Just Ducky:)

I was sitting out on the Lanai (Florida talk as I call this a screened in porch, lol) and these very cute ducks strolled over and hung around just outside (I'm sure waiting for a most wonderful snack). Much to their disadvantage, I had nothing to offer. I did, however, take this opportunity to study their feathers and thought...hmmm...look at the layers, one right on top of the other with the most subtle "inking" on the edges to add dimension. Also interesting was the mix of black and white on the faces which reminded me of spattered paint.

Nature is truly a work of art:) I am reminded of all the altered art projects I make (most of them messy which is the way I like it) where I have inked or painted the edges of my layers of paper or embellishments so they stand out and add dimension just like the feathers on these ducks. Also, the combination of colors are so interesting...the back feathers go from a dk teal/pine green to a navy/indigo blue to black. Mix that with the white/black/red on the faces as well as the yellows/orange on the beaks...can you tell I'm going through scrapping "withdrawal", lol...I do vow to use this color combination in an upcoming altered art project.

Stay tuned:)

I'll meet you in Sunny Florida:)

Pictured from left to right is my stepmother Pat, Bunnie and Tom Swartz and me at the Florida Condo in Naples.

Well, fellow bloggers, I'm out of town for a few weeks and away from my scrappin' toys...with that in mind, there will be a break in my scrappy posts, but I will keep you up to date with my daily travels and will share any scrappy news I come across:) Yesterday was my first full day in Sunny Southwest Florida. I few to Naples from San Diego via Chicago, lol...It was a long travel day on Thursday, but I'm glad to be here in Florida.

For those of you who already know, I flew to Florida to help my stepmother pack up from a 3 month winter trip from Philadelphia, Pa. She arrived with my dad in January and unfortunately, he passed away on February 28th. My stepmother is doing surprisingly well after almost 44 years of marriage to my dad. She misses him tremendously (as do all of us), but understands "life goes on"...

On my first day with Pat (my stepmother) we spent some time with their long time friends Tom and Bunnie who came down to FL to spend time with Pat. We had a nice trip to a local Flea Market, had lunch at this really cute outdoor place and then took them to the airport.

After dropping them off, Pat and I did make a trip to Joann's where I found some great alpha stamps and a bigz diecut that were on clearance. Whoo hoo, do I love a crafting bargain or what?

We spent a quiet evening at the condo and just talked and talked...there were a few tears mixed in, but all in all, I really enjoyed our time reminiscing:)

Today is Saturday and we are off to the pool. It's hitting 87 degrees here so sitting by the pool and meeting Pat's FL friends will be great!

Until tomorrow...will be looking for some scrappy inspiration and hopefully post some pics:)

P.S...I feel like Tim Holtz, lol...just not as interesting as a play by play from Paris, though...:)

Have a Happy, Happy Day!

Lori McCausland, Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire:)

What would I do without my PA Scrappin' Buds?

When I was back east in February, I spent some much needed time with my PA scrappin' buddies. When I posted about my time spent at EA with some of the TNT ladies, I realized I had not posted about my much needed visit with my PA scrappin' buddies! How could I have missed that??? Since they are SOOOOO important to me and I miss them SOOOOO much, I decided to post about them now.

From left to right, we have me, Teresa, Robin and Cindy. Hi, ladies:) We had a great dinner at a local restaurant and then headed over to Robin's house for an amazing dessert:) Thanks, Robin!

I was also able to see Robin's scrap room (which she had just re-organized). I fell in love with some of her organizational ideas and wanted to share some of them, too.

This is a system Robin came up with a while back using some lamp shades, paper clips (pink of course:) and other items to make an awesome homemade clip it up and posted it as her "Frugal Alert!". She has a link from her post with a list of the materials used, so feel free to visit it here!

Also, I have found that Robin has a love affair with IKEA. Can you believe I've never been in an IKEA yet? Anyway, she told me she got this idea there. She hung a baking sheet on the wall so she could attach her sorted flowers (in magnet backed tins). I also love this idea as it drives me crazy when I have to shake a flower bottle to get to the one I want. With this wide openings, it's easy to sort through and find the flower you need:) I believe Robin bought the tins with magnets at IKEA.

Thank you, Teresa, Robin and Cindy for giving me my PA Scrappin' buddies fix:) I miss you all:)

Weekend with Friends

I had such a great weekend hanging out with some of my scrappin' buddies at Ever After Scrapbooks in Vista, CA:)

Ever After Scrapbooks was chosen as one of the locations the Locater (a TV show that reunites long lost family members) would use to reunite a family.

Back in December, 2008 the show was originally filmed and was about 5 sisters that had been separated when they were very young. Four of the sisters had found each other, but the 5th was still not found...this is where The Locater came in...

As it turned out, scrapbooking was the one common bond the first 4 sisters had, so the Locater called Camille, the owner of Ever After Scrapbooks to ask if the store could be used as a place for all of the sisters to be reunited. Ever After proved to be the perfect place for the reunion of these sisters.

Since the show aired on March 22, 2009, Camille had a viewing party and crop at Ever After to celebrate. I attended and had SO much fun! I was also pleasantly surprised to see that some of the TNT members (a Scrapbook Club I lead at EA) were also able to attend.

I am excited to share one of the photos we took that night.

Enjoy and thanks for visiting my blog:)

365 Cards Inside Out

Some of you may think I have my 365 days mixed up, lol...no, this isn't for the "going green" challenge from a few days ago, it's for the "inside out challenge" today. I have to say though, I didn't follow my friend Paula's advice...I didn't clean my craft mat off before laying down the front of this card to work on the inside:( Er go, you may notice some little "spots" of ink that were not intended for the card...

This was kind of a hard challenge for me because I don't usually work with all the crisp unused space you find on the front of this card. Once it was done, though, I really liked it.

Also, as you can see, I made up for it on the inside of the card, lol...

Thanks, 365 Cards for this awesome challenge!

As always...I'm Thinking of YOU, my fellow scrappers:)

Another Frugal Tip AND Trash & Stash Post

This is just an awesome box. Do you know why?

1. It's Trash
2. It's an awesome dark brown color
3. It was filled with straw
4. It was covered by "acrylic"
5. It was tied with a really sweet bow
6. It's cardboard, so gives me yet another reason to dust off my old sizzix die cuts, whoo hoo!!

I just love the color brown, especially really dark brown...reminds me of a semi-sweet dark chocolate Hershey bar. To make the title below, I inked one of my flourish stamps with a paint dabber, stamped on the brown cardboard, put it through my Big Shot using sizzix alpha dies and voila...I made some really awesome letters! (also looks like mint chocolate chip ice cream to me.)

Next, I used the straw that was in the box on the awesome card below. I also used another technique that my friend Paula taught me today when she came over to "play". Thank you , Paula:)

For the block on the left of this card, I started with glossy cardstock and applied alcohol inks with a cotton ball. Then I added the blending solution by spraying it from a mini mister. The blending solution helps disperse the alcohol ink and lightens the area up a little bit. I then used a stamp from my stash (it's really a floral stamp, but looks like a tree here) to add a design. I also used this same stamp with "old paper" distress ink to the sentiment block. The straw across the bottom of the card is from my "trash" above.

I didn't use the "acrylic" yet, but since I've used it before, feel free to view some of my other "Trash and my Stash" projects for ideas.

Enjoy!

Yes, it's another Card:)

Oh no...I'm getting hooked on cards, lol...they are just SO easy to make AND they use up all my scraps, whoo hoo! This paper is from a LSS kit I put together a few months ago.

I was lucky enough to find that the 365 Cards challenge for today is to "go green". This paper was perfect. I used some "chartreuse" cardstock (boy I haven't used that color since I made easter eggs as a child) along with some green glitter paper and added some teal (I think it "kind of" qualifies as green) laser cut paper from Sandy Lion and a bird sticker from my stash.

I love how this card has such a "Springy" look to it:) I can't wait to use it for the next birthday that comes up!

Thanks, 365 cards for the inspiration:)

The "Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire" goes "Green" in more ways then one! Whoo hoo!

365 Cards Challenge

My friend Gloria has been reminding me about this awesome new card challenge site called 365 Cards and I finally had a chance to check it out today. (thanks Gloria, for the reminder:)

The challenge for today was to use 3 buttons, 3 bows...no more, no less...as soon as I saw this challenge, I knew I had a card I had made a while ago that I could use for this challenge. Now, normally I wouldn't use a card I've already made, but I just love the sentiment on this card and wanted to get myself started on this challenge blog.

The inside of this card says "Because you make the lives of others so joyful, may this day and every day bring you happiness".

I used to make lots of cards when I lived back east and this was one of them. I hope you enjoy the sentiment as much as I do.

Remember, Kind Hearts like Garden Flowers bring Grace and Harmony into our world...:)

Harmoniously yours,

Lori McCausland, Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire

March 2009 TNT Dine-O-Mite Challenge

I can't believe it's time to post the new Dine-O-Mite Recipe for March:)

It was so much fun to see all of the February "reveals" that I can't wait to see what you all do with the March recipe.

Here is the link:

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/pp23/frugalscrapperphotos/TNT%20DINE-O-MITE%20Recipes/MarchDine-O-MiteRecipe.jpg

These layouts are due by April 14th. I will post my "reveal" on April 15th. As always, as you post your layouts, I will add them to the gallery so you can see them all.

Ready, get set...GO!!!! (don't forget to have a BLAST and POST a link to your layout by leaving a comment on this post).

Whoo Hoo!!!

A "Scrap Happy" Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire:)

Distressin' and Stampin', how cool:)

I had soooo much fun making these two tags as samples for the mnt (make 'n take) for the March TNT meeting at Ever After. I used the distress inks in China Blue and Spiced Marmalade to create the background (using the technique in this blog post. I then used the Autumn Leaves "build a flower" stamp set to make the flowers. Notice that on the "DREAM" tag, I positioned the petals with the pointed end toward the center while on the "Imagine" tag, I positioned the rounded end of the petal toward the middle.

I just love the diversity in this stamp set and have used the flower "parts" on many projects. As seen here, I used the various flower centers to decorate this card.

Enjoy:)

Lori McCausland

Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire

Card Patterns Sketch #6

I finally had an opportunity to participate in the sketch challenge over at Card Patterns. For those of you who don't know, this is a great new card sketch site. I love their sketches and it's so easy to participate!

The current sketch (#6) is encouraging the use of layers. Since I LOVE layering paper/embellishements, this was right up my alley. I made this Easter card using my scraps and some "old" tools I was happy to use again. The eggs were made using a sizzix die cut. I first used corregated cardboard (trash of course, lol) which my Big Shot cut with ease. I covered the cardboard with various scraps of patterned paper and added a ribbon stripe to one of them.

I used my "ole faithful" EK Success tag punch and my new McGill scallop circle punch along with some additional scraps of patterned paper to apply the layering effect.

I finished it off with some awesome glittery ribbon to complete the sketch.

Mozy on over to Card Patterns and give their sketches a try:)

Enjoy!

Lori McCausland
Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire

Frugal Scrapping Tips 'n Techniques #5, Part II

I am in love.......again......with this technique....have I said I LOVE T!m Holtz lately?

I have actually incorporated this technique into my new blog title (see above)...isn't it just AWESOME? Feel free to leave me a comment about it:)

This technique allows you to take some paper from your stash that you may not be "in love" with anymore and transform it into this awesome altered art! The supplies needed are a piece of scrapbook paper, distress inks, mini mister filled with water, staz on ink, various stamps, cardboard (or chipboard).

For this technique, I started with this piece of Scenic Route paper with a subtle graph design on it.


And ended up with this beautiful atered art project! For the full tutorial, click here.

I order to add the final touches to my new blog title, I took a photo, added it to Power Point, added text boxes for my my blog title and quote, saved it as a jpeg and added it to my blog.

Ta daaaa, now wasn't that easy (lol)...

Enjoy!

Lori McCausland

Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire:)

#5 Frugal Scrapper Tip's 'n Techniques

Imagination at work...that's how I feel EVERY time I pick up a T!m Holtz product...I have been working with Distress Inks for a while now and made this mini-album (part of a Kaiser Craft "Boy Zone Mini Album kit) for the make 'n take sample for the LSS TNT (Tip's 'n Techniques) club I lead at Ever After Scrapbooks in Vista, CA.

The technique I want to concentrate on today is using T!m Holtz distress inks to alter your scrapbook paper. I used each page in the book to showcase a different technique I used to "alter" my paper using T!m Holtz distress ink pads. The first page above was done using (what I refer to) as a "water color" technique. I will put a tutorial together on this technique and hopefully post it later today:)

Enjoy!

Lori McCausland

Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire:)

February 2009 Dine-O-Mite Recipe Reveal

Ok, fellow scrappers......drum roll, please.....

It's time for the Newest Dine-O-Mite Recipe Reveal:) I have to say that for the first time, I actually "altered" the recipe (at my own risk, of course) to go along with the pictures I wanted to use for this layout.

My friend, Robin, also used this for a MLPA (Memory Lane, PA) LLS challenge a few weeks back. I was impressed with the layouts produced in that challenge. Here is a direct link to the challenge.

You can also see the entries that were added to my site here.

Here was my "take" on the layout:

Enjoy!

Lori McCausland, Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire

Frugal Scrapper Tips 'n Techniques #4

Ok fellow scrappers, I have quite a few things going on here...where do I start...hmmmm...let's start with the canvas background:) I purchased a few of these canvas backgrounds from the local dollar store (there were actually 2 packaged together). I originally got them for my grandkids to paint on, but then thought...hey, these would make a great altered art project for my blog...I hope you agree.

This canvas measures 7" x 9", but when I bought them (around Thanksgiving) there were other sizes available, too...as "luck" would have it, though they are nowhere to be found now:( If anyone finds them, please let me know as these would make AWESOME covers for mini books, too.

I first randomly painted the canvas with two of my acrylic paints. Then as part of a Prima contest, I used Prima packaging on my project. The "ribbons" on the right side (black polka dots), the strips around the left photo AND the mat on the right photo are from Prima packaging. The aqua mat on the left photo is from another Prima package (it's actually a cool aqua/white brick wall pattern, but it's a bit hard to see in this pic).

I also used the tape that goes across one of the buckets of flowers Prima sells (notice the Prima, Prima, Prima across the top of the project)...it would have been awesome if I had some ballerina pic's as I could have done "Prima" Ballerina...oh well, maybe another time:)

I also stamped on the canvas using swirl stamps with Staz-on ink. I did add paint to the edges of the photo mats and ink around the edge of the canvas, too. Of course, I had to use some Prima flowers and "bling". I really love Prima's product line.

So I guess the moral of this post is:

• Stop by your local dollar store often...you never know what treasures you will find.
• Don't just "toss" the packaging from your scrapbook products. With so many companies going "green" and helping us stretch our scrapping $$, I have found that packaging really is useful...(I've been using the cellophane and acetate packaging for years)
• Acrylic paints AND inks should be a staple in your scrapping stash...they last "forever" if stored properly and are an easy way to alter your projects. I've had some of my ink pads and acrylic paints over 10 years!
• Create responsibly (go "green" and do your part to save the earth)...

I'd love to see how you have used these techniques in your project:)

I'm sure you'll find other ideas for using Prima's packaging here.

Enjoy!

Lori McCausland, Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire

Playing with my "Alter Ego" at TNT

Wow, I've been working hard to put the March kit together for the TNT Club I lead at Ever After Scrapbooks. I just completed the kit last night and can't wait to share it at the meeting on March 10th at 7 p.m.!

I've also been getting really "distressed" as I play with some of the items we will be using for our March make 'n take. Since I'm sure you all know that I am "in love" with T!m Holtz ideas and his products, you shouldn't be surprised that I will be incorporating them into my March make 'n take. Whoo hoo!!! If you haven't visited T!m's blog recently, go take a look here. He has added some awesome tutorials that I've had fun watching. One of my favorites is this one.

I'm also really excited to have one of our TNT members do a STAMP demo. More to follow on that later:)

Stop back later this week when I do a "sneak peek" of my tag samples I'll use for my make 'n take on March 1oth:)

Happy Scrappin'

Lori McCausland, Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire

Back to Reality

Ok...unfortunately, it's back to reality for me this weekend. I got a call saying my dad passed away...whoa...I'm not sure what to say...kind of puts things into perspective...re-prioritizes things...gives me opportunities to speak to people I haven't spoken to in a while...AND sets my scrapbooking mind into over drive...what have I documented?...what stories has he told me...what questions about my past has he answered...which are unanswered?...holy cow...this is deep...good friends and great family ties are important at this time...thank you in advance for your support...I couldn't handle this without you...

THANK YOU!