A Snowman Gang

I was playing with this design over the weekend and showed a sneak peek of it on Instagram and Facebook and made it look like the snowmen were sneaking up on this cardinal, like those creepy angels in Doctor Who.

It's funny how you can completely change the mood of something with creative photography.

However, now that it's out there, I have a confession to make.

Snowmen creep me out.

Not cute stampy snowmen - those are adorable. But real snowmen. They're right up there with scarecrows to me. Why have a fake "person" if it's sole intention is not to come to life and kill you in some wintery version of Children of the Corn?? The clown vibe is strong in those charcoal eyes - I'm telling you.

Thankfully I did not have to grow up with snowmen - they couldn't get to us to eat us when it was 90 degrees at Christmas. But you northern people - watch your backs!!!

But like many things that are scary in real life - spiders, bears, scarecrows and snowmen - they are ADORABLE as stamps.

So for today's card, I used Bev's masking challenge for Falliday Fest to make myself a little snowman community, with an ADORABLE cardinal in the foreground, just peeking in from the edge of the frame.

I also wanted to make my friend Debby Hughes a card, so I did this on a YUGE watercolor card - I have never made a UK sized card before - they like their cards big over there - and so I wanted to try it for Debbie. The cards are Strathmore Watercolor Cards with envelopes that I bought in Santa Fe.

I kept the color palette limited because a winter palette is limited - especially by snow. But snow also picks up beautiful environmental tints, so I used blues and purples on the snow - colors listed below.

This was fun, and I'm not even a little bit scared. This set - Merry & Bright - is part of the new Simon Says Stamp Holiday Release, which starts today. So fun. The sentiment is from Forever Friends.

Don't let those little guys sneak up on you!

Loveyameanitbye.