California Dreamin' and A Cracked Bone

The challenge this week on My Time To Craft is Trees and Leaves. I started this card by creating the image of a windswept tree on a stormy day but then I got stuck with where I would go next to finish the project. However while waiting for an appointment yesterday I came across the lyrics of the song "California Dreamin'" by the Mammas and Pappas and that was my inspiration to finish the card.

To create my picture, I first made the background using Adirondack dye inks and torn paper as a mask to for the hills. The stormy sky was a mix of Distress inks, mainly Weathered Wood and Dusty Concord. The tree is a stamp from Elusive Images, one of my favorites on the Design-A-Tree Set themeplate. I stamped it with Adirondack ink (Espresso) and then used one of the leaf clusters to stamp the leaves by colouring the just one or 2 leaves at a time with Stampin Up markers and stamping a few on the tree but most swirling in the wind.

The leaves on the front of the fold back part of the card are from a set of stamps that I bought in Partners some time ago. I tried a technique I first learned about on Michelle Zindorf's blog a while ago which was to ink my stamp first with Versamark then with the Adirondack dye ink and then once I had stamped this, heat embossed with clear EP. Once the leaves were embossed I coloured them with the Stampin' Up markers. I also used Versmark and the leaf stamp to stamp a watermark effect on the dark green cardstock, but it's not showing up very will in the photo.

The paper is from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD, but I copied the image into my graphics programme and fiddled about a bit to get a grayer more stormy colour and added a text box with the opening lyrics from "California Dreamin". They may be a bit hard to read in the photo but they say : "All the leaves are brown , And the sky is grey, I went for a walk, On a winter’s day".

And the appointment I was waiting for when inspiration hit? Well that was my appointment with the Oral Maxillo Facial Clinic yesterday. If you read my blog regularly you will know I had a rather painful head to head collision with my dog last week. It turns out I have a hair line crack along one of my cheek bones. It will heal on it's own so thankfully no nasty treatments are needed.