What is St Luke's Hospice?

St Luke's is a hospice which cares for people aged 18 and above throughout Sheffield who have incurable illnesses. Their aim is always to control the patients symptoms, alleviate pain, and give them the best possible quality of life – all free of charge. It costs £6 million per annum to keep St Luke's open, and government funding, via NHS trusts only provides one third of the funds required, which means the Hospice has to raise a staggering £4 million each year to provide this vital end-of-life care.

This challenge was set up by a St Luke's Supporter who has seen first hand, the amazing care given to patients through St Luke's and whilst donations are now closed we would like to thank all our donators for their wonderful contributions.

Saturday 2 April 2011

Say It With Flowers...

Hello you lovely, lovely people who are joining us on this exciting adventure in our little corner of blogland...

We thought we would start off easy, with a challenge that both beginners and those more experienced would be sure to have some materials for - so our inaugural challenge is to "say it with flowers". You can "say" anything you like - Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Hello, With Sympathy, Get Well Soon - anything you like, or nothing at all if you don't want to include a sentiment - just include flowers or a floral theme on your card somewhere.

Cards can be any shape, size or colour. If you are going to kindly donate your card to the charity, if you could include a matching blank envelope that would be great - if you can pop it in a protective card bag then even better but we can sort this once we receive them if you don't have them available. Then just pop it all in another slightly larger envelope (perhaps with a bit of extra card or tissue to protect anything delicate) and send it to:

Charity Card Challenge
St Luke's Hospice
Little Common Lane
Sheffield
S11 9NE


EDIT - 13th April - Unfortunately, due to rising costs and the need to maximise every single penny raised, the charity have had to suspend the use of the freepost address for this challenge.  If you live in or near to Sheffield, cards can be dropped in to any St Luke's Hospice shop (see their website for locations) and will reach us via their internal delivery service.  If you are kind enough to donate your card(s) but live outside of Sheffield, I am afraid you will have to put a stamp on the package for the charity to receive your donation (please take into account size and weight and ensure that sufficent stamps are used so as to avoid charges at the other end).  I'm sorry to change this mid-challenge but this challenge is all about raising money for this brilliant Charity, and unfortunately they do not receive any preferential rates from Royal Mail (boo to them!) and as we've been inundated with cards already (which is FABULOUS - THANK YOU!) it does mean that there is a significant cost to be paid, and a lag in how quickly we can sell the cards to replenish the shortfall.  On the plus side though - St Luke's remove all the stamps which are then sold to a stamp dealer to raise a few extra pennies - so if you can send a card and cover postage costs, then they are benefiting twice!  
YOU MAY STILL PLAY ALONG IN THE CHALLENGE WITHOUT DONATING A CARD AND STILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE MONTHLY AWARDS.

SOME PEOPLE HAVE ASKED ABOUT SENDING GENERAL CARDS TO THE HOSPICE FOR SALE - THIS IS FINE - AND ANY CARDS WILL BE GREATFULLY RECEIVED OUTSIDE OF THE MONTHLY CHALLENGES.

And now to the fun part , are you ready for a little inspiration?   Well have we got some great cards for you !  Click on the name of each designer to go to their blogs for details of their lovely creations - and don't forget to leave them a comment to show you stopped by....






Couldn't decide which card I liked so I made two ;-)

Now it's over to you - you know what to do - click the little button, add your card and link up your blog and we'll be over for a look before you know it!



All that's left to say for this month is THANK YOU for joining us and we hope to see you again on the 1st May - and if you liked playing along, then please tell your crafty friends to stop by and play along too....

Happy Crafting :-)
The St Luke's Lovelies Design Team  xxx

25 comments:

  1. Only just found out about your challenge blog through Lynne what a great idea and very worthy I wish you every success in this venture and hope you get a great response will be doing a card myself in next couple of days
    Jacki xx

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  2. Good Luck to you all! Such fab DT cards to inspire,don't think I can join in with you this week but will try to give you a plug on my blog! Hope you get loads of entries,Julie.x

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  3. Me again can I have a blinkie to put on my side bar to put the word out I have also just put out a post about this blog with a link hope that is ok
    Jacki xx

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  4. A lovely challenge for a great cause and what great inspiration you have given us. Will be having a go for sure. Zoƫ x

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  5. Gorgeous inspiration from the DT! Great to see this challenge up and running now :-)

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  6. I hope for your proyect a lot of blessings.
    I post 2 cards i send you these cards as soon as possible.
    A big hug from Palma de Mallorca

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  7. A wonderful challenge for a great cause. Have submitted my card - and will be posting it to you. Good luck. x

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  8. Best of luck with your challenge and fun-raising, a great cause. Do you only want cards that have been entered in the challenge? I have some older cards that are flat enough for posting that you could have for your sale if you like. CoB

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  9. Fabulous cards girls.......Will get one made and posted soon.

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  10. Aargh... I just uploaded the wrong photo... How do I delete it? LOL

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  11. Well done Tara! And everyone who has entered so far. It's great to see this challenge of the ground.

    I will be working on my card this week. I'm not really a cardmaker but hoping I can come up with something saleable!

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  12. Fab DT cards good luck on raising money for such a good cause will be sending my challenge cards and have put the word about Luv Sue x

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  13. Hello again I'm back got 3 cards in one post for you hope you like them may have some more later too
    Jacki xx

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  14. Great DT work, good luck with your venture - such a worthy cause. ikki

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  15. Lovely DT cards and great to see this getting off to such a good start. I've linked my card and will be posting it to you later today. Jo x

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  16. Fabulous challenge and a very worthwhile cause. Beautiful DT cards. Wishing you the best of luck and every success with this challenge. A blinkie to spread the word would be good. xxx

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  17. Thank goodness for people like you Tara! I will certainly spread the word and wish you great success for such a worthwhile venture. Vx

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  18. wishing you lots of luch in your new venture.

    irene
    xxxx

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  19. FOR ALL THOSE WHO'VE ASKED FOR A BLINKIE - THERE IS NOW ONE ON THE SIDEBAR - PLEASE TAKE THE IMAGE AND DISPLAY ON YOUR BLOG. THANKS. AND THANKS AGAIN FOR THE SUPPORT :-)
    CRAFTILICIOUS x

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  20. A great idea, hope it goes well for you. Carol x

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  21. Good Luck with your challenge Tara and team
    Lots of inspo from you such a range of styles FAB
    mandi x

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  22. Great inspiration from the DT. Hope the challenge is a great success. I've got some cards to send to the hospice & I'm more than happy to pay to post. I'm never happy about using any charity's Freepost address. I always prefer to pay so as not to cost any money to the charity. Looking forward to the next challenge.

    Kat x

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  23. Thanks so much for the blinkie! I have it posted on my blog and I hope that it will bring MANY more cardmakers from around the world to your awesome challenge and cause! xoxo, Kim

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  24. Hi Girls have sent a pack of cards to the freepost address not sure if it had been closed before they went been busy getting ready for holls !!! just hope they arrived and if you send me a note of how much it was i will send you the cost of the posting along with future cards after we get back Luv Sue x

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