SUO Challenge #59 – Know When to Fold ‘Em

11 / 27 / 1211 / 27 / 12

As much as I love making cards to send to friends and family, I love folding those cards in some other way that just in half. It's a really fun surprise to open an envelope and pull out an unexpected fold. Sometimes they're simple folds, and sometimes they're a bit more on the complicated side. But they're always fun!

No matter what kind of a fold you use for a card, the card can range from cute and fun to gorgeous and elegant, and everywhere in between – as you can see from the creations offered by our Design Team for this challenge.

Now we're ready to see what you like to do with your favorite folds! Whether they're popular or not-so-well-known, quick and easy or something that takes a bit of time and patience – we'd love to see them all! The link tool to showcase your creation is at the end of this post, along with a summary of the "rules" for Stampin' Up! Only Challenges.

Connie's Project

To participate in our challenge, make a card 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! We're looking for cards posted to the internet after November 26, 2012, and (of course!) 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 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!

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 #58 – A Clean and Simple Holiday Card

11 / 13 / 1211 / 13 / 12

There's only a month and a half left until Christmas and even less time left until Hanukkah! Do you have YOUR holiday cards done?

This is the time of the year when some of us are desperate for some great ideas for Clean and Simple – CAS – designs that we are able to complete quickly but still end up with a beautiful greeting card. Our design team members have come up with some fabulous CAS ideas, and I know that you can, too!

So that's all your challenge is this time – create and share with us a lovely holiday card that's clean and simple. Not too many embellishments, not too many layers, not too many steps. In fact, some of the most beautiful cards I've seen have had no layers, and lots of open space, drawing our attention to a small but elegant element on the card. I really can hardly wait to see all your ideas!

To get you started, I hope you'll enjoy our Design Team's Clean and Simple designs!

To participate in our challenge, make a card or other 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! We're looking for cards posted to the internet after November 12, 2012, and (of course!) 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 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: November 13, 2012 (3 am USA Eastern Time) –

November 24, 2012 (9 am USA Eastern Time)

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.