Ok, first thing – did you know that you could choose PIRATE as your language preference on Facebook?  down in the bottom left corner, there is a language choice.  Click on yours – mine is English (US).

This dialog box appears, with some interesting choices in the English category!

 
  
Try it.  Unlike the pirate crew, you can always switch back to a proper English matey.

Just look at Colleen's picture there – she is so cute. *waving*

You'll probably make it a day before you are ready to walk the plank… but it's fun while it lasts.

So why am I thinking about pirates?  Well it started with the 18 degrees (windchill of 1 degree) and 40 mile per hour wind gusts we were having today.  Then I had a phone call from Bonita Beach, Florida from one of the locations I am teaching at in a little over a week.  Ah, Florida.  Who booked that location in January?  Oh yes, it was me. *pat self on back*.  LOL.  So I got in the mood for ocean colors and shell hunting.  Not that I'm going to see much of that – but I'll not be seeing any snowflakes either.  I was resisting the urge to point out my impending trip to Florida to my husband.  And that is how we come to this carrrrrrrrrrrd.

First, I like to work with unexpected materials and make them do things a bit differently.  So I took a piece of embossing metal, cut slightly larger than a card front:

 
Then I stamped some very detailed fish images from Fred B. Mullett onto the metal with clear embossing ink and sprinkled on a fine detail clear embossing powder over the top.

 
Now it's time to heat emboss the images.  But remember, this is metal! I use a set of plastic tongs to hold my image in place.  The tongs are from Suze Weinberg- they are called Cool Toolz (and they are PURPLE).  Heat embossing takes mere seconds when the surface conducts heat as well.  Keep an eye on it.

Rub a chalk inkpad over the top of the embossed images.  This will provide a slight barrier between the alcohol inks used in the next step. 

 
Place three colors of Various Ink refills onto an ink applicator tool or cosmetic wedge.  Don't mix the colors here, mix them by pouncing and turning the tool in different directions as you pounce.

Because we are working on a true non-porous surface, you want to pause for a moment between pounces, to allow the colors to dry before you hit that area again.  These colors won't turn to 'mud'; but if you had orange in there, for example, you would want orange, not MUD.  Just a pause before you return to a pre-pounced area will allow your colors to remain true.

 
Take an old towel or rag and buff over the embossed areas.  The chalk ink will rub off, removing most of the alcohol inked design along with it. If you want a true resist, use white crayon.  I want a subtler resist.

Place your metal piece over your card front and bend around the edges.  You can use an acrylic brayer to fold the edges flat.  This will make your metal front sturdier.

Place the card front over a cushy mousepad or embossing mat.  Carefully outline / deboss the metal around the fish designs.  Thin lines can accentuate the fins too.  It's really easy to do.  You can use the tip of a bone folder if you don't have a metal embossing tool. 

Now I need an embellishment.  I took a metal skull/crossbones charm and coated it with Copic Opaque White acrylic paint.

Let it dry for 30 seconds and buff off the white paint gently from the surface, leaving a white wash behind.

Next I want to mottle and texturize the negative space a little.  I applied Fabritac adhesive dabbed around the open areas of the design.  You can see big dribbles of it here.

Take that rag and dab / blot the glue to get a cool raised texture.  It dries very quickly, clear and non-tacky.

And so my pirate card is finished.

 
 
So now we move on to the treasure chest, aka the prize box.

And tonight I am placing a bottle of my personal favorite adhesive, Fabritac from Beacon Adhesives into the box.  They call it 'The Glue Gun in a Bottle' for a reason.  I call it Fabritaculous!

And tonight I've decided to make things even more interesting for the celebration.  I really like seeing your faces on Facebook.  No longer anonymous hits on a blog.  That rawks!!!  But to get things moving, and to include those of you who aren't so much into Facebook also, I am adding a blog badge segment to the prizes.

Place this badge on your blog, linked to my blog.  You can right click to save this one.  And comment here to let me know you've done it.  Once verified, your name will go into another prize list.  I will give away FIVE 1-HOUR SKYPE one-on-one private Copic lessons.  If you've got a webcam, we can have a private class.  I know – I'm dragging you kicking and screaming into some technology — but I really like having faces with the URLS and IP addresses that visit here.  So get it on the fun!

Speaking of fun – I am running out of ideas for this week with the kids home from school.  And the weather outside is frightfully cold.  Acrylic paints, markers and watercolors ruled the day.  Literally all three projects and four kids (one playdate) going on at once, so much so that we pulled in the air hockey table into the kitchen to use as a work surface.

Meanwhile, I organized and reinked my marker sets for class.  I was surrounded.  A pleasant surrounding to be sure.

I know.  Doesn't it make you go to your happy place?  As long as you aren't the one reinking them, right?  LOL!  Ok, off to pack up the boxes for Florida.

Type to you soon!