Pirate Treasure Map Baby Shower Invitation

It may be raining out here in LA, but hubby and I have been very productive this weekend. Our taxes are done and filed, and I finished creating our DIY wedding presents for two dear couples and a baby shower invite for one of my L&D nurses. I will blog later about the wedding gifts once we have actually given them to our friends. But here is the scoop for this Jake-&-the-Pirates-inspired baby shower invitation. I had a special request from the mom-to-be to make a single large invite to post at work, and a treasure map a la Goonies came to mind. The mom-to-be told me what she wanted the invite to say, and I used Word to type up the invite, using the font Blackadder which simply was perfect for this pirate theme. I cut craft paper I had on hand into legal size 8 1/2 x 14" (my printer ultimately determined the width) and printed out the invite. I "attempted" to char the edges of the craft paper, but as you can see along the bottom right hand corner, the flame was harder to control than I thought (fire honestly still scares me!), so I gave up and decided to create a faux finish. I ripped the edges of the craft paper in a haphazard way, and used my blending tool and Distress Inks in Black Soot, Vintage Photo, and Walnut Stain--just as good as the real thing I think! I created the images using my Cricut, and pasted them onto the invite. I hand drew the rest. Ahoy! My treasure map invite is complete!