SUO Challenge #44 – Our Top 3!

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We are finally getting around to a review of all of the gorgeous projects entered into our Mother's Day challenge, now that the SUO Challenges Coordinator has recovered from a bit of jet lag. Gosh that's getting harder the older I get!

It's also getting harder and harder for the SUO Challenge Design Team to come to an agreement on our Top 3 for our challenges. We are SO thrilled to have Stampin' Up! only projects of such quality all in one place! Of course, for Mother's Day, the projects were no exception. And here are the Top 3 on which we have finally decided. Congratulations to them all – and be sure to click on the photograph of their projects to go to their blogs or galleries to learn more about them!

Jonia Smith. The word that popped up on several of our ballots was, "Wow!" This set for Mom is beyond spectacular. And those 3-Dimensional flowers are just gorgeous! We do hope that Jonia will join in our next challenge (which, as you all now know is to make a project with 3-Dimensional flowers).

Gayle Wheeler. We all loved the details on both the card and the envelope. This is a delightful use of a color combo, showing how it works on both a light and dark background. We especially like how Gayle decorated the envelope for this ensemble!

Diane Vander Galien. There are so many delightful little details on this pop-up card that make it just beautiful to look at! The ribbon, pearls, and the spritzing have help to create a soft and feminine feel which is just perfect for Mother's Day!

SUO Challenge #45 – 3-Dimensional Flowers

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Everywhere I look these days, I see flowers everywhere – even on cards and other papercrafting projects! So, with many of us in the middle of prime late Spring flower season out in the garden, we decided that those of us at our computers should have some lovely flowers to view while we're surfing the net. So this week's challenge is to create a card or other project with 3-Dimensional Flowers on it. It can be anything from flowers popped up from a card's surface with some Stampin' Dimensionals, to fabric and ribbon flowers, to intricately folded paper flowers – and everything in between!!

Here are the projects offered by our SUO Challenge Design Team, a bouquet with flowers picked from the products in their Stampin' Up! stashes. While we may not be able to sniff these lovely flowers, I'm sure we can imagine how some of them might tickle our noses' fancy if we found them out in a garden.

Mary's Card

Heidi's Card

Jennifer's Card

Deb's Card

Karen's Card

Cindy Elam's Card

Cindy Coutts' CArd

Michelle's Card

Pam's Card

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 May 14, 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 #44 – May is For Mothers!

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One of the most popular times of the year for making those special handmade greeting cards and gifts is the two weeks leading up to Mother's Day! So here we are right in the thick of Mother's Day preparation with a challenge that will be sure to gather interest around our Stampin' Up! world.

Even for those of us who do not have a mother with whom to celebrate the day, or who are not ourselves a mother, there is usually someone special who is a special mother in our lives. I have three special young women in my life who are mothers to my grandchildren, and they give me good reason to celebrate Mother's Day each and every year. It is for them that I make my special Mother's Day cards and gifts. I hope you will join me and the rest of the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge Design team in making and displaying projects that you make to celebrate Mother's Day 2012! Just add your project using the Link tool at the end of today's post!

Robin's Project

Jennifer's Card

Heidi Baks (There's a seed packet in this card!)

To participate in our challenge, 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 30, 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, or other crafting 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 not sell picture frames, so use of picture frames from another company is fine. If you have a question, please send an e-mail to our Coordinator, Robin Messenheimer, and she'll be glad to answer it!

As with the last challenge, the time for this challenge is going to be one day shorter than usual to accommodate some scheduling conflicts. We'll also be a bit late in announcing the Top 3 for this challenge – but it will only be a day or two later than usual.

SUO Challenge #43 – Our Top 3!

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Thanks so much to all of you who joined in our challenge to say "Goodbye to the Occasions Mini Catalog." Some of you, of course, aren't in the North American Mini Catalog zone, so you featured stamps from other catalogs, which is just fine. We're nothing if not flexible here at Stampin' Up! Only (except we're not flexible when it comes to our "Stampin' Up! ONLY rule; we tend to dig our heels in on that!)

As always, so many great projects and so many of you received mention as we determined our Top 3 this week. So on to our congratulations for projects well done to::

Diane Vander Galien. Oh, my! How soft are those watercolored colors, and how beautifully layered is the card!! This is such an elegant card, and shows off so many wonderful techniques and products that it's hard to focus on any one as the "star" of the card. If nothing else, all the texture just made us say, "Wow, what a pretty card!"

Trish Giesbrecht. This card has so many elements that are just perfectly placed on it! The embossing with the Labels Framelits is a perfect frame for those two little flowers. Again, a very soft and pretty card!

Susan Rowe. This is not just a card – it's a whole suite of projects that makes a perfect gift package! Susan's in Australia, so is using the delicious Spice Cake paper to which we up north said, "Goodbye" back in January. So nice to see it again in such a fab project!

If you'd like to see more about any of these three projects, just click on the picture!