Penny Black Perfect Pear Stamp - My Story

It's no secret that I love everything about pears.  I particularly like the green, crisp, not ripe ones.  They have a unique taste, and the texture is different and appealing.  Aside from their taste, I think pears are the perfect fruit for drawing, painting, and, of course, stamping.  It is interesting, with it's shape and color variances.  It lends itself to creative interpretation.

When I had my stamp shop, The Stamp Pad, I taught many classes.  The most requested was always my 'pear class.'  We also had monthly demo days, and my trusty pear stamps were almost always used as subjects on my demo cards and techniques.  My groupies, uh, I mean customers, looked forward to what 'Lynda was going to do with her pears this time.'  But I digress.  Onto today's card......

 This stamp was a must-have for me when Penny Black first introduced it, and I hurried to add it to my collection.  However, I put off using it, as so many of the 'master stampers' had created such exquisite art with it.  I felt intimidated.  So, there it sat, lonely, and wanting to come out and play.  Finally, I brought it out and let it sit on my desk for several days.  Then, on a whim, I decided to take the plunge.  I wish I could say that a masterpiece developed from that plunge, but, alas, I tried and tried, and every piece found its way quickly into the circular file.  

Not to be outdone, however, I decided to take a different approach.  In the past, I had tried inking it with mini stamp pads in various colors, with markers, adding color where I thought it should go.  Yeach!  It was so difficult to see where the areas were on the rubber stamp surface, and I just could not get the colors where I wanted them.  So, lightbulb moment, I thought, why not ink the entire stamp with one color?  Genius, huh?  I know, you're thinking 'duh!'  Hey, it takes longer for some of us, be kind.

So, with the help of my trusted Misti, I inked up the stamp with Tim Holtz distress ink in scattered straw, then stamped it off on scrap paper, then onto a panel of Strathmore vellum bristol paper.  Aha!  There it was....the pear in all it's lovely perfection, all of the details finely printed out before my eyes.  I proceeded to add colors with my distress markers and inks, and a watercolor brush, layering and blending as I went along. 

The background:  I sponged distress colors onto the panel , the stamped background stamps...script, swirls, etc, here and there for interest.  To finish it off I stamped the verse, then added pieces of the die, which I had sponged with color first; and finally some green crystals.   Not perfection, but I'm sure that with practice, I will be able to conquer 'the pear' once again.  

Stamps:  All Penny Black:  40-493 Perfect Pear, 30-338 Special Thoughts, and various PB background stamps. 
Other:  Tim Holtz distress inks, Penny Black Creative Die 52-035 dots & swirls (I love, love, love this die); crystals from my stash.

I am adding my card to these challenges:

Penny Black At Allsorts - Anything goes

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Bright and cheery colors

City Crafter Challenge Blog - Tutti Frutti

Mod Squad Challenge Blog - Song inspiration (Apples, Peaches, Bananas and Pears by The Monkees

Addicted To Stamps - Make your mark

The Daily Marker 30 Day Color Challenge 

That's it for now.  Perhaps I will be back later...I need to catch up with my posts for the 30 day color challenge!  Thanks for visiting....I do appreciate your comments.    

Blessings,

lynda

 

Count Your Blessings Card

 

I love pears!  I like them very, very, hard and tart.  I like them soft and sweet.  I like them in desserts.  I just plain like them...a lot!  So, when I saw a couple of challenges involving food, I decided to get out my pear stamps, and have a play!

For the pear panel, I 'inked' my Stamp In The Hand pear (three pears on one stamp) with Twinkling H20's.  I simply added water to the pots of twinklers (like that name?) rubbed my paint brush around in the colors to form watercolor, and painted different shades right onto the stamp.  I then spritzed the stamp with water to reactivate the paints, and stamped them onto some linen card stock.  I die cut the panel using My Favorite Things die-namics stitched tag die set, and stamped 'love' using Printworks Q045 PW Borders clear set.

To offset the shimmer, I mounted the tag onto some antique gold shimmer card stock, and used my Perfect Layers tool to create a 1/8 inch border.

For the card, I used the same antique gold card stock.  I layered a piece of the linen card stock onto that, leaving a 1/8 inch border.  Almost forgot....I had stamped and embossed 'count your blessings' verse with gold embossing (Printworks  Q040 Happy Spring clear stamp set).  Pawing through my 'stash,' I found some woven fiber sheets, and just happen to have had one with gold threads in it!  How pear-fect was that!  So, of course, I had to add that.  

I popped the pear panel onto the card using craft foam to give it dimension and interest, created a little thread nest with gold thread, and tucked that into the corner, securing with a little squeeze of Ranger Matte Medium.  Finally, out came my Swarovski crystals in colors of the pears.  Love my crystals for embellishing! 

Here are a couple of close-ups.  I tried to capture the shimmer, but alas, it does not show up in the photos.  In real life, it's soooooo shimmery and glisteny....I think I just invented a word.

Love this fiber sheet!

 Today is day 20 of the 30 Day Color Challenge at The Daily Marker .  Ten more days to go.  I've really been having fun with this challenge.  It's not too late, if you want to join in.  You do not have to 'catch up.'  You can jump in at any time, and post on the days that you can.  Come on over and check it out!  

I am also adding my card to these challenges:

Simply Less Is More - Use something tactile (fiber sheet, crystals, thread).  Note on this one.... My card may be too busy to be considered CAS, so to the moderators of that blog, I totally understand if you cannot use it.  Please let me know.  Thanks.

Little Red Wagon   Challenge 351 - I'm Hungry! 

House of Cards   Food, Drink, or colors

Tuesday Throwdown - Favorite Embellishments

That's it for today.  Hubby is anxiously waiting for me to play Farkel, so off I go.  Thank you so much for stopping and visiting today.  Hope to see you back soon.

Blessings,

lynda