UDI Inspiration Challenge #69

Hi everyone - I have some exciting news to share with you all!
I've been invited to join the Design Team for Thursday's Inspiration Challenge on the UDI Blog! UDI stands for Utah Divas International and is a yahoo group set up for any Stampin' Up! demo who wants to join, regardless of what country you are a demo in. It's a great resource for sharing stamping and business ideas plus it's a place to share joys and challenges in your life as well. It encompasses the SU! Statement of the Heart beautifully.
UDI also has a public creative blog that is separate from the group and you can find it at this link here. There are different challenges and types of posts each day of the week and there you will see projects from demos in multiple countries - it's a great variety! My designs will be linked there on Thursdays and will always be based on an inspiration piece like the one I've shown you at the top of this post.

When Maria sent me this photo yesterday, I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it so I sat right down at my counter and got to work - what do you think, does it capture the inspiration piece?

I was thrilled with how this card turned out, I just wish you could see it in person, it is so much more elegant up close.
I used a piece of 5 x 5 Glossy White Cardstock because in the photo, there is kind of a clear, glassy reflection that seems to be where the blue tint is coming from.
Laying my Medallion stamp (oh yeah, baby!) on it's block, I took out Bashful Blue, Crushed Curry and Soft Suede ink pads and some sponge daubers. I started in the middle with the Bashful Blue ink and just daubed a swirl pattern on the stamp - kind of like a cinnamon roll looks. Then, I applied the Crushed Curry the same way, just going in between the blue swirls with that color on my dauber. Lastly, I applied Soft Suede in a wheel spoke type pattern to mimic the tree trunks in the photo. I breathed softly on it to remoisten the ink and then laid my cardstock on top of the stamp to transfer the image.
I almost squealed with delight when I saw the result!

Taking my Paper Snips, I trimmed out the Medallion and left a tiny border of white around the outside edge like a die-cut. I then added a Rhinestone Circle Ice Brad to the center with my Paper Piercer and Mat Pack and put Stampin' Dimensionals on the back to adhere it to the card front.

My card base is a piece of Shimmer White cardstock cut for a folded 5 1/4" square card. It's hard to see the shimmer in photos, but it is beautiful paired up with the glossy medallion. I added a layered ribbon band of Soft Suede (flipped to the plain reverse side) and Bashful Blue Taffeta. This wraps all the way around the front flap of the card and shows inside. I hate ribbon that is cut off on the inside or at the edges, it looks so unfinished to me!
Lastly, I stamped the greeting in the lower right corner in Soft Suede ink. It's from the Warm Words stamp set which hasn't seen enough love in the studio lately. I thought this would make a great anniversary card for this season with the mix of fall and pastel colors.

I'm so glad you came to visit me today and I sure hope you like the card! I'll have a new inspiration challenge post here for you every Thursday, so be sure to come back and play along with me! We'd love for you to play along with the UDI team! Just go to the UDI Blog and leave a comment with a link to your blog post or upload to a public gallery. If you use a public gallery, be sure to use the keyword DivaIC69.