October Afternoon

Monday Challenge | Circles!

Happy Monday, October Afternoon, friends! It's Amy here today with your Monday Challenge.
All this week, we are featuring one of the latest and greatest product extensions for October Afternoon's wonderful line-up, our new Designer Brads! These brads are just gorgeous! The quality is superb and every single last one is just beautifully coordinated with everything in the 9 to 5 Collection.

So, keeping these fantastic brads in mind, I thought, wouldn't it be fun to create a challenge all about circles? And not just about some circles, but ONLY about circles! So, that is what our challenge is this week : create a project that ONLY uses circles (or very close to) as embellishments in your project!For my project, I wanted to repeat circles everywhere! To start, I cut nesting circles out of my new 9 to 5 patterned paper, from my Silhouette which I placed, in what reminds me of a "spirograph" from my childhood. Then, I used circle punches, the super new TidBits circular diecuts, 9 to 5's label stickers, I used buttons, a Tin Pin and of course, I used lots of Designer Brads on my page. I even used circular paint splatters using OA Sprinklers up in the top right corner of my page. Lastly, I brought in a circlular shape into the photo I chose; one of my darling daughter taking after her mom with a camera and snap, snap, snapping away at everything! I even placed a Designer Brad in the center of the lens directly in the photo itself. :D Super fun!Here, you can see, my circles are everywhere! :D

I enlisted Wilna to join me on this challenge, and here's what she whipped up! (Wilna's brads hadn't quite arrived to her in Canada yet, but as you can see she made due just fine!) ;DThis is what Wilna had to say about her project:

"I loved the idea of using circles as embellishments. I cut out the white circles with my Silhouette Cameo and filled them with various patterned papers and round embellishments." 

Gorgeous, Wilna! I love it! And how clever to place your Tin Pins, patterned paper and other embellies inside those circles! I just love it!

So are you up for the circle challenge? If so, we'd love to see your projects! Be sure to post your layouts in our Flickr gallery so we can all admire your work and be inspired by your creativity!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a terrific week! ;) ~Amy

Monday Challenge - Design Team Scraplift

Hey everyone!  Roree here.  It's Monday, so it's challenge time again.  The girls on this team are so talented, and I admire their work so much.  They are always coming up with inspiring projects and fun techniques that I want to try.  So, I thought it would be fun to have a Design Team Scraplift Challenge. 

This is an oldie but a goodie from Marcy: 

Harvest Festival by Marcy Penner

(You can see it originally posted here.)

I just loved the chevron pattern that she created, and I have been wanting to try it for such a long time.  I decided to create a card using the chevron pattern for my background. 

Here it is:

Happy Times by Roree Rumph

I used the blue patterned papers from the Farmhouse collection to create this fun background. 

I added some machine stitching along the edges, because I just love stitching on my cards.

I also used some of die-cuts from the Farmhouse Flower Sack along with Label Stickers, a Button, and some Sidewalks Ribbon to create some soft and pretty flowers, because who doesn't love flowers?!

Marcy played along with my challenge this week, and she chose this layout by Becky to work from:

Add Such Joy by Becky Novacek

(You can see it originally posted here.)

Here is what Marcy came up with:

All Too Often by Marcy Penner

She played off of the argyle pattern in Becky's layout using triangles to create the fun background on her layout.  

Such a fun mix of patterns from the 9 to 5 collection, don't you agree?  I just love it!

Is there any of the OA designers' work that you just love and have been dying to try for yourself?  Well if there is, now's the time to try.  You have been challenged!  ;)

If you get a chance to play along with today's challenge, don't forget to post your project in the OA Flickr group.  We love to see what you are working on! 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

~Roree

Monday Challenge: Rub-ons...

Hello! Wilna Furstenberg here with a fun challenge... USE YOUR RUBONS! We all have a few sheets in our stash that we have never used... so today Lexi and I will show you some pages where we just went ahead and used them!

 

Lexi's page:

 

Wilna's Page:

We'd love to see your projects on the OA Flickr gallery.  Thanks for participating!

Love

Wilna Furstenberg

Thursday Sketch Challenge

Hey everyone!  Roree here, and I have this week's Sketch Challenge for you.

While trying to come up with a sketch idea, I thought it would be fun to use up those scraps and embellishments that we all have laying around our craft rooms.  Here is what I came up with:

Perfect for those little odds and ends pieces, right?

I created two cards using the sketch as a jumping off point.  Because they are on a smaller scale than the layout, I adjusted accordingly.

For my first card, I used the Sasparilla collection. 

I used bits and pieces from the Flower Sack and Miscellany packs, plus some stickers from the Word Sticker sheet.  They are perfect for this type of sketch.

And I just love the wood grain and colors in this collection!

For my second card, I used the Sidewalks collection along with the new Washi Tape from the 9 to 5 collection and a few leaf stickers from the Fly a Kite collection.

I used the Flower Sack flowers and banner, leaf stickers, and sun in place of the squares in the sketch. 

Two totally different cards inspired by one sketch.

I hope you enjoyed today's sketch.  There are definitely lots of different directions you could go with it.  If you get a chance to play along, don't forget to post your project in the OA Flickr group.  I can't wait to see how you interpret it!

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

~Roree

 

Monday Challenge | Repetition

Hi there everyone.  Marcy here to start your week off with a challenge.  

I love using the same element multiple times on a page for emphasis and direction.  Sometimes when I want to put a lot of elements on my page I find that using a repeating element allows me to do that while also keeping my page calm and cohesive at the same time. 

So I decided to toss the challenge of using repetition to Vivian today... and here's what she sent back to me.

What perfect photos for the Sasparilla line!  Here's what Vivian had to say about using repetition on her pages.

"Repetition is a technique I use often on my layouts to help create flow and direct the viewer's eye across and around my page. On this layout, created with the fun new Sasparilla line, I repeated colors, shapes, patterns, and motifs. The three primary colors repeat, as do stars (most raised on pop dots and accented with twine), cowboys, horses, and bandana prints."

And here's how I interpreted the use of repetition.

I love repeating star patterns on my pages, so for my layout I used my Silhouette to cut out a star pattern on a piece of white cardstock.

I used a variety of different patterned papers behind some of the stars and lifted the die-cut paper up with pop-dots. 

The stars add an interesting design element to the layout with the repetition of the same pattern also being relatively sedate.

How about you?  Do you ever use repetition on your pages?  

 

Challenge: Letter stickers...

Hello! Wilna Furstenberg here with a fun challenge! We all have letter stickers in our stash that we bought because we loved it but for some reason do not use it. So, Jill Sprott and I made some pages with this use-the-letter-stickers in mind to give you some creative inspiration! So, join us in the challenge! Show us your pages!

Jill's page is stunning (as always). She said: "I used a variety of letter stickers and clustered them together to create a frame around the photo.  Mixing styles and sizes creates a whimsical, playful feel (at least I think so!).  I also embedded the title in the layout by running letter stickers down the sides of the journaling block."

For my page, I decided to write all the journaling with letter stickers. Then i misted over it all so tone it down a bit:

So, you can show us your pictures by uploading it to Flickr, your blog or an online gallery like 2peas, then you can click the inlinkz thumbnail below and it will show a little thumbnail of your page here + link it to your page!

Thank you for participating!

 

 

I dare you....

to create a page using only 4 products! Becky and Amy here today with a challenge for you. Here are the "rules":

We're giving you a few freebies: scissors, writing pen and adhesive. You pick 4 additional products to make a page. 

From Amy: Becky’s challenge was just that for me - a challenge!! I never knew I relied so heavily on so many different types of product/mediums when creating a page. I didn’t even sew on this page (gasp!) and for me that’s a big deal. I didn’t thread my buttons or anything. 

The four “things” I chose to work with were patterned paper, ribbon from the Miscellany packs, buttons and alpha stickers. I found myself really struggling to make my page flow in a way that I thought it needed to. Finally after lots of experimentation, I was able to get a design I am happy with. I’m especially happy with the how the colors work together. Both the ribbon and the buttons became integral elements in the design, both in creating attention and in toning down attention (as in the yellow ribbon over the plaid paper in the bottom left corner) which is something I’m really happy with. I didn’t need to sew on it after all. :)

Here's her awesome page!

I adore the color mix! 

So pretty! 

My 4 items were: 

sewing machine

pattern paper

paper distresser

alpha stickers

I hope this challenge pushes you to try something new! We'd love to see your projects on the OA Flickr gallery.  Thanks for participating!

♥challenge:celebrating dr.seuss♥

good morning.  danni here with today's new monday challenge.  when thinking up the challenge today, i thought it would be fun to celebrate Dr. Seuss, with the release of The Lorax in theatres this month. 

the challenge:  create a layout or card using one of your favorite Dr. Seuss quotes

 joining me today is kinsey and she chose one of my most favorite quotes by dr. seuss, sure to be one of yours too ;)

 

today you are you

that is truer than true

there is no one alive

who is you-er

than you

 and she created this wonderful cut file for your silhouette cameo for anyone that may want to use it {yeah, she's awesome like that}

 

 Download Kinsey lo cut file

 

 

layout by kinsey

 

 

 

 here's what kinsey had to say about her layout. 

"When I first read about Danni's challenge, my mind immediately went to "oh the places you will go" and I really thought that would be the quote I would use and I then I did a google search and the quote from Happy Birthday took first place. I love it. I didn't even feel like I needed to add any journaling to this one because the quote says it all. I created a silhouette cut file with the text and cut it out of the wood grain paper from 9 to 5."

 

 

 

this is such an amazing layout kinsey to go with that quote.  love all the stars, the amazing cut-file and what a fun pic!

 

for my layout, i chose a recent picture of my daughter reading her new favorite book and of course chose the following quote:

 

the more that you read,

the more things you will know.

the more that you learn,

the more places you'll go.

 

 

layout by danni

 

 

 

 i can not tell you how i love all the different colors and patterns in the Woodland Park line

 

 

 

 

 

thanks for joining us today!   if you participate with your favorite dr. seuss quote, we would love to see your layout/card in the OA Flickr gallery.  please leave us a link here in the comments section so we can check them out.

happy creating♥

danni

Challenge: Clustered Patterned Bits

Happy Monday!  It's Jill here with a challenge that invites you to cut out shapes (like diamonds, hexagons, triangles, circles, etc.) from various patterns (or even from accents/stickers, if you wish), and create your own pattern from them.  You can use a die-cut machine or punches, or you can even hand-cut the shapes. 

Here's my take on the challenge: 

I used my Cameo to cut out a series of hexagons from various patterns from the 9 to 5, Cakewalk, and Thrift Shop lines, and I added the shapes to a hexagonal pattern that was formed by spritzing Lemon Drop and Robot Blue Sprinklers over the negative spaces.

I had the pleasure of working alongside Vivian for this challenge: 

Doesn't this layout perfectly channel the vibe of the era?  I love how Vivian used a variety of shapes here.  The design itself allows for the eye to travel easily from the top of the layout to the bottom, aided by the patterned "trail."  

Here's what she had to say about the challenge: 

Jill's challenge is so on trend! I've been seeing a lot of the quilted look lately, both within and outside of the papercrafting world, with larger patterns formed by combining smaller shapes,  often in different colors and patterns. Jill's challenge spurred me to scrap my "Mad Men" obsession. I used my Silhouette to cut retro shapes from the Boardroom (woodgrain) paper from the new 9 to 5 line and created a pattern around my "photo," which is an image I created at http://www.amctv.com/madmenyourself/. My take on this challenge added variety with different shapes, rather than patterns, so I added some color and interest with bits from the 9 to 5 Miscellany and 9 to 5 patterned papers.

Both Vivian and I would love to see your approach to this challenge.  Be sure to share your creations in the OA Flickr gallery.  Have a great week! 

Theme/Un-theme Challenge

Hi everyone! Vivian here, along with Danni, bringing you this week's challenge. Today we are going to explore possibilities and ask you to think outside of the box.

Every October Afternoon product line has a theme. For example, Boarding Pass is a travel-themed line, Holiday Style is a Christmas-themed line, etc. Regardless of the line's theme, one of the fantastic things about every October Afternoon product line is that many basic and beautiful patterns are included that make each line incredibly versatile. With that in mind, today we are challenging you to choose one product line and use it to make two projects - one focused on the line's main theme and the other focused on thinking outside of the line's main theme.

Danni decided to take on this challenge with the new Woodland Park line, which has a spring-y, outdoors-y theme. This is what Danni had to say, "I absolutely love the Woodland Park line. I can see creating lots of spring cards, birthday cards, mother’s day cards and beautiful friendship cards." Danni did just that, creating this gorgeous spring card:

Danni went on to say, "But when I saw the cuuuute bunnies on this journal card, I just had to create a baby card. There are so many uses and possibilities and 'thinking outside the box' will be so much fun with this new, fabulous line."

Don't you just love those cute cottontails Danni added to the journaling card? Here's a closer look at those:

For this week's challenge, I chose to work with the new Cakewalk line. Cakewalk is a birthday-themed line so I started by making a birthday card showcasing the main theme of this line:

Next, I put on my "non-birthday lens" and looked for the possibilities with this line. The fun pink patterns and cute animals jumped out at me so I grabbed my heart punch and a couple of stick pins and this love-themed card was born (I think this would be fun to sneak into my daughter's lunchbox sometime this week!):

We'd love to see your "theme/un-theme" projects! If you take on this challenge, please post your work to our October Afternoon Flickr Gallery for all to see!