Another over-the-top Christmas card

Today was not a good day at work.  First of all it was Monday which is always a downer.  Secondly it was the day after Halloween.  Now you wouldn't think that teenagers would be affected by the tons of candy consumed on that particular holiday, but let me assure you THEY ARE!!  My students were out of control today...sugar highs all around.  This made for a long, frustrating and exhausting day.  I also had some professional news that was a shock and not in a good way.  So by the time I got home at 5:30 I was done.  I related my tales of woe to my husband over dinner who listened with the appropriate amount of empathy and indignation and then, instead of heading for the TV I headed to my stamping table to try to "stamp out" my crappy day.  I'm happy to say that a little paper and ink therapy really helped and that I am very pleased with the card I created.  See what you think...

I love this card...it is so pretty...much better in person than in the photo!

Is it wrong that I counted the pearls?  There are 45 of them, in case you're wondering.

The sentiment from the Bells and Boughs set in the Holiday Mini.

Inside of card...sentiment from Snow Swirled set

See what I mean by over-the-top?  I don't think I could have used more pearls if I tried!  This card weighs about half a pound...definitely will require a padded envelope and extra postage!  But I have to say...I don't care!  I really am happy with the card and I can honestly say it has been a long time since I've been able to say that.  That's one of the things I love most about this hobby...you can have the crappiest of days at your day job, come home and create something really beautiful.

So...how did I do it?  I started with a 5 3/8" x 4 1/8" piece of Very Vanilla cardstock.  I randomly stamped the images from Serene Snowflakes in Bravo Burgundy ink all over it.  I then took a same-sized piece of vellum and randomly stamped the images again using Champagne shimmer paint.  The key here is that I didn't clean the stamps between the burgundy and the shimmer paint.  What I wound up with was a shimmery, lighter shade of Bravo Burgundy for my snowflakes on the vellum.  I layered the vellum over the vanilla piece, adhering with glue dots along the top and bottom edges.  I then took two 1 1/2" x 5 3/8" pieces of Very Vanilla cardstock and ran them through my Big Shot with the Elegant Details impressions plate.  Then I sponged the same shimmer paint all over the embossed pieces, again with a hint of the burgundy ink still left from inking the stamps previously.  I layered the two embossed pieces over the vellum along the top and bottom edges.  The vellum layer will show in the middle.  Then I took 2 pieces of Bravo Burgundy grosgrain ribbon (retired...I bought this during the Clearance Rack blitz!) and adhered  them along the rough edges of the embossed pieces.  Over that I layered 2 pieces of Chantilly Lace  trim.  The whole thing was then adhered to a piece of 5 7/16" x 4 3/16" bravo burgundy cardstock.  That was then adhered to a very vanilla card base using Tombow glue (it is pretty heavy by this point...but I'm not done!).

This is when the fun begins!  I grabbed my sheet of pearls and went to town.  I used the smallest size on the embossed pieces.  Then I took one of the big designer buttons in very vanilla and adhered 1 large pearl in the centre and then added six more around that.  I adhered the button, along with a scrap of  Chantilly lace, to the card using Tombow.  For the greeting I stamped it on very vanilla in Bravo Burgundy ink and then sponged the whole thing with shimmer  paint. I punched it out using my decorative label punch and then sponged the edges using bravo burgundy ink.  I layered that on another bravo burgundy punch out and then adhered it to the card with dimensionals.  I added a few more pearls (so it wouldn't feel  left out!).
For the inside I stamped more snowflakes in shimmer paint, stamped the sentiment in bravo burgundy and sponged it in the same way I did the greeting on the front.  It is also layered on burgundy cardstock and adhered with dimensionals.
Since I was on a roll, I made another project that I will save until later.  Tomorrow night is my team meeting, so I don't know if I'll have time to post...if I do, I'll show you my other creation.  Here's hoping tomorrow's a better day!