My first ever Blog Hop!!!!

Welcome to Cropchocolate's 2nd unofficial blog hop, and my first ever!  If you arrived here from looking at the great creations of Steph, you are hopping right along.  If you happened on this by accident, you may want to start at:  http://stuffbybelle.blogspot.com to get in on all the fun and prizes along the way.

If you would like a chance to win the blog candy I am giving away, please follow my blog, and leave me a comment.  I will choose the winner using random.org.  You have until midnight, Sunday, March 25.  I'll choose the winner and announce it on Monday.  There are also a couple prizes being awarded along the hop, so follow directions to enter to win these.

Our theme for this hop is borders.  I've been laboring over what to make, wanting it to be just perfect for my first hop.  Of course, nothing I have made has fit that criteria, but I have 3 cards to show you with different border ideas.

This first card uses paper from Echo Park's Victorian Gardens Collection.  I used Spellbinders dies to cut the shapes, including the one I chose for a border.  The sentiment stamp is from Close To My Heart.  All the papers used in the cards for the hop were purchased online at cropchocolate.com.

For this second card, I used the same Spellbinders die set, but used the border at 180 degrees.  The papers are again from Echo Park Victorian Gardens collection.  I used white ink and a doily stamp from Market Street stamps. I love this stamp! I thought the doily was too pretty to mess with, so I skipped a sentiment on this card.

This third card uses My Mind's Eye Good Day Sunshine paper and MME So Sophie ribbon.  The "sun" shape in the upper left corner of the card is cut from the packaging the ribbon is wrapped around.  Once again, I used Spellbinders dies to cut some of the shapes.  The sentiment is bordered by a similar shape, and foam taped on it to give the card some depth.  The stamp is a Unity Stamp Company stamp.  I stamped it with black Stazon ink, then colored it with Smooch inks and markers.  The border at the bottom of the card is MME So Sophie ribbon.  I plan to stamp "Happy Mother's Day" inside.  I love how cheerful this card is!

OK, that's all I have to show you.  I hope you enjoyed my efforts.  Don't forget to leave a comment and a way I can reach you if you win the blog candy.  The next stop on the hop is the very talented Scrappy Canuck!  Visit her at:   http://scrappycanuck.wordpress.com/    Happy hopping!