SUO Challenge 30, Treats are a Treat!

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.

SUO Challenge 26, Invitation to a Party

8 / 31 / 118 / 31 / 11

This month SU-Only Challenges is One Year Old, so it must be time for an online party! And do we have a party for you – not only a new challenge, but two new members of our Design Team to Introduce as well as a fond farewell to one of our original members. Here's our challenge for the week – and you'll find fun information about our new members in another post.

Create an invitation to a party – any kind of party! Of course there are always birthdays and showers and graduations. But there's also the Barbecue, the beach party, the end-of-summer bash, and so much more! Hey, even Stampin' Up! Workshops are parties! The list is endless.

Here are our Design Team Members' takes on this challenge, and we hope that you will join us in the fun we've had making them!

Deb's Card

Heidi's Card

Jennifer's Card

Karen's Card

Robin's Card

Mary's Card

Cindy's Card

Favorite New Stamp Top 3

Thanks for all your entries last week! But we did have to pick our Top 3 who are:

Jackie Topa for her hobby horse that is just too darned cute and wonderfully clever. Several of us wonder where we were when the "clever" gene was doled out. We think Jackie got more of them than is fair!

Bornwyn Eastley is another designer with more than her fair share of clever genes with imaginative use of the Two Tags Sizzix die. Beautiful card!

Leslie Croghan's design, coloring and overall execution of her vintage card was just the perfect card for congratulating her mother. Just gorgeous!

We did have to disqualify a couple of entries this week. We've noticed that there have been several projects over the past few weeks that have included dies from companies that compete with Stampin' Up!'s Sizzix products. Please remember that entries for this challenge should be SU! ONLY!

Here's our standard short reminder of the "rules": Entried should be Stampin' Up! products only, be a new creation in response to our challenge, and have no links to posts that are selling anything. You can find all the finer details on the sidebar at the top left

SUO Challenge 24, Get Well Cards

7 / 25 / 117 / 25 / 11

We love to have a selection of pre-made Get Well cards on hand and ready to send. You just never know when a co-worker or family member will be ill or hospitalized. That is why this week it is "Stock up your Get Well card Stash" week! Let's make some Get Well cards so that we are prepared when one is needed! Here are the cards our design team created! We encourage you to play along! Let us see what you come up with! Just upload your creation to your blog and link it below!

Here's a short reminder of the "rules": Stampin' Up! products only, a new creation in response to our challenge, and no links to posts that are selling anything. You can find all the finer details on the sidebar at the top left.

Winners of the "For the Kids!" Challenge!

Wow! We had so many wonderful creations submitted this week! The creativity was rampant! And the winners are…

Cristy Butzen – Such an adorable monster card! Great combination of stamp sets and fantastic layout!

Cindy Elam – Adorable Pop-Up Stage card with dinosaurs! What kid wouldn't LOVE to get this!!! Amazing.

Jill Yamada-Murota – Kids adore piggies! And so do we! Jill's stacked pig card was a huge hit with our team!

Thanks for participating, ladies! Please pick up your "I was in the Top 3" badge from the left side column! Congratulations!!