DECEMBER CREATIVE CARTE BLANCHE - SONG LYRICS

I know, I know, I say this all the time as the months fly by, but I still can't believe the month of December has arrived!  It seems to have snuck up on me this again, but now I am getting into the Christmas spirit!  The lovely Cheryl has challenged us to create an art piece using song lyrics.  I decided to use Christmas song lyrics to create my project.  This journal spread is based one of my favorite Christmas songs "Colorado Snow" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.  You can listen to the song here.

This was a bit of a scary project for me as I have never attempted a project such as this one in the past.  I decided to give it a whirl and I am pretty happy with the results.

I began by using two recycled pages from an old desk top calendar  I had from several years ago.  I just knew I wanted to recycle those pretty pictures!  The biggest challenge was how to unify two different pictures!

Sorry about the paper in the background!  That's what I get for working on two projects at a time!

Anyway, I pulled out my DecoArt fluid acrylic paints and got to work.  As  you can see above, I started with unifying the sky.  (Forgot to take a picture of them beforehand).  I used a mix of Primary Cyan, Titanium and Paynes Grey to create a bit of an overcast sky.  The sky is usually bright blue here, even in the Winter!

Once the sky was finished I had to unify the mountains in the background.  I turned to Phthalo Green-Yellow, Paynes Grey  and Primary Cyan for the Mountain.  I mixed them and went to work by using a small paintbrush and lightly dabbing the color over the mountains (the fog too).  Here is the result.

I then added some trees from a third photo to try to unify the bottom portion of the spread.
Now it was starting to come together!

I knew I wanted a Christmas scene at the bottom of the spread, so I turned to one of my all time favorite stamps by Embossing Arts - Cowboy Bringing Home the Christmas Tree.  I stamped the image using Range Archival ink in Library Green on scrap card stock.  Then I stamped some trees by Creative Impressions and Stampa Rosa, also in Library Green.  I colored the cowboy image using watered down Denim Blue and Gathered Twigs Distress Inks and a few markers by Tomboy.  I carefully cut around the tops of all the images and adhered them to the journal spread.

Now for the song lyrics.  I chose to use some of the words from the chorus "The closest thing to Heaven on this planet anywhere, is a quiet Christmas morning in the Colorado snow.".  The whole chorus includes the name of my home too, Boulder.  "All along the Rockies you can feel it in the air...From Telluride to Boulder down below....The closest thing to Heaven on this planet anywhere is a quiet Christmas morning in the Colorado snow."

Now I just needed a few snowflakes to finish of the scene.  I used a snowflake die from Cheery Lynn.

Now I have a journal page I can look at to remind me in the Summer (which I love too) why I can handle the cold here in Winter!  It is beautiful!

I know you all are busy this time of year, but we would love it if you could find some time to share your creation with us.  Remember, it doesn't have to be about Christmas - any song lyrics you love will do!

Happy Holidays
Susan