SUO Challenge #48 – For the Birds!

6 / 26 / 126 / 26 / 12

With a quick pass through my 2012-2013 Stampin' Up! Catalog, I found 45 stamp sets that had at least one bird in them! That's over 20% of the stamps that Stampin' Up! has in its current catalog! (Disclaimer! I did this on my own with no one checking. But even if I missed one or two stamps – or counted one or two more than I should have! – it's still pretty close to that 20% number.) And those don't even count the Punch and the Sizzix Die that feature birds!

So, with birds being such a big element in so many Stampin' Up! products, we decided that it would be fun to challenge you to make a Stampin' Up! Only project featuring a Stampin' Up! bird! I'm so excited to see which birds you all choose for this week's challenge. Already our Design Team (all of whom work independently of each other) has shown some favorites with two birds stamps being featured in two different cards. We're having a bit of a chuckle over that. What are your favorites? We hope you'll make a card or other project with them and post them here for our challenge!

As always, you'll have 12 days for our challenge and, as always, please be sure that your projects are Stampin' Up! Only! When you've finished with your project, just click on the link tool at the end of the post and follow the instructions! And now here are our Design Team Member projects that are For the Birds:

Cindy Coutts (Cindy also has a video about these cards here!)

Pam Staples

Karen Barber

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 June 25, 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 #47 – Our Top 3!

6 / 25 / 12

Fun and frilly was definitely the name of the game with all of the fab projects that our entrants showed off for our Fancy Frills challenge! I read the word, "CASE," on several of our SUO Challenge Design Team voting ballots this weekend, and I've got my eye on a couple of your projects for that, too!

So, with a fancy drum roll, we are pleased to announce our Top 3 for SUO Challenge #47:

Melissa Davies. This Black and White design shows off Melissa's frills beautifully! And can't you just imagine the whole project in another single color of your own choosing? This is such a classically elegant card, with so many perfect little details – especially the new Doily Sizzlit with the black behind it showing off the details of the die.

Vicki Burdick. There are so many lovely details on this card, also! It was hard for our team to pick out any one feature – the way all the details go together in the card's layout just made us smile! If we had to pick a favorite detail, it's the way that the flowers are colored.

Diane Vander Galien. Oh so feminine! The muted colors and embossing would have been gorgeous all by themselves; but adding the ruched seam binding ribbon over the Edgelits border, and then the pleated paper underneath just sent this card over the top!

SUO Challenge #47 – Fancy Frills

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Most recent Stampin' Up! catalogs have had lots of products in them that invite us to do something "frilly" with our projects. And the brand new 2012-2013 Stampin' Up! Catalog is no different. In fact, there may just be a lot more in the way of lace and scallops and fussy folders in this new catalog than there has been in previous catalogs. So, rather than just using all of these fancy frills as accents for other products, we challenged our design team – and now you! – to make something that shows off the frills right up front, making them main features of a project.

I'm sure you'll agree that our Design Team members have all approached this assignment creatively – and we're sure that you will, too! All you have to do is to create a project (card, scrap page, or any kind of project) using Stampin' Up! products with at least a bit of a frilly nature to them. Here are our Design Team members' takes on this challenge, and we're, as always, looking forward to seeing what you'll do with this challenge, too! Don't forget – Stampin' Up! ONLY!! For entries in this and all of our challenges, all Stampin' Up! products are welcome, whether they are current or retired.

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 June 11, 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 #46 – Our Top 3!

6 / 11 / 126 / 11 / 12

First of all, I and all the members of the SUO Challenges Design Team would like to express a delighted, "Thank You!" to our first ever Guest Designers! It has been wonderful having them as members of our team, and they participated throughout the entire course of the last challenge, even providing their input to the voting for this week's Top 3! We can hardly wait to do this again, probably in late Fall 2012. All of our entrants are eligible to be invited to be Guest Designers, with those who have contributed the most to the challenges given top priority.

Speaking of "top," here are our Bright Summer Days Challenge Top 3:

April Jackson. This card certainly shows off the "Bright Summer Days" theme with the sunshine. And what a delightful way of displaying the tree from the "Season of Friendship" stamp set. Those bright flowers seem to love the sun shining down on them and that little bird reminded one of our Design Team members of the mockingbird singing outside her window – such a happy little fellow!

Patty Corriere. What a beautifully designed and executed card! All of the card's elements go together so well – the colors, the layout and the little piece of ribbon. And we definitely wanted to taste those cherries – they certainly look good enough to eat!

Diane Vander Galien. Diane did a fab job of showing off one of Stampin' Up!'s newest Hostess Sets and some of its newest colors and papers with this lovely window card. What makes this card especially easy on the eyes is the beautiful balance of all the elements that make it up.