UDI Inspiration Challenge

Hi everyone! Welcome to another Thursday - and that means another Inspiration Challenge from the UDI Blog. A few of you have asked me what UDI is, and it stands Utah Divas International. It's a group of international SU! demonstrators that was started by my friend Maxine Conrad, who not only is a demonstrator, she works for Stampin' Up!. Talk about a great life! :) Anyway, she started the group as a way to bring demos together from all over the world to share ideas, challenges, business tips and a bit of our lives as well. The blog aspect of UDI is a great resource for all SU! project ideas and there is a new post and/or challenge every day of the week. Several months ago, I was honored to be asked to join the design team for the Thursday Inspiration Challenge - and it's one of the best things I ever did. Not only is it fun, but it forces me outside my box in terms of design, style and color.
Anyone can play along with any of the challenges - just post your creation online either on your blog, or to a public gallery and share the link in a comment on the challenge post. We LOVE to see your take on the inspiration piece each week.

Speaking of, here is the piece that our challenge Mom, Maria gave us this week:

Talk about a bold, bright pattern! I LOVE it! The photo here on my blog doesn't show the grey/silver tones very well, but they were integral to my interpretation of the piece. And without further ado, here that is:

I tried something that I hadn't done in a while - a Z fold card. I was reminded of this great fold by a photo of a swap my friend Christy sent me this week.
To make the card folded this way, simply cut your cardstock base at 4 1/4" x 11" and score it at 5 1/2" across. Then score one of the 5 1/2" sections in half at 2 3/4" and fold it back out towards the first fold. Is that clear as mud? Here, maybe this view will help:

NOW you see it, right? :)
I was so happy to be able to use some of my Going Gray cardstock and ink, I know I haven't used it in eons! I cut two pieces of Going Gray cardstock, one at 4" x 5 1/4" and the other at 2 1/2" x 4". Then I cut two pieces of Whisper White cardstock, one at 3 3/4" x 5" and the other at 2 1/4" x 3 3/4".

The large piece of Whisper White was stamped with images from the stamp set With All My Heart in Real Red and Going Gray. I stamped the greeting first and used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to get it straight, since my stamp set is Wood Mounted (and a freebie from Stampin' Up!). Then I inked up the large flower image with Going Gray and stamped off one time on Grid Paper to lighten the tone before stamping it again without reinking on the cardstock. That is a technique called Graduated Stamping or Stamping Off and I love it because you can get multiple colors from just one ink pad. That stamped piece was adhered to the large Going Gray piece with SNAIL and then both were adhered to the Basic Black cardstock I used for my card base.

The small Whisper White piece was stamped with the smaller flowers from that stamp set in Real Red and Going Gray. I adhered that piece to the small Going Gray piece of cardstock with SNAIL and then used my Paper Piercer to punch holes in the centers of the gray flowers so I could add the small Clear Rhinestone Brads to them. Gotta have a little bling!

Those layers were adhered to the top of the Z fold and then I tied a 16" piece of yummy Real Red Satin ribbon around it in a knot, trimming the ends to look like flags.
All in all, a pretty simple card, but with a lot of impact using that fun fold!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you'll take a minute to check out the UDI Blog and maybe even play along with us! You'll have fun, I promise!
Have a great day!
~~Robin