Sar said:
Did you know what blend they used?
The most identification anyone gave, that I remember, was "cheap tea" or "black tea". I have Lipton in the cupboard so I reckon that's what I'll use, if I go the tea route.
GadgetGirl and aurarcana, thanks for the tip on the Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I found a demo video (
here). Some of the methods used seem like they produce results more extreme than what I had in mind, but the one he called the blending technique looks about right (when he did it very lightly). I'll have a look for those tomorrow.
SakuraFae, I agree on the messiness of the pencil lead... I was thinking of trying brown colored pencil though, and I believe colored pencils are not graphite but rather a blend of pigments and clay and other materials. They probably vary a lot from maker to maker. But that is why a practice deck will come in handy! Though the poker deck I got (sealed in plastic wrap of course, so I couldn't inspect it beforehand) has a very strange, pebbled finish that is completely unlike any tarot card coating I've ever seen. So I'm back to the drawing board on that!