Quick you're almost out of time........

.........to enter our fabulous "Going for Gold" Challenge here at St Lukes!   We have fabulous stamps and even a gold medal for the winner this month so what are you waiting for???

Anything sporting/Olympic/winning related counts and here's a little inspiration from our DT member Sylvie 

You've got until NOON on Friday to play - that's just 3 days so get your supplies out and join in the golden party - we can't wait to see your entries.

Still time to Go for Gold

Our player numbers are really low this month - just 9 at the time of writing so I wanted to remind you all that we're still here, we have a great Waltzingmouse Stamp set worth £15 as our prize and to go with our theme - your very own cardmaking gold medal!

In case you're struggling with the sporting theme - I thought I'd make a few more cards to try and inspire you.  For my first, I've gone quite literal with a simple football stamp (Stampin Up) and just used the triple stamping and matting technique to add depth and interest - this one took 6 minutes from start to finish - I timed myself!

Now, if you don't have ANY sports related stamps/dies/images, then it's time to think outside the box.  I'm including a card here I made for Jess Ennis - who like me is a Sheffield girl born and bred and we're all so proud of her and our golden post box!  So I made her one of her very own to keep once its returned to Royal Mail red (for those readers outside the UK - the Royal Mail has painted a mail box gold in the home town of every gold medal winner at the Olympics this summer)  I made this one with my silhouette cameo die cutting machine and a few stamps which I embossed in gold onto the black panels.

I am aware that not everyone has fancy die cutting machines though, so wanted to go for something REALLY simple.  For this one, I took a totally non-sports related stamp - one of my TV's from Papersmooches and turned it into a card that fits the theme by creating my own background paper (I just typed a load of sports related words in a word document and made them grey, then typed a big bold sentiment in black to stick over the top.

Hope that acts as a little more inspiration and gives you some ideas to play around with.  We look forward to a rush of entrants over the next couple of weeks.

Tara

July Winners

Hi folks

It took a lot of deliberation this month to come up with our winners but we eventually managed to get to a consensus!

Our overall winner this month was Mary J who always supports us every month and submits lots of great cards but this one just really nailed the challenge - aren't most teenagers monsters ;-)   The sentiment is spot on for a teenager too and the great CAS design which is out of Mary's comfort zone but again works so well in this context.  The ribbon girl voucher will be winging its way to you shortly Mary - enjoy :-D   [edited - sorry I mixed up last months prize with this - Mary wins the £10 ribbon girl voucher]

Our 3 runners up this month were:

Jayne - we loved this funky girl with her over-buckled boots - this would really appeal to teenagers everywhere I'm sure.

Joyce M created a couple of similar designs but this masculine version really appealed to us - the chevrons are spot on trend too and the colours really work well with this design.

Louise was our final entrant last month and we really loved how she incorporated an itunes gift card into her card design - this would surely satisfy any fussy teenager!

Thanks for joining us ladies.

Hope you're all enjoying our current sporting theme - if you're not on a sporting bent, then think laterally - but as the whole country seems to be going gold medal crazy then surely it's time for you to go for gold too - there will be a medal as well as the standard prize this month ;-)   If you're stuck for ideas, we'll be back next with a little more inspiration for you so on your marks, get set - PRINT!

Teenage Kicks

It's the first of July, those of us in the may be forgiven for thinking it's October given the weather, but it is still the heart of summer supposedly, and now it's time for a new challenge at St Luke's so if the sun isn't shining on you we have something to keep you occupied...

This month we are looking for cards for teenagers.  It's time to swerve the cute and dig out images with a little "edge" and make something funky and modern for those difficult teenage years.  For boys or girls - the choice is yours - just be sure to channel your inner "Kevin"!!!

We have another fabulous prize for you again this month - the lovely ladies at Ribbon Girl have kindly donated a £10 gift voucher so you can have a little shopping spree and top up on their wonderful stash!   Click the voucher image below to see what they sell if you're not familiar with them.

If you're struggling to think of an idea then our DT have a whole host of eye candy for you this month - check out our inspiration parade and don't forget to click the names to link to our blogs for details of how we made our cards.

Anne

Deborah

Jenny - for a boy

 and again for a girl

Lynne

Sylvie

Tara

Did you find your Kevin yet???  (for those of you not in the UK, or who didn't watch it, this is a reference to a character that Harry Enfield the comedian used to play on TV - he went upstairs aged 12 a nice friendly boy and came down on his 13th birthday a miserable, bad tempered teenager!)   I hope that inspires you to join our challenge - our numbers have been a little low this summer - so I wanted to remind you that you don't HAVE to send your card to play along - by playing and publicising the challenge you're still doing "your bit" to help us so please join us if you have the time.  We look forward to seeing all your fun and funky entries.

June Winners

Time to announce the winners of our last challenge - we may only have had a few entries, but we had some gorgeous ones!

Our favourite card last month, and therefore the overall prize winner of the lovely Waltzingmouse Stamps was Louise - No 15 with this gorgeous little row of bunnies in flower pots.  Definately fury and definately cute - we really loved how you popped one of the bunnies up to add a little dimension Louise. 

Our three runners up this month all had great fury creatures featured on their cards with great colouring and strong eye catching designs - your winners badges will be winging their way through cyberspace shortly ladies - so congratualtions to Val, Di and Laura.

You've still got 3 weeks to play along in our new teenage kicks challenge for a chance of another great prize - this month it's a £10 ribbon girl voucher so do get your mojo flowing and join us.  We award prizez on merit by a whole DT vote not a random draw so do give us your best work if you want to win ;-)

Our Little Furry Friends

Hello everyone and welcome to June and a nice long weekend in the UK to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee - there are a number of challenges out there to reflect this asking for red, white and blue or something regal so we thought we'd be different and get you to make cards featuring furry animals instead!  It can be any theme you like and can have as many layers as you like for those of you who found last months one layer too daunting!   All we ask is that it features something furry - dogs, cats, monkeys, mice, teddies or even furry monsters if the mood takes you ;-)

This month we have another fantastic set of Waltzingmouse Stamps worth £14.99 up for grabs - the fabulous and extremely useful set of wordy background stamps Text-It  Click the stamp set to link to the store and see all the fabulous projects the DT have created with it.

So are you ready for our inspiration parade (see parades are not just for her Majesty we can all join in!)  We've got a wide variety of furries to inspire you this month:

Anne

Deborah - she likes the theme so made two ;-)

Jenny

Lynne

Sylvie

Tara

Hope that got your mojo flowing as we'd really like to improve on last months low entries - so please tell all your crafty buddies about our challenge :-)

Today's Fair

Just a little heads up in case anyone was planning on coming to see us - I have pulled out of the Heeley Festival today due to the inclement weather - I'm afraid I just couldn't stand another 10 hours of battling the wind and rain in an open field.

Sorry to disappoint - am looking for some INDOOR fairs as we speak.........