Happy New Year with a UDI Challenge!

Good morning stamping friends!
Call me crazy, but I am so glad to be back to blogging after taking a week off to celebrate the Christmas holiday! I've missed you! Did you miss me? :)

I hope you are planning a fun and safe New Years Eve celebration for tonight. We are having some friends over for family game night - something we've done for the last 4 years - and we'll be snacking through the night with wonderful finger food and yummy treats as we wait for the ball to drop in Times Square. What are your New Years Eve traditions? I'd love to hear about them!
Oh, and my Mom says to be sure to eat your Black-Eyed Peas on New Years Day - I don't know why, but we always have........it's TRADITION! LOL!

So, my first day back to the ol' blog and it's a fresh UDI Inspiration Challenge. Here is the photo our challenge mom, Maria chose for us to use:

And here is my interpretation:

I actually had fun with this card - it is fun and elegant at the same time and when I went searching for a sentiment, I was pleasantly surprised to find this one which suited the 'feel' I was going for perfectly!

The card base is simply a piece of Basic Black cardstock folded to create the card measuring 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". The middle layer is Brushed Gold cardstock cut at 3 1/4" x 4 1/2" and the stamped layer is Shimmer White cardstock cut at 3" x 4 1/4".

I took out the Circle Circus stamp set - which I admit is horribly underused in my stamp room - and embossed the three different circle images using Gold Encore ink and Gold Embossing powder. Those circles just reminded me of the bubbles in the glasses in the photo.
My greeting came from the Best Wishes and More stamp set which to me, is more whimsical than elegant, but that greeting seemed celebratory and best-wishy all at the same time. (is that a word? I guess it is now! ha!)
My one regret is that I was a little heavy handed on the left side of the greeting, so it's a little thick. I may re-do this before I send it to someone! But - I know you guys will forgive me!

Both of those layers were mounted on Stampin' Dimensionals to pop it up a bit. It's a bit hard to see, but I did add some detail with the Paper Piercing tool and the Mat Pack to two of the corners. It looks nice in person, I promise!

And lastly, you can see here that I added some more embossed circles to the Shimmer White cardstock piece on the inside of the card too.

Be sure to head over to the UDI Blog for the links to the other design team members projects - I know you'll be inspired by their takes on the photo.

I'll be back later with a fun year in review post for you. I'm sure you, as I, have much to be thankful for from this past year and much to look forward to in 2010! I like to look back and remember all the ways God has blessed us each year. It reminds me that even in the tough times, He keeps us in the palm of His hand.

Stamped blessings,
~~Robin