Well this was definitively an interesting one, to say the least. Here's my entry:
Click for maps.
I wasn't going for a realistic style with this one, besides, I don't see how I would have been able to pull a realistic look off within the time limit, even if I tried, so a decision was made to go for a more fantasy-mmorpg inspired look.
I started out by creating a flat base colour for all the different parts of the UV template. I then proceeded to start drawing in some lines to create a sort of cartoony wood look. The first real problem I ran into was actually making my linework line up, well, to some degree, on all the different parts of the model, so I decided on using the wire frame of the model as a guide.
When I was done with the linework, I added some shades around the lines to create the "illusion" of the lines being offset a bit into the wood. Following that, I started painting in the highlights, or in this case, the "raised" parts of the texture on a separate layer.
The wood grain was made using some of my hair brushes of all things. Seeing as how I never really do any organic textures such as face maps or the like, this was actually the first time I have ever found a use for them. :P
The moss at the bottom were painted in using another hair-brush and sharpened a bit in photoshop to make it look a tad more crisp.
An AO map was rendered out and applied to the texture at this stage.
Next came the shader-spesific maps. The specular was made using some adjustment layers, as opposed to my regular way of creating it as a separate file. This way was simply more convenient. The final step of the process was to create the normal map. This was done using CrazyBump, as usual.
(Which by the way has reached a final and commercial version now? Congrats to the creator!)