SUO Challenge #59, Know When to Fold ‘Em – Our Top 3!

12 / 11 / 12

We're a bit late in getting our Top 3 post out this time around – but here it is! We were all so impressed with all the different folds you entered in this challenge, and certainly pleased that some of you chose to use a Design Team tutorial! Imitation is definitely the sincerest form of flattery when it comes to paper crafting!

Again it was hard to pick our top three – we had to go through a couple of tie-breaking exercises! And so many of you received votes. We are certainly very fortunate in having each and every one of you enter our challenges!

Congratulations to our Folding Challenge Top 3!

De Williamson. What a beautifully creative "primitive" punch art picture, which is a great focal point for the easel card with a twist.

Donna Centamore. This is a gorgeous take on Karen Barber's M fold with the extra panel to make it stand up. We also loved the fussy cut of the Snow Festival Deer – and the sparkly antlers! What fun!

Diane Vander Galien. This is another beautiful take on a tutorial provided by one of our design team, Cindy Elam. And we were impressed with the envelope that Diane made for this lovely card!

SUO Challenge #58, CAS Christmas Card – Our Top 3!

11 / 26 / 1211 / 26 / 12

From all the entries that we had this week, it looks like "Clean and Simple" – or CAS – is a well-liked way to make greeting cards! If you're reading this and didn't get a chance to look at all the entries, I'm sure if you did you'd find something absolutely wonderful on which to base one of your own projects. I know I did!

As always, we were able to designate three of the entries as our "Top 3." We had a 4-way tie for the 3rd spot this time (which we broke, of course), and more than half of your entries got at least one vote. So you certainly should know that we love your projects! We also had some new entrants, and we'd like to extend a special, "Welcome," to you all. Thanks for joining us!

And now for this challenge's Top 3. Click on the pictures to go to their blogs.

Jenn Picard. OK – the consensus of the team is that the little bird looking out at us along with Rudolph (love the red nose!) is just too cute. And the way the punched wreath coordinates with the prints on the Designer Paper makes it seem as if this set was made for it.

Vicki Burdick. We think the way Vicki used this stamp set is just darling, The cut out holly leaves are made especially cute with the pearls colored with a red marker. Love how she balanced the design with the alternating holly leaves, too.

Rosario Corral. The blue and white color combo in this card really make the whole design "pop." The Illuminate Glimmer on the texturized oval is a sparkling final touch..

SUO Challenge #57, Elegant Autumn – Our Top 3!

11 / 12 / 1211 / 11 / 12

Autumn isn't just all about cute – and quite a few of you agreed with us and entered our Elegant Autumn Challenge! Such lovely projects, and I'm sure many of them are going to be cased before the season ends – and even beyond!

Thanks for all of your entries! And congratulations to our Top 3 for this challenge!

Melissa Davies. OK – our first of the Top 3 isn't in an Autumn Season right now. Melissa lives in Australia where Spring is the season of the moment, so her focus was on things getting ready to grow in her seed packet project. Every detail in Melissa's spring gardening-theme card is amazing. We loved the rock-n-rolled leaves, the Crystal Effects on the die-cut letters, the subtle script from French Foliage over the First Edition DSP, right down to the tiny pearls on the Adorning Accents scallops.

Vicki Burdick. Vicki's project is just simply gorgeous. Our favorites were the amazing punch art pumpkins and the lattice in the background.

Aimee Cretsinger. What fabulous leaves and we truly liked the way Aimee colored the Hodge Podge Hardware to match the other elements in the card.

SUO Challenge #56, Stampin’ Up! Loves Animals – Our Top 3!

10 / 29 / 1210 / 29 / 12

Wow, not only does Stampin' Up! love animals, but quite a few of you do, too! Thanks so much for sharing your projects with animals – and Birds and Bugs! – for the SUO Challenge #56.

Congratulations to our Top 3!

Brenna Anderson. Brenna's is overall a beautiful card, with a layout that nicely accents the fluttering of the butterflies. We especially liked the way that the ribbon divides the card and provides a lovely accent to both the top and the bottom elements.

Shana Gaff. The "Baby Wipe" technique never gets old, and Shana really showed it off beautifully with these multi-colored butterflies. Notice how she, too, used ribbon to divide the card horizontally. That's a really nice effect!

Melissa Davis. Melissa used the Sizzix Framelits and Embossing Folders so creatively to form the center of this card – with the lovely bird setting it off quite nicely. And there's more ribbon for us all to enjoy along with the bird!