SUO Challenge #63, CAS Valentines – Our Top 3!

2 / 11 / 13

Oh, my, what a wonderful collection of easy to make Clean and Simple Valentines you showed off during our last challenge! Of course, some were more "clean and simple" than others. But there is a wide variety of opinions on what constitutes CAS. All these different ideas is what makes looking at all these wonderful project samples so much fun!

Thank you to everyone who contributed a gorgeous project for this challenge – and they were ALL gorgeous! We have selected a "Top 3," though, and they are:

Karren J. made a card that we all agreed was the epitome of "Clean and Simple." What a beautiful splash of red in the one corner of the card and the rhinestone accented it perfectly!

Gail Wheeler. The Naturals Composition envelope and the distressed background complement each other so well – and provide the perfect background layout for the hearts and greeting. Lovely card!

Kristine Giampietro. We loved the party favor, and especially the pearl heart on the tag. The texture on the pillow box accented the two pieces of pink with their pearl accents beautifully. What a fun project!

If you wish to learn more about any of these projects, just click on the picture and you'll be taken to the artist's blog!

SUO Challenge #63 – Clean and Simple Valentines

1 / 29 / 131 / 29 / 13

With so many new – and not so new – Stampin' Up! products to use for Valentine Cards, it's a wonder that they're not all just covered with layers of papers and dozens of embellishments! It's so easy to put lots of Stampin' Up! products together to create elegant cards, especially for such special card-giving times as Valentine's Day!

But some of the most elegant cards that we've seen here at Stampin' Up! Only Challenges are elegant because of the Clean and Simple (or CAS) way that elements have been put together on the cards. Sometimes it takes a bit more thought and planning than for a more complicated card. But the results can be absolutely stunning.

So that's your challenge this time – to make a Clean and Simple Valentire's Day Card! There's a wide variety in what different stampers consider CAS, as you'll see in our Design Team entries for this week. And we're looking forward to what YOU have to offer with your own take on the CAS Valentines!

(Update – the link to Jennifer's blog has been fixed)

Mary Brown

Robin Messenheimer

Pam Staples

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. We're looking for cards posted to the internet after January 28, 2013, 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 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: January 29, 2013 (3 am USA Eastern Time) –

February 9, 2013 (9 am USA Eastern Time)

SUO Challenge #62 – New Toys!

1 / 15 / 131 / 15 / 13

Finally we're getting around to a new challenge here at SUO Challenges! Your Design Team Coordinator is delighted to be back at the computer, not to mention healithily crafting to my heart's content! Our Design Team Members have been champing at the bit to get their challenge cards out for you all to see, too, so I won't delay a moment longer.

The challenge for this time? As the title says – bring out your New Toys! If you've placed an order from the Stampin' Up! Spring Catalog, go for it! But even if you just have something in your stash that's new to you and you just need to break it out and finally use it, go for it. New to Stampin' Up!? Then EVERYthing's new for you! So use whatever your heart desires!

And now for our Design Team's Creations!

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. We're looking for cards posted to the internet after January 14, 2013, 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 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: January 15, 2013 (3 am USA Eastern Time) –

January 26, 2013 (9 am USA Eastern Time)

SUO Challenge #61 – True Blue!

12 / 25 / 1212 / 29 / 12

Here we are posting our biweekly challenge on Christmas Day. A very Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate this holiday!

But whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, the Solstice, Kwanzaa, or any of a number of midwinter observances, one color that frequently seems to appear in greetings and decorations is Blue.

The good news is that Blue is a welcome color for a greeting card or gift no matter what the holiday or the season. So, to help us transition from the 2012 December holidays into the new year of 2013, what better theme for a challenge than the color blue! And any blue works just fine for us, whether it's a current or retired Stampin' Up! color!

I had to go count the blues I could find in my collection of catalogs, and found seven colors with the word "blue" in their names: Baja, Bashful, Ballet (retired), Bordering (r), Brilliant (r), Brocade (r) and Bliss (r). But there are so many more colors that, whether or not they are blue in name, are certainly blue in color, and several of them are in our Design Team Members' cards this week.

Your challenge – and we hope you accept it! – is to find a blue (or blues! no limit!) that you particularly like and then enter your project in our final challenge for 2012! We hope that our True Blue Design Team Members' samples will help you get started!

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. We're looking for cards posted to the internet after December 24, 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 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: December 25, 2012 (3 am USA Eastern Time) –

January 5, 2013 (9 am USA Eastern Time)