A Christmas Carol

When I first saw this stamp set in the new catalog I fell in love with it.  It looks like a Dickens Christmas to me.  So it was on my very first order on July 1st.  Then when it came I looked at it and thought "now what?"  It could be colored in but that looks like a lot of work.  But when I came home from convention and I was going through my swaps I found a card that was a detailed image like this and they had just stamped it and then did some sponging on it and I really liked it.  Now I know that the color on this isn't very good but the image was stamped in Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla.  Then I sponged some So Saffron and Crumb Cake on it.  Then I added the lace ribbon and some glimmer brads and it was done.  

 But, could I do better?  So here's the second attempt.  The image is Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla and then sponged like the one above.  Then I stamped snowflakes in Chocolate Chip on Crumb Cake.  I layeredd the carolers on the snowflakes and added a border made from the lace ribbon border.  Then wrapped some Chocolate Chip scallop ribbon around it and added the greeting on top of it.  And the last little detail is some pearls on the ribbon.

So what do you think?  Do you like the first one better or the second one?   Sometimes you need to take a second look and see if there's something better that could be done.  I like the second one better.  But it is a little more work. 
Don't forget that card class is this coming Thurs.  Hope to see you there.