There is a pile of partially-finished projects on my desk, but I did complete one made specifically for a few challenges: Seize the Birthday-Spring Florals, Stencil Fun-Spring/Flowers, and Colorful Options-Pastels. The challenges offered me an opportunity to use a NBUS stencil by Papertrey Ink and a new set of sentiments by Honey Bee.

I tend to be very heavy-handed when ink blending, but tried my hardest to keep this one soft and subtle. I love the Wild Blooms stencil and the sentiment set, Be Still, is filled with lovely greetings in both print and script. I opted for the dies as well, and they work perfectly.

I struggled to find an appropriate pink ink for the sentiment and although I have several to choose from they were all either too light (even with multiple stampings) or not quite the right hue. I'm still not thrilled with this one. I added some Pinkfresh Studio light pink jewels and called it done.

Just Us Girls and Time Out (two of my fave challenges) have joined together. "Birds" is the theme and I knew I had a great stamp set, Pure Joy, from Pinkfresh Studio that would fit the bill. Since it was a Pinkfresh Studio stamp set, I added a frame to the card to meet their March challenge: "Frames." Finally, I have another entry to The Flower Challenge with my square card. I've been keeping up with my #100DayProject, and although I used this stamp set when I participated with my first Create and Connect event, it's the first time I've used it on my own. 

I used some Pinkfresh Studio inks to color the image with the accompanying stencil. Ellen Hutson's Essential Circles worked perfectly to create the frame. To keep the clean look of the card I kept it all white and decided not to add any embellishments.

I don't often think to create a shaker card, but this seemed liked a good design for one. I frequently struggle with these, but this one came together so easily I may try this again soon! The clear sequins and drops were in my stash, but I've never been good about labeling such things so I have no idea who the manufacturer is. The sentiment was created with Betterpress using Spellbinders A Little Message. It's always good to have another birthday card in my stash. 

After seeing a couple of cards created with Papertrey Ink's Into the Bloom: Clover, I thought it would make a great birthday card for Tracy, whose birthday is on St. Patrick's Day. At the time, it was out of stock at Papertrey Ink, but luckily a friend had the die set and was kind enough to loan it to me.

I die cut all the shamrocks from white cardstock and used finger daubers to ink blend them in two colors of green ink from Pinkfresh Studio. Ellen Hutson's Lattice Background has become a favorite of mine, especially white on white. One of the designers for Papertrey Ink had used a circle to hold the sentiment as well as a place to tuck the stems of the shamrocks. I backed the circle from Reverse Confetti's Lacy Scalloped Circle with a piece of New Leaf cardstock from Papertrey Ink to add some color to the bottom of the card.  The sentiment is from a new stamp set recently released by Simon Says, Lucky Horseshoe. 

After taking the photos for this blog hop, one of the extra shamrocks landed on the card next to the sentiment. It was a lucky accident as the design is much improved with that added element, even though it did necessitate retaking some of the photos. 

This card is off to Colorful Options: Green, Four Seasons Challenge with the great inspiration photo below, and Inspired By: Luck. I'm also adding this to Darnell's site where her I.D.E.A. for the week is Dies/Die Cuts. In addition, it is the first time I've used the set where I got the sentiment. 

I rarely have a card with so much bling and sparkle, but I couldn't resist using this reverse foiled panel to create a bold and bright birthday card. 

I had a free morning last week, and pulled out my foiling machine to create some backgrounds. This card uses Spellbinders' Starburst hot foil plate. I made a couple of panels, one with gold foil and one with Rainbow Stripes foil. You'll see those panels eventually, but when I pulled the foil off the Rainbow Stripes panel, I immediately pulled out my Solid Hot Foil Plate from Pinkfresh Studio which produced this panel which I love. 

The sentiment was also reversed foiled some time ago and die cut with Pinkfresh Studio's Brushed Sentiments that came with a fabulous prize I won a year and a half ago. I don't often use large and bold sentiments, but this card definitely called for one. I also added some Honey Bee Aurora Borealis Gem Stickers to each of the starbursts. 

I'm sending this one off to a new-to-me challenge, Word Power. It's a challenge to showcase sentiments as a focal point on a card. It's also going to Colorful Options where Rainbow is always welcomed. It's another one for Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthdays. And, finally, it's off to NBUS–it's the Starburst's debut on a card. 

The Flower Challenge is looking for a square card. When my Seagrass Basket from the Greetery arrived this week, I decided to put it to use right away. I already had an envelope filled with die cut and assembled flowers and leaves from the Spellbinder's Bold Blooms. 

The basket can be assembled with or without weaving, but I opted to weave it together, it gives it additional dimension. It was die cut from Weathervane cardstock, and I added some ink blending to it to add some character to it. The most time consuming part of the card was getting the florals arranged–so many options! I dry embossed a square die from Ellen Hutson's Essential Squares to create a frame on the Soft Stone square behind the basket full of flowers.

The pretty die cut label is part of the Seagrass Basket die. I found the perfect sentiment for it in Gina K's Beautiful Baskets Additions which I need to put to better use soon!

With late March and April birthdays coming up, this card won't be in the stash for wrong. Most of us in this area are anxious for some consistent Spring weather. I have to admit, however, that winter here has thus far been pretty mild. 

In addition to the Flower Challenge, I'm sending this off to the Triple B Challenge--this time for Blooms, and Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthdays.