SUO Challenge 39 – Our Top Three

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Ladies, this is getting harder and harder to do! All of us on the Design Team were overwhelmed with all the fantastic entries for our Birthday Card challenge; this was a tough one. One of our members even asked if we couldn't do a Top 5 this time around! Every single one of you who entered our challenge last time definitely had a winner of a card!

But we did finally figure out our Top 3 for this challenge (and I had to use our tie-breaker system to get there, too!). So with a virtual drum roll, please welcome the SUO Challenge Top 3 Birthday Cards! (Click on the pictures to go to the individual websites.)

Paula Sievers' gorgeous, beautifully embossed and colored roses from the Fifth Avenue Floral collection are stunning with the special fold of this birthday card – for someone very special, we're sure! Be sure to look at Paula's website to see more about the fun fold of this card!

Catherine Pooler created a fabulous "shabby chic" card with a flair that had us all looking at the details and wondering how we could do that, too! Not to worry – check out Catherine's website for a video on how to make this very card!!

Patty Gorka (aka LaLatty) gave us another card with all kinds of details that, put together, make a simple yet beautiful layout. We especially like that center cupcake with the crimped "liner" and the little button all mounted with Stampin' Dimensionals to make it stand out from the rest.

SUO Challenge 36, New Techniques for a Whole New Year!

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If you are anything at all like me, you often find yourself using the same paper crafting techniques over and over. My "go-to" techniques are heat embossing and 2-Step Stamping. Many of Stampin' Up!'s stamp sets lend themselves beautifully to these two techniques. So when the idea for today's challenge occurred to me, it wasn't hard to find a technique to use that I haven't used in a while.

What about you? Are you a technique junkie, or do you pretty much stick with the same-ol'-same-ol' techniques? Whichever you are, I'll bet you can point to a technique that you've never used – or that you haven't used in a long while. That's our challenge this time around – pick a technique that's something you use infrequently – or not at all – and share it with us here at Stampin' Up! Only Challenges!

Our design team members have come up with some great examples of techniques they rarely or never use, and it's been a lot of fun for me to see what they can do with them. One thing's for sure, though. Even with different techniques, they each have their own style and it comes through beautifully no matter which techniques they use. I'm sure yours will, too!

Please remember, use ONLY Stampin' Up! products and share only something that you've made in response to this challenge. For a complete list of the guidelines for the SUO Challenges, please refer to our write-up down on the left.

Heidi Baks – Bleaching and Watercolor

Deb Hoekstra – Stamping on a Coffee Filter

Cindy Coutts – Using fabric cut with pinking shears, handmade rosettes, coloring pearls, coloring die-cuts

Cindy Elam – Emboss Resist

Jennifer Timko – Faux Delft Tile

Karen Barber – Paper Piecing and Fussy Cutting

Mary Brown – Marker Layering

Michelle Laycock – Tea Bag Dyeing

Pam Staples – Perpetual Card (Showing four "sides")

Robin Messenheimer – Watercolor

SUO Challenge 33, Our Top Three!

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Wow, isn't that title for this post a convergence of threes! Maybe just for giggles, we'll have a top 4 when we get to post 44. Or maybe not – just a wild thought that popped into my tired little brain!

And what a top three we have this time around! We always have trouble picking out three because all members of the design team pick THEIR top three and I have to work from there. This time, while we had lots of different opinions as usual, there was one name that was on EVERYone's list.

But that doesn't mean that each and every project shared for this challenge wasn't wonderful – they ALL are and we appreciate all of you who enter our challenges. I hope those of you who haven't clicked on the links in last week's post will take some time to do so today – it's well worth the effort!

Now for our Top Three for Challenge 33:

Kris Lynch. I just cannot imagine how anyone could look at Kris' project and not say, "Wow!" This picture is just the outside of the Peek-a-Boo Nativity that Kris created with scraps that she never throws away. You have to visit her blog post (click on the picture at the right) to see all the detail behind the doors!

Marlene Peters was also on many of our lists with her Snowflake and Scallop Circle Cards. Yes, it's cards plural! She made the same card with different colors and we were just amazed at how different each one feels. This card is my favorite among the three that she displayed on her blog.

Bonnie Klass shared with us a card that is so simple yet definitely elegant. This would be a great card for a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator to use in a workshop, and a great card for any of us to make when our time is short but we just have to have something well, elegant! The traditional Christmas colors in this card are stunning, again in their simplicity. But we could see this layout used in cards for many different occasions!

SUO Challenge 33, My Favorite Holiday Colors

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I can't even imagine all the various colors that are around this time of year to help us all celebrate a time of the year when the great outdoors supplies so little color (at least in the Northern Hemisphere). I know that I just love to brighten up my home and my paper crafting with colors that sparkle. "Bright" is definitely a word that defines the December holidays for me.

That said, I'm sure that there are some of you who love to celebrate with more subtle colors, or darker regal colors. Hmmm. Those sound a lot like three of Stampin' Up!'s color families. Brights, Regals, Subtles – even Neutrals!- what are YOUR favorite colors for celebrating your favorite December holidays?

Our design team members have created some projects using their own personal favorite colors, and our challenge for you this time is to create a card or any other holiday project that shows off your favorite December holiday colors. Please share your project with us by adding it to our blog post using the link at the bottom of this post. We can hardly wait to see what you have to show off! If recent entries for the SU Only Challenge blog are any indication, there are going to be more than a few that I'm going to want to try myself!

To help you get started, here is some inspiration from our talented Design Team members!

Cindy's Card