October Afternoon

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! 

A Halloween Bouquet

I made using two different sizes of star punches and paper from Fly a Kite and Thrift Shop. For each "flower," I punched a large and a small star in the same color, and a second large star in another color. I layered the stars using small pop dots, angling the stars to create "petals." I glued the "flowers" to skewers, and stuck them in a bottle filled with orange and black jellybeans and tied a bow around the bottle. Thanks for sharing this halloween creation with us, Vivian.

Have a great Halloween!

Monday Challenge: Celebrate "October"

Good Morning OA fans, it's Danni here with a fun, new Monday challenge.

I love October in so many, many ways. We just celebrated my youngest son's October birthday. October means we're in the middle of a high school football season. October means the colors are changing in all the amazing trees in the Sierra Nevada mountains, swoon. And don't forget the scrapbooking world, "October Afternoon", good grief, they were destined to be my favorite manufacturer.

So, let's celebrate "October". Create layouts/cards/projects with "October" or "Oct" in the title or sentiment.

Joining me this week is Marcy and she created this amazing layout featuring one of the October Afternoon strips as her title.

 I chose to create a set of 3 cards for this challenge using "October" or "Oct" in different ways.

On this card i used the negative alpha stickers to create the sentiment. i cut out the negative from the sticker sheet to create a fun "alpha outline"

On this card i used the OA strip for my sentiment and the leaves from Campfire sticker sheets







On this card, i used the journaling strips "go, see, do" from the Boarding Pass sticker sheet and punched leaves from various OA pp





Do you love October? Will you play along with us? If you are able to participate, please link up your work in our October Afternoon Flickr gallery so we can see your creations!


happy creating♥
danni

Monday Challenge: Mix and Match

Happy Monday! Vivian here with this week’s Monday challenge. Today we’re keeping it simple with a challenge that asks you to create something using three or more October Afternoon product lines. If you haven’t already noticed, one of the great features of October Afternoon products is that the colors coordinate across lines, making it easy to mix and match products with success.

Becky played along with the challenge this week and came up with a fantastic and fun layout that combines products from several different lines, including Sidewalks, 5 & Dime, Modern Homemaker, Fly a Kite, and Thrift Shop. Note how the yellows, pinks, and aquas combine across the paper lines.

After declaring this a simple challenge I went in a more challenging direction, as I decided to see whether I could use something from every October Afternoon line ever created, from County Fair (the first October Afternoon line ever) through to Sidewalks (in stores now). It was hard, but I did it! Note how the greens, reds, yellows, oranges, and aquas combine across lines and how the alphas coordinate.

I started with a strip of paper from County Fair (the aqua at the bottom) and then cut ¾” wide strips of patterned paper, choosing one paper from each line and gluing the strips to a 12” wide scrap of cardstock to form my own striped paper. I cut the striped paper in half once I was done and used a strip both above and below my photos. Product lines not represented in patterned paper include Schoolhouse (scalloped border sticker), Modern Homemaker (apple punched from patterned paper), Boarding Pass (taller letter stickers), 5 & Dime (Red Wagon sprINKler), Rocket Age (Comet Tail sprINKler), and Sidewalks (label sticker).

If you are an October Afternoon blog reader but don’t visit the website, I encourage you to check out the products section. You can click on each line to look at thumbnails of each product and can click on those thumbnails to get a closer look at products, including the A and B sides of the patterned papers. I’ll let you in on a little secret – I use this section of the website often to help plan my projects. It’s quicker and easier (and less messy!) than pulling out all my papers and embellishments, especially when I’m looking for certain colors, patterns, types of stickers, etc.

Hope you’ll participate in this simple (or not so simple, depending upon how you interpret it!) challenge that’s also a good stash-buster. If you do participate, please link up your work in our October Afternoon Flickr gallery so we can see your creations!

Happy mixing and matching!

Wednesday Post: Flickr Feature

I was taking a look at all of the new and fun things that people have been creating with October Afternoon and posting on Flickr. I came across a few wonderful projects posted by Jessy  Christopher from Malaysia. Look at some of the great cards she has created using pieces from wonderful October Afternoon lines.

Aren't those just great! Please stop back tomorrow and Join along with the Sketch challenge!

This Week’s Sketch: One Large Design Element

Hi everyone, Vivian here with this week’s sketch. I’m normally drawn to very linear designs, but decided to switch things up a bit with some overlapping elements and one larger element.

 

My interpretation of the sketch is pretty literal, and allowed me to showcase one of the pages from the Rocket Age rocket-shaped mini album. I’m not generally a mini album maker, but I do love using mini album pages on my layouts as design elements, journaling blocks, or photo mats.

 

Jaime Warren interpreted the sketch a little more loosely, with gorgeous results! Check out how she used a cluster of butterflies as the large element. I also love her layered border with bits of patterned papers peeking out.

 

We’d love to see your interpretation of this sketch! What will you do with that larger element? If you give it a go, please share your work by posting to our Flickr album.

Have a wonderful day!

Color Splash! Challenge

Hi Everyone! It's Amy here today and I have a bright, and fun inspiration challenge for you. One of my favorite things about October Afternoon has always been the COLOR. Bright, bold, fun and incredibly cohesive between collections. Today I thought I would bring you a post FULL of color, bright and vibrant, showcasing how all the different collections work together brilliantly when you want to put together a card, layout or mini album that focuses all of it's "umpf" on COLOR, glorious color!!
 
*Spring by Amy Heller*

OA Collections used: Rocket Age, 5&Dime, Campfire, Seaside, Modern Homemaker, Fly A Kite, Thrift Shop, Farm Fresh, Roadmap, Cherry Hill, Ducks in A Row

SprINKlers: Paper Doily, Buttermilk
 
*First Grass Stain Season by Amy Heller*

OA Collections used:  5&Dime, Campfire, Modern Homemaker, Fly A Kite, Farm Fresh,  School House, Report Card, Cherry Hill, Roadmap, Good Cheer
 
*Nothing But Blue Skies by Amy Heller*

OA Collections used:  5&Dime, Campfire, Thrift Shop, Fly A Kite, Weathervane, Thrift Shop

Mini Markets:  Mini Markets (Rocket Age) Light Blue, Sticky Keys (Playtime)

As you can see, I think I've used most of every collection in the OA line up to create these cohesively color-themed projects. Now let's take a look at Roree's incredible favorite pictures mini album!
 
When I presented the challenge to Roree, I told her we were doing a monochromatic challenge. When she finished her project and presented me with this beautiful tag album, I decided to mix up the focus of the challenge a tad to feature exactly what her project shows, that is that every collection you posses in your October Afternoon stash can work beautifully together! And her mini encapsulates that message in such a fun, creative way!

Lets take a closer look:
 
This is what Roree had to say about her album:

It is a little 'Fave Photos' pocket tag mini. There is a tag for each person in my family. We all got to pick our own favorite photos from the past year to put in our pocket, so it is personalized for each person. I am not crazy about doing monochromatic projects, so I got around it by doing each individual pocket tag as a monochromatic but putting them together to be a rainbow of color.
 
 
 
*Fave Photos Mini Album by Roree Rumph*

OA Collections used: Rocket Age, 5&Dime, Campfire, Farm Fresh, Modern Homemaker, Fly A Kite, Thrift Shop

Mini Markets:  Sticky Keys (Playtime)

So what do you think!? Are you up to digging through your OA stash of goodies and creating a super COLORFUL project? We would love to see your takes using all of your creative takes on OA Color!! Simply upload them to our Flickr gallery and let us all see your wonderful creations! I hope you are inspired to use a BIG splash of color in your next projects!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a WONDERFULLY colorful Monday! ;D

Let's Get Sketchy!

Hey everyone!  Jaime here today with a sketch!  I found this incredible sketch over at Pencil Lines and fell in love.  It's simple yet whimsical - just my style!  I loved using this sketch and putting my own spin on it with lots of layering and adding fun little tid bits around the edges of my layout.  The fabulous Stacey Kingman joined me and created a gorgeous layout. She too put her own unique spin on the sketch!  Sketches are a great way to get the ideas flowing!
 
For this layout I strayed from my usual adhesive and used the amazing Glue Arts Glue Runner - LOVE it!  I was amazed at how easy it is to use and how super strong the adhesive itself is!
 
I combined several of the lines for my layout - it's so hard not to want to use it all!!
 
I cut out several of the flowers from one sheet of patterned paper and then cut it in half and adhered it to the edges of the layout.  I also used lots of the fun chipboard pieces for extra texture and dimension.  I still kept the bones of the layout, but added my own special touches.
 
I love Stacey's take on the sketch - the stars combined with the flowers and all of the bold colors.  I also love how many photos she used on the upper left hand corner - genius!
 
 
 
I hope you all enjoy this sketch as much as we have!  As always, don't forget to share your OA projects with us at our Flickr Gallery.

And don't forget to leave a comment on yesterday's post for the GlueArts giveaway.  Also, visit the GlueArts blog to see some gorgeous Modern Homemaker projects and for another chance to win some goodies!

GlueArts Rocks!

As you have heard by now, we have teamed up with GlueArts this week and we couldn't be more excited!  The GlueArts Glue Girls have been showing off some amazing projects featuring Modern Homemaker on their blog.  Be sure to check those out here.

Our design team has been busy as well, and the decision is unanimous, we love GlueArts products!

Kinsey made this expandable file to wrangle all of her old report cards, school papers and memorabilia using manilla file folders and October Afternoon Schoolhouse and Report Card papers and embellies. 
 
She used the Glue Glider Pro to construct it by glueing the file folders together, cover to cover, and then the edges to create pockets. She also used the dimensional glue squares to 'pop' some of the stickers out on the front of the file.
 
What an awesome project to keep all your school-related memorabilia all together!

Danni used her GlueArts adhesive to make some adorable graduation cards.  
 
 
 
 
 
 

Stacey Kingman put this sweet card together with the Glue Glider Pro as well.
 
 

How would you like to win some GlueArts adhesive for your stash?  We have 2 ways to win!  The first way is to leave a comment on this blog post letting us know what projects you are working on right now.  The second way is to "like" the GlueArts Facebook page here and tell them that OA sent you.  You have until Sunday to leave a comment in both places and we will post the winners on Monday!
 
 

Instant Inspiration

Today we wanted to share with you the last of the layouts that were created for our CHA booth.  From Fly A Kite to Rocket Age, you will be sure to find some inspiration today!

"Acorn Hunter" by Lexi Bridges

 
 
"Adventure" by Jen Johner

 
"At Work" by Jill Hornby

 
"Beach" by Jen Johner

 
 
"Cute Boy" by Maggie Holmes

 
 
"Edie" by Jill Hornby

 
"Explore" by Maggie Holmes

 
"Food" by Jen Johner

 
"FroYo" by Lexi Bridges

 
 
"Happiest Baby" by Jill Hornby

 
"Harper Quinn" by Becky Novacek

 
"Have A Blast" Birthday Card by Stacey Kingman

 
"Let's Go Camping" by Jen Johner

 
"Love You" by Maggie Holmes

 
"Lovely" by Wilna Furstenberg

 
"Moments" by Wilna Furstenberg

 
 
"Sandcastle" by Wilna Furstenberg

 
"Summer" by Wilna Furstenberg

 
"Summer Memories" by Lexi Bridges

 
"The Great Outdoors" by Maggie Holmes

 
"Treasure" by Maggie Holmes

 
 
"True Beauty" by Maggie Holmes

 
 
Have you checked out the Project Galleries on the bottom left side of our blog?  All the projects featured on the blog are uploaded to the gallery for instant inspiration whenever you need it!

Thanks for stopping by today!  We have a fun sketch to share tomorrow.  We will see you then! :)