Mid-month Inspiration

As we are a monthly challenge, not a weekly one, we know that people see the challenge on the 1st, intend to play along, but then forget about us with all the weekly challenges that come along in between.  So from now on, we thought we'd do a little mid-month inspirational post each month, to remind you what the challenge is while you still have time to play along - particularly as there is the chance of a prize every month now for our favourite card.

So, you still have a couple of weeks left to "come fly with us" - your card can be any theme as long as it has something that "flies" on it.  Here are a couple of new cards to hopefully inspire you to play along:

Lynne went with this lovely bird, with lots of embossing and detail.  Click here to read all about it.

Deborah did a masculine card with her hot air balloons for her first card so has gone all pink and girly with a fabulous Pagasus!

I decided to go for a masculine card for a change as I did something so girly the first time.  The details are on my blog here.

I hope this post has jogged your memory and made you want to play along with us this month.

Best of luck!

Our First Fayre.......

....and we're off!

I hope you can all see - we now have a totaliser on our little blog over on the right hand sidebar ......   We began to sell the wonderful cards you've been donating to us at St Luke's own Summer Fayre this afternoon.  Unfortunately there was very little summer to be had in Sheffield today, so it was wet and windy for a lot of the day so we didn't quite get as many visitors as we'd hoped, but despite the weather (us Yorkshire folk are a hardy lot!) we did raise £125 for the hospice which is not bad considering we were only open for 3 hours!

So, thank you to every single one of you who has so far taken the time to make a card (or in some cases a whole box full - you wonderful, generous souls!) and send them to us, they are now, REALLY starting to make a difference :-)

Here are a couple of photos of the stall, and apparently, I HAD to be in them - so frame these photos as I can assure you, my face doesn't get in the frame very often so these prove just how committed to the cause I am!

There will be more sales going on over the summer, so keep an eye on the blog and the totaliser and let's break the target!!!

To all you lovely people who are already involved - I can't stress enough how much your support of my idea means to me so THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

Tara (aka Craftilicious) xxx

St Luke's Summer Fair This Saturday :-D

Hello to everyone who is following our little charity challenge blog.  I just thought I'd do a quick post to let anyone who is local know that we will be selling the cards so far donated through the challenge at this years summer fair at St Luke's Hospice itself this Saturday afternoon.

The details from the hospice's site are below - now if you could all start a little sun-dance, that would be great as the forecast is pretty bleak thus far....... :-(

What's on at this year's Summer Fair

This year’s Fair in the St Luke’s grounds on Saturday 11 June from 1 to 4pm will include a whole range of new attractions, including a Food Court with a range of international cuisine and a Hog Roast.
And making a welcome return for the second year will be the Kelham Island Brewery beer tent.

• The grounds will be packed with more than 20 stalls including bric-a-brac, cakes, toiletries, plants and the always popular secondhand book selection.

• There will be special attractions, rides and games for younger members of the family and music from live performers throughout the afternoon.

• Admission is just £1, and free entry for children.

• There’s no parking at the hospice on Summer Fair day but there is an official park and ride scheme operated by bus company First and Tesco, with regular free buses running to and from the Tesco Abbeydale Road car park throughout the afternoon from 12 noon onwards.

• “Last year’s Fair raised more than £12,000 and attracted a record number of visitors,” said Events Fundraising Manager Anna Sheppard,

• “As we celebrate our 40th anniversary we aim to shatter that record and give all our guests an afternoon to remember.”

If you're local to Sheffield and can make it, do pop by and say hello I (Tara) will be manning the stall from 1 til 4pm and hope that all your generous donations so far will start to raise a good chunk of cash for the hospice.  I'll pop back after the fair to start our "totalizer" on the blog so you can see how much your efforts are raising.

The "come fly with me challenge" for June has 3 weeks left to run, so plenty of time to enter a card - there is a prize this month too.  I'll be back next week with some more flying inspiration :-)

Thanks and best wishes

Tara (aka Craftilicious)

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU!

If you're looking for May's Challenge Post - please scroll down to the next post.

I just wanted to do a quick post to update you all on how the challenge is going - I've added a little graph on the left sidebar to show a running total of the cards we've received at the Hospice - 6 weeks in and we're at 182 already so I just wanted to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has kindly supported us so far, whether it's with one card, or a box full, every card counts.  We've got our first craft fair at the end of this month, so I'll start a running total of funds raised once we start to sell your generous donations.  I thought you might like to see a few photos so you can be assured that your stuff is being received by the charity and not disappearing into a black hole....

I hope now you've found us, you'll stick with us and continue to support us and help our little challenge grow.....

Thanks again - your support means a lot to me and the charity.

Tara (aka Craftilicious) x

May's Challenge - Pick a Pattern

Thank you to all you lovely people who supported our first challenge - both online, and by sending your fabulous cards to the hospice - we were so impressed with all we were sent an hope your generosity continues as the challenge grows - do tell all your friends and get them to come along - we're aiming for 50 online challenge players this month...

Our top 4 from last months challenge in order of entry were:

•   No 12 - Ikki
•   No 17 - Vicky
•   No 19 - Aquarius
•   No 24 - Maureen

Congratulations ladies - I'll be sending  you your St Luke's Lovelies winners badge to display on your blogs shortly :-)

So - I bet you all want to know what supplies you need to dig out of your cupboards this month?  Well, we want to see pattern - dots, stripes, zig-zags, paisley, check, argyle - whatever pattern you can imagine - we want to see as much pattern as possible.  To give you some ideas and inspiration, the design team have come up with some stunning creations - pop on over to their individual blogs for more details and don't forget to leave a comment so we know you've visited:

Anne

Ciara

Deborah

Lynne

 Tara

Don't forget - the aim of this blog is to raise money for charity by collecting the challenge entries in real life for the charity to sell, so if you can spare your card once made, please send it (in an additional envelope) to the following address:

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

I know the Royal mail recently put the prices up, but if you can spare 36p per month to send just one card per challenge, then we really, really can do so much with it - we even sell the used stamp :-)   If you live in SHEFFIELD, you can also take your cards to ANY OF THE ST LUKE'S SHOPS around the city and they will bring them to the hospice for us during their normal deliveries.

So get out your stamps, your papers, or if all else fails a plain old pen - its easy to scribble a pattern ;-) and get your patterns flowing.  Click the little button below and upload your entry.

Thanks for your support - Craftilicious and the St Luke's Design Team  x x x

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....

Anne

Ciara 

Deborah

Lynne

Tara

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

St Luke's Lovelies - Our Challenge Winners

The winning cards for April 11's "Say it with Flowers" Challenge were :