Today I’m excited to be participating in Operation Write Home’s Bunny Blog Hop!  About 130 papercrafters are participating – it’s HUGE!  If you’ve come here from Corinna’s My Scrapbook Life blog, you’re hopping right on track.  If you just popped by because you’re my friend, and you’d like to start from the beginning of the hop after you’re done here, you’ll want to go to the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps blog.

As I’ve mentioned before, Operation Write Home collects handcrafted cards to send to our military men and women stationed overseas.  Then our troops can use the cards to send messages to their loved ones at home.  I consider it to be a wonderful way to show support to our heroes and their families who must be separated for long periods of time.

Because of the time it takes to ship the cards to the Middle East to get to the troops, and then again for them to mail home, Operation Write Home sets deadlines ahead of holidays.  If you’d like to send them Easter cards, they’ll need to receive them by March 18, 2011.  Mother’s Day cards need to be received by March 31, 2011.

When I first started on my card for today’s post, I used a sketch from the OWH Stars & Stamps blog.  I love the Stars & Stamps blog because besides the sketches, they also provide other challenges to spark my creativity.   Unfortunately, I didn’t like the way that card turned out.  I’ll still donate it to OWH, but I didn’t feel like it was blog worthy – especially not for a big occasion like today’s hop!  So I went back to the drawing board and came up with this:

I used several papers from Basic Grey’s Gypsy paper pad and fit them into the spaces from Deluxe Cut’s Card Making Template 1-C.  (I don’t like that Deluxe Cuts went out of business a few years ago because I still think their templates rock!)  I added some sponging around the edges of each block.  The bunny is a digital image from Amber Ink.  I reversed him so he’s facing left instead of right, colored him with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits, and cut him out reallllly closely with my Cutterbee scissors.  He’s attached to the pink background with pop dots for some dimension.

Now, what’s a blog hop without some blog candy?  🙂  I’m offering up the following goodies:  Basic Grey’s Gypsy 6″ x 6″ paper pad (that’s been retired for a while!), a package of Making Memories white and pink paper flowers, some clear and some pink self-adhesive rhinestones, a package of pastel brads, a package of ribbon charms, and a package of jump rings.  Wanna see?

Disclaimer: the basket in the photo is just for background display purposes and is NOT part of the blog candy package.  If you had your heart set on it, I’m sorry!  The papers used on today’s card are in the paper pad, and the flowers on the card are the same as what’s being offered here too.  I’ll use random.org to choose one prize winner from the people who comment on today’s post.  Because this is such a huge blog hop, you have until 10:00 pm eastern time Wednesday, March 9, 2011 to comment in order to qualify, and I’ll announce the winner on Thursday, March 10.

Now, I’ll send you to Penny at Penny’s Page so you can continue on the hop!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Here is the complete supply list for today’s card:
Digital Image: Love Bunny – Contemplative (Amber Ink.)
Stamp: Everyday Greetings Collection (Wordsworth)
Cardstock: Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink); various papers from Gypsy 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Close to Cocoa (Stampin’ Up)
Other: Card Colorblocking Template 1-C (Deluxe Cuts); Wildflower spotlight Blossoms (Making Memories); Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); odorless mineral spirits (Houston Arts); dimensionals (SU);  sponge