October Afternoon

Put some Spring in your walk with Woodland Park!

Melanie Fink, Guest Designer

I LOVE October Afternoon's Woodland Park collection! The cute little fox, turtle, mice and bunnies are what first made me fall in love with the collection.  Taking a closer look, I noticed how versatile this collection really is and how inspiring it is.  I was thumbing through the miscellany and I smiled at every single piece of it!

I was very inspired by the yellow strip of paper in the miscellany pack that says "laugh, enjoy the sunshine, play, go for a walk, feed the ducks, lay in the grass."  Who doesn't love going for a walk on a beautiful day, laying in the grass and having a picnic with someone you love? So, I decided to make a tote with treat holders (milk cartons in this case) that can be brought along on a walk. When you want to take a break from your walk and lay in the grass, you can enjoy the treats inside!

As I mentioned in my guest designer introduction post a couple of weeks ago, I love making things for others. This could be a fun gift for newlyweds or couples that have been together for years. It just makes a special day even more special or an ordinary day memorable.

The  tote and milk cartons are SVGs by Lori Whitlock. There is a video tutorial on how to assemble these SVGs at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdtQLToNyVE . The video tutorial is very easy to follow.

I first assembled the tote. I chose a solid green color for the tote so the Woodland Park paper and embellishments would really stand out.

Next, I cut out the cartons and assembled them. I used gray twine from the OA's Farmhouse collection to close each carton on top (just untie to enjoy the treats inside!).

The final step is embellishing the tote. There are so many gorgeous embellishments in the Woodland Park collection, I had a hard time picking out what I was going to use!

To give my tote a whimsical feel, I added flying butterflies. The butterfly die-cuts are from the Woodland Park Flower Sack and Chip-N-Stick sticker pack. To make the butterflies fly, I cut three 4-inch long pieces of craft wire. I curled the wire by wrapping it around a pen. Next, I hot-glued the butterflies to one end of each piece of wire. Then, I hot-glued the opposite ends of each wire to the tote.

The last step was decorating the front of the tote. I added the yellow strip of miscellany that inspired me in the first place, as well as coordinating Shape and Chip-N-Stick stickers, and die-cuts from the Flower Sack. Overall, I achieved the whimsical, romantic feel I was going for.

Now if I could only make the weather here in Minnesota feel and look like spring! More snow is in our forecast! I can't wait for that first walk in beautiful spring weather!

If you missed my post last week, I mentioned I had a surprise on my blog! I am giving away a bunch of goodies from the Midway collection (12x12 collection kit, 8x8 paper pad, brads, stickey keys, flair and more). Stop by my blog at http://thepaperretreat.blogspot.com  to enter! The giveaway ends next Friday, April 26th!

Melanie

Tuesday Sketch: Simple Layers

Clean and simple, or lots of layers: who says you have to choose? This week's sketch features a marriage of two approaches that may seem quite different, but that can actually coexist in a single layout. 

Here's the 8.5" x 11" version...

and a 12" x 12" version. 

This sketch incorporates at least ten papers of varying sizes, making this an ideal opportunity to put those long-neglected scraps to good use. Although ten papers may seem to be anything but simple, the approach really is -- just trim the papers, overlap them, add a photo, a title, and some journaling, and that's it!

If mixing and matching so many patterns sounds a little too challenging, just use an already-coordinated favorite October Afternoon line, or choose papers with a similar color scheme, as Becky Novacek did:  

"When I received the sketch from Jill, I knew that I wouldn't change a whole lot...why mess with perfection? I did have a very specific color combo in mind, so that's where my focus was. Sometimes, I think it's a good creative exercise to let some aspect of what you normally focus on (like design) and focus on another. That's the perspective I went with. I mixed Midway, Farm Girl, Woodland Park and Farmhouse." 

I absolutely adore Becky's take on the sketch! The color combination is beautiful, and the mix of vintage book pages with the October Afternoon papers looks incredible. I also love how she added accents here and there, making the sketch truly her own and enhancing the overall theme of the page. 

Like Becky, I selected the papers for my own layout with a specific color scheme in mind. 

My usual style often includes lots of layers, so this sketch allowed me to do my thing in that respect, but I opted not to add any accents beyond a little bit of washi tape and some shading with a yellow-green watercolor pencil to match my kitty's eyes. Using minimal accents is fine -- the combination of different patterns and colors enlivens the page while also enabling me to keep it simple.  

With the exception of the cardstock, every single piece of paper here came from my stash of paper scraps. I pulled together papers from the Midway, Farm Girl, Woodland Park , Cakewalk, and 9 to 5 lines, and there is even some Witch Hazel included here! 

Whether or not you add accents, and regardless of how many different papers or patterns you choose to incorporate, you can most definitely find a way to adapt this week's sketch to your liking. We would love to see your projects, so be sure to share them in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery. 

Happy scrapping! 

-- Jill 

FRIDAY FIND: Farmhouse Bundle

October Afternoon’s treasured collection of things found down on Grandma and Grandpa’s farm have been bundled in this week’s Friday Find for you to enjoy!

This nostalgic collection includes a number of endearing papers and products that capture memories of rural life when times were not necessarily easy, but definitely more simple.

Imagine traveling the gravel road to the farm, enjoying a cool glass of summer tea while sitting on the porch swing or listening to the old phonograph. No need to rummage through that dust-covered trunk in the attic, all the treasures of the Farmhouse can found in this Friday Find!

Best of all, you won't have to sell the farm to get the Farmhouse Bundle …. it's priced at JUST $14.99 (plus shipping).  That’s nearly 60 PERCENT OFF the retail price!

Here’s what you get:

Farmhouse Bundle

2 - Her Bureau 12x12 paper

2  - Attic Trunk 12x12 paper

2 - Gravel Road 12x12 paper

2 - Faded Wallpaper 12x12 paper

2 - Porch Swing 12x12 paper

2 - Phonograph 12x12 paper

12x12 Alpha Stickers

Label Stickers

Mini Market Stickers (Grey/Cream)

Key Caps Sticky Keys

Rub-on Transfers

Wrap Pack

Flower Sacks

Don't delay ... order yours today while supplies last!

Shipping

Continental U.S., Alaska & Hawaii - $9.00

Canada - $13.35

All Other International - $20.45

a quick canvas art project

Good Morning! It's Becky here today and I have a simple project for you to try. I am a huge fan of creating one of a kind artwork for the walls of my home. I like to be able to customize the colors and the vibe that I want, so quite a few years ago, I started playing with stretched art canvases. 

Here's the canvas that I'm going to show you how to make:

I started with an 11"x14" canvas. The one I used wasn't perfect, it actually had some marks on it, so I painted the front and sides with a soft off-white acrylic paint. 

Then I did a little splattering with the Farmhouse Screen Door Sprinkler. I hadn't waited for the paint to dry completely, so it didn't have the look I wanted. Easy solution, I took paintbrush and ran the paintbrush over the sprinkles. It gave it just the look I like. I thought I would be starting over, but it ended up being a happy little mistake.

Then while the paint was drying, I took a simple secondhand frame that I picked up at an estate sale and measured the inside, then I cut a piece of ledger paper to fit.

I layered up a few fun pieces from the Woodland Park collection, including an oval sticker label that I had typed part of the sentiment on-

Lots of Woodland Park and Farmhouse Flower Sack pieces (my favorite!), as well as a little WP washi tape and an office supply tag, tissue paper and a little machine stitching. 

Here's the finished canvas again-

I attached the framed piece to the canvas and added a few butterflies from the Flower Sack collections. So quick and easy! This would be a great project to do with older kiddos. 

If this project inspires you to try something with canvas, or even copy this project, please share it with us on the OA Flickr group. We'd love to see your creations!

Monday Challenge: Alpha Stickers

Hey everyone! Roree here with today's Monday Challenge post. Since we are spotlighting alpha stickers on the blog this week, I thought it would be fun to gear the challenge around them. 

If you are like me, you have tons of alphabet sheets in your supplies. I am crazy for fonts and I have a hard time resisting the urge to add more and more to my collection. The problem is that with so many to choose from, it is rare that I use more than a few letters from each sheet for a title here or there on a project. So I challenged myself and I am challenging you to get your alpha stickers out and use them on a project for something other than a title. 

I made a couple of projects for this challenge using alpha stickers from the Farmhouse and Woodland Park collections.    

For my first project, I went a little sticker crazy. I created a background for my card.  I layered stickers onto a sheet of scrap paper and trimmed it to fit my card base.

Because the stickers were different sizes, I layered some stickers to fill in the gaps.  I created a really fun background pattern.

This is great way to use a lot of stickers all at once.

For my next project, I created a flower by cutting some 'O' and '8' stickers in half and used them for the petals.

Using different colors and patterns gave the flower a fun and whimsical look. 

What fun ideas do you have for using your alpha stickers?

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

Tuesday Tutorial: Mosaic Flowers

With Mother's Day right around the corner, I (Vivian) thought I'd show you a quick and easy technique today that you can use on your Mother's Day cards. This technique was inspired by a quilt I saw in the Pottery Barn Teen catalog:

I love the black borders around each flower petal; the black makes the colors and patterns pop against the colorful background. The chevron rug next to the bed is a nice touch as well.

I decided to create a project inspired by this look by using elements from the Farmhouse Flower Sack:

In addition to the Flower Sack, I grabbed some black cardstock and patterned paper from both Farmhouse (the B side of Guest Room) and 9 to 5 (the B side of Coffee Break) and created this card, loosely inspired by the quilt:

As you can see, I decided to turn my flowers into trees against a polka dot patterned paper that looks like the night sky lit up with stars. I added a strip of herringbone patterned paper (this element mimics the chevron rug next to the bed in the image above) and a heart from the Flower Sack, which I also bordered with black. A phrase banner from the Flower Sack completes the card.

To re-create this look with Flower Sack elements:

1. Cut a Flower Sack element into "petals," using either scissors or a paper trimmer.
2. Adhere each piece of the cut Flower Sack element onto a scrap of black cardstock, leaving space between the petals.
3. Cut around each flower, leaving a bit of a black border around the outside edge.
4. Adhere black-bordered flowers to a patterned paper background and embellish as desired.

We'd love to see anything you create based on this idea! Please post projects to our October Afternoon Flickr Gallery so that we can take a look!

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

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!

Tuesday Tutorial: Flowers

Hey everyone!  Roree here, and I have a Tuesday tutorial for you.

If you know me or my work, you know that I LOVE to make flowers.  All kinds, really.  Kim, the owner of October Afternoon, told me that she got some comments at CHA about the flowers I made on this layout, featuring Cakewalk...

Happy Days by Roree Rumph (using October Afternoon's Cakewalk collection)

so I thought I would share with you how I made them.

To make one complete flower, I cut out four individual flowers (cut at 0.25" increments, for example one each at 1.5", 1.75", 2", and 2.25" ) with my Cricut Expression 2 and Sweet Treats cartridge.  (Any kind of die-cut machine or punch will do, as long as you can cut the same flower in multiple sizes.)

I then sanded the edges of my flowers (totally optional), and curled the ends of each petal.

I added foam adhesive to the center of each flower except the top one.  I then layered and adhered the flowers together from smallest to largest. 

I pierced holes at the center of the flower, using the button that I wanted for the center as a guide.

I hand stitched the button onto the flower, and I finished by fluffing the petals back up.  And voila!  My finished flower!  Pretty easy, right?!

I made a couple more, along with some mini ones, cut out a few leaves, and created this card full of flowers.   

My Forever Friend by Roree Rumph (using October Afternoon's Farmhouse, Sidewalks, Campfire collections)

I added cross stitches to the center of the mini flowers instead of trying to find a bunch of tiny buttons. 

If you love flowers, texture, and dimension on your projects, you might need to give this a try.  ;) 

I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial.  If you get a chance to make some flowers of your own, make sure to share them with us in the OA Flickr Gallery.   We would love to see your creations!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

sketchy thursday!

Hi! It's Becky here today. Are you ready for another sketch? I know that if I'm having a hard time being creative, a sketch usually gets me back on track. This week rather than coming up with a sketch, I took a lesson from Roree and was inspired by a catalog page in the new Madewell catalog. 

My partner this week is Jill and she KILLED it! Love her take. 

Here's what she had to say about this project:

"This sketch really challenged me, in a good way.  I kept thinking about how to translate it spatially, and in the process, I ended up being inspired by the image itself, too.  I decided to "catalog" a few of the items that define my daughter's style, and present them in a similar format, including captions with each photo.  

Initially I was going to use die-cut letters, but when I saw the negative space left behind after I cut the letters, I decided to work with that instead.  I sprayed a variety of Sprinklers on the background and then adhered the title over the area using adhesive dots."

and a detail shot-

Would it be completely silly for me to do a lift of her layout about myself? I think I may!

My take on this inspiration piece was quite literal. I'm happy with the outcome and it was pretty effortless!

I handcut the title, keeping it pretty imperfect. I simply stitched the letters down, using no adhesive, so it isn't flat on the page. 

So whether you use this literally or maybe just use one element as a starting point, we would love to see what you come up with! Please join us on the OA Flickr Gallery and post your take! Thanks!