SUO Challenge #58, CAS Christmas Card – Our Top 3!

11 / 26 / 1211 / 26 / 12

From all the entries that we had this week, it looks like "Clean and Simple" – or CAS – is a well-liked way to make greeting cards! If you're reading this and didn't get a chance to look at all the entries, I'm sure if you did you'd find something absolutely wonderful on which to base one of your own projects. I know I did!

As always, we were able to designate three of the entries as our "Top 3." We had a 4-way tie for the 3rd spot this time (which we broke, of course), and more than half of your entries got at least one vote. So you certainly should know that we love your projects! We also had some new entrants, and we'd like to extend a special, "Welcome," to you all. Thanks for joining us!

And now for this challenge's Top 3. Click on the pictures to go to their blogs.

Jenn Picard. OK – the consensus of the team is that the little bird looking out at us along with Rudolph (love the red nose!) is just too cute. And the way the punched wreath coordinates with the prints on the Designer Paper makes it seem as if this set was made for it.

Vicki Burdick. We think the way Vicki used this stamp set is just darling, The cut out holly leaves are made especially cute with the pearls colored with a red marker. Love how she balanced the design with the alternating holly leaves, too.

Rosario Corral. The blue and white color combo in this card really make the whole design "pop." The Illuminate Glimmer on the texturized oval is a sparkling final touch..

SUO Challenge #57, Elegant Autumn – Our Top 3!

11 / 12 / 1211 / 11 / 12

Autumn isn't just all about cute – and quite a few of you agreed with us and entered our Elegant Autumn Challenge! Such lovely projects, and I'm sure many of them are going to be cased before the season ends – and even beyond!

Thanks for all of your entries! And congratulations to our Top 3 for this challenge!

Melissa Davies. OK – our first of the Top 3 isn't in an Autumn Season right now. Melissa lives in Australia where Spring is the season of the moment, so her focus was on things getting ready to grow in her seed packet project. Every detail in Melissa's spring gardening-theme card is amazing. We loved the rock-n-rolled leaves, the Crystal Effects on the die-cut letters, the subtle script from French Foliage over the First Edition DSP, right down to the tiny pearls on the Adorning Accents scallops.

Vicki Burdick. Vicki's project is just simply gorgeous. Our favorites were the amazing punch art pumpkins and the lattice in the background.

Aimee Cretsinger. What fabulous leaves and we truly liked the way Aimee colored the Hodge Podge Hardware to match the other elements in the card.

SUO Challenge #55, Feel That Texture – Our Top 3!

10 / 15 / 12

A special congratulations to our Top 3 for Challenge #55 in which we celebrated the beginning of our 3rd year as a Stampin' Up! Only challenge blog. What fun it's been these past two years, and we're really excited about the coming year with all the new products that Stampin' Up! will be offering – fab as always, we're sure!

Besides "just" being named our Top 3 for the week, each of these ladies gets to choose a Stampin' Up! Embossing Folder as blog candy to help us celebrate! If each of you would let me know which Embossing Folder you'd like, I'll place an order for it this week!

Offering Blog Candy was fun, and we may not wait for another whole year to do it! So keep in touch with us as the year goes on.

Shanna's Card Shana Gaff. The details in the leaves are spectacular, and we loved that Shana gave us some instructions on how to make our own! The button with the Baker's Twine and the layer with the embossed background add to the overall elegance in this stunning card.

Melissa's Card Melissa Davies. The colors and all of the details in this card are absolutely amazing! This is another elegant card with such a variety of textures that were perfect for this challenge!

Cat's Project Cat Spicer. The elegance in this card is the simplicity of the design, and the fun way in which Cat used texture to give us the feel of that sailboat on the waves. And what a fun idea to use the die she used for the waves – and the little detail of the sentiment on the bottom wave.

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SUO Challenge #54, For the Kids – Our Top 3!

10 / 2 / 12

If projects both from our Design Team as well as from our entrants this week are any indication, there are a lot of lucky children out there who are going to receive some really great paper-crafted projects! As always, we had a lot of fun chatting about all the projects, but, as always, we have managed to pick a Top 3 from a really wonderful group of projects!

So here are our Top 3 picks for Challenge #54! Click on a photograph to learn more about each project from the designer's blog.

Melissa Davies. We thought using the truck stamp as a dump truck and having the contents spill over to the base of the card was a fab idea! Of course, using the framelit for the shape of the card and the creative cutting of the "rocks" were equally creative. Sigh. Some of us have more of the creative genes that others!

Shana Gaff. Aren't these "happy colors" picked out by a child just the greatest?! And then the card itself with its creative design is such a fun idea!

Julie Cluff. This bag with the coordinating tag made us smile – and those yellow spider eyes are perfect! You definitely should check out Julie's video on how to make this whole project!