Black, white and a dash of what you fancy ....

.... well, here we are - it's the 1st of July.  Where has this year gone?  We're already onto our fourth challenge for St Luke's Hospice.  This time the St Luke's Charity Card Challenge DT want you to use a colour theme:

Black, white plus one other colour of your choice

So - you've got lots of scope.  Your card can be any style, any occasion - whatever takes your fancy!!

For me July 1st is also my mother-in-law's birthday.  Madeline is a very special lady and I love her to bits.  She great fun to be with and multi-talented too!!  She gardens, she cooks (brilliantly), she's fun to be with and she's a great Bridge player.  I decided to use our colour theme as the basis for Madeline's card.  And I wanted to include all the things she likes and is good at - but that became a bit unwieldy!  So I decided to concentrate on gardens/flowers and the game Bridge.  What I had in mind, isn't quite what I ended up with, but I think this is better than my original idea.  Oh yes, my additional colour is RED.

Please join me in wishing my mother-in-law, Madeline, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

All the stamped images have been heat embossed with clear powder to give a lovely shine - and make the colours deeper.  I stamped four of the large flowers on plain white card and then softly coloured them to add depth.  The sentiment topper was made with my trusty Waltzingmouse stamps - Very Vintage Labels No 18 - the base layer in black and the top layer in red.  The actual sentiment is also WMS from Say It Loud - just love these bold sentiments.  So that's the gardening hobby sorted.  And if you look closely at the centres of the black flowers - you will notice each has a different suit - spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs - and that's Bridge covered too!  I showed this to Jonathan, via the net, and he really likes it.  So I'm hoping that Madeline will like it too!

Stamps:  Creative Expressions - Floral; Waltzingmouse - Very Vintage Labels No 18, Say It Loud; Hobby Arts - Playing Card Jewel (J1640G)
Inks:  Versamark; Stampin' Up! - Real Red; Versafine - Onyx Black
Spellbinders:  Labels 18 (S4-310)
Accessories:  Card and embossing powder from my stash

I also added a little bit of detail to the envelope.  The Hobby Arts stamp is a medallion style stamp and had a lovely circle with all the different card suits in it - I punched this out and added it to the front of the envelope.

If you'd like to join in and want to donate your card to the charity, here are the details of what to do.  Cards can be any shape, size or colour. If you are going to kindly donate your card to the charity, please include a matching blank envelope and pop it in a protective card bag. Then just pop it all in another slightly larger envelope and send it to:

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

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU PUT A STAMP ON YOUR PARCEL  - THANKS"

Don't forget to visit my fellow DT members - they have some lovely cards to inspire and share with you:

• Lynne Atkinson
• Tara Cardwell
• Anne Forrest
• Ciara Jennings

This month we are being joined by a Guest Designer, Zoe Tant.  So don't forget to check out her card too!

And before I go - don't forget to check out St Luke's Charity Card Challenge blog to see who has won the lovely Blue Ribbons and Buttons, kindly donated by our very own Ciara!

I was very busy in my craft room yesterday and will pop back again later today to share with you my cards!  See you then.