Hi there! So glad you're joining in with us!
We have some spam filters in place, so that's why thinks are a little wonky for you. I changed your permissions, so most things should work better for you now (I think you can start threads and edit them now). Things still may be a little weird til you reach 10 posts, but that'll clear up automatically. The quickest way to get to that magic number of 10 is just to leave some comments in the gallery.
To answer your questions:
1 - Anything from a current SSD designer is fair game. That includes freebies, retired items, or items that you got elsewhere. As long as she's a current designer, it counts. Items from designers who are no longer here just count as outside product.
The official rule states
You must use Sweet Shoppe products for the bulk of your page. Outside templates, minor accents, etc. are perfectly ok as long as at a glance the page is obviously created with products from our shoppe and designers!
So, the templates you mentioned should be just fine.
2 - Spin-a-lift of Sugarbabe Marnel: Spin-a-lift is an old SSD challenge. Basically, you look through
Marnel's gallery (she's a sugarbabe: the site creative team), and choose one of her layouts. Then you flip it or rotate it around someway and "scraplift" or use her design as inspiration for your own page.
3 - Stack It Up - This one sounds like it's pretty open to interpretation. I'd just take it to mean to do a page with things stacked up... maybe you have a stack of photos peeking out from behind a main photo. Or maybe you stack up some flowers/buttons/foliage on top of a photo... as long as you've got something stacked on the page, you'll be fine.
4 - You should definitely upload to the gallery, and while we love & appreciate links to the product, that part isn't really necessary. You can simply say "XYZ kit by Libby Pritchett" in your credits.
I hope I've answered everything for you, but if you have more questions, just holler!