Love and Lace

Well it seems our recycling challenge was a challenge too far for most of you as our entries were the lowest ever - sorry :(    Hopefully you'll find our new challenge as little easier to play along with.  This month we're bringing out our romantic sides, not just for valentines, but any romantic occasion - anniversaries, weddings, engagements to just a card to let them know you love them - we want to see the theme of love with the addition of a little lace for a romantic finish.

Our prize this month is this fabulous set of 3 stamps from La Blance which would make great images or backgrounds as they are lovely big stamps.  They have been kindly donated by Sasha who won our challenge in December is back this month to Guest DT with us.  Thanks Sasha - it's great to have you with us :-)

So - how about a little inspiration from the Design Team?  We have some cracking cards for you this month - do stop by our personal blogs for more details and to leave us a little love - we do so enjoy your visits!

Anne

Deborah

Jenny

Lynne

Sasha

 Sylvie

Tara

You've got until noon on 29 February to get your entries in - remember you can enter up to 6 cards for each challenge.  We'll be back in a couple of days with the recycling challenge winners.

Mid Month Reminder

Just a quick post today to remind you all that you still have just over a week to get your entries for our current love and lace challenge in so you can be in with the chance of winning those lovely La Blanche stamps.  Valentines may be over, but there's still plenty of reasons to share the love!   For those of you who prefer the CAS look, the lace element can be interprative - see our mid month inspiration designs below.

Anne

Tara

Recycling Winners

Whilst we didn't have a huge number of entries last month, we did still get some totally rocking entries to our recycling themed challenge.

Our overall winner was Margaret K who we all felt really took the recycling spirit to heart and created 2 fabulous cards using mostly brown paper from her stampin up deliveries and the ribbon cut from inside clothes (you know those annoying hanging loops they always put in, and I for one, always cut out!)  This source of ribbon featured quite a lot in cards entered for our challenge so it seems I'm not the only one who cuts it out and saves it - as I tend to mostly wear black or teal though, my stocks of it are pretty colour limited!!!!

This first card Margaret made features a simple torn and embossed paper with a fabby flower made from layers of the same paper - I bet you're all looking for your last stampin up delivery now aren't you......

For the second card Margaret got even more detailed with the paper with layered stamping, embossing and pleating - again another knock-out way to use up stuff that would just end up in the bin and who would have guessed you could make such gorgeous cards from stuff you would otherwise chuck!?!?   I hope you're all going to look at stuff with fresh eyes from now on :-)

Margaret wins the gorgeous yellow ribbon kit kindly donated by The Ribbon Girl - I'll be in touch over the weekend with your badge Margaret but if you see this before I get chance to mail you, drop me an email thought my profile with your address details and I'll get the kit in the post to you asap.



Our 3 runners up were, in no particular order - The Crafty Den, Vicky and Jenjoy.

 Denise from The Crafty Den made great use of items recycled from clothing - the ribbon from around some Christmas PJ's and the tag from inside a t-shirt.  Great recycling and fabulous easel card.

Vicky's card caught our eye both for the sheer simplicity, but also for having one of the more unique recycled items we saw in the challenge - some washers from the packaging of a "posh pair of secateurs".  They went perfectly with the masculine themed card - again far too good for the bin!!

Jenjoy gave us perhaps our most extravagant bit of recycling - this gorgeous flower embellishment is actually from an old necklace!  The shapes, colours and lines of the card teamed with this one off embellishment really make a strikingly elegant card.

Your winners badges will be emailed to you over the weekend ladies - we hope you show them off to the world to show your recycling prowess!


Don't forget to check out our current challenge - get into the love groove and you could win some La Blance beauties :-)

New Year, New Start

The theme this month is to give a new lease of life to something old and tired and destined for the bin…  Don’t throw it away, turn it into something magical and give it a new start for 2012 by putting it on a card! 

We have this wonderful yellow ribbon bundle kindly donated by the lovely ladies at The Ribbon Girl as our prize this month for our favourite entry so its well worth raiding the recycling bins :-) 

This isn't a challenge like some of the others out there in blogland where you recycle an item by turning it into something else - we are strictly a card making challenge site - so whatever you recycle we are looking for you to use it ON A CARD.


It may seem like a tricky challenge until you give it a little thought - I could be as easy as taking an empty cereal box and stamping on the kraft card stock inside, taking a ribbon from an old card or left over Christmas gift, or getting creative with bubble wrap for a fancy inking technique.  I hope this and the fabulous inspiration from the design team gets your creative juices flowing...

Speaking of Design Team, I would also like to welcome a new member this month - Sylvie - otherwise known as Gibmiss has gladly agreed to join us.   Sylvie has been a regular player since day one, and even sends her lovely cards all the way from Gibraltar to us for our sales and her cards are always gorgeous so I'm sure you'll find her inspirational!  Welcome to the team Sylvie :-)

Anne - using wrapping paper, a cracker and old card embelishments

 

Deborah - using wrapping paper and sweet wrappers

Lynne - using wrapping paper inner tube, doily from a party, recycled items from cards and pressies

Jenny - using twine from gift tags

Sylvie - using the back of a paper pack, ribbon from a top

Tara - using a cracker and tissue paper from a gift

So now - it's over to you - go and have a dig around in your drawers and cupboards and let's see what new life you can breathe into your old stuff.  Be sure to tell us what items you've recycled - we're excited to see how creative you can all be....   REMEMBER ONLY CARDS QUALIFY FOR OUR CHALLENGE as we are a CARD MAKING CHALLENGE SITE as the major purpose of this site is to challenge you to make cards and send them to St Luke's to sell for them to raise money for the hospice.


We'll be back in a couple of days with the winners of our let it snow challenge.......

Recycling Mid Month Inspiration!

We figured that this challenge has a few of our regular players a little stumped, so here we are with a few more ideas to hopefully inspire you.  Using something you thought should be thrown away may at first seem a little daunting, but once you start to play with rubbish, it becomes a little addictive - I am hording allsorts of stuff now and seeing it a whole new light.  Don't forget we have a great prize bundle of ribbons up for grabs so get your recycling bins out and play with your rubbish ;-)

Anne - using a gift card holder and ribbon

Jenny - using waste packaging and cellophane

Tara - using straws and a bottle top

December winners

Sorry for the delay ladies, but it's been one of those weekends......

Without further delay - here are our winning entries for our "let it snow" challenge from last month.

Our overall winner, and therefore the winner of that lovely set of Waltzingmouse stamps kindly donated by our DT member Deborah is Loli - we all adored this beautiful sparkly snowflake creation - so elegant and striking.

We have three runners up this month - who all get our St Luke's Lovelies badge to show off.  Firstly Anne - we loved your delicate lacey snowflake design with just a tiny hint of bling.  Mary's frosty ice fairy really stood out to us all - have a look at the face in close up - it's definitely got the chill factor!  And last but by no means least (winners are in order of entry number) Hazel with this delightful frosty scene.  We loved the inky background you created and the strong tree silhouettes.

 Thanks to you all ladies - your winners badges will be winging their way through cyberspace shortly.

New Challenge Starts Soon

Please note - the January challenge goes live in the early hours of the 3rd January - please pop back then to check it out.  

Happy New Year from all the St Luke's DT - we look forward to sharing an exciting year of challenges with you all in 2012 :-D

I'll leave you with our traditional New Year rhyme - I think it may be a "Yorkshire" thing but as a child (the youngest in my family) I was always made to go outside just before midnight with a lump of coal and I had to knock on the door, say the poem, and "bring the New Year in"  so...

 Happy New Year, Happy New Year

Plenty of money and lots of good cheer

A horse and a gig

And a big fat pig to kill next year

Hole in me stocking, hole in me shoe

Please can you spare a penny or two

If you haven't a penny, a ha'penny will do

If you haven't a ha'penny then God bless you!

at that point I was allowed in and got a coin in exhange for the coal (I think the coal represented being able to keep warm all year) and allowed back into the warmth!   Therefore I wish you all warmth, wealth and happiness (the coal, the money and the cheer) and whatever the horse, gig and pig (I think that's for enough food) are meant to represent.  And of course - our extra wish - lots of creativity ;-)

A bit strange I know, but they do say up here that "there's nowt so queer as folk!"

Do share your New Year traditions with us in your comments :-)