March 2026 Cards: A Little Luck!

As mentioned before, I take part in a monthly card exchange, which is a win/win. Not only do I receive happy mail a few times a year, but I’m also forced to carve out some time each weekend for crafting.

For my March cards, I took my inspiration from the classic Belleek shamrock line. Lots of white, with and a pop of green. I didn’t have a shamrock stamp or die set, but I had just finished cutting a bunch of hearts for February’s cards. And what is a shamrock if not three green hearts connected by a stem? So with my trusty Sizzix Sidekick die cutting machine, I cut out 36 green hearts — three for each shamrock.

I do have a larger die cut machine, but I still reach for this this little one for smaller designs.

I cut the stems out myself and I like to think that make them look more organic.

I joke a lot that “hi” and “hello” are my my go-to greetings for card fronts, but for a project like this where not everyone is celebrating a birthday or holiday, you can’t go wrong with “hello.”

I’m trying to incorporate a bit more dimension into my cards, and on this design, I did it three ways:

1. I cut a slightly smaller white card panel (4″ x 5 1/4″) and embossed pretty floral pattern onto it. This gave the stark white background more depth.
2. I brushed brown ink onto the edges of the shamrock leaves and gently curled them around a pencil. This helped the shamrocks lift off the card front.
3. I adhered the “hello” greetings with foam tape to give them the same amount of lift.

Once the cards were assembled, I decided to add one more thing. That can be risky! Sometimes the “one more thing” goes a bit too far, but this month, the little gold gems I glued to the card front were just enough.

Now in a perfect crafting world, I would have had an embossing folder with a Celtic design instead of flowers. And I’d have had green ink for the “hello” greetings that perfectly matched the cardstock. But here’s the secret that I learned over the last six years of making cards: you don’t need to buy supplies for every single card you want to create. Save your money for the supplies that make you happy.

If you want to see the cardmaking tools and supplies I reach for most often, I’ve collected them in one place on Benable. Some of them are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.