SUO Challenge 79, A Favorite Technique – Our Top 3!

9 / 23 / 139 / 23 / 13

When we first chose "Favorite Technique" for our SU Only Challenge, I imagined that we'd get lots of different variations on the same few techniques. What was I thinking?!! There's a list of all the techniques represented in this challenge at the end of this post.

Congratulations to all of you for your delightful projects and, in many cases, good clear instructions for how to do what you showed off! More than half of you received votes this time around and I'm sure that if we didn't limit the number of votes possible, all of you would have ended up being in the mix, too!

We did vote for our Top 3 for this challenge, though, and we hope you'll visit their blogs to see their Favorite Technique projects much more clearly than those little thumbnails show off. Just click on the photo to get to the designer's blog.

Bronwyn Eastley. This is not just paper punching. Bronwyn made this adorable little "punch art" owl using My Digital Studio. This is digital punch art at its cutest! It's not totally digital, though, as she cut this little owl out and gave it some fun texture before showing it off.

Karren Johnson. Karren's background for the Wetlands Stamp Set image really does invoke the seashore. The Fossil Stone technique makes the background so soft that you can feel the quiet elegance of a visit to the shore.

Lucy Tustian. Lucy's Rolling Marbleg technique makes a perfect background for the Zoo Review Stamp Set. Her blender pen watercoloring also beautifully highlights these images.

These are all the techniques represented in this challenge:

Paper Piercing (twice!)
Masking Tape Inking (twice!)
Watercolor with Aqua Painter (twice!)
Masking/Sponging
Emboss Resist
Marker Layering
Stamp Aligning with the Stamp-a-ma-jig
Easel Card Fold
Two-Step Stampin'
Bubble Wrapping
Kaleidoscope
Punch Art
Fossil Stone (twice!)
Versamark Resist
Framelits
Chalkboard
Crystal Effects
Sponging
Tie-dye Background
Wrinkled Newsprint
Digital Punch Art
Make your own DSP
Cracked Glass
Baby Wipe
Blender Pen Coloring
Brayering
Staggered Accordion Fold
Fussy Cutting
Rolling Marble

SUO Challenge #79 – A Favorite Technique!

9 / 10 / 139 / 22 / 13

As we work on our paper crafting projects, many of us have a favorite technique that we add to our projects when it's possible. I didn't need to sit and figure out what my favorite technique is – I knew immediately when we got to this challenge what I would like to show off. Now that I see our Design Team projects for this challenge, I can also see where I might just have to rethink "favorite"! I love them all, and I hope you do, too!

And speaking of you – we'd like to know what YOUR favorite paper crafting technique is! That's your challenge for SUO Challenge #79 – to create a project using your favorite technique. What's the technique that you use that makes you smile the most when you're working on or have completed a project? Make a card or any paper crafting project – using Stampin' Up! products, only, of course – and enter it in this challenge through the link tool at the end of this post.

The details of our guidelines are over at the left. But I summarize them at the end of the post, including the dates that this challenge is open. If you have any questions about linking your project or problems in creating the link, be sure to let the challenge coordinator, Robin Messenheimer, know. We cheerfully help crafters out just about every challenge, so don't be bashful about asking for help!

And now for the entries from the ladies AND gentleman of our Design Team!

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 September 9, 2013. This is a NEW challenge! AND please mention/link to the SUO Challenge Blog in your post!

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: September 10, 2013 (3 am USA Eastern Time) –

September 21, 2013 (6 am USA Eastern Time)

SUO Challenge #78, Ribbons and Bows – Our Top 3!

9 / 9 / 13

It was so much fun – and so challenging! – to look at all the ways that you used Ribbons and Bows in your projects for the last SUO Challenge. I'm sure that each of you has given many of our blog readers a great idea that they'll be using in the future. That's the best part of a challenge blog – seeing what everyone else is doing with their own Stampin' Up! products!

With all the great entries we had for this challenge, we were still able to designate three of the entries as our "Top 3" for the challenge. Click on any of the images to read more about the entries.

Diane Vander Galien. We so enjoyed how Diane used two different colors of Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper to create the layered bow. The 3-dimensional snowflake, with the coordinating colors, perfectly set off this beautifully designed gift box!

Lynda Day. What fun to have included three diffrerent kinds of ribbon in this Clean and Simple card project! We really liked her idea of splitting the Chevron Ribbon in half to tie the bow, and the threads on the cut side are a nice accent for the linen thread. The colors for this fall-themed greeting card beautifully enhance the fun layout of this card.

Darcie Bardach. We were all captivated by the vintage style frame and the way it and the mat complemented the colors for this project. This is a great way to show off the ribbons and bows of this challenge!

SUO Challenge #78 – Ribbons and Bows!

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With all the fun ribbons and bows currently in Stampin' Up!'s catalogs, we decided it was time to revisit this challenge from almost exactly 2 years ago. There's so much that's different in the catalogs today than back then, that we're sure you must have some new favorites that you'd like to show off! But, of course, old favorites are equally welcome here at the SUO Challenge blog! No matter if it's retired – we'd all love to see it again!

You'll notice in our Design Team entries that there's a sampling of paper bows – how much fun is that?! I haven't yet used my new Sizzix Bow die, but it's on my "to do" list and not far from the top. This year Stampin' Up! also has some bows already made up for us, and there's at least one of those in the Design Team Collection. We can hardly wait to see how many entries we get with these "alternative" bows. We need ideas!!!

If you're new to this challenge, welcome! You'll find the guidelines for our entries, along with a link to add your project to our collection, at the end of this post. If you have any questions, just e-mail Robin Messenheimer, our team coordinator, and she'll get back to you right away!