SUO Challenge 31 – Our Top Three

11 / 15 / 11

What a delight it was to read all about all the projects submitted for our challenge to make a "Thinking of You" card. There were so many beautiful cards and, as always, we had to work hard to pick our Top Three for the challenge.

Kasey from Oz (Australia) wowed us all with her beautifully ornate embossed frame for a simply gorgeous "painting" of a ship. This really is true artistry of the stamping variety!

Tanya Bell (also from Australia!) just pulled this vintage look together perfectly. There was so much beautiful detail that it was hard not to keep looking at it to see if there was one more detail we missed!

Sheri Bradley's card has such a beautifully clean design. We loved the way the dogwood flower popped from the rest of the card, and how well it tied together with the rest of the paper!

SUO Challenge 31, Thinking of You!

11 / 1 / 1111 / 2 / 11

With all of the very specific kinds of greeting cards to make, you'd think that we could all keep busy with those! But so much of the time, I just want to make a card that uses that special stamp set or that special Designer Series Paper or that technique that I just read about on the Internet, and I don't really have any other purpose in mind. Until, that is, when I get to the end of the design process and realize that I really do want to "say" something with the card. More often than not, I end up using a simple greeting such as, "Friend to Friend," or "Thinking of You." But what do you do when you START with the idea of making a "Thinking of You" card? That's what we'd like to find out in this week's challenge.

So join with us in today's challenge – to make a greeting card just for the purpose of sending to someone to say you're thinking about them. I've already used the card I made for today's challenge to send to someone who's going to be undergoing some medical tests. I want her to know that I'm thinking about her as she approaches this day that will be somewhat of an ordeal. I can hardly wait to see what kind of card YOU would make to say, "Thinking of You"!

Here, as always, are some cards from our Design Team to get you started as you design your own card. Please remember to post your card using the InLinkz tool at the end of this post – and be sure to use Stampin' Up! products ONLY, and post only cards that you've made in response to (that is, after) we've posted today's challenge.

SUO Challenge 30, Treats are a Treat!

10 / 18 / 1110 / 21 / 11

Aloha, all!

What fun all of us on the SU! Only Challenge team had this week. It all began when we started to post our projects and apologize to each other for something so simple. It ended up by us all realizing that, just because something doesn't take hours to plan and make, does not mean that it's something for which we should apologize. "After all," as one of us said, "I was first drawn to SU! because things just came together so easily!" Another team member said, "I absolutely love little candies packaged up and that is the hook that got me into Stampin' Up! in the first place. Why do we make it so hard on ourselves when SU! makes it so cute and easy?!"

So here we are with this week's challenge. Make something to hold a treat. Stampin' Up! has so many products to use to help us with that, from the tried and true bag toppers to the Sizzix Boxes and Bags to the newest "It's a Wrap" series of stamp sets. Just look through the Stampin' Up! catalog and you'll find tons of ideas for projects to hold treats in every section! We just know that you have a favorite and we'd love for you to share it with us.

And here are the cute and EASY projects made by our design team for this week. I have to tell you we've had a blast with them! (As an aside, did you know that two Kit Kat bars would fit inside an empty blender pen case? Did you know that the new 1" Cellophane Bags hold a twizzler perfectly?)

Mary's Project

Jennifer's Project

Karen's Project

Pam's Project

Michelle's Project

Cindy's Project

Robin's Project

Our Top Three for our Leaves Collection

Thanks to everyone who participated in our challenge this week. I'm sure that everyone who looked at them here and on your blogs got some wonderful ideas for their own crafting this season!

Beth Rush, who wowed us all with the way she made the stamped leaves look like a prized botanical collection and the primary focus of the card, not just something in the background. The card is so very simply in its design, but is just about as classy as a card can be.

Barb Rose, whose "not-a-Build-a-Bear" Pilgrim is just too cute for words. What more is there to say than, "Thanks so much for sharing it with us!"

Jenn Picard, whose leaves and distressing technique make this another very classy card. We particularly liked the way the layout was accented by the one sliver of dark card stock and the coordinating brads.

Please Read This!

This challenge was created for fans of Stampin' Up! products to get inspiration from and participate in challenges using Stampin' Up! products. Hence the name of the blog, Stampin' Up! ONLY Challenges. We ask that you respect this by using ONLY Stampin' Up! products. Retired Stampin' Up! products are welcome. Products from other manufacturers that compete with Stampin' Up! products should NOT be a part of any project entered in any of our challenges.

SUO Challenges is an advertising-free zone and is a challenge that is for fun only. Please do not enter into our challenge any project for which you are selling a tutorial or template.

We will only accept projects that are posted on your blog or other website after our challenge goes live on Monday night or Tuesday morning (depending on where you live) every other week.

Please respect these limitations and all of our guidelines set forth over to the left at the top of the blog. We will remove from the challenge entries any projects that fall outside the guidelines.

SUO Challenge 29: Leaves? Stampin’ Up! Has Them

10 / 4 / 1110 / 3 / 11

Fall is usually the time when the many of us who live in temperate climates think of leaves. Those on trees and shrubs go from changing colors to falling to the ground. Oh, those glorious colors! Oh, all the raking afterwards.

But Stampin' Up! features leaves all year 'round! Just this past year – from Nature Walk and Build a Blossom in the Occasions Mini to Fabulous Florets in the Summer Mini, not to mention all those gorgeous leaf stamps in the Idea Book and Catalog – Stampin' Up! has made sure that we know that Fall is not the only time to have fun with leaves. Of course there is that luscious new set, Gently Falling, in the current Holiday Mini. But there's so much more!

We "leave" it to you to find your favorite among the Stampin' Up! leaves – current or retired – and show us a project you've made with them! To get you started with some inspiration, here are projects from our Design Team. There's a place at the end of the post where you can share a link to YOUR project!

Deb's Card

Heidi's Card

Jennifer's Card

Karen's Card

Michelle's Card

Mary Brown's Card

Pam's Card

Cindy's Card

Robin's Card

Our "Fall Colors" Top 3!

Ann Craig with her gathered paper that so beautifully accented the nicely constructed layout. All the elements in the card worked fantastically well together!

Ulrike whose card’s layers made her whole layout seem 3-dimensional – we wanted to reach out and touch those flowers in her garden! We loved her use of Designer Series Papers and how she used the papers to enhance so many of the layers throughout her card.

Julie Gearinger, who offered two cards this week. The one with which we were especially impressed is the one with the medallion which carried the vintage feel of the embossing and coloring so well through her wonderfully-laid out card.

Please Read This!

This challenge was created for fans of Stampin' Up! products to get inspiration from and participate in challenges using Stampin' Up! products. Hence the name of the blog, Stampin' Up! Only Challenges. We ask that you respect this by using ONLY Stampin' Up! products. Retired Stampin' Up! products are welcome. Products from other manufacturers that compete with Stampin' Up! products should NOT be a part of any project entered in any of our challenges.

SUO Challenges is an advertising-free zone and is a challenge that is for fun only. Please do not enter into our challenge any project for which you are selling a tutorial or template.

Please respect these limitations and all of our guidelines set forth over to the left at the top of the blog. We will remove from the challenge entries any projects that fall outside the guidelines.