Handmade Holiday GIfts 2009

I love Christmas and LOVE helping people have a great Christmas. This year was going to be tough on my budget but I know how to shop for great deals, make my dollar stretch and use my personal creative skills.

Saving money and finding (or making) gifts on a super small budget for family and friends this year was my main goal. I was lucky to find gifts for my niece and nephews under $10. And made gifts for them under $12.00. I ended up making 3 Christmas stockings, 2 pairs of lazy butt pants, 7 Healing Hearts, one arm chair remote control holder and 2 sets of large wall letters.

I used a boys and mens sized pattern to make the lazy butt pants. I ended up only using the boy sizes. They were very true to size and easy to make. I knitted the stockings using circle looms and came up with the way to do it. I tried using the pattern and it just backfired on me. LOL...I never could follow the rules I've always had to make up my own;) I made the Healing Heart and rectangle Healing pack out of scrap fabric.

All in all, the gifts were fairly easy to make, were fun to make and were enjoyed by all.

This week I have started to make my Valentine cupcake wall hanging. I hope you all had a great Christmas holiday and have a great New Year. See ya in 2010!

Turkey Day 2009

I just wanted to wish everyone a joyful and blessed Thanksgiving.

I am so thankful for my family, friends, being of sound body and mind. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have, yet another, holiday with my dad. What a great gift to be given, the gift of life. He amazes me everyday with his strength despite a bleak future. Thanks be to God most high:-)! Please continue to pray for him.

I leave next friday for my first half-marathon. YIKES! I have been sick so who knows what to expect. I am just hoping to finish the race under 4 hours. I will be walking the entire 13.1 miles up and down the Strip. It could be worse, it could always be worse;-)

Again, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Heather

Tinker and Cruella

Better late than never, right?! Here are the fun 2009 Halloween costumes that I made. I was Crella and my BFF was Tinkerbell.

For my costume I already owned the dress and shoes. I purchased the hair color, the red gloves, puppy purse and necklace. I sewed the fur on the gloves, made the fake cig holder and the puppy print shawl.
Cruella DeVille

Tinkerbell
My BFF was Tinkerbell. I made the entire dress, jacket, puff balls and purse from hand. We glitterfied her shoes, purchased the wings and wand. I think she makes the perfect Tink:)

Holy Halloween!

I realized, yet again, that I haven't updated in a while. I missed the entire month of September and almost missed October as well! I have been busy, busy, busy and thought I should give a quick update.

I never did get MY laptop fixed. Who knows what happened or what I can do about it. Thus the name change on my blog. I can no long make digital pages (which is one of the main reason I started this blog) so I will continue to express myself in my other crafting areas.

Time is still an issue with me. I never have enough of it:(. The second reason for the name change. I will craft when I can find some time, not a second more or less. This irritates me but it's what I can handle. I must have grown smarter the day I turned 28!!!!!!!!! Ugh. Yep, I had a birthday. Fun was had by all, I have amazing friends and sometimes getting older isn't all that bad.

School is back in full swing. It's a love/hate relationship right now. I get to create more than ever but I wish I had a job instead. Here is a pic of my first project. Love how it turned out!

Now, back to the crafting. I have spent the last 3 weeks sewing an adult Tinkerbell costume, parts for my Cruella De Ville costume, a pirates purse, a Tinker's purse and jacket (creations from my own brain), Halloween coasters, some scrapped fall tags for our table scape and I might sew a few purses between now and November first!

Coasters

1. Cut out a circle on a piece of paper larger than your everyday drinking glass.

2. Use 2 styles of fabric. And some sort of interfacing. Thickness is up to you. With the remaining scrap fabric cut out shapes if you would like to add "a little something" to your coasters.

3. I know the pic is small, but I cut out a creepy tree, a ghost, a skull and cross bones and a bird.
4. I decided to make life easy on myself and sewed in this fashion. fabric facing down, interfacing, fabric facing right side up. Then sew around the edges. I liked the unfinished edge look. Kinda adds to the creepy aspect.

5. Sew on the design. I didn't sew all the way around my designs. Again, I liked the unfinished look that allowed pieces of the fabric to stick up or move around.

Tablescape

I created a tablescape for our little apartment out of items we had around the house. It was FREE. You can find out more, as see more pics by going to ... http://creativeentertaining.blogspot.com/

I promise I will post more frequently. I still have a passion to create and with money a little tight (okay, A LOT tight) I will be crafting more than ever. I hope you check back every once and a while for some fun ideas, a few tricks and laughs.

Enjoy,

Heather

Crash of a Lifetime

I haven't been able to do much blogging in the past month due to a HUGE, and I do mean HUGE, computer crash. I have the best brother-in-law who has been fixing my laptop little by little. All I am able to do is get online. And that is simply amazing to me! I feel like I am discovering the internet for the first time. It's kind of freeing knowing that your favorite list has been dumped for you, and that all of those beginner digi-layouts that needed to be re-digitized are wiped clean. A new digi slate has been placed before me and I can't wait to get started again. Bear with me as I reload my programs and start to create again:)

I hope everyone is having the best summer and I'll be checking back in every so often to update on the computer progress.

Heather

Computer Problems and a Win

A few nights ago my computer started acting up so I thought I would shut if off and give it a break. Great news! The next morning when I turned it back on, a beautiful blue screen had appeared to inform me that my files were being DUMPED! AHHHH! Computers, can't live with them and can't live without them. This is going to be the title of my next kit. So, no posting from me for a few days at least.

On a positive note, I won the weekend challenge over at Misty O'Brien Designs! How cool is that. Here is the link to my winning layout: http://gingerscraps.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=6815&ppuser=138. Thanks MO'B Designs!

Summer Elements Fun

Hope you all enjoy these little Summer Elements( links 1, 2, 3)! Snag them for free while you can. Hope everyone is having a great time and please feel free to leave a comment on these buttons and what other elements you'd like to see.

Thanks,

Heather

Summer's ALMOST Here

The last month of May and the first half of June have literally brought me to my knees a few times. School has been a blast (only one more final to go:) and it has allowed me the opportunity to meet some AMAZING new friends, be more outgoing, utilize my creative abilities so I may one day make a difference in someones life, and led me to find out that I have a really messed up foot! I have several stress fractures! Needless to say, all of the above mentioned hasn't allowed me much time for digi-scrappin'.

Now that my summer will officially start tomorrow, I will be devoting more of my free time to making fun blog backgrounds, digi-kits, some hybrid projects and traditional scrappin' as well. Hmm....maybe I am going to start selling kits?! Thank you for continuing to check up on the Sporadic Scrapper blog and keep coming back for fun downloads in the next few weeks.

And a quick shout out to my fun lovin' mama! Happy 60th Birthday Gloria! Thanks for inspiring me to be my wacky, fun and sometime crazy self. I wonder where I get it from?!

Speed Is The Name of The Game

I haven't been making many kits, but I have been making some elements here and there. I have been doing a few speed scraps when I have time over at GingerScraps. Here is what I have come up with using my Bella Kit.

Speed Scrap over at Gingerscraps

I just completed the Speed Scrap over at the Gingerscrap forum. Today's challenge was moderated by Misty. You can visit her blog here. So here is the fun layout I just completed. Hope you like:)

Credits: The glitter boarder and the bracket around the picture are from Ellie Lash, everything else is of my own creation:)

Giveaway From Embellish Essentials

Giveaway!! From Embellish Essentials (go to the blog HERE)

Last Sunday Jaime and I were up until 3 am getting ready for our BIG garage sale! Of course, we didn't PLAN to be up that late, but one thing led to another... and another... and so on.The best part about one thing leading to another is that we were up late packaging yards and yards and YARDS of ribbon into cute little bags of color coordinating ribbon. The reason why you should like cute little bags of color coordinating ribbon is because one or more of those bags will be included in our very first giveaway!!! Did you read that?? A GIVEAWAY!! That's right! Because we think we're crazy for having so much scrapbooking stuff for sale, we're just going to give it away. We've put our pretty (tired) heads together to come up with a surprise scrapbook package worth over $50!! Just for you, if you're the lucky winner!

Here's how you can enter this giveaway contest (you can get one entry for each task completed, up to three entries per person):

1. Become a follower of this blog and leave us a message in the comments section introducing yourself.
   
2. Post this giveaway on your own blog and leave a link to your post in the comments section.
   
3. Leave a comment sharing your favorite Spring scrapbook project (it can be a past or present project, or even one you have plans to accomplish someday).

The deadline to enter is Saturday, April 11th at 11:59 p.m. PST. The winner will be chosen randomly and will be announced on Sunday, April 12th. Check back to see who the lucky winner is! The winner will have 48 hours to contact us* so we can arrange for delivery of your prize.

*If we are not contacted within 48 hours, a second winner will be selected, thus nullifying the first winner's claim to the prize.

Good luck and have fun! Jaime & Heather

Twilight Prom QuickPage

I woke up about an hour ago (I went to bed at 6 a.m. so please cut me some slack) and decided to be "scrapductive" (like the new word?) this afternoon. Regarding school, I am totally loving the program I am in. It feels so amazing to have finally found your purpose in life. Today really is "Good Friday" for me. In recognition of this great Friday...... I've spent the last hour making a QuickPage (QP) for you all. Here is the link. I finally watched Twilight last week and decided since this kit is called Bella I would take a gamble and make my first QP revolving around the theme. Prom is coming up for most high schoolers and I figured everyone could use a cool prom themed page. The picture in my example below is from the movie of course.
Don't forget to download the entire Bella Kit (this link is for the elements pack but you can download all of the kit through this link) to make kick butt pages like these! Enjoy and I hope everyone has an awesome Easter. Heather

Garage Sale for Locals

Good morning everyone:) I just wanted to let you know that we are throwing a HUGE garage sale today from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at 11525 E. Sunview Circle in the Spokane Valley. TONS of scrapbooking supplies (can't list even if we wanted to), awesome toys, name brand clothes, At Home America decor, PSP and a Cricut cutter (6in. version)!!!! If you're in the area stop on by and say hello.

Bella Embellishments

Hey everyone, thank you so much for downloading my kit and supporting my love for digi-scrappin'! It really means a lot to me. I have been VERY busy this Spring Break cleaning house for a garage sale (mostly to get rid of my paper scrapbooking products and embellishments) and getting ready for school on Monday. I am exhausted.

For all of you who've been following along (and those who are visiting for the first time) here is the last piece of the Bella kit for you to download. This kit will be available for a week as of this post. Tell your friends and send them on over. Have a blast creating layouts. Remember to comment with a link to your layout using the Bella Kit.

Bella Paper Pack

I just uploaded (link here password is bellah) the Bella paper packs. I split it up into two packs in order to upload faster:) I hope you have fun with them. Remember, if you make a layout or project utilizing pieces of the Bella kit, come back here and leave a comment with the link of where it's posted. I'd LOVE to see what you all come up with!

Here is a quick page that I made. The picture is of our friend Brie. It's her engagement picture to Yale!!! We are so excited for them and can't wait for the Wedding in San Diego. Congrats you two love birds.

Bella Alpha Link

I think that I fixed it! GEEZ (I'm such a loser)!

I hope that this works for everyone. I've been having trouble getting my 4shared to work. Let's see if this does it. Click on the (link) and if the password pops up it is bellah.

Karma Got In The Way

We had a family emergency last night and I am still trying to get caught up. I had to go get my niece at 1 a.m. to stay the morning until school. She and I have been busy this morning eating cinnamon rolls, chocolate milk and bananas. I will try to get back on track later today. It looks like I may have to launch my kit tomorrow or in a few days. SO sorry everyone:( Please hang in there with me. Thanks

Tomorrow.....maybe:)

My first kit BELLA is supposed to be launched tomorrow (March 24th, 2008), BUT I have been having some problems with 4shared. I have put together a little sneak peek (I spelled it right this time LOL:) so here it is in all her glory.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I will release the kit one piece at a time. Make sure you check back every couple of days for a new piece. Thanks for playing along everyone.

I Shall Call it Bella!

My First Kit

I know it's been a few days since my last post, I'm really sorry about that:( I am quickly realizing how I am going to have to juggle my time between all my scrap projects and school. Yikes!!! Last Saturday I spent a couple of hours and started making my first kit. I shall call it BELLA. It's fun and pretty basic. BUT, I'm still proud of it! I think it may be a micro-kit. Not sure yet though. Anyway, below is a layout that I did of my "Bella" niece NeelyLynn. Everything, EVERYTHING you see on the page is a product of my kit. Stay tuned as I will be rolling out pieces of the kit a little at a time. Since 24 is my favorite number, I will launch the first piece of the kit on Tuesday March 24th, 2009!

Mary Lou Raffle Quilt "Park Bench Quilters"

I know this has nothing to do with scrapbooking specifically, but it does have to do with supporting a good family friend, my local art community and arts & crafts in general. If you feel interested please keep reading. Who wouldn't love to have a piece of art after only spending $1?!

"Park Bench Quilters"

A long time family friend of mine, Mary Lou Weidman, is an amazing artist and quilter. She is so inspirational to me as a person and as an artist. Once you see what this amazing woman can to with fabric, you'll be just as amazed as I am. She is such a giving person and (as I understand it) drew out the design of the quilt pictured above for the Fiber Artist guild of Spokane,WA/and Idaho who then pieced it all together. The proceed of the raffle will go to cover the cost of their quilt show in April.

If you would like to purchase tickets they are $1 each. Please make your checks out to "Sew Uniquely You" and send to the address below:

Nancy Huck2338

West Courtland
Spokane, WA 99205

She is asking for a self-addressed, stamped envelope from those who would like to have the raffle ticket stubs mailed to them. Otherwise she will keep the stubs from all the out-of-town folks and put their tickets in the bin for the drawing. Don't forget, she needs a phone number or email as a contact.

What a beautiful work of art! It has such great details. I personally love how the feet dangle below the ladies. So clever. Please keep in mind that this a Wall sized quilt. You can read more info. about the raffle and about Mary Lou at her blog found here. I would like to ask you, that if you know of ladies who are into quilting or would just love to add a new piece of art to their home, please pass on this info. to them as the money helps support local artisans in the Spokane, WA/Idaho areas. Thank you so much. Good luck to you all!!!!

Blog Award...

Misty over at Scrap Paperie gave me a blog award!!! Thanks so much Misty:) How cool is that?! I need to give the award to 3 other blogs and I am happy to announce that:

1. Jaime over at Creative Entertaining

2. All the ladies of Mermaids of the Lake

3. Shanna at A Sketchy Place

Thanks for all of your blogs. They really help keep my creative juices flowing. Remember, if your blog has been tagged, make sure you pic three blogs to pass on the award.

Sporadic Scrap Attack

I just LOVVVVE it when my mom calls me up and says, "Hey! Um? Can you make me a ________?!" Followed by me saying, "When do you need it by?" Mom replies with, "Ah? Now?" So this is what happens following the phone call:

Today it was a 62nd birthday card for my mom's cousin Alinda. It turned out to be a sweet surprise for A as she is usually the one who makes everyone else cards for their special occasion. Alinda was so excited that someone made HER a special birthday card. Happy 62nd Alinda!

The above picture brings out the best in me. I work best in a messy, chaotic sort of organized mess. What can I say? It's sad too, because I have this great creative space that was supposed to keep me uber organized and allow my creative juices to flow. It never happened that way and I am trying to get it back to being UBER organized to allow for faster production of my creations. Some say that organization is key for success. I have yet to have that realization. The pictures below are of my "creative space" taken about 2 yrs ago. However, in its current state it is so unorganized and full of clothes and random collections of supplies that it's utterly unrecognizable. I hope your space is one that you are able to use and enjoy. I'll post pictures of my updated and useable crative space whenever I get around to uncluttering it:)

Please share comments on how you keep your supplies organized. Happy sporadic scrapping! H

Follow Me...LOL:)

I wanted to let everyone know that I have been trying to receive sponsors for this blog. I have a few and will continue to cultivate more as to develop a stash hold of goods for you all to win. Who doesn't like to win FREE stuff?! I know I do. So, please keep coming back to my blog and sign up to follow me.
Thanks, H

Valentine's Day Book

As promised I have taken the completed V-Day book pictures utilizing our AWESOME sunshine that we are being blessed with today. I hope you enjoy this fun album as I will be putting it up for sale on my Etsy.com store (found here at: 509Designs) as well as a couple of other albums. Hope you love the pics:)

Thursday Challenge

I couldn't sleep this morning as this has become my usual routine over the last 6 weeks. I have tried a couple of things: warm milk, reading the most boring book I could find, over-the-counter sleeping pills, staying up ALL night AND day to try and get back on a regular sleep schedule. None of which seemed to work. Any ideas? LOL:) Anyway, I headed on over to one of my favorite digi-scrapbook blogs (Ellie's Angels CT blog) and saw that yesterday was Thursday's Challenge. I haven't done one in a while and thought I would take a stab at it.

Below is my layout and a copy of what I was supposed to replicate. I stuck true to the original design and I am pretty proud of it. Mostly because the picture I got last night from my mom. I wasn't aware that she took any pictures of my dad while he was at N.I.A.C.H. I am SOOOO proud of him and want to make a book of his progress to help lift his winter blues.

Credits:

All papers and elements from Ellie Lash kits Bubblicious and Countdown To Christmas

Valentine Sneak Peak

Hello everyone! I have been working on a great Valentine's Day mini chipboard book. I finally finished it and thought I would give you all preview. I hope you enjoy the fun sneak peak and look for more pics to be uploaded soon regarding this album. BTW, I am going to start my giveaways next week! Check back for details in the next couple of days.

A YouTube Video

I hope to have some exciting news for you all regarding a physical store location after this weekend. Things have been crazy these last couple of days preparing, scrappin' and not getting ANY sleep:) I feel like God is leading Jaime and myself towards a great adventure. At least I hope it's God...LMBO! Sleep deprivation can really kick your butt. Anyway, I found this YouTube video that made me laugh a little. I hope it brings a smile to your face as it did to mine. Please keep us in your prayers as we tackle this adventure. Thanks, H

Day One

Thank you for visiting the Sporadic Scrapper blog. I am so excited to get started on this journey with you. Sporadic Scrapper is for every one of us that cannot find the time needed to document our lives and the lives of the ones we love. When you do find a few moments here and there to get your layouts and pages complete, I hope that moment will include taking some time to check out this blog and let it bring a smile, some insight or inspiration. Enjoy the journey.

Let me tell you about my scrapping background. I first discovered my creative talents when I was in grade school. My mom would always help me with projects that I had due in class. She taught me how to think outside of the box and look at how things can be used in ways other than their first impression. I was soon crafting projects on my own and using my own vision to put on all of the special touches. As I entered Jr. High, I realized that I liked to draw and sculpt using many different mediums. When lead me to wood shop and art class. My mom and I would take card making classes and go to the occasional Making Memories home show. Sports was always a big part of my life and I never really took the time to focus on my creative abilities. I was more focused on getting my track scholarship...even in Jr. High! While in High School I took pottery classes and started making scrapbook pages for my own album. On my sports teams we would do things for "team building" and I began making small projects to give as inspirational gifts. I LOVED crafting, I just never took the time to allow my ability to shine through. Once I received my track scholarship to UNLV (GO Rebels!!!), I had NO time to do any scrapbooking. I did, however, find a few stores here and there to stock up my supply of course. I was lucky enough to manage a find days here and there to document some of the amazing experiences I had while in Vegas that I treasure to this day.

Now that I am back in WA, amongst my family and friends I have a yearning to gift them treasured memories. My BFF, Jaime, and I have tried to open up a scrapbook store but due to the state of the economy have been unable to. So, I have been focusing on developing my digi-scrap abilities. I have had some successes but I have also found a lot of frustration in learning the trick and tools of the trade. Which leads me to the first purpose of this blog. To help you help yourself.

Purpose of the Sporadic Scrapper Blog:

1. Provide you the reader with tricks and tools to help you help yourself.


2. To post on other blogs that either give "freebies" or have products that I think you will find useful.


3. Post pictures of my own layout/projects as inspiration to you.


4. Provide a place for EVERYONE to feel welcome......even if you don't have kids.


5. Offer assistance to you if you have questions about a layout/project you are working on and get "scrap stumped" (new word! Like it?)


6. MAYBE, a big maybe because I am still thinking about it..........offer prizes if you participate on my blog. This is still to be determined of course. But I really like the idea:)

Thanks for taking the time to get to know me and know my blog. Happy Scrappin'.

At the bottom of the blog you will find a slide show with a few past creations as well as some present day layouts/projects.