SUO 69 – Anything Sizzix!

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I had no idea what I got myself into when I posted this as this week's challenge! Mainly it's because I didn't realize how much Sizzix stuff I have!! I'll bet you will be surprised at what you have, too!

So we're giving you the chance to look through all your Stampin' Up! products to find all that you have that is Sizzix and make a project with it! I'm really hoping that some of you will use some of those fab 3-dimensional dies. But dies of any size, Sizzlits, framelits, textured impression embossing folders – everything is up for grabs when you decide on this week's project! Have fun with it.

And now the most fun for me with this week's post – the introduction of our newest Design Team Member. You'll probably recognize her as someone who's been contributing to the challenges pretty regularly. She has a style all her own, and we are so excited to welcome Julie Gearinger to the SUO Challenge Design Team! Here's what Julie has to say to introduce herself to our readers:

Hi, my name is Julie Gearinger and I live in Frederick, Maryland, with my wonderful husband (just celebrated 30 years together, and our two beautiful "fur-babies". I have always been artistic and in 1999 attended my first Stampin' Up! party. I had never heard of Stampin' Up! or stamping for that matter, but had so much fun that I decided to sign up as a demonstrator that very night (to the surprise of my upline)!

I love being able to share cardmaking with others and am thrilled when they realize that they can be artists as well. I feel so honored and thankful to be part of the Design Team at SUO Challenges and look forward to seeing all of your beautiful creations in the future.

Julie will be our newest member for a very short time. Oh, she'll be here for awhile, but this will be the final Design Team blog post for Jen Timko. I am so going to miss her style in our Design Team pictures! But she's keeping busy all over the internet, and I'm sure you'll continue to see her fab projects as you surf Stampin' Up! and other sities. The best of luck in everything, Jen- we'll miss you! We already have a new Design Team member to take Jennifer's place, and I'll be introducing her next time!

So now on to the samples created by our Design Team – including our newest member, Julie!

To participate in our challenge, make a card or other paper-crafted 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.

PLEASE remember this: We're looking for projects posted to the internet after April 22, 2013. This is a NEW challenge!

And, of course, your projects should be 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 or in any other project included in your blog post 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: April 23, 2013 (3 am USA Eastern Time) –

May 4, 2013 (6 am USA Eastern Time)

SUO Challenge 68, Just Stick to One Color, Please – Our Top 3!

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Not as many of you as usual were interested in our challenge to make a monochromatic project. But, wow, did you all submit some wonderful! projects! The vast majority of those who entered projects in this challenge got at least one vote from our Design Team. So you know we had a hard time coming up with our Top 3!

So here they are and congratulations to all! You can click on their photo to go to the blog post about their entry. The Top 3 can pick up the sidebar code for their blogs over at the left.

Sue Rowe. Sue said that she is going to miss Baja Breeze in the Stampin' Up! color collection and she showed this favorite color off with a stunningly beautiful design. We were so impressed with the dimension and detail of the central flower on this card, and the Netting background gives just the perfect amount of texture to everything in the foreground. So much elegance in a clean and simple design!

Chris Smith. Chris said that she is going to miss River Rock in the Stampin' Up! color collection, and she, too, certainly showed us all why she likes to use it! What an elegant design with the doily and butterflies and the way Chris combined the River Rock with her background color. And there is so much dainty elegance in the texture that she used with all of her layers.

Fiona Whitten. We all loved the reverse design that Fiona made with her sponging of the Sizzix doily design. It's especially effective with the dark to light tones, and with the punched butterflies landing perfectly on the edge to show off the color!

SUO 68 – Just Stick to ONE Color, Please!

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After weeks where we had such colorful cards to show off here at SUO Challenges, this week we're dialing it back a bit. We'd like to make this a week for Monochrome – or just one color – cards. Now, that's just one color besides a Neutral or pale color you choose for your accent color. I, for example, used Vanilla as my accent for Not Quite Navy. But any of the browns and even gray and black can be perfect to set off one of the other colors in the Stampin' Up! rainbow!

So that's your challenge for the week – just one main color to go with your neutral accent. Heavens, you can go without an accent "color" if you'd like! The general rules for our challenge are at the left, and are summarized at the bottom of this blog post.

We're looking forward to your entries! And here to get you started are our Design Team entries.

Ooops! I almost forgot – we're losing one of our Design Team members to other activities! This week will be the last Design Team posting for Heidi Baks, who has been with SUO Challenges almost since Day 1. We are all sorry to see her go. But she'll still be around the Stampin' Up! community online, so please be sure to look her up and see what she's up to!

Bye, Heidi – and the best of wishes for everything that you do. We've loved having you!!!

Mary Brown

PLEASE remember this: We're looking for projects posted to the internet after April 8, 2013. This is a NEW challenge!

Challenge Dates: April 9, 2013 (3 am USA Eastern Time) –

April 20, 2013 (6 am USA Eastern Time)

SUO 67, Our Spring is in the Air Top 3!

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As I write this, there are cardinals singing away outside my window. Here in Hawaii they are almost like Mockingbirds, with a new song just about every time they open their little beaks! So Spring is definitely in the air.

And we loved each and every entry in our challenge this week – even some My Digital Studio cards, which are always welcome! But, as always we have decided on our Top 3 for the challenge, and they are:

Deena Boos. Deena wow'ed us with her flowers "cut out" from the frame. What a gorgeous way to show what we can do with Stampin' Up! products. And those butterflies really do look like they're flying over the leaves. Wow!

Julie Wadlinger. The flowers in Julie's card are so beautifully framed. And the colors in the whole card are just lovely and so pleasing to the eye. We especialy like the way that she used the patterns from the poppy sheet in the Floral District Designer Series Paper.

Cindy Malone. Cindy's bright colors just cry out "Spring"! And we really enjoy the way that she layered up her card. Of course, this image is just perfect for Spring!

Congratulations again to our Top 3! Don't forget to get the blog sidebar code for the Top 3 winners, over to the left and down a bit if you'd like to display it on your blog!