SUO Challenge 71 – Favorite Retiring Stamp Sets!

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By the time we issue our next challenge here at the Stampin' Up! Only Challenges blog, dozens of favorite stamp sets will have been retired by Stampin' Up! But this happens every year – twice a year for awhile there! – and so most of us are used to this time of transition. This doesn't make it any easier for those of use who are SU! Demonstrators to say, "Goodbye," to our favorites. Of course, if you're not a demonstrator (and even if you are) you may keep all your favorites around for years and years.

As all of our current SUO Challenge Design Team Members are Stampin' Up! Demonstrators, my challenge to them was to use their favorite stamp set that is retiring this year. For the rest of you, we'd really like to see your favorites that are retiring this year – but you may use any retired Stampin' Up! stamp set that is a favorite to enter Challenge 71.

The challenge rules and deadlines are at the end of this blog post. One thing I'd like to emphasize is that, as the SUO Challenges Coordinator, I'm here to help you if you have problems getting your entries posted. Just send me an e-mail (link below) and we'll get things fixed up!

Finally, once again we are saying, "Goodbye," not to a stamp set but to one of our Design Team Members. Cindy Elam has been a treasure for all of us, and I'm really going to miss her style here at SUO Challenges! But she's not leaving the Stampin' Up! community, and I'm sure we'll have lots of chances to see her work, even if it's not here. She does have one last design for us, though. I hope you'll enjoy it as well as the projects of all of the other Design Team members!

To participate in our challenge, make a card or other paper-crafted project and post a photo of it to your blog or a gallery on the internet. Then come back here and use our link tool at the bottom of this post to share the photo with us.

PLEASE remember this: We're looking for projects posted to the internet AFTER May 20, 2013. This is a NEW challenge!

And, of course, your projects should be made with Stampin' Up! products only. The products may be those that are in current catalogs, or they may be retired products. But (as our blog title says) SUO – Stampin' Up! Only! This means that products from other papercrafting, rubber stamp, die-making or other companies may not be included in your project or in any other project included in your blog post if Stampin' Up! sells a like product. For example, Stampin' Up! does not sell sewing thread. So use of sewing thread from another company is just fine. Stampin' Up! does sell the Sizzix Big Shot, so use of die-cuts, texture plates or other such products from another company is not fine. If you have a question, please send an e-mail to our Coordinator, Robin Messenheimer, and she'll be glad to answer it!

Challenge Dates: May 21, 2013 (3 am USA Eastern Time) –

June 1, 2013 (6 am USA Eastern Time)

SUO Challenge #55 – Mmmm, Feel that Texture! And there’s blog candy involved!

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This month is a milestone for the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge Design Team as we are beginning our 3rd year of challenges!

Of course, we wouldn't be here without all of you who enter those challenges and provide a great opportunity for all of our readers to see lots of fun and fabulous samples of Stampin' Up! Only projects! So congratulations to all of you for keeping this challenge going!

To really show our appreciation, the design team is offering blog candy for each of our Top 3 entrants for this challenge! But first, you might want to know what the challenge is (if you haven't guessed it from the title of this post): it's to make a project that has texture to it. As you can see from our Design Team's samples, texture can take many forms. But the most frequent of those forms is texture that's created with Stampin' Up!'s Textured Impressions Embossing Folders! So an embossing folder of your choice is our blog candy this time around.

All you have to do is enter your project (card, scrap page, 3-D project) with some texture in it, and, in about 2 weeks, our Design Team will choose the Top 3 designs from all the entries. Once your project has been selected as a Top 3, I'll be in touch to find out which currently-available Stampin' Up! Embossing Folder you'd like. I'll order it for you and send it off to you as soon as I get it from Stampin' Up!

Now onto our Design Team's inspirations to get you started on our challenge!

Robin's Project

Jennifer's Project

Mary's Project

Cindy E's Project

Deb's Project

Connie's Project

Karen's Kreation

Heidi's Project

Pam's Project

To participate in our challenge, make a card or other project and post a photo of it to your blog or a gallery on the internet. Then come back here and use our link tool at the bottom of this post to share the photo with us! We're looking for cards posted to the internet after October 1, 2012, and (of course!) made with Stampin' Up! products only. The products may be those that are in current catalogs, or they may be retired products. But (as our blog title says) SUO – Stampin' Up! Only! This means that Products from other papercrafting, rubber stamp, die-making or other companies may not be included in your project if Stampin' Up! sells a like product. For example, Stampin' Up! does not sell sewing thread. So use of sewing thread from another company is just fine. Stampin' Up! does sell the Sizzix Big Shot, so use of die-cuts, texture plates or other such products from another company is not fine. If you have a question, please send an e-mail to our Coordinator, Robin Messenheimer, and she'll be glad to answer it!

Challenge Dates: October 2, 2012 (3 am USA Eastern Time) –

October 13, 2012 (9 am USA Eastern Time)

SUO Challenge #51 – Love Those Designer Papers – and a New Design Team Member!

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What a fun challenge we have for you this time around, and a fun announcement as well!

First our announcement – we have a new Design Team Member! We at SUO Challenges are excited to announce that the fabulous Connie Babbert has joined our team!! She has shared the following brief bio with us:

I've been stamping for over 11 years and just had my 10 year anniversary with Stampin' Up! in May! I've always been "crafty", participating in many craft fairs before I found stamping. Since then, it has been stamping all the way and I've given up all of my other crafts. I just finished building a wonderful stamp studio in our home and I love having my space organized and behind cabinet doors! I don't know that I have a typical "style"…but I love challenges to stretch my creativity. I frequently wake up dreaming about a card or project that I want to make!

I took the early retirement incentive from my job as manager in the engineering department for the local phone company…a decision I have NEVER regretted. I've been married to my husband, Eric, for 33 years in September (yes, I was young!) and we have two wonderful sons, Adam – 30 and Ross – 26. Both married wonderful girls. It is SO nice to finally have some GIRLS in the family! Bleach, our cat, keeps us company now that the kids are out of the house.

I'm excited to be a part of the SUO Challenge Team!

Welcome, Connie!

And now for this week's challenge, which is to use some Stampin' Up! Designer Series paper in a creative way on any kind of a project. Our design team has taken on this challenge in quite a few different ways, and we can hardly wait to see what you share with us, too!

Connie's Card

Cindy Elam's Card

Heidi's Card

Robin's Card

Pam's Card

Karen Barber's Card

To participate in our challenge, make a card or other project and post a photo of it to your blog or a gallery on the internet. Then come back here and use our link tool at the bottom of this post to share the photo with us! We're looking for cards posted to the internet after August 6, 2012, and (of course!) made with Stampin' Up! products only. The products may be those that are in current catalogs, or they may be retired products. But (as our blog title says) SUO – Stampin' Up! Only! This means that Products from other papercrafting, rubber stamp, die-making or other companies may not be included in your project if Stampin' Up! sells a like product. For example, Stampin' Up! does not sell sewing thread. So use of sewing thread from another company is just fine. Stampin' Up! does sell the Sizzix Big Shot, so use of die-cuts, texture plates or other such products from another company is not fine. If you have a question, please send an e-mail to our Coordinator, Robin Messenheimer, and she'll be glad to answer it!

Challenge Dates: August 7, 2012 (3 am USA Eastern Time) –

August 18, 2012 (Noon USA Eastern Time)

SUO Challenge #47 – Fancy Frills

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Most recent Stampin' Up! catalogs have had lots of products in them that invite us to do something "frilly" with our projects. And the brand new 2012-2013 Stampin' Up! Catalog is no different. In fact, there may just be a lot more in the way of lace and scallops and fussy folders in this new catalog than there has been in previous catalogs. So, rather than just using all of these fancy frills as accents for other products, we challenged our design team – and now you! – to make something that shows off the frills right up front, making them main features of a project.

I'm sure you'll agree that our Design Team members have all approached this assignment creatively – and we're sure that you will, too! All you have to do is to create a project (card, scrap page, or any kind of project) using Stampin' Up! products with at least a bit of a frilly nature to them. Here are our Design Team members' takes on this challenge, and we're, as always, looking forward to seeing what you'll do with this challenge, too! Don't forget – Stampin' Up! ONLY!! For entries in this and all of our challenges, all Stampin' Up! products are welcome, whether they are current or retired.

To participate in our challenge, make a card or other project and post a photo of it to your blog or a gallery on the internet. Then come back here and use our link tool at the bottom of this post to share the photo with us! We're looking for cards posted to the internet after June 11, 2012, and (of course!) made with Stampin' Up! products only. The products may be those that are in current catalogs, or they may be retired products. But (as our blog title says) SUO – Stampin' Up! Only! This means that Products from other papercrafting, rubber stamp, die-making or other companies may not be included in your project if Stampin' Up! sells a like product. For example, Stampin' Up! does not sell sewing thread. So use of sewing thread from another company is just fine. Stampin' Up! does sell the Sizzix Big Shot, so use of die-cuts, texture plates or other such products from another company is not fine. If you have a question, please send an e-mail to our Coordinator, Robin Messenheimer, and she'll be glad to answer it!