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.

Wednesday 30 November 2011

Christmas is coming....

It's the first of the month - November already - so time for another challenge here at St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge and this month we thought it was time to get ready for Christmas so our challenge is to make a Christmas card.  Hope this is a bit easier for those of you who disliked our boy card challenge last month ;-)  You can make anything you like, any style as long as it's Christmassy then anything goes!

We have a lovely prize this month for our winner (we'll announce the winner from October in the next couple of days so watch this space!) from Lili of the Valley - a pair of their gorgeous stamps.


We're getting quite a following now and it's lovely to see so many regulars joining us month after month - thank you to you all - we love to see your entries.  Here are the DT's cards to get your ideas flowing - details of what they used can be found on their personal blogs so do pop along to see them and say hello.






There is a Christmas Fayre in aid of St Luke's at the end of November and I will be having a stall there to sell the cards so should have an update on funds raised early December.  Unfortunately I had to cancel the small fayre I was due to attend at the end of September due to ill health but I'm fine now and looking forward to a good fayre.


Don't forget - if you can spare it - we'd love to receive your challenge card at the hospice (and any other handmade cards you can spare for that matter - particularly your Christmas cards in advance of our Christmas Fayre on 27th November.) Address to post them is on the right hand side bar. :-)

Sunday 27 November 2011

Winter Winner!

Good evening everyone - I am happy to report that today's sale has been a massive success :-)   I have to say that fairs in warm pubs in November are MUCH nicer than fairs in windy tents in August!!!!

We sold lots of Christmas cards so thank you to those who posted them quickly to get to us, but also lots of general cards too and made almost as much in one day as we did over two days at August Bank Holiday - £152 in total    We did have a couple of St Luke's bears which we also sold and had a bucket for donations and those together raised another £25.82 - so all in all a pretty good day.

This means our grand total to date is now £487 - so a HUGE thank you again to everyone who has taken the time to enter the challenge, spread the word or send us a card - however you get involved, it all helps and everyone was so impressed by your fabulous cards and your generosity in donating them.

Tara x

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Christmas Fair Reminder

Just in case you're looking for something to do this Sunday and live locally.......


Monday 21 November 2011

Christmas is still coming.....

.....and you still have 9 days left to play along in our Christmas card making challenge.  We've had some fabulous entries so far but we all need extra cards for our stash at this time of year so why not use our challenge as an excuse to make a few more???? 

Here's a little more inspiration from the Design Team to get you in the mood:

Deborah
 Tara

 Anne
 Lynne

Hope that's put you all in the mood for Christmas!  Dig out your stash and have a little play and remember the fayre is on this Sunday so if you want to send cards for that, please post them by tomorrow at the latest as I will be collecting from the hospice on Friday and the Sheffield postal system is taking a while for things to get through at the minute.

Thanks

Tara x

Saturday 12 November 2011

Look what the postman delivered.....

Just a really quick post - I haven't been up to the hospice since September for various reasons, so the hospice staff have been storing the cards safely for me.  This week when I went to collect your donated cards, they suggested I bring a box.  I think from the photo you can see why........


I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has sent their card - this little blog has gone not just nationwide but worldwide - we get cards from Germany, Gibralta, Spain and have even had cards all the way from Bermuda and Las Vegas!!!   You are truly all very generous soles and your donations are gratefully received.  I'll update the 'card counter' once I've managed to count them all.....

I'd better get busy getting them all sorted and priced ready for our Christmas Fayre which is two weeks tomorrow at The Greystones (so there will be beer for the boys while the girls shop) so if you're local, do pop in an say hello.

If you're playing along in our Christmas challenge, I will be going to the hospice to collect cards again on the 25th November, so it would be great if you could send your cards to arrive by then.

Tara x

Monday 7 November 2011

October's Winners

It was a really tough decision last month - we had so many wonderful masculine entries - but we finally reaches a consensus and can now announce that the winner our wonderful prize from Craftie Charlie was entrant no 21 - Jacqueline with her wonderful stamped autumnal scene.


We hope you really enjoy your bumper prize package Jacqueline - do have fun with it :-)

 Our top 3 card who will be getting our winners badge for their blogs are:

Susan - we loved the wood grain background, clean design and strong masculine colours.


Jayne - we loved the cheeky image and definite masculine appeal.


Katina - we loved this super cute teddy with his little teddy brother - and the colouring is superb.


Thanks to everyone for joining us - do get your Christmas images out and play along this month too if you can.