Pirate LTCs

My inspiration 

Back in August someone posted a pirate postal tracker.  I was excited about the theme but I just don't have the patience waiting for postals to come around.  So, I hosted a pirate LTC swap.

My first idea was to carve an octopus pirate.  But as I was looking at images, I found a Life is Good pirate.  If you know me, I love carving Life is Good images.

Regular tissue paper

I had my stamp image but I needed a background.  In the description of the swap I encourage participants to try something new.  I couldn't use my standard alcohol inks.  I work in a day care and everyday I walk past a framed piece of art that was my inspiration.

Just by looking at the art at work, I thought you cut up tissue paper, "paint" water on your paper, lay down the tissue paper, and let it dry.  As you can see above, that doesn't work.  I got on Pinterest to see what I did wrong.  Apparently, you have to use bleeding tissue paper.  Who knew?

Bleeding tissue paper

I ordered some online, cut it with the hexagon punch, and "paint" the water under and over the tissue paper.  Then you let it sit a bit, peal the paper off, and let it dry.  It was basically love at first sight.  I was a little disappointed with the white spots but I got over it right away when I started stamping my image.

Seas The Day LTCs

Originally, I was going to stamp and emboss my image with brown, because blue and brown go well together.  But then I got to thinking that since it was pirate theme I should emboss in black.

I am very happy with how these cards turned out.  I already plan to use this technique again.  You will actually see that post before you see this one :P