Brotherly Love

Hello all, lovely to see you!

A quick tag today (has to be quick - so much going on at the moment) with two Artistic Outpost characters who live a rich and complicated life in my imagination.  They're from the fabulous Generation Redux plate.

This was also one of my first times playing with Pan Pastels (yes, I finally succumbed - and oh, I'm in love!).  

So these two brothers (a.k.a. - to me at least - the Coffee Guys)...  

The older one is sober-suited and slightly grim about about the mouth and eyes.  

You can feel the weight of responsibility heavy upon his shoulders, having been left in charge of the family firm (coffee trading, clearly) after their father's death.  But you also get the sense that he's probably unnecessarily tight-lipped about things.  If he could just soften a little, he'd enjoy life so much more.









However, he can't afford to because his younger brother, Mr Flash (I think he's almost certainly called Harry) - with that twinkle in his eye and the natty blue suit - is reckless and constantly falling into scrapes... financial sometimes, but mainly with unsuitable women, and it's earnest Ernest who has to pick up the pieces.












I absolutely love the look of the Pan Pastels blended over the glorious print block letters from the Secretary Pool set.

You just stamp in Versamark and then work the PPs over the top - it's like magic!












Apart from the Pan Pastels background, I've taken the bubble theme that's built into the main stamp and run with it.  













There's a matching bubble texture stamp on the same plate, so I used that around the edges of the tag, stamped in Potting Soil like the main image.













Then I added some UmWow circle confetti to echo the stamped bubbles, and on some of those I added the same bubbles in Vanilla White embossing powder.














A topping that is full of contrasts, like the brothers themselves: some twine, some silk ribbon (coloured brown, though I see it's gone a little pink by this morning - hidden secrets, anyone?!), and some linen ribbon fraying at the edges - as you feel Ernest must be by now... see how he's barely keeping it together with that gripped lower lip.












Okay, so not that quick a post... but as I say, the brothers have quite a grip on my imagination, and I guess they didn't want to be brushed off quite so lightly!  

It wasn't until I was writing the post that I realised there are no words on this tag - gasp! - apart from COFFEE, and all those alphabet letters.  I think the brothers must speak for themselves.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you'll be able to drop in on Friday evening when there's a really exciting new PaperArtsy release to share!  Hope to see you then...

What strange creatures brothers are!
Jane Austen

Since I return to these Artistic Outpost stamps again and again (and it's not just because I'm on the DT - they inspire me endlessly, especially this Generation Redux set and the Think and Wonder set), I'd like to enter this in the lovely Brenda's Five Year Celebration Candy - with the Generation Redux stamps as one of my favourite craft materials.  I can also see that Pan Pastels are going to become a new favourite!!  You'll find all the details of Brenda's candy challenge here.