UDI Inspiration Challenge - Fruit Salad, Yummy, Yummy!

Wow, how did a picture of my breakfast plate get on here?
Wait - that's not really my breakfast, but it sure looks good, eh? It's our UDI Inspiration Challenge Photo for this week! I showed this to my daughter the other day and her first reaction was to sing the song from The Wiggles tv show - "Fruit Salad, Yummy, Yummy!" so that's where my post title came from. The sad part is that ever since she did that, I can't get that silly song out of my head! Aren't you glad I shared it with you today?! heehee

So now that you know what my inspiration was, let's take a look at the card:

Now, before you feel compelled to let me know that there are no cantaloupes, grapes, peaches or melon balls in my card, let me say "I KNOW!". But the only fruit in my stamp room besides me is in the form of the Tart and Tangy stamp set and since it needed about an inch of dust blown off of it, that's the direction I took. The poor stamps were just begging to be let out of the box!

My card was pretty easy to construct, even easier because of a visit from my friend Debbie the other day. We were discussing the difference in cardstock and I was showing her how there is a natural bend in all of it. It's important to fold on that natural bend to avoid getting cracks in your fold or you can also score it before you fold if you are going against the grain. Anyway, I had this folded card base of Textured Melon Mambo laying on my studio counter and decided to use that for my card. I haven't used the Textured cardstock in a long time and don't know why - it makes beautiful cards! AND, you can stamp on it too! Great stuff!

This card is pretty straightforward, so I'll skip the deep details, but just so you know, I used the 1 1/4" Square punch for the fruit images which were colored with Stampin' Write Markers. I used Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Crushed Curry and Real Red. The lemon was colored once, stamped off, then I colored the edge again to give it depth.

The strawberry and cherry stamp were stamped once more on the inside of the card and on the envelope front without reinking. I just huffed on them to reactivate the remaining ink that was still on the stamp.
And if you look really close, you can see a bit of Dazzling Diamonds Glitter on each piece of fruit. Once I glittered my squares, I added them to a piece of Old Olive cardstock which had a piece of Whisper White punched with the Eyelet Border punch across the bottom. This focal panel is popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I just want to show you how I did the ribbon up close:

I took my Horizontal Slit Punch and just nipped a little piece off the folded edge of the card base to make a slit for my Old Olive Striped Grosgrain Ribbon to run through. The ribbon hides the slit very well if you don't make it too big. I love this technique because it makes it easy to add ribbon all the way around the front of a card without having to cut it off at the edges and glue it down - so messy! If you don't own this punch, you need to add it to your tool box - it's a cost effective one, just $5.95, but one that you'll use many, many times.

Thanks so much for stopping by to see what I was inspired to create. I hope you'll visit the UDI Blog as well and see what the rest of the designers came up with. It's sure to put a bee in your bonnet about stamping for yourself today!

For those of you who are my clients and are on my mailing list, there are only 3 days left of my Big Birthday Sale so don't delay - contact me so you don't miss my best sale of the year! You know I don't have a sale very often, so it's time to enjoy the savings while you can!

Have a great day everyone!
~~Robin