Celebrating Pirates and Their Wenches

Today is of course Talk Like a Pirate Day, and it's my brother's favorite holiday.  He celebrates it as his birthday. (It isn't really) In fact, he thinks it should be made a national holiday where kids get the day off from school and are able to parade down the street dressed as pirates.  He also believes that Pirate-ese should be taught in school.  This should be easy, as I think there's only five words in that language.

I have of course created a card for him that suitably observes this very important day.  It's not for sale, of course, though I may have prints made.

When I was planning to create cards for Pirate Day, I originally decided to use pirate themed papers.  I was able to get some at Etsy that were downloadable files, and I didn't think they were too kid-oriented.  I also picked up some downloadable graphics.  I realized after I bought the graphics that they were just too kid oriented to be used in my cards.  So I managed to find some vintage maps from another seller that I decided to use instead.  I also had found a print of a treasure map made for kids that actually looked like something that belonged on one of my cards.  

I started working on the cards, and created one with the red paper and realized - no, this is not my style.  At all.  Perhaps I could have used it as a small accent somewhere but I didn't really like the look.  No picture, sorry, I tossed the card.

In the meantime, I had figured out where I'd hidden my copy of a Dover Publications collection of vintage pirate images.  There's lots of cool stuff in this book and you can find your own copy at Amazon here - you can buy it direct from Amazon or from one of the marketplace sellers, which is what I had done.  One of the cool illustrations I decided to use is this one -  You may recognize it on my brother's card.

My color schemes became mainly blue or brown, mostly brown actually.  I also sourced some vintage photo corners because I wanted to use these illustrations as actual art, and decided it'd be fun to attach them with the vintage corners.  I found those on Etsy too.

Here are one that is actually for sale in my shop, using the treasure map as part of the background.  You can click on the title to see the listing.

Pirates Go On Strike

Another one I created, this time using one of the maps in the background, is this

Pirates Can Knit

This originally was the card I had thought I'd give my brother.  I found the knitting pirate image on Etsy (of course - I find many of my materials there).  Just the thought of a pirate knitting makes me laugh.  I'm actually going to be expanding this piece for a 10x10 inch collage to be shown in a local exhibition (every piece has to be 10x10 inches).

You'll notice gold embellishments in the corners - those I found at Collagestuff.com.  They're German/Dresden foil scrap.  

You can find all of my current pirate related items at my shop in the Quirky Pirate Fun section by clicking here.  

And don't forget - if you meet someone dressed as a pirate - or a real pirate, for that matter -- the proper address is "Ahoy, matie!"  Do not ever call a pirate a "bilge rat" or he/she will be obligated to fight you.  You can find more information at this website. 

ARR!

lin