Sad Day

Hello.

Today is a sad day.  I was forced to have one of my favorite trees in my backyard cut down due to the toll last year's record-breaking heat wave and drought inflicted on it.  I gave it a year to recover and finally called in an arborist a few weeks ago to give me his opinion on whether or not it could be saved.  What I thought were merely a few dead branches (albeit huge dead branches) were really the outward signs of the blight that took hold when the tree was weakened due to the unforgiving elements.  What was once a majestic tree....

suffered...

and now there is this:

I am so sad... (insert the sound of Taps playing in the background).

On the other hand (and a much brighter note), I made a card which fulfilled two SCS challenges - their last week's Sketch Challenge SC403, and this week's Color Challenge CC394.  So much fun.  These are not colors I'd normally put together (Sahara Sand, Not Quite Navy, Pacific Point), but that's the fun of a challenge - it makes you stretch outside of your comfort zone.  Here's the Sketch...




And here's my card:

I pieced strips of Pacific Point DSP Stack on self-adhesive paper, alternating each side, and then cut it out using the largest Apothecary Accents die, then "echoed" it using Not Quite Navy. Embossed the image on Whisper White then echoed it as well with NQN. The snowflakes are stamped with Tsukineko Glue Pad Adhesive and covered with blue glitter from Barbara Trombley. There is the barest hint of blue chalk under the kids, though I think I need to make it darker in the future. The ef is SU Northern Flurry placed at an angle then sponged with Shimmer Paint.  Like it?  :)

And now I am off to see a live baseball game with my darlin', DARLIN' DH.  Have a fab day and happy crafting!!

Shea