A pair of pears...

I hope you're all enjoying a peaceful weekend.  I've been playing with my PaperArtsy Meditation Cube to try to stay calm!  But I've also had a bit of time at the craft table, which helps too.  A couple of weeks ago, I painted a little watercolour pear or two, just testing out some paper and brushes, so when the theme of Apples and Pears popped up at Tag Tuesday, I thought that was probably a sign to do something with at least one of them!

As often happens, I ended up with a pair of tags rather than just one... one has my little watercolour sketch with part of one of my PaperArtsy quote stamps to accompany it, and the other uses one of my favourite Tim Holtz stamps.

It all started with some wrinkle-free distressing... all Distress Inks, no Oxides to start with.  There's Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint in the mix.














And here's my little pear in its original state... It was done on a tiny little sample pad of watercolour paper, 2.5 x 3.75 inches.  But it's had its edges ripped off, so it's even smaller than that now!















I decided some book page strips would play a part in creating some structure, sealing them with multi medium...











... and gesso before I carried on with the next step.  You can see I'm getting ready to stamp the lovely pear with the stamping platform, so that I could re-stamp after doing my painting.














I used mainly Fresco paints applied with a water brush to "colour" the pear...
















... but there are tiny touches of Distress Oxide too, mainly to create the soft blush on some of the tiny pears.
















Back to my own pear... I inked the edges with Pumice Stone and then Vintage Photo and mounted it on some pieces of cardboard.
















This raised it up enough that I could run my rusty wire around behind the picture rather than cover it up.















The same rusty wire plays a part on the TH pear tag too, but here it's allowed to roam more freely!














The words for my pear tag come from my PaperArtsy EAB04 The Autumn Edition quote set.













I haven't used the whole quote and since I've cut his name off, I should also tell you that the words are by Walt Whitman.















The words on the TH pear tag are taken care of by the pear stamp itself.  I think it's one of the reasons I love it... it has words built in.















There are splatters of Gathered Twigs Distress Oxide around the place.  I love how they look in contrast to the soft blue greens of the background.













And I concentrated them near the rusty wire, to make it look as though it has slightly contaminated its surroundings.
















You'll have spotted that there are also some glistening autumnal cobwebs hanging around.












They're stamped in Watering Can Archival (as is everything else on these tags), but the spiders' webs have had a touch of clear-embossing powder for that dewy look.













Some simple rustic twine finishes things off, and there you have it.

Juicy autumnal pears (I'm now wishing I had put some in my shopping basket the other day after all)...















... in a colour palette which celebrates the last soft blues and yellowing greens of summer, even as the rusty browns come creeping in.










These came together really quickly, and provided some much needed mind-release at the craft table.  I hope you like them as much as I do.  Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a lovely rest-of-weekend.  Oh, and watch out for some exciting news here in the middle of next week!

Slice a pear and you will find that its flesh is incandescent white. It glows with inner light. Those who carry a knife and a pear are never afraid of the dark.

Yann Martel

There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'd like to play along at Tag Tuesday where the theme chosen by Wendy is Apples and Pears
At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge they are celebrating STAMPtember with a Stamp It theme
I'd also like to join in at the September Watercolour Challenge over at Happy Little Stampers
This is my third entry in the Use A Stamp theme at MOO Mania & More - I like Stamptember!