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

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!

SUO Challenge 35, Feeling a Bit Punchy?

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Can you believe that the holidays are almost over? Those of you who celebrate Christmas are probably feeling the "punchiest" right now as the big weekend is over and all that's left is the cleaning up. You're allowed to feel punchy!

Today at SUO Challenges, though, "punchy" refers to all those wonderful punches that Stampin' Up! has had for us over the years. Most of the time in my crafting, punched features are just background or accents for the main motif of the project. But many of Stampin' Up!'s punches are good enough to be the main feature in their own right. So your challenge this week is to create a card, scrap page or 3-D project where the punch is the star of the show! As you can see from our Design Team projects, punch art is a great way to show off those punches – but it's not the only way! I'm sure that you have some great ideas to share with us, and we can hardly wait to see them!

And in case you missed our post from yesterday, please welcome Cindy Coutts back as a member of our Design Team!

Please remember, use ONLY Stampin' Up! products and share only something that you've made in response to this challenge. For a complete list of the guidelines for the SUO Challenges, please refer to our write-up down on the left.

As a bonus, Pam would also like to share a card she made using punches from My Digital Studio by Stampin' Up!

Robin Messenheimer

SUO Challenge Design Team – An Exciting Announcement

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As many of you know, the SUO Challenge Blog was founded over a year ago by Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, Cindy Coutts. She pulled together a fun Design Team and it's been going strong ever since. Earlier this year, though, Cindy felt that she had to devote more of her time to her other exciting personal and professional endeavors, and turned the SUO Challenge Blog over to the Design Team. Shortly after that, the team asked me to be the Design Team Coordinator, and I've been having a blast doing that ever since!

Recently, though, Cindy has decided to return to her Stampin' Up! roots and is once more a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. Not only that, she has accepted our invitation to rejoin us as a member of the SUO Challenge Blog Design Team! We here at SUOC are so excited to have her back, with her great talent and all of her wonderful ideas. She's jumping right in, too, and will have a sample on the new challenge tomorrow.

I hope you will all join with me in welcoming Cindy back! It's great to have her here with us again!