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!

A little meditation at PaperArtsy

Hello all!  Most of you know I enjoy working on little things (dollshouses or ATCs, anyone?), so I had to be a part of this fortnight's Inchies and Twinchies theme on the PaperArtsy blog.

You'll find I'm in meditative mode, seeking silence with a Twinchie ATB that should offer up a little calmness and serenity in a crazy world.  I hope you'll have time to hop over and check it out.  Or if hopping feels a little to frantic then, you know, just saunter... or mosey... or amble...  No hurry!

Thanks for stopping and hopping (or moseying) by today and I'll see you again soon.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
Lao Tzu

If you don't mind hopping to see the full project...
I'd love to share my meditation cube in the Stamp It theme over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challlenge - I'm celebrating STAMPtember with my own PaperArtsy word stamps and Seth Apter's minis
And at MOO Mania & More they have a similar challenge to Use a Stamp - done!

There's not mushroom inside...

No, they're all over the outside!  And there certainly isn't much room inside as it's only a little box.  Sorry for the appalling pun... back to business now.

It's time for a new challenge at A Vintage Journey and the lovely Julia is asking us to Box It Up.  You'll find all the details of the theme along with some spectacular inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides over at A Vintage Journey.

My offering is a 3-inch Artist Trading Block covered in fungi in two dimensions and in three.

Tim Holtz's new mushroom stamps were an absolute must for me.  My mother, Cestina (of Cestina's dolls houses), is a fungi fanatic - at least partly owing to her Czech parentage (the Czechs are huge gatherers of wild mushrooms... it's all those fairytale forests in their landscape).

She's always complaining that there aren't enough mushrooms around here at Words & Pictures, though they have put in the occasional appearance over the years (quite recently over at PaperArtsy, or rather longer ago courtesy of Stampotique and I'm sure there have been others).  I thought these gorgeous tiny botanical images might finally shut her up!












It all started with one of Calico Craft Parts sturdy MDF boxes, and I cut 6 3x3 panels of watercolour paper to decorate it.














First of all, they got a smooshing of Old Paper and Antique Linen (for that old botanical sketchbook look)...














... but then I got tempted into a little more colour with some Tumbled Glass for the sky.















I only needed the fungi on four panels to go around the sides of the box, and I stamped them as though it was one long panoramic scene.














It works really nicely as all the illustrations have a grassy segment at the bottom so you can join them up very easily.














I had a lovely time "colouring them in" with a waterbrush, Distress Inks and washes of Fresco paints.














I decided to keep the mushrooms themselves in soft neutrals, from the palest of grey/beiges to a darker, nuttier brown in some cases.














And of course you get another touch of colour with those grassy knolls and tufts.















The background stamping details are all from the same stamp set - the tiny script, the specimen label and some of the delicate spatter is stamped too.














The top and bottom panels of the box got some more layers of smooshed Distress Ink and Oxide in various shades of brown to create a nice woodland floor.













The moss and logs I used for my Stargazing Skeleton scene were still just by the craft table, so it was a pretty short step to deciding they would play a part on the top of the ATB.

But I really needed some mushrooms to sprout there too... out with the modelling clay.  This is a Fimo type clay, rather than air-drying, so it needed baking.  They're pretty ugly in the original colour (bought mainly for doll-making).














A few layers of Fresco chalk paints later, and a sweep of Archival ink for the final burnishing...
















... and I'm really pleased with the finished look.














I even carved some gills into the underside of the mushroom heads.















I really like that you get the toadstool illustrations all the way around the box...















... and then the three dimensional scene echoing them on the top.














An Idea-ology tokens warns you to watch out which fungi you're picking for the pan.  There's a Czech proverb which says: All mushrooms are edible, some of them only once.















And I've used tiny phrases extracted from the quotes on my PaperArtsy EAB01 Trees & Flowers plate...














... just the odd word or two, which seemed right for the subject matter.















Fungi roots (or more properly, mycelium) can spread a long way underground.















What you see sprouting on the surface is a tiny proportion of the potential fruiting capability.














And you certainly do get fungi in lots of wild and crazy forms, even if the ones here are tamely beige!













I hope you like my box of mushrooms, and I hope you'll be inspired to Box It Up with us this month at A Vintage Journey.  As I said, there's lots more inspiration over there to get you going.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I'll see you again soon.

I say, I say, I say (Not you again)...
My dustbin's absolutely full with toadstools
(How do you know it's full?)
'Cos there's not mushroom inside...
From Lonnie Donegan's My Old Man's a Dustman

At the Mix It Up Challenge it's an Anything Goes with an optional twist of a 3D project - done!
613 Avenue Create are playing Anything Goes with an optional twist of Pop Up or Exploding Boxes - my box is not quite a pop up, but there are mushrooms sprouting up!
At Moo Mania & More they are inviting us to Use A Stamp - I used several!
It's another Anything Mixed Media Goes at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog

Encore - Dippy Wooden Diptych

Hello all!  I'm so glad you liked my Last Days of Summer tag.  It reminded me of this diptych using the same Tim Holtz stamp, made back in January 2017 for Destination Inspiration at A Vintage Journey.  Since we've also had another diptych recently, I thought now might be the time to give this project its Encore here at Words & Pictures.  (See the end of the post if you don't know what I'm on about.)  So here's what I wrote back then...

_____________________________

Hello all, and thanks for joining me at the first stop at Destination Inspiration for 2017.  We're at Terminal 1 with a whole new bag full of goodies to play with, and here's what's in the luggage this month:

Substrate - Wood

Technique - Wrinkle Free Distress

Product - Crackle Paint/Paste/Glaze

Colour - Hues of Blue

And here's what I've cobbled together whilst waiting for the next stage of the journey...

I need to show you inside as well as out, though the contents of the travel bag are all involved in the exterior, as it happens.

I started with a little wooden diptych.

On the outside I used the DecoArt Chalky Finish paints and crackle.  First a coat of Relic - a.k.a. dark grey...

... then Crackle Glaze - the one designed to work with the Chalky Finish paints, and eventually Everlasting - a.k.a. white - over the top.

On the inside I put just a coat of the Everlasting, and then blended Pumice Stone Distress Ink over the top to highlight the wood texture.

I left the crackling to do its business overnight so that it would be thoroughly dry, and then I put Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire onto my craft mat, with just a touch of Wilted Violet, and dipped and smooshed my diptych into the water-spritzed inks until I liked the look of it.

It's one of my all-time favourite techniques.  I love the random splotches and blotches...

... though of course it's not entirely random - you can encourage certain effects, just as you can manipulate where the colours go on the mat.

With the travel bag contents dealt with, I decided to keep the rest nice and simple.  I added some of the fabulous Tim Holtz wild grasses.

They're stamped in Versamark and embossed in Wow Bark powder.

And around the edges I blended on some Vintage Photo Distress Ink followed by a touch of the darker Ground Espresso.

Well, it wouldn't be very me to have blues without any browns, would it?

And on the inside it is, if anything, even simpler.

The grasses are there again, this time stamped in Potting Soil.

The texture of the wood means you get a roughness to the stamped image which gives it a nice rustic feel I think.

And the sentiment is one of my favourites too...

a Tim Holtz stamp, taped so that I could stamp each half separately.

Again, I've used the Bark embossing powder

to give it extra presence against the wooden background.

So that's my stop at Destination Inspiration.  A simple stop, but worth it, I hope you'll agree.

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So there it is - the same stamp as on last week's tag, but a different mood.  And it's easy to see why it's one of my favourite stamps, I think.  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I'll be back later in the week with something brand new for you to enjoy... and I think you will!  Have a great week in the meantime.

Wood is universally beautiful to man. It is the most humanly intimate of all materials.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Encore Posts

Projects which made their first appearances elsewhere for Design Team duties or Guest Designer opportunities, but which only had a sneak peek here, are being gathered together in the pages of my virtual scrapbook while I'm away.

As always, the Encore Posts are formatted differently from the regular ones, so that you can easily spot them.  Please don't feel that you have to comment all over again!