Let's Hear it for the Boys!

Thanks again to everyone who played along in our buffet last month - we'll be back in a couple of days to announce the winner.

A new month brings a new challenge, a new sponsor and a great new prize - and boy what a prize we have this time!

The prize package includes all these fabulous goodies:

• My Mind's Eye Limited Edition 6x6 Double Sided Paper Pad - Dwell
• East of India Pale Pink Ric Rac
• Inkadinkado Mini Stamp - Thanks
• Tsukineko Memento Dew Drop - New Sprout
• Ranger Liquid Pearls - White Opal
• K&Co Glitter Chipboard Alphabet - Smitten
• K&Co Amy Butler Lotus Embellishment Jars
• Creative Expressions Decorative Pins - Cream Pearl

This month our generous sponsor is the great online craft store Craftie Charlie and this is what they had to say about sponsoring our challenge.  Thanks for the chance to support such a great cause - we are based in Sheffield so know all about the fantastic work that St Luke's does.  At Craftie-Charlie you'll find a fantastic range of cardmaking, scrapbooking & general craft items - we are keen crafters and we stock the products that we like to use in our crafting projects.  We are adding new items all the time so enjoy looking and keep coming back!  Good luck with the challenge :)



So - what about the actual challenge - well this month it's ALL ABOUT THE BOYS - you can make ANY style card you like for ANY OCCASION for ANY MALE of ANY AGE - it just has to have a masculine feel.  

I know we often find male cards difficult but I actually quite like making them so hopefully the inspiration we provide throughout the month will help you come up with some new ideas for easy male cards.  Let's see what the DT came up with for launch day - you find the details of what we used on our personal blogs so do pop by and say hello:

Anne

Deborah

Jenny

Lynne

Tara

Please do take our blog badge if you haven't already and display it on your sidebar (along with a picture of the prize too if you've room for it...) to help us get the word around blog land about our challenge.  We encourage you to enter any other challenges that match ours too as this all helps spread the word.

So - dig out your masculine stamps, papers and inks and celebrate the men in your lives and click the little blue frog when you're ready :-)

Mid Month Inspiration

Thought it was time for a little reminder about our month long challenge to make masculine cards for St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge - any card you like as long as it has a masculine theme is what we're looking for.

We have an AMAZING prize package this month for our favourite card - kindly donated by the lovely ladies at Craftie Charlie who also made this fabulous boys cupcake card to kick off the inspiration reminder:

Craftie Charlie - even cake can be masculine if you add kraft and some plaid ;-)

 Deborah - add a guitar and some grunge for a great rock themed teenage card

Lynne - add some black, some cogs and a bike and most guys are covered!

Tara  - more kraft and strong colours add a TV and you can't go wrong!

You've still got a couple of weeks to enter - so dig out your masculine colours and get creative for the fellas and you could still be in with a chance of winning all the craft goodiness that's on offer - check out the original blog post that is a sticky at the top of the blog for prize details and the linky tool.

Buffet Winners

Good afternoon ladies

Sorry we've been a while making our decision on a winner this month but there was a very close tie for first place so it went back out to a second vote and I am now thrilled to announce that our top card for last month and therefore the winner of the gorgeous stamp set from Waltzingmouse was VAL with this gorgeous white on white wedding card

I'll be dropping you an email shortly Val with your winners badge and to get your snail mail so I can post off your prize.

Our top 5 for this month who will also be receiving their winners badge by email shortly were:

Gibsmiss - we loved your delicate frame cut out and subtle colours

Irene - we loved your white on white card and pretty little flower cut outs

Jacqueline - we loved the strong geometry on your card and of course the cute owl ;-)

 Mary J - we loved all of your entries Mary but the gorgeous image on this one won us over

Nicki LT - we loved your cute image and the co-ordinating colours and snowflakes

Thanks again for your continued support and for making our little challenge such a fun place to play along :-)

Speaking of which - don't forget that this month we want to see your guy cards - any style, any theme - just something you could send to a fella - here's another one of mine for a little inspiration if you're struggling to get your creative juices flowing:

I'll be back with more ideas from me and the design team next week for our mid-month inspiration spot.  We have such an amazing prize from the generous ladies at Craftie Charlie this month that you really don't want to miss out on the chance to win it!

Tara  (aka Craftilicious) x

Card Buffet

Well our beside the sea challenge is over and it looks like we finished summer off with it too!  We'll be back later in the week to announce this months winners.

Today is the start of our new challenge for September, and with a new challenge comes a new sponsor and this month we have a wonderful set of stamps from Waltzingmouse.  Now I know many of our followers are already fans of Waltzingmouse, but if you're new to them, I promise you'll be hooked so go and check out the shop.

 This month we have "Wanda's Party" which will be with the winner in time to play for Halloween (click the link for inspiration from the WM DT on the great projects you can make with this set):

The really exciting news is that Claire Brennan, owner and stamp designer for Waltzingmouse, being the wonderfully generous person that she is, has VERY KINDLY dontated SIX WHOLE SETS of her amazing stamps - so if you are a fan (and if you're not now, you soon will be!) - you are going to want to keep coming back to play over the coming months as there will be another 5 sets up for grabs in the future!

The challenge this month is a CARD BUFFET - you have to pick FOUR items from the list of 10 below and include them in your card - not 3, not 5, but just FOUR.  If you want to include a focal image and a sentiment as well, then these can be in addition to the 4 buffet items (but you can also count them as part of your 4 items - ie an embossed sentiment)

Here are the fabulous creations the Design Team came up with to inspire you all with, along with the details of the four items they each chose - do click on their names to go to their blogs to see the full details and to leave them a little love :-)

Anne

Patterned Paper, Embossing, Ribbon and Pearls

Deborah

Ribbon, Gems, Punches (die cut) and Embossing

Jenny

Flowers, Buttons, Patterned Paper and Ribbon

Lynne

Patterned Paper, Ribbon, Flowers and Pearls

Tara

Punches, Ribbon, Embossing, and Pearls

Enter your card below for a chance to win, and check back in a few days when we'll announce our beachy winners from August's challenge.

August Winners

Good evening everyone, sorry it's taken a few days to announce our winners, but its been a hard decision this month, but without further ado, I can now announce our prize winner, and our top 3.

Our top 3, in no particular order are Janet, Chrissie and Loli- congrats ladies - your winners badge is is on its way.

 

Our prize winner this month is Caroline - I just loved the paper pieced waves and the cool dude cat on her card.  Caroline wins a £10 voucher from our kind sponsor Elaine at Quixotic Paperie - Elaine will be sending you your voucher code directly once the store reopens following her summer break.

We seem to have hit a chord with you this month - it's looking like we're in line for a record month so keep up the good work with your entries :-)

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside....

Well, as it's August, and the sun is "hopefully" shining, we thought that this month we'd take you all on a little journey and make our challenge all about the seaside so we'd like your cards to feature the beaches, sandcastles, beach huts, boats, lighthouses, ice cream, sun bathers, surfers or even campervans.  Just show us your favourite holiday images.

Again we have a prize up for grabs for our favourite card, and this month it's a £10 voucher from Quixotic Paperie.  Quixotic Paperie is an online store specialising in rubber stamps and stocks great ranges from Kraftin Kimmie, Stamping Bella, Greeting Farm, Whimsy, SCACD, Paper Makeup and Make it Crafty to name but a few, along with beautiful embellishments and designer papers.

 

 

We'll back later in the week to announce the winner of last months challenge, and our favourite entrants from our Black & White plus one challenge.  For now, here are the great cards for this challenge from the DT to get your inspiration flowing...  Don't forget to click the links to our blogs to find out more about our cards and leave us a comment to let us know you've been :-)

Anne

Ciara

currently taking a break

Deborah

Jenny

 our new DT member - do say hello and make her welcome :-)

Lynne

Tara

So we hope that's got you wishing you were here - pull out all your sunny, summer colours and click the little blue froggy when you're ready.  You don't HAVE to send your card to the charity to play along, so all our friends across the pond, feel free to play, but if you can send your card to us for sale, then we assure you it will be gratefully received.  We have another big fair coming up at the end of August so will have another total update in September.

August Bank Holiday Fayre Fundraising Update

Just a VERY quick post tonight as my hubby and I are both really tired after spending the past two days at the Sheffield Fayre selling all the cards you've all donated.  On the whole it was a good event, although we did have a few urchins who sideswiped a few cards while we weren't looking which really wound us up and I think the wind and rain put off the number of visitors we expected.  However, we did manage to raise £210 over the two days so our total raised to date is £335 - which is not bad going after 4 months of running the challenge blog.  So please keep up the good work - your cards are going great guns!

If you are looking for inspiration of cards to send us, the following were really popular and often requested:

• Anniversary
• Masculine cards
• Exam pass (this could have been the time of year as A level and GCSE results were out this month)
• New Home
• Baby
• Teenager Cards
• Cards with specific animals
• cards with "nothing on them" - ie sentiment free on the front

 Check back in a few days for the new challenge and this months winners....

Tara (aka Craftilicious) x