Long time, no post!

I always have the best of intentions...I wake up each day with a plan for everything I have to get done in the 24 hours I have till the next morning and part of that daily plan is always to create and post something for this blog.  Unfortunately, my plans this week haven't done me much good!  I just haven't had time to stamp between parent meetings at school and workshops for Stampin' Up!, my poor stamping corner has been sadly empty.  I did manage to get down there last night for a bit but was struggling to come up with something worthy of a post.  I think I was just too tired to be creative!  Here is the card I did, though I'm not thrilled with it...I just couldn't seem to get it right!  See what you think...

The image on this card is from a retired set called "Wandering Words".  The sentiment is from the current Just Believe set.

I've had the idea to use this sentiment with a Santa image for a while...I think it is very appropriate!

The snowflake is from the Merry Details sizzlet.

Clean and simple inside of card.  The sentiment is from the Christmas Greeting set.

So...not the greatest thing I've ever done, but its ok.  I started by sponging the entire card front using Marina Mist, Not Quite Navy and Night of Navy ink.  Then I did direct to paper with my Versmark pad over the entire thing.  I sprinkled Iridescent Ice embossing powder over it all and heat embossed it.  I was going for a glistening-snow-Milky-Way-kinda thing.  Then, on a separate piece of white cardstock I stamped the Santa and his reindeer image in Versamark and heat embossed it using silver embossing powder.  I cut it out and then sponged it using Night of Navy ink.  Then I sponged it again with champagne shimmer paint, so that it would blend against the sky a bit better.  I adhered it to the background using dimensionals.  For the snowflake, I ran the merry details sizzlet through my Big Shot with whisper white cardstock.  I sponged the snowflake with champagne shimmer paint to give it some life and added a rhinestone in the centre.  I adhered it in the upper left corner using a dimensional.  The sentiment is stamped using Night of Navy ink.  I then embossed the word "believed" in silver.  I punched it out using my decorative label punch and matted it with another decorative label in brushed silver.  I added some rhinestones to highlight the sentiment.  Before adhering it, I wrapped a piece of silver tinsel (yes, its back!) around the card front and adhered it using sticky strip and glue dots.  Then I attached the sentiment using dimensionals.  The whole card front is adhered to a Night of Navy card base the edges of which I sponged with champagne shimmer paint.  Because of the weight of the embossing, I adhered the cardfront to the base using sticky strip to ensure it stayed in place.
The inside of the card is straightforward and simple.  I sponged the edges of a piece of whisper white cardstock using marina mist ink.   I stamped the sentiment in night of navy on a separate piece of white cardstock and punched it out using the decorative label punch.  I matted it on another marina mist decorative label and adhered it inside the card using dimensionals.  I stamped the Santa image in versamark along the bottom edge.
As I said, its not my favourite card ever, but it was the best I could do after a long and busy week.  I'm looking forward to the weekend and some time to recharge my batteries!