52 Christmas Card Throwdown - July theme challenge

Hello!  It’s theme challenge week at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, and this time we’re inviting our participants to create cards using the theme of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.

I puzzled over this for a while, and finally decided to go with the idea of “four calling birds”.  I thought it would be cute to have the birds perched on a set of Christmas lights rather than simply on a tree branch or on an overhead wire.  I stamped the birds and the light bulbs onto scrap white cardstock so that the colors would be more true than if I’d stamped and colored on the sky blue background.  Fussy cutting them took a little while but I think it was worth the effort.  The birds are colored with markers to coordinate with the colors of the lights.  I splattered some shimmery white paint on the focal panel to look like falling snow.  The layout for this card is an old sketch from Operation Write Home, although I changed the focal panel from a rectangle to an oval.

I’m going to link this card to this week’s “Make Your Mark” challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More and to the “Christmas in July 4 Kids” challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to see what the rest of the 52CCT design team has done for this challenge, and then link your own card at the challenge site.  You have until 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Friday, July 22 to enter.

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Sparrows (Lawn Fawn); Holiday Baubles (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Soft Sky, Real Red (Stampin’ Up); designer papers from Holly Jolly Christmas 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Echo Park)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Gumball Green (SU)
Other: markers (Copic); Frost White shimmer paint (SU); petite oval Nestabilities die (Spellbinders)