SUO Challenge #42 – Our Top 3!

4 / 17 / 12

We are very happy that so many of you decided to join in our "Congratulations" challenge. Congratulations to all of you! And, as always, a special Congratulations to our Top 3 for Challenge #42!

Bonnie Klass. We all loved the use of the white space in this card, perfectly accented by the "stamped-off" images from the Herbed Expressions stamp set. This clean and simple design is just stunning!

Cathy Parlitsis. Those rosettes are adorable, and the layering of the whole card sets them off so beautifully. Cathy used so many techniques in this card, and they all blend together to make a really spectacular Congratulations greeting.

Erna Logtenberg. The fold in this card is one that many of us haven't used in a long time – and now we wonder why! Of course, the colors and the stamped layered motif of this card are what truly make it special – and one of our favorites of the week!

Thank you ALL for being a part of the SUO Challenge!

SUO Challenge #42 – Congratulations!

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We at SUO Challenges have a Design Team Member who just this week celebrated her 10th Anniversary as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. This a big anniversary for a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator to celebrate, and the rest of us decided that this would be a perfect week to feature Cards of Congratulations.

So please help us as we congratulate Michelle Laycock for all her years past and years to come as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. You may know her best for her fab blog design work, including the SUO Challenges Blog and those of several of us on the Design Team. But she's also very talented with card stock and ink and embellishments, as I'm sure you've noticed in her Design Team samples over the weeks.

I'm sure that every one of you has someone who is going to be deserving of congratulations for some achievement this spring. So why not take this opportunity to make a Congratulations Card with your stash of Stampin' Up! supplies and share it with us here at SUO Challenges!

You know the routine – make a card and post a photo of it to your blog or a gallery on the internet, and 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 April 2, 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!

To get you started in thinking about what you might make for a Congratulations Card, here are some samples from our Design Team. I can hardly wait to see what you come up with!

SUO Challenge #41 – Our Top 3!

4 / 2 / 12

Oh, my! Another week where over half of the challenge entries received Top 3 votes from our Design Team! The change of seasons brings out the best in all of us, it seems! Thank you all for being so creative AND sharing your creations with us at the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge!

So, a drum roll, please, for those who received the most votes for this week's Top 3!

Tonya Denton. I think that one team member's response to this card says it all: "That lily rocks!" I'm sure that anyone that looks at this card will wonder why they can't sniff the scent of the Stargazer Lily, it's so realistic. What a beautiful job you did on this card, Tonya!

Paula Sievers. Last week's challenge was to "Think Spring (or Autumn)" because many of our readers and contributors are from the southern hemisphere. Paula is in Australia, and she created this lovely card to welcome Autumn. I particularly like how Paula made that lovely background with squares of Cajun Craze and More Mustard, and how well the colors in the "Lovely as a Tree" stamp make that central layer just pop off the background!

Patty Gorka. There are so many little details in this card that just make it a joy to look at! The rows of piercings, the way that the cherry blossoms are colored, the whole color combination – these all combine to make a very beautiful card!

Thank you ALL for being a part of the SUO Challenge!

SUO Challenge #40 – Our Top 3!

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Once again, over half of the entries in our challenge received Top 3 votes. Your ingenuity shown in all the fab entries for "It's Fun Being Green" just amazed us all. We are just so pleased to have such talented people entering our challenge and we look forward every time to seeing what you design for us!

But, as always, we like to single out three of the entries for recognition as one of our Top 3. It's so hard, because we'd like to make it a top 6 or 7 or 8…. But not. So here are our Top 3 for this challenge. You may click on any of the pictures to go to the artist's blog for more details about her project.

Paula Sievers. Everything on this card is just fabulous! The hills outlined with the edgelits, the little rosette in the lower left corner, the sun – and all the textured elements – really make it a very special card!

Karen Szczepkowski. This card really took the idea of making the green the focal point to heart (sorry, but one of the design team said it first, so I'm not to blame for the pun). And what a unique way to use the Sprinkled Expressions Sale-a-bration stamp. Just darling!

Patty Gorka. Again, the use of Edgelits for the hills in this card was definitely unique. And that butterfly just really shows off the design of the stamp from Mixed Bunch. Finishing the card off with the diagonal grid is a perfect complement to all the other texture in the card.