St Lukes Charity Card Challenge - with Baby Blossoms

One of the things I love about the crafting community is our willingness to share and to help one another. The other day I came across a new challenge site with a difference: The St Lukes Charity Cards Challenge is set monthly and crafters are invited to submit cards online and then physically send them in using the Freepost address provided. The cards are sold to raise money for the St Lukes Hospice in Sheffield which offers care and support for the terminally ill and their families. This is such a worthwhile project - I do hope you'll join in.

This month the challenge is to 'say it with flowers' - and what better flowers to say it with than Baby Blossoms! This is a stamp set that has just been released in the new mini catalogue - and I am head over heels in love with it! Here's my entry:

Unashamedly feminine! It's easy to stamp all sorts of floral designs with this set and it's got a lovely vintage feel that reminds me of beautiful chintz fabrics. I've used the Top Note die as a background and I love the curvaceousness of it! 

If you love ribbons and bows you must try the new seam binding! It's soft and silky and drapes so beautifully that I can't stop creating bows on everything with it! It comes in Rose Red (which I used here), Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake and Pear Pizzazz. Yum!

And look! This is the polka dot frame from Four Frames - my favourite of the four in the set! It is the perfect way to add a sentiment to your cards and other projects and the best thing is it has a coordinating punch so you don't even need to get your scissors out!

Here's how I made this card:

• Cut a 7.5cm x 7cm piece of Whisper White card stock. Stamp a random floral design on it using the Baby Blossoms stamp set and Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Pretty In Pink and Rose Red inks. Sponge the edges of the card stock with Pretty In Pink ink.
• Cut an 8.5cm x 7.25cm piece of Certainly Celery card stock. Decorate one of the short sides with the scallop trim border punch. Glue the floral panel onto this.
• Use the Top Note die in your Big Shot to cut out a Pretty In Pink panel. Trim the point from one of the short sides with paper snips - this will enable ribbon to fit snugly round the shape. Now, using a craft knife, make a slit 2cm in from the point on the other short side. Thread Rose Red seam binding through this.
• Glue the floral panel onto the Top Note, making sure the slit you made in the Top Note is hidden by it.  Tie the ribbon around it and finish with a pretty bow. 
• Cut an A4 piece of Whisper White card stock in half vertically. Score and fold in half to make a card base. Glue the Top Note to the card front.
• Stamp a polka dot frame in Rose Red ink on a scrap of Whisper White card stock. Add a sentiment using a stamp-a-majig for position. Now cut the frame out with the decorative label punch.
• Attach the sentiment to the card front using four dimensionals.

Supplies

Stamps: Baby Blossoms, Four Frames, Occasional Greetings (sentiment)

Ink: Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Pretty In Pink, Rose Red, Always Artichoke

Card stock: Whisper White, Pretty In Pink, Certainly Celery

Other: Top Note die, Rose Red seam binding, decorative label punch, scallop trim border punch

Making this card made me think of long summer days, sitting on a lawn in wicker chairs, leaning back into vintage chintz cushions, sipping tea from antique bone china cups... It's wishful thinking of course, firstly because our own lawn is the size of a pocket handkerchief and we certainly don't own any bone china, and secondly because the winter seems to have set back in here! A girl can dream can't she?!!  

Hope the sun is shining on you today, wherever you are! I'll be back tomorrow with Three Minute Thursday - hope to see you then!