betty Stamps – 3 digital images of the winner’s choice
– Mark’s Finest Papers – 1 stamp set of the company’s choice to the winner
– Dreamweaver Stencils – 1 “love” stencil, 1 rose stencil, pearlescent embossing paste and a palette knife
– Chi Chi Memories Designs – Meaning of Love Digital Stamp Set to one winner
– Little Potato House – $20 gift certificate to the Little Potato House store
– Kenny K digis: 4 digis to one winner
– Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps: winner’s choice of 2 rubber stamps

So… now, on to today’s card.  This week’s Paper Therapy challenge is to make a Valentine – and that played into this blog hop perfectly!  Like a lot of my cards, today’s has a story behind it.  Remember a few weeks ago I shared the card I planned to give my husband?  That didn’t pan out.  I got hit with the flu the middle of last week, which messed up my plans for making cards for my family to send to my parents and my husband’s parents.  Because I was under a time crunch and the card I’d made for my husband was so quick and easy to make, I ended up making a twin of it and mailed them out Friday afternoon.  Unfortunately, that left me back at the drawing board for my husband’s card.

I didn’t think I should use a tree image again – and besides, I’d used a tree image on the Valentine I gave him last year.  He’s not into the red and pink thing, with hearts and lots of mushy stuff.  Love birds didn’t seem “right.”

Then I remembered I had a sweet bunny image from Amber Ink.  Oh yes – that would work.  And I decided to color the bunnies brown rather than grey, because we don’t need any additional reminders of our grey hares, um, hairs.  The Chocolate Chip and Soft Sky striped paper seemed like a good idea, to stay away from the traditional girly looking Valentine colors.  My first attempt at printing out a sentiment didn’t go very well so I decided I’d just scrap that idea and write something about hugs or snuggle bunnies inside.  Then I thought about using Liquid Applique on the bunnies’ tails to make them look fluffy. The bunnies are popped up from the background with dimensional adhesive.

And the card gradually came to life:

And of course there’s the additional pun of bunnies on a card for a blog hop.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by today and reading through this really long post.  The next stop on this tour of Valentines is Maria Levine’s lovely blog.  However, if you somehow get stuck or lost, you can always go back to Taylor’s blog and find your way again.  Be sure to thank Taylor for organizing this hop!  Enjoy a happy Valentine’s Day!

Supplies for today’s card:
Digital image: Bunny Hug (Amber Ink)
Cardstock: Naturals White, Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Afternoon Tea designer paper (Stampin’ Up)
Other: Seaside Ribbon Originals ribbon, dimensionals (SU); Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); odorless mineral spirits (Houston Arts); Liquid Applique (Marvy Uchida)