Category Archives: Challenge Favorites

SUO Challenge 82, Harvest Time – Our Top 3!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our latest challenge.  Fabulous projects to give us all a wide range of ideas for the season – as usual!

Thanks especially to our Top 3 whom we felt did the best job of capturing our theme for the week!

 

Margaret King (Margaret K). This beautiful CAS (Clean and Simple) card caught our eye with the circle with its sentiment and the lovely Crystal Effects dew drops.  The sponged leaves carry through the harvest theme as the focal point of this card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jennifer Kay (TX Jenny Wren).  The sponged leaves in the card create a beautiful depth to the whole picture.  And that background is just stunning in its artistry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paula Sievers.  Paula's stamping on her entire project is so well done.  And the card box is just the pefect accompaniment to this well-constructed project!

 

 

 

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SUO Challenge #81, Masculine Cards – Our Top 3!

     Once again, thanks to the SUO Challenge Design Team for keeping the Challenges going during my absence while I traveled extensively on the USA Mainland.  But I just couldn't saddle them with the work involved in compiling the Top 3 for publication.  (Shhhhh – it's so much fun I keep it for myself!)  So here is the Top 3 post for our Masculine Card challenge – better late than never!

     Asking someone to make a "masculine" card as opposed to a "feminine" card used to be seen as a request to make something with browns and blacks and other neutrals rather than with the bright, regal and subtle colors of the Stampin' Up! palette. Not any more as was evidenced by our Design Team entries as well as by the projects of those who entered their projects into the SUO Challenge to make a "Masculine" card! 

     Oh, and once again, we have Top 3 representation from several corners of the Stampin' Up! world, including one from Australia as well as one each from both markets in North America – the United States and Canada!  What fun to meet so many people through our Stampin' Up! experience!

 

Patti Corriere, USA.  Our Design Team loved the textures on this card along with the beautifully laid-out scene made with the various stamps.  The Natural Ribbon accents the whole card, as well as adding yet another texture element to enhance the design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bronwyn Eastley, Australia.  We all loved the use of the My Digital Studio "punches" to create this design.  And of course, Bronwyn picked the perfect Designer Series Paper to go with this project!

 

 

 

 

Brenda Hofstatter, Canada.  We were particularly impressed by Brenda's use of the metallic gold which really makes this whole design pop.  The "fussy cut" stars are a beautiful accent and really bring out the colors that she used in the stamped image.

 

 

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SUO Challenge #80, Welcome Baby – Our Top 3!

     As many of you know, I've been traveling for most of the month of October.  While members of the SUO Challenge Design Team have kept the challenges going during my absence, we decided to leave the work of compiling and publishing the Top 3 for the last two challenges until I returned home.  Shhhhh!  Don't let the rest of the Design Team members know that I have so much fun compiling and publishing the Top 3 Posts that I selfishly kept this for myself!

     The team's votes didn't disappoint me either!  As always, I am amazed at how many of you received votes for the Top 3 honors.  We truly do have a talented group of people participating in our challenges!  But, oh – that's not my favorite part of this particular group of Top 3 designers!  Two of the three are from the UK, and the third is from New Zealand!  I'm so excited to have these three Stampin' Up! Demonstrators join in our challenge AND win Top 3 honors!  Of course I delight in all our entrants and their projects, but having all the Top 3 from outside North America is definitely a thrill for us.  To read more about their projects, just click on the pictures.

 

Nicky Dexter, from Colchester, UK.  What a delightful use of colors for this Welcome Baby card!  Those tiny handprints are so nicely framed with the Coastal Cabana die-cut shape.  But our favorite part of this card was the use of the images from the Baby Tees Jumbo Wheel as a perfect embellishment!

 

 

 

 

Margaret King from Northamptonshire, UK.  We especially liked that the front of this card was personalized with the baby's name!  What fun is that!  But our favorite parts of the project are those beautifully shaded and highlighted balloons.  They look so real they could be popped with a pin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karren Johnson from Christchurch, New Zealand.  What a great Clean and Simple (CAS) card this is.  Our favorite part of this card is the embossed and sanded cardstock that looks just like real fabric ribbon!

 

 

 

 

 

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SUO Challenge 79, A Favorite Technique – Our Top 3!

     When we first chose "Favorite Technique" for our SU Only Challenge, I imagined that we'd get lots of different variations on the same few techniques.  What was I thinking?!! There's a list of all the techniques represented in this challenge at the end of this post.

     Congratulations to all of you for your delightful projects and, in many cases, good clear instructions for how to do what you showed off!  More than half of you received votes this time around and I'm sure that if we didn't limit the number of votes possible, all of you would have ended up being in the mix, too!

     We did vote for our Top 3 for this challenge, though, and we hope you'll visit their blogs to see their Favorite Technique projects much more clearly than those little thumbnails show off.  Just click on the photo to get to the designer's blog.

 

Bronwyn Eastley.  This is not just paper punching.  Bronwyn made this adorable little "punch art" owl using My Digital Studio.  This is digital punch art at its cutest!  It's not totally digital, though, as she cut this little owl out and gave it some fun texture before showing it off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karren Johnson.  Karren's background for the Wetlands Stamp Set image really does invoke the seashore.  The Fossil Stone technique makes the background so soft that you can feel the quiet elegance of a visit to the shore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucy Tustian.  Lucy's Rolling Marbleg technique makes a perfect background for the Zoo Review Stamp Set. Her blender pen watercoloring also beautifully highlights these images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     These are all the techniques represented in this challenge:

  • Paper Piercing (twice!)
  • Masking Tape Inking (twice!)
  • Watercolor with Aqua Painter (twice!)
  • Masking/Sponging
  • Emboss Resist
  • Marker Layering
  • Stamp Aligning with the Stamp-a-ma-jig
  • Easel Card Fold
  • Two-Step Stampin'
  • Bubble Wrapping
  • Kaleidoscope
  • Punch Art
  • Fossil Stone (twice!)
  • Versamark Resist
  • Framelits
  • Chalkboard
  • Crystal Effects
  • Sponging
  • Tie-dye Background
  • Wrinkled Newsprint
  • Digital Punch Art
  • Make your own DSP
  • Cracked Glass
  • Baby Wipe
  • Blender Pen Coloring
  • Brayering
  • Staggered Accordion Fold
  • Fussy Cutting
  • Rolling Marble