Last time we traveled up to Mammoth Lakes my dh, who has vacationed there his whole life, took us to Horseshoe Lake. It was quite beautiful, but as we turned around to look up the mountain on one side of the lake, the entire mountainside was covered with dead evergreen trees. They do post signs telling people of the dangers, and I am thinking that as long as we are not in a closed off area, the amount of CO2 is not that great, but for these trees, that have no way to escape, they did succumb from the deadly gasses.

Journaling reads: Mammoth Lakes California is built in an area full of active volcanoes. In the 1980s, after a string of earthquakes, the trees beside Horseshoe Lake in Long Valley began dying. It was determined that carbon dioxide was seeping up to the earths surface from magma chambers below, in a large enough concentration to kill off the trees. It continue to be a problem today. In 2006,3 campers, not familiar with the danger of the area, took shelter in a cave nearby, and died from the gasses.

Everything By Anna Aspnes:
ArtPlay Palette Autumn Elegance (new)
Different Strokes No. 7 http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=28718&page=1
ArtPlay palette Revel http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=10009703&page=1
ArtPlay Palette Adventure http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=29867&page=2
Artsy Paint No. 6 http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=10009846&page=1
SkinnyLined Overlays No. 3 http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=31084&page=1

The Process: I began with the solid cardstock, and added the long skinny frame. I added the photos, and then began adding various of the transfers from AP Autumn Elegance. I added some spatters from Different Strokes No. 7, and added the SkinnyLined Overlay. I added the charm and other elements to the left of one of the frames. I extracted the DANGER sign (which was actually posted atop the restrooms at the lake, and placed it at the base of the frame with the dead trees. I added the journaling, and then placed the Artsy Paint No. 3 behind the journaling, changing its color to a soft aqua. I then took the thin striped paper from AP Adventure, and used blend mode Darker Color, and masked all but a bit around the photo and journling, to give the area a bit of texture. I finished up with the title.

I was asked how I extracted the tree coming out of the photo on the right. First off, it helped that the photo actually had a white sky. I duplicated the photo, and placed it above the frame in the layer stack. I added a vector mask while hold down the alt key (sorry dont know MAC equivalent). This masks the entire photo out. I then used a hard white brush to paint just that tree back in, not really being concerned about the sky area. Then, by using the blend mode darker color it caused the white sky to disappear. I duplicated that upper photo layer once more, but painted in just the central trunk area. This top photo layer was placed back on blend mode Normal to keep the same color as that in the framed portion. This is best done on a neutral or white background, which is one reason why I placed the transfer behind that photo. I cheated nature by added a layer above each (clipped) photo and using a soft brush at an opacity of about 50, added a wash of blue to the sky. I then attached it to the photo already attached to the clipping mask. Where the blue wash was over the dark tree branches or the evergreens, it did not cause a problem, but I did go back and mask out portions of the blue sky at the dead tree trunks, and the rock mountain, along with the area of low clouds covering the distant mountains. As far as getting the photo to span two frames, I simply copied the image, linked it together, and then clipped each to the appropriate clipping mask. Linking both photos then allowed me to move the photo around to find the best view.

Original photo:

Fonts: Eras Medium, Brush-tip Terrence
***thanks for looking***