It was pretty clear as I looked over the more than 180-plus submissions for the Bring on Spring challenge that I’m not the only one ready for spring! Many of you are as eager as I am for warmer weather (in North America at least), or at least a change of the seasons.

I do apologize for posting these so late—I don’t think I’ve ever gone to the middle of the month before! But I knew you’d understand, because I’ve been gone the last few weeks with the Workshops of a Lifetime, and I don’t have the Internet accessibility that I’m used to. And I don’t have the time availability either!

Ideally, I like to reserve one big chunk of time to review these, so all the projects are fresh in my mind. Of course, some months it’s a faster process than others, when there aren’t as many submissions. But this one was probably the most submissions we’ve ever had, and so it was very hard to find a big enough chunk of time to sit down and review them all.

I sure enjoyed it when I did, however. Thanks for sharing your creativity, and I encourage you to enter this month’s Stencil Surprise challenge. . . .

In the meantime, congratulations to this month’s Spring Thing Challenge winners!

February 13—Diana Ball

http://www.stampingmoon.com/2010/02/baby-on-board.html

February 16—Julia Bettencourt

http://www.juliabettencourt.com/blog/?p=5664

February 24—Mary Jo Albright

http://mjalbright.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/spring-flowers/

February 25—Tanja Westwood

http://tanjawestwood.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/so-shelli-spring-challenge/

February 25—Julie Davison (butterfly embossed card)

http://juliedavison.blogspot.com/2010/02/cas-butterfly-notecard.html

February 28—Lisa Young

http://addinkandstamp.blogspot.com/2010/02/like-spring-day.html

If you know me at all, you know stenciling is one of my favorite techniques—I love it. I was thrilled when we added stencils to our product line! One of the reasons I love stenciling is because it’s so versatile. You can use stenciling in home décor, scrapbooking, card making (I saw some great cards at leadership!), just about anything!

So March is our own little stenciling month, OK? Remember to post by the last day of the month—I’m so excited to see all the different stenciling surprises you create

I’ll start off by just saying we’ve never had this many winners, but we’ve also never had this many submissions before! As I go through the submissions, I keep a list and I put a heart by the ones that are in the running to be a winner, and I’ve never had so many hearts! It’s been hard! (Not that I’m complaining. . . .)

Judging the submissions every month takes hours, but it’s something I look forward to. I don’t spend much time on blogs and other Internet spots looking at project ideas, but I do treat myself once a month to all the Creative Challenge ideas.

As I looked at the long list of hearts, I wondered how I was going to make the final choices. Then I thought, “Hey, whose blog is this, anyway?” I realized I could pick as many winners as I want; there aren’t any rules out there. So bottom line is we’ve got a lot of winners this month, and I had LOTS of fun choosing!

As always, thank you ALL for sharing—I love it when we have lots of submissions, even if it does take me a little longer to choose the winners. It’s time well spent!

January 5--Michelle Joy Wecksler

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_7YyTmXLbGBc/SylSwRqLqAI/AAAAAAAAAqc/-5OXxY0Gm3s/s1600-h/IMG_3398-WM.jpg

January 6--Holly Endress

http://inkadinkadoodle.com/?p=1433

January 13--Gretchen Barron

http://gretchenbarron.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/01/introducing-the-love-express-valentines-train.html

January 16--Connie Collins

http://www.constantlystamping.com/constantly_stamping/2010/01/recycled-container-becomes-hostess-gift.html

January 17--Ana Marie Palmerin

http://web.me.com/anamarie2/anamarie2/anamariepalmerin.com/Entries/2010/1/17_Toads_of_Love.html

January 20--Mary Brown

http://www.stampercamper.com/home/cardpost/tour_de_freaks_-_january/

January 23--Cheryl Wilcox

http://lovetostampandscrap.blogspot.com/2010/01/sparkles-spoiler-alert.html

January 29--Janet Wakeland

http://remarkablycreated.com/2010/01/new-droid-needed-a-felt-cell-phone-case/

January 31--Jenny Petersen

http://jennympeterson.typepad.com/my-blog/2010/01/love-page-layout.html

January 31--Jenn Picard

http://www.anewinkonlife.com/a-new-ink-on-life/2010/01/i-heart-sweet-treats.html

I am so done with winter! I can say with quite some surety that I will never live in a place that experiences a full-blown winter—physically (and emotionally) my body just doesn’t do well!  We don’t have terrible winters here, but it’s about as much as I can handle.

So this month I want to see spring—anything bright and beautiful—whether it’s in cards, gifts, tags, pages. . . whatever. You name it, I want to see it. I can’t wait for spring to actually arrive, but in the meantime, I’ll be content with seeing what you have to share!

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post the winners for last month's challenge. I hoped you all knew I was at Leadership, so you understood what was taking so long.

What fun projects. I really enjoyed looking through these submissions, and I've got an idea list a mile long! I can't wait to make a few of these myself, and I wouldn't be surprised if I use at least one of these ideas for our holiday neighbor gift next year! If you haven't taken the time to scroll through these projects, you definitely need to!

As always, thanks to everyone who shared--and congratulations to the winners!

December 2--Melissa Riker

http://saucystamper.blogspot.com/2009/11/beautiful-gift-idea.html

December 4--Carmen

http://stampingaddiction.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-giftables-class-project-1.html

December 6--Peggy Sue Stuckky

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1559030?&cat=500&ppuser=142185

December 7--Monika Davis

http://monikastamp.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/dasher-tile-coasters/

December 19--Donna Centamore

http://butternutsagedesigns.blogspot.com/2009/12/hot-chocolate-gift-pack.html

December 31--Kasia

http://stampwithkasia.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-years-resolutions.html