October Afternoon

Happy String

Okay, yes, happy spring, too. :) Today's tutorial was inspired by an image I, Vivian, pinned on Pinterest a while back:

(Click on image to see source and directions for making these eggs.)

I love the simple yet bold look of these egg designs and wanted to replicate that look with paper. Today I'm going to show you just how I did that, using string to mask off cardstock prior to spraying ink over it. Let's get started!

 

Step #1: Materials

Grab the "ingredients" needed:

• White cardstock
• String
• Scissors
• Masking tape
• Sprinkler color(s) of your choosing

Step #2: Mask Off the Paper

Cut several different lengths of string that will be used to make your design. Make sure each length is a little longer than either the length or width of your piece of white cardstock. Tape one end of the string to the back of the white cardstock and stretch it across the front of the cardstock, taping the other end under on the back of the cardstock. Repeat with as many pieces of string as desired. Here's what this looks like, front and back:

 

Step #3: Apply Sprinkler

Put your string-covered white cardstock inside an empty box. Spray the ink directly over the top of the string-covered cardstock, let dry, and then remove the string. Here's what this looks like immediately after applying the ink and then after removing the string:

 

Step #4: Use on a Layout (or Card)

I cut three 3.5" squares from the masked/misted piece above and used it to create this layout:

The lines looked a lot like clotheslines to me, so I used mini clothespins to "hang" stickers, Flower Sack elements, and die cuts from the Sidewalks and Cherry Hill collections.

I used this string-masking technique on another layout, creating a mat for my photo and using the string lines to draw attention to the subjects in the photo:

This layout features the new Woodland Park collection and the Cactus Sprinkler from the Sasparilla collection (which coordinates beautifully with Woodland Park). In addition to spraying ink, I also dripped some bigger blobs of ink on the cardstock for a different effect.

If you give this technique a go, please be sure to post your creation(s) to our October Afternoon Flickr Gallery for all to see!

Happy String/Spring!

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!

Art Masking Fluid Tutorial

Hello! Wilna here today! Anyone in the mood for a little art lesson? Play with paint? Make a bit of a mess? Well, then this tutorial is for you!

For Step 2, I used Ali Edwards' Photo Outline brushes and stamps. I just printed it on my 12x12 white cardstock. There are so many options to use, this is just one.

 

And here is a look at the finished page:

If you want to play along, i would loooove to see your pages! Upload them to our FLICKR gallery.

Smiles

 

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! 

Tuesday Tutorial :: SprINKlers = Custom-Colored Embellishments

Hi everyone! It's Amy here today with your Tuesday Tutorial this week! I thought that I would do a couple things for this week's tutorial. 

1) Feature some of our BRAND NEW collection papers intermixed with some of our current collections to show you just how seemlessly they work into your current stash, 

2) Create some Valentine's cards for the upcoming holiday - which is now just 2 weeks away

and

3) Show you some new, fun ideas for using our absolutely fabulous product line, SprINKlers.

I love the look of misting. I ADORE the look of paint droplets and splashes. However, I have yet to master either of these wonderful techniques. BUT there are some things that I have experimented with and LOVE using my SprINKlers for. Today I'm going to show you 7 different materials that you could use your SprINKlers on, that you may not have thought of before. So let's get started!

Above, I've gathered all the different materials that I have used my SprINKlers, and without fail, they have been successful!!

1) The obvious - patterned paper, or cardstock - but have you thought of using them on our Flour Sack pieces?

2) Canvas embellishments - all the rage

3) Paper doilies - inexpensive and plentiful for mass producing those fun Valentines

4) Crocheted doilies - I purchased mine at a local big box craft store for 50¢ ea.

5) Wood - Here I have clothes pins, but it works on ANY of the various wood embellishments out there on the market - LOVE that!

6) Bare Chipboard - SUPER way to spruce up those pieces of chip in our Miscellany packs!

7) Cotton Ribbon - such as the one in our Farmhouse Collection

When applying your SprINKlers to ANY of these materials, there is no real technique involved, simply spray until you achieve your desired look. All of these materials take and hold the ink perfectly and dry relatively quickly. Let's take a look at what these pieces look like after being inked.

I chose a Valentine's palette to make my samples and went straight into spraying (inside a corrugate box, so as not to get any ink where I didn't want it). Once I acheived the color I wanted, I removed my pieces from my box, and let them dry, probably for about 10-20 minutes depending on the material.

Below I have written out all of the colors that I used for my materials.

1) Large Clothespin - Hopscotch (Sidewalks), Small Clothespins - Buttermilk (Art Box)
2) Flour Sack Piece LG - Santa's Hat (Holiday Style), Flour Sack Pieces Small- Ice Box (Farmhouse)
3) Canvas Flag, Left - Brown Bag (Art Box), Canvas Flag, Right - Screen Door (Farmhouse) 
4) Chipboard Frame - Santa's Hat (Holiday Style), Chipboard Ampersand - Tin Type (Art Box), Chipboard Cameo - Tinsel (Holiday Style)
5) Paper Doily - Hopscotch (Sidewalks) 
6) Cotton Eyelet Ribbon - Strawberry Cream (5 & Dime)
7) Cotton Crochet Doily - Frequent Flyer (Boarding Pass) 

Really neat, right!? I just LOVE using my SprINKlers on these other types of materials to help them match my papers and other OA embellishments perfectly!

So, here's what I created from these fun custom- colored embellishements! A full array of Valentine's cards using papers from the BRAND NEW collection, Cakewalk, and current collections, Farmhouse and Sidewalks. 

SprINKler'd Pieces (Paper Doily, Small Clothespin, Canvas Tag, Chipboard Frame, Chipboad Cameo)

SprINKler'd Pieces (Large Clothespin, Flour Sack piece-masked)

SprINKler'd Pieces (Small Clothespin, Cotton Crochet Doily) 

SprINKler'd Pieces (Cotton Eyelet Ribbon, Canvas Tag, Chipboard Ampersand)

I hope you've enjoyed learning about some new ways you can use your SprINKlers! I've had fun getting them out and playing with all these materials all at once! Thank you so much for stopping by and have a wonderful Tuesday!

Tuesday Tutorial: Painted Script

I'm (Becky) here today with a simple tutorial. I have been loving the current trend to use brush script on art journals and all sorts of art projects, and thought it would be interesting to adapt it to a scrapbook layout. I know that I am inspired by two ladies in particular who rock the brush script...Kal Barteski and Elise Blaha. You can actually take a brush script class from Kal....and I very much hope to sign up. 

A few nights ago, I picked up a couple of script brushes (knowing nothing about what I needed) and came home and started to experiment. I knew that with the brushes being very stiff, I would need to use a fairly thin medium. What worked for me was to mix a concoction of half Ice Box Sprinkler and basic black acrylic paint. I practiced on about ten different sheets of paper before attempting the real deal. 

I haven't been a big mist user in the past, but I've loved the projects that I've been seeing and decided to not only do a brush script title, but to really get crazy and do a little misting as well. You can see a really helpful paint drips tutorial by our own Marcy Penner right here. I had a lot of fun with both the brush script and using OA Sprinklers to make my little paint drips. 

The techniques that I tried for this tutorial were definitely outside the box for me, but I truly enjoyed the process. So if you haven't tried brush script or if you haven't tried OA Sprinklers yet, you need to give it a shot! I'm pretty sure you will enjoy it and maybe even feel a little creative in the process. 

I'd love to see your creations, so please share with us at our Flickr page. Thanks for visiting today!

Thursday Sketch: One Sketch, Seven Interpretations

good morning.  danni here with today's sketch challenge for you.  today we'll present one sketch and offer several different interpretations from that one sketch.

 

here is the sketch we'll be using today

 

 

 

joining me today is lexi.  lexi created this incredible tag that is such a fun interpretation of the sketch.

here's what Lexi had to say, "Christmas came and went without any snow for us so we still have the white stuff on our wish list! I am loving the simplicity of using standard office tags and dressing them up. I sprayed with background with Tinsel SprINKler (LOVE the subtle shimmer!) and punched 2 snowflakes. The negative space was backed with paper from Holiday Style, while the middle snowflake is part of an older paper doily with a Holiday Style sticker. Sequins complete the snowflakes with a stitched sentiment in the form of a Little Flyer across the bottom. The pom pom trim at the top is also from Holiday Style and worked perfect with the "snow" theme :)"

 

 

 

 

 

 

love the sprinklers on here and the use of an ordinary office supply, so amazing!  thank you lexi♥

 

i often get asked how i am able to create so many cards in a relatively short period of time, and i will share the answer with you today...giggle.  i create a sketch or use ONE sketch to create about 10 different cards before moving on to a new sketch. when choosing a sketch, or creating my sketch, i always choose a fairly simple "CAS" sketch so as to be able to have lots of room for interpretation.  sometimes i will use the same papers/elements, other times i will create each card with a completely different line, it really depends on the occasion.  let me explain with pictures and words so as to be a little clearer.

 

 for my first set of cards, i chose to use OA Holiday Style and create three different thank you cards (yes, i still need some and hope you might also)

 

thank you snowman card 

(click pics to enlarge)

 

 

on this card, i chose to use the three 'heart elements' as blocks for my  snowman.  i cut out the three blocks from the Holiday Style pp and then backed the blocks with white cardstock before stitching around and adding the details to the snowman.

 

 

 

 

 

december thank you card 

 

for this card i used the same sketch but interpreted the '3 heart elements' as layered die-cuts, snowflakes and chipboard.

 

 

 

holiday thank you card

i decided to interpret the three 'heart elements' as snowflake chipboard pieces, element chipboard and for the twist on this card, added three Little Flyers as the strips of pp.

 

 

 

after creating these three cards, i decided to play with some of the Farmhouse line on my desk to create three different cards

hello friend card

 

 

on this card i interpreted the three 'heart elements' as buttons and a center-focal.

 

 

i LOVE all the Farmhouse miscellany

 

 

 

happy birthday card

 

for the 3 'heart elements' i used two rounded blocks of pp and a layered center focal

 

 

 

 

love you card 

 

for the 3 'heart elements' on this card i chose to layer tickets/ hearts

 

 

 

 

i hope these card and tag ideas have inspired you to see this sketch and all it's possibilities on your next projects.  we would love to see your creations in our FLICKR GALLERY.

 

happy creating♥

danni

Monday challenge: Add a Bag!

Is it Monday again already?! Welcome to another Monday Challenge--Holiday version ;) Lexi here with you today and the idea for this week came to mind as I was looking at all the pretty packaging this time of year. While noticing some fun designs on bags from stores (think Trader Joe's, Starbucks, etc.) I thought...why not a bag challenge? That's right--let's add some kind of bag to our projects!
Dani joined me for the challenge and here are her creations, which are nothing short of beautiful.

She created these sweet tags using Very Merry stamps, glassine bags and Holiday Style. The glassine bags give off the perfect frosty look for this time of year. Who wouldn't love to receive this package Christmas morning? 

 I played around with a few bag ideas myself...

Although this isn't terribly holiday-ish, I loved how that striped brown paper bag looked with bits from Farmhouse, Sasparilla & Sidewalks collections. It almost looks like the leaves are falling out of it. I used my vintgae typewriter to add the journaling before gluing it down. 

The Farmhouse tin pin helped highlight his age on the number strip, while the tickets from the Sidewalks miscellany make a perfect border. 

This is a page from a current December mini I am making, in which the background is a glassine bag. I just cut it down in size to fit the book. Because the picture was about the night we decorated our tree I filled it with sequins and punched snowflakes before sewing it shut. The chipboard tree is from the Holiday Style miscellany pack and was sprayed with Boarding Pass sprinkler. 

Can you see the bag part of the project here? 

Yep, it's from a Starbucks bag last year that I saved. The white text on the brown bag was perfect for a card. I simply trimmed it down to size, sprayed on some Paper Doily sprinkler and sewed it down before layering on Holiday Style goodies. 

So, how about you . Have you seen any cool bags this year? Why not save one and give this challenge a try? Load them up in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery so we can admire them! Enjoy your holiday season and have a merry day!

-Lexi

Tuesday Tutorial: Frosted Glass Ornaments

Hey everyone!  Roree here.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and got to spend lots of time with your friends and family. 

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we can put all of our focus on Christmas.  Yay!!!  I just love Christmas time, and I thought a tutorial with a Christmas theme would be in order. 

Today, I have a set of ornaments to share that I created with some clear glass ball ornaments, some Sprinklers, and some of the new Holiday Style embellishments.

First off, I started with a clear glass ball ornament.  I got mine at Target.  They were $6 for a set of 9.  I know you can find these pretty much anywhere that sells Christmas decorations.

Next, I carefully removed the metal cap.  These glass ornaments are somewhat fragile, so be careful not to hold them too tight. 

(I happened to have a Starbucks coffee sleeve handy, so I used it to hold the ornament for photo purposes.  I actually held the ornament in my hand for the next couple of steps.)

Hold the Sprinklers Paper Doily Mist over the opening of the glass ornament. 

Spray one or two times, until the glass looks frosted.  (Any more than that, and you will have a pretty big puddle at the bottom and your drying time will take a lot longer.) 

Make sure to keep the ornament upright to avoid the excess mist from pooling on the sides of the glass.  Light swirl along the bottom to even out the pool of mist.

Place the bulb back in the container to dry. 

Note:  You can use a hair dryer on a low speed to help speed up the drying process, if desired.

Lastly, add embellishments.

Here are a few close-up shots of each of the finished ornaments:

 

 

It ended up being a pretty easy project that you could make as Christmas gifts or a project to do with your kids.

Hope you enjoyed today's tutorial.  If you get a chance to make your own, make sure to share it with us in the OA Flickr Gallery.   We would love to see your creations!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Thursday Sketch

It's Stacey here...bringing you a sketch that is designed to help you use lots of photos - even if they aren't your favorites!

For me, the winter holidays are a source of wonderful memories but busy, indoor (so kind of dark!) photos. The inspiration for this week's sketch came from my large (digital) pile of not-so-great pictures of past Thanksgivings and Christmases. I would like to use so many of the holiday photos I've taken, but a lot of them are poorly lit and have pretty cluttered backgrounds. So I shrank them down, put them in strips, and added the story - lots of photos on a page with plenty of space for journaling. I really need to do this more often - using several of photos on a page is easy if the photos are smaller, and I can tell the whole story on one layout.

Here's my layout:

 

And here is the sketch:

I sent Wilna the sketch, and of course, she came up with something fabulous! Here's what she said about the sketch and her take on it:

I love the Sketch this week! Stacey's idea of using rows of little pictures are genius and super fun to work with! I used tags to adhere my pictures to and my square punch came in handy to make little square pictures.

Thank you for looking!

Wilna

If you create a layout with this sketch, we'd love to see it! Make sure to upload your finished layout to the OA Flicker Gallery.  We love to see what you all create using OA products!