Congrats to Green Bay

Well, we are back home - disappointed but such is life - can't win 'em all!  As I've said before, I was really surprised when the Steelers made it to the Super Bowl.  With the injuries we've had this year and our quarterback not being able to play the first four games, we were not supposed to even make the play-offs.  I had hope until the very end.  Who would have guessed that with less than 2 minutes left, Ben would throw an incomplete pass at 4th down with only 5 yards to go!   

I've been a Steeler fan too many years to let one loss turn me away.  I'll be watching them play next year (hopefully, if the strike doesn't take place) and biting my fingernails at the very end while I'm waving my Terrible Towel.  I'll watch Big Ben, Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward work their magic on the football field.   And, I'll be going back to Pittsburgh (if I can't get Super Bowl tickets) to watch another Super Bowl with a room full of screaming, towel waving "Stiller" fans!!

Congratulations to Green Bay and their fans.

Here are some pictures I took while in Pittsburgh:

This is the Giant Eagle grocery store decorated for Super Bowl!

 Marianne enjoying a delicious Danny's hoagie!

 Ready for the big GAME!

This is our table.  We had a special place set for Ashley!  We bought the Army material and the Steeler bear to represent Ashley since she couldn't go with us.  We had quite a few people come up and ask us about it.  We even had a young girl who was standing right in front of us who came over and talked to us a while and told us her brother had been with the 101st Airborne in Iraq and didn't come home two years ago.  When the Star Spangled Banner was sang, she and I were both crying. 

 Sonny with his Terrible Towel - ready to wave!

 Marianne and I with our face tattoos

Here we are ... 3 Steeler fans in the midst of hundreds!!

Valentine Box

We're having a great time here in Pittsburgh.  The weather has been great.  We had some rain today and a tiny bit of snow this evening.  The prediction is for flurries the next couple of days but nothing accumulating until after we leave on Monday.  We're getting pretty nervous about tomorrow's BIG GAME but hey, it's just a game.  Just hope we WIN!!!

Here is a card box and a few cards I made to go in it for Valentine's.  I was going to teach this class at our local stamp store, but ended up not having enough signed up.  So .... it will be given away.

CARD BOX

Magical Beard

Pittsburgh likes its athletes to be great, but it also likes them to be humble. I'm guessing the city will make an exception for Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel. "I truly believe I have the greatest beard of all time," he said.  How's that for humility?

He has a  "Respect The Beard, Fear the Deisel" T-shirt. You can see it at brettkeisel.com. You will see a wide- and wild-eyed Keisel and all his hair looking back at you.  A big hunk of the proceeds of the shirts will go to his two favorite charities, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Homeless Children's Education Fund.

"The beard is powerful," Keisel said. "It has magical powers. Hopefully, it'll create some magic on Super Bowl Sunday."

 

Win or lose Sunday night, Keisel said the beard will come off next week. "We'll do something fun with it for charity." Obviously, everyone involved will have a lot more fun if the Steelers win and Keisel gets his third Super Bowl ring in six seasons.

Tomlin, offensive coordinator Bruce Arians and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger aren't leaving anything to chance. All have followed Keisel's lead and grown postseason beards.  But theirs is just hair.  Keisel's beard is the greatest of all time.  Just ask him, he'll tell you.

 (excerpt from Ron Cook at Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

We Made It!

Well, we made it to Pittsburgh .... safe and sound.  Sonny felt pretty stupid since he'd been worrrying about the weather on our drive up the past few days.  Well, he had nothing to worry about.  There was no problems AT ALL!  We saw a little bit of snow off the side of the road but nothing to speak of really.  We were all really surprised.  Even when we got to Pittsburgh, we hardly saw any snow.  It's cold here - I think it was about 27 degrees when we arrived (about 7 pm) but what do you expect in Pittsburgh in February??   Tomorrow it's supposed to be warmer - high around 35 which is warmer than Dallas and Sherrills Ford probably!!  And we had friends who didn't want to join us because they thought it would be too cold here!  We made our way to a bar/restaurant and had dinner and a couple of drinks.  Now Marianne and I are back in the room playing on our computers and Sonny has gone in search of some place to quench his thirst! 

So .... I want to share with you a card I received last week from Carol for my Monday Mailer.  She used a Sizzix die that is still available on the Clearance Rack (click on the left side bar).  It is called Build A Flower.  It really makes a cool flower!

Groundhog Day along with Monday Mailer Card

"The sky is clear. Prepare for warmth!" With those rousing words this morning, the world's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, offered a ray of hope to millions of Americans being buffeted by a monster winter storm.  By seeing no shadow as he emerged from his ceremonial burrow in Pennsylvania, on Groundhog Day 2011, Phil, according to tradition, is said to have predicted an early spring.

This was Punxsutawney Phil's 125th prognostication!
 

According to legend, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.

The celebration of Groundhog Day began with Pennsylvania's earliest settlers. They brought with them the legend of Candlemas Day, which states, "For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day, so far will the snow swirl in May..."

Punxsutawney held its first Groundhog Day in the 1800s. The first official trek to Gobbler's Knob was made on February 2, 1887. 

So ... on to other creative ventures!  I want to share my final January Monday Mailer card with you.  I really really like it!!

 

Here are the "deets" -

Cardstock:  Very Vanilla

Ribbon:  Seam Binding Cherry Cobbler

Ink:  Cherry Cobbler; Soft Suede

Stamp:  Elements of Style

Misc:  Big Shot, Top Note die, Dotted Swiss Embossing Folder, Modern Label Punch

• Ran the card through the Big Shot embossing it with the Dotted Swiss folder.  Then I sponged Soft Suede around the edges and over the dots.  
• Stamped the flowers on Vanilla cardstock and cut them out.
• Die cut a piece of Vanilla with the Top Note die and sponged the edges with Soft Suede.
• Stamped the sentiment on Very Vanilla and punched it out with the Modern Label Punch.
• It's hard to see - but I lightly wheeled the Very Vintage Wheel in Soft Suede over the Top Note Die and the Modern Label piece.
• Glued the flowers down onto the card and used pop dots on the sentiment.  
• Used the bow maker to make the bow and put glue dots under it to hold it just where I wanted it.

Heat Embossing on Dry Embossing

Yesterday, I did some challenge cards.  I used to do challenges faithfully on Splitcoast  - mostly color and sketch challenges.  But on Monday's the challenge is "Try a new Technique" so I did.  This technique is called Heat Embossing on Dry Embossing.  Here are the steps:

• Dry emboss your cardstock with an embossing folder.
• Run an embossing buddy over the dry embossed cardstock before applying the ink.
• Ink up your brayer with Versamark and run it across the raised area of the dry embossed cardstock using a real soft touch...you only want the ink on the raised part.
• Apply the embossing powder, shake off the excess, remove stray embossing powder with a small brush, and emboss with a heat tool.

 For this one, I stamped on the Whisper White cardstock with my new Cover A Card stamp called Criss Cross in blue ink and did the embossing on top of that.  Then I embossed with white embossing powder.  The yellow centers are made with a yellow Pearl Pen.  How do you like that bow?  Made with my bow maker!!

close up of embossed flowers (used Elegant Bouquet folder)

This card I made for my sister, Angela's, birthday which was today.  We took her out to dinner at Chilli's tonight to celebrate.  I can remember when she was born and what a cute little kid she was with her curly hair.  We are 10 1/2 years apart!

The embossing folder is a Cuttlebug Happy Birthday folder.  The cupcake die is from Sizzix and the saying is from a retired SU set called Goody Goody.

It's February already!

 

Happy February!!  Can you believe January is gone and February is here!   What do you think?  Will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow this year?   Don't think those people up north can stand six more weeks of winter!! There's another winter storm warning for the north for the next few days.  We're watching the weather in the Pittsburgh area.  We're not worried about it when we get there - they are prepared and have the equipment to plow roads unlike the South.  It's just getting there as we will have to drive through the mountains.  

I made this cute card for Ashley back in December.  I don't remember where I found the pattern but I thought it would be perfect for her.  She's received it by now so I'm not spoiling the surprise by posting it here.  She told me that she hangs all the cards she receives over her desk so I thought this would look good there!  I even used my Button Embosslit Die for the buttons.  What do you think?   

Backgrounds Galore

I joined a group of friends and stampers today to play.  Connie organized the meeting and we will be getting together once a month to share ideas and have some stamping fun.  Today we played around with large background stamps, also known as "cover-a-card stamps by Impress Obsession.  Connie had a bunch of the stamps that she shared with us.  I even came home and made 2 cards with 2 of my backgrounds!  Surprised even myself!

These are the sheets I made with the background stamps.

 This background actually was a flub but I decided to make it into something.  It's a light green.  I stamped the Medallion stamp in Night of Navy with a large vanilla brad in the center.  I had a hard time getting a good picture of it.

This one was so easy!  The background stamp is trees that are stamped in brown ink.  I then stamped a bird from Season of Friendship in Riding Hood Red, cut him out and glued him down on a branch of the tree.  I mounted the piece onto Riding Hood Red and used my corner punch on two of the corners.

Julia Name Frame

I'm on a roll!  I finished the second Name Frame last night.  This is for Julia.  I tried to make it just a little more feminine but still a match for her twin, Alex's frame.

The vines and flowers on the bottom are rub on's by Stampin' Up (retired).  The two "hanging" monkeys are a retired SU set - Monkey Business.  The butterfly and ladybug are also rub on's that I found in my stash.

I hope Lisa and Danny will be pleased with these frames.

Alex Name Frame

I'm sorry I have been so sporadic on my blog posts.  I always have good intentions but end up putting it off until it is too late.  (or else, I decide I don't have anything interesting to say!!)

I made a "name frame" Thursday for Danny and Lisa's little boy (Alex) and started the name frame for Julia.  They are the twins that were born right after Christmas to Ashley's best friends.  I bought the frames in December and they have been sitting on my desk all this time waiting for inspiration!  Finally  fter coming home from the "Y", I decided there was no time like the present!  Once I get to going on creating something, I usually get on a roll.  It's just the "getting going" that gets me delayed usually!!  Ashley had told me that they were doing the nursery in a monkey theme with green, yellow and brown.  I have several monkey stamps so that made my job a little bit easier.  I really like how the first one turned out.  Remember - you can click on the picture to make it larger.

Sorry about the glare at the top - guess I should have taken the picture before putting the glass on. So, I used several monkey stamps.  The animals at the bottom are from DRS and the monkey above the "A" is Stampendous.  The other two stamped monkeys (parachute and holding bananas) are from Stampin' Up but they are retired.  The DSP is also SU - the top is a retired piece but the bottom green stripe if Pear Pizzaz.

Hopefully, I'll finish Julia's frame soon and I can share it with you.  I am trying to make hers just a little bit more feminine but staying with the theme.