October Afternoon

♥ Tuesday Tutorial-- Hand-stitched sentiment ♥

Good morning OA fans, Danni here with you today to share a tutorial to create a very fun sentiment on your cards or title for your layouts.  I love the look of the embroidered sentiments or titles and wanted to give it a go with a sticker or die-cut from the new Travel Girl line.  I have created a step by step picture tutorial for those of you who would like to give it a try, it's really fun and easy.

 

 Here is the card i created using my embroidered sentiment

merci card

 i needed a dog-sitting thank you card and this was a fun way to use this cute dog from the Travel Girl line

 

 and here is the step by step picture tutorial to create an embroidered sentiment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you decide to give this technique a try we would upload your projects to our OA Flickr Gallery. We would love to see layout titles and card sentiments alike, the more the merrier.  Thanks for visiting with us today, we are excited to see YOUR take on it.

happy creating♥

danni

 

Monday Challenge: With Love for Patterns

Hi there OA fans! Alex here with a challenge for you.

I love patterned papers! I don't know if you can call it a techique, but what I love the most is to mix and match different patterns on my layouts. If I could, I would squeeze in an entire collection on one page! But don't be afraid; I won't challenge you to do that! My challenge for you is to use five or more patterned papers on one layout/card. Two sides of one paper counts as two different papers.

On this layout I have used six different patterns:

If you ask me, October Afternoon papers are made to mix and match like this. They are just perfect for all of us who love patterns. This lovely Midway collection is no exception!

I created my title using a card from the Miscellany package together with a word sticker and the colorful Midway alphas. 

I have used two different papers for my background and from the rest I cut the stripes. Using stripes is a great way to incorporate many different papers on one page. I let each stripe end with a ring of the same pattern. I made the rings using two different circle punches.

Joining me today is Roree. Just look at this stunning card she has made for us!

I love it down to the tiniest little piece of patterned paper she has used!

Now lets see what Roree has to say about her project.

I absolutely love patterned paper. It is the one scrapbooking product I collect (and hoard!) the most. So when Alex gave me the challenge to use five or more different patterned papers, I was ready! I created this fun card using the new Travel Girl collection. Because many of the paper sheets in this collection have strong patterns, I decided to cut four of the papers into strips. I layered the the Guide Book and Mix Tape patterned papers by creating a division between each with thin strips of the Directions patterned paper, blocking each pattern. Doing this, I get the full affect of each without one overwhelming any. For the last piece of paper, I cut out the word "explore" from the Journaling Cards sheet and created a tag. I finished the card with some white ribbon, a Tidbits label, and a couple of Shape Stickers.

Thank you so much, Roree! Your card is amazing!

I hope we have inspired you to take our challenge and start mixing and matching those gorgeous OA patterned papers. Don't forget to share your work with us and upload your projects to OA Flickr Gallery. Show us your love for patterns!

Thursday Sketch: Circles and Layers and Arrows, Oh My

Hi everyone! It's Mandy Koeppen bringing you the Thursday Sketch.

Thanks to some helpful inspiration from my favorite Aussie friend this fun and funky sketch is full of circles, layers, and arrows. It can be easily made to fit your scrapping style just like Jill and I have done.

Here is the layout I created using the sketch.

I kept the 12x12 format but decided to use a 3x6.5 inch photo and tucked the 3 smaller photos on the sketch under my main photo just to make it more me. Of course once I did that the whole layout changed but that's the great thing about sketches you can make it your own.

The photos I used on this layout are from a trip to the fair a few years ago which made grabbing the Midway line a no brainer when I was gathering supplies. Along with Midway I used a couple pieces from Travel Girl, Farm Girl & Witch Hazel lines to create this layout. 

Joining me today is Jill. She created this beautiful layout.

And here is what Jill had to say...

I went with an 8.5 x 11 layout for this sketch challenge, and used 

woodgrain-textured cardstock as a backdrop, since the photos were kind of earthy.

This sketch was perfect to use with the three photos I captured the 

other day of my dog rolling around in the fresh-cut grass. I could 

barely hold the camera still because I was laughing so hard -- these 

are the three photos that made the cut. When planning the layout, I 

took my color cues from the greens and yellows in the photos, and 

worked in some blues here and there, pulling together papers and 

accents from the Travel Girl and Daily Flash collections. One departure from the sketch was to back the horizontal photo mat with a series of vertical strips rather than just a single strip, adding to the light-hearted feel of the page. I also relocated the title block 

to the top of the page.

I hope you enjoyed today's sketch. 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!

♥Monday Challenge: Let's Get Trendy♥

Good Morning OA Fans, Danni here with you today to share a card inspired by a current trend everywhere from fashion, to home decor to scrapbooking: ARROWS

 

 

 

 

 

 

  source for all arrow inspiration pictures:  interior collective

 

While arrows are not a brand NEW trend, they are a current trend and one I haven't played with a LOT. I love the arrows and how they look on projects, so I thought today I would challenge myself to use some arrows from the new Travel Girl line.

 

So, let's get trendy with ARROWS

 

 

I considered using my Cameo to cut arrows in various patterns and fun, but decided to showcase all the fun arrows in the Travel Girl line, from patterned paper, to tin pins, to fun die-cuts and elements.

 

We would love to see your take on this trend, whether you create your own arrows, use arrows as embellishments, create background paper, anything goes, let's see your take on this trend♥

 

 And joining me today is Amy with her interpretation of getting trendy.  Amy chose to share her take on the Trend: Ombre

 WOW what a gorgeous result!  I know you'll be inspired to pull out your Travel Girl line and create a layout inspired by her beautiful design and colors!

 

 

And here's what Amy had to say in her words:

"I just love Danni's challenge to pick a current trend to scrap. I chose ombre as my trendy theme. 

The blues greys and greens in the Travel Girl collection are the ideal colors for creating an ombre look for your pages. I chose to make my photo black and white to really allow it to dance with the ombre colors. I then brought in coordinating buttons and brads (most from previous collections) to add dimension and provide movement down towards my photo."

 We hope we've inspired you to take our challenge and pick a current trend that maybe you haven't tried in your work yet.  There are so many from color palettes, to embellies,  to design elements, so many fun ones popping up.  If you do take our challenge, please post your work in our OA Flickr Gallery so we can all be inspired! 

Thank you for joining us this Monday!

Happy creating♥

Danni & Amy

 

 

 

Thursday Sketch: Staggered Elements

Hey everyone!  Roree here with today's Thursday Sketch Challenge.

I created this sketch just playing around in Photoshop:

It is not quite to scale for a 12 x 12" layout or a square card, nor is it to scale for a 8 1/2 x 11" layout or A2 card. It sort of landed somewhere in between the two. I apologize for that. Hopefully you can look past that and use the overall design or elements as a jumping off point.

I decided to create a card using the sketch:

I stuck with the general design of the layout, only replacing the flowers and a label in place of the photos and using a white twill bow in place of the journaling.

As for products, I used patterned paper from the Travel Girl collection, Shape Stickers, Chip 'n Stick, and Tidbits from the Woodland Park collection, and Buttons, Designer Brads, Shape Stickers and Washi Tape from the Midway collection.

Vivian played along with the sketch this week and created this amazing layout. Here is what she had to say about it:

"I loved the staggered photo placement in Roree’s sketch and used that as the jumping off point for my layout. I used Daily Flash Snapshots here, which were perfect for this series of photos. Two of the photos are matted on colorful polaroid frames cut from the Compose patterned paper. The third photo is matted on the Say Cheese! Memory Card. I poked a hole in the card behind where my photo would go and then cut up towards the flash, trimming the zigzag edges so that I could tuck the corner of my photo under the flash. I titled and finished my layout with various other elements from the Snapshots line. "

I hope you enjoyed today's sketch and the samples Vivian and I created using 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!

Congratulations to our National Scrapbook Day Giveaway winners!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our National Scrapbook Day Giveaway!  More than 600 of you shared stories of your favorite vacations or dream getaways with us for a chance to win some great prizes from our new Travel Girl collection! 

Eight lucky winners have been randomly selected to receive prizes.  Two will receive a Travel Girl collection kit and six others will be awarded a Travel Girl 8x8 paper pad!

If you are one of our winners, please email your name and shipping address to jon.f@octoberafternoon.com and we will ship your prize right away.

So, without further ado, here are our lucky prize winners and the comment they left on our blog:

Travel Girl 8x8 Paper Pad Winners:

Angeline Tan - My dream trip will be to Alaska to watch the Aurora with my boyfriend. It's our common dream. :)  Hope to win this kit to document my other travels before my dream comes true :). Thanks so much for the giveaway!

Kathy H. - Since the passing of my Mom back at Thanksgiving and my Dad passed away of Alzheimers on Father's Day weekend last year, I have been wanting to make several scrapbooks for our family. I have so many pictures. I would love to honor their many years of travels together through the 66 years they were married and Travel Girl, plus some other of the OA lines, will be perfect for completing this dream. Thank you for always being such a "10 out of 5 stars" company to all you serve.

Joan Fowler - I just returned from the trip of my dreams - Italy - touring Rome, Sorrento, Pompeii, Florence, Orvieto, and Venice. I just finished editing over 1,400 photos and am now ready to start my Italy scrapbook. This collection would help me on my way.

Donna Gabbard - Travel Girl is just what I need to motivate me to work on my scrapbook of last year's vacation ... which was a Mediterranean cruise. We visited Italy, United Kingdom, France, Portugal and Spain. I have my vacation photos and keepsakes piled up but dread the task of scrapping ... I think Travel Girl would help me get the job done! Thanks for the chance to win!

Candee Schamber - Adore OA and your products! This package would fit wonderfully in my travel scrapbook of our trips to South Dakota!

Debra Stoner - We are planning to bike the Canal du Midi in southern France for our 25th wedding anniversary next year ... how perfect would the Travel Girl Eiffel Tower journal card and biking sticker be!? Thank you for the chance and the inspiring blog.

Travel Girl Collection Kit Winners:

Barbara Gee - I have two huge bins of my grandmother's travel photos from the 20s through the 80s. Travel Girl would be PERFECT to bring light to these gorgeous photos that are currently trapped in a closet.

Stephanie Patterson - I was lucky enough to take a trip to the Netherlands and Budapest in November to visit my niece that was studying abroad. I went with my sister and it was the most time we have spent together since living together. I've been waiting to make the album for just the right paper. Love October Afternoon SO much!

Congratulations ladies!  Remember to email your shipping information to jon.f@octoberafternoon.com.

Win great prizes! Enter our National Scrapbooking Day Giveaway!

Here at October Afternoon we can only think of one thing better than celebrating National Scrapbooking Day by giving away some cool prizes.  That would be WINNING some of those cool prizes!

So, in honor of National Scrapbooking Day on Saturday, May 4th, we're giving away some fabulous prizes from our new Travel Girl collection!

ENTERING IS EASY:  Just leave a blog comment telling us about a trip you have taken, or the location of the "dream vacation" you hope to someday take, and how the Travel Girl collection might fit into your plans to document and preserve the memories of that getaway. It's that easy!

Two lucky winners will receive a Travel Girl Collection Kit containing 24-sheets (2 of each design) of Travel Girl paper plus one sheet each of Shape Stickers, Word Stickers, Alpha Stickers and Label Stickers!

But wait ... there's more!

Six lucky winners will receive a Travel Girl 8x8 Paper Pad containing 24-sheets (2 of each design) of Travel Girl paper on 65-lb. cardstock!

Your deadline for entering is 3 PM CST on Tuesday, May 7th ... we'll post the winners on the blog on Wednesday, May 8th! 

Good luck and Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

 

 

 

Sketchy Thursday : Angular Movement

Hi all! It's Amy here, and I'm thrilled to be back and sharing ideas with you once again her at October Afternoon. It's been several months since I've scrapped at all, so I'm really just starting to get my feet wet again, so I hope that you will bear with me as I get back into the groove again! :)

Today I've brought some inspriation that I found on Pinterest in the form of this super fun and movement-filled illustration. I really love how the triangular angles in the poster really move your eye to all the small vingettes throughout the entire piece, so I decided to use it as a jumping off point for my sketch today.

For my sketch, I figured, I'de leave it pretty open-ended. I can see it being used in so many ways. Perhaps with photos in the triangular areas. 

For my interpretation, I used the super cute new colleciton, Travel Girl, to create a page about my daughter. I love how she is walking so unassumingly, so I used the angles from the sketch as well as from the tilt of the frame of my page, to reiterate that motion. It also is very symbolic to a theme in our lives right now of moving forward and the next adventures that behold us in her (and our) lives.

I moved my journaling from underneath my triangular area to underneath my title, giving more space for my larger formatted photo with lots of negative space.
I really love the colors in this new collection. The sweet oranges, pinks and turquoises are just lovely and so soft, and yet still so striking and vibrant. They were the perfect colors for this soft and sweet photo.

Joining me today with her inagural October Afternoon post, is Aleksandra! Her page and interpretation is simply sensational!

Let's take a look and learn a little more about her process! 

"When I saw Amy's sketch, I instantly got inspired. Now, you may look at my layout and wonder how in the world did Amy's sketch turn into that. Well, take a closer look to the right of my photo. There, see? There is the pattern from the sketch. That's how it all started.

When I use a sketch, I take a good look at it and then I put it away. A good sketch for me, is the one that gives you a push in the right direction and then leaves the rest to your own creativity; a sketch like this one by Amy. I loved the pattern on the sketch so I created the same with these lovely Woodland Park papers. I started from there, added my photo to the left and then all the little details started to come in place. I also liked the idea of a journaling stripe in the bottom. I only made mine a little bit larger :-)" 

 

Just gorgeous, Alex, thank you!

We'd love to see your interpretation of this sketch! When you create your beautiful project, please make sure to upload it to our FLICKR GALLERY. We can't wait to see it!

Thanks so much for joining us today! I hope you have a super day! ~Amy 

♥ Sketchy Tuesday: Oh the Possibilities! ♥

Hi everyone, Danni here with you today with a new sketch, the new, fun Travel Girl line and several interpretations.  (I hope you'll look closely as I have shared almost every piece of the patterned papers from this new amazing line)

As I have shared with you, I love to create as many cards as I can with one sketch in a sitting. I love that it stretches my creativity and is a fun challenge.  So let me begin by sharing my sketch with you.

 

                                                     card sketch by danni reid.

 

As you can see in the sketch, I really wanted to be able to play with a lot of patterned papers and the "tilt design" that is so popular everywhere, giving a slightly different feel to cards and layouts.

  The Travel Girl line is absolutely ADORABLE and I love it for all it's travel-themed possibilities, but what to do with those scraps after a layout or PL page?  So, hopefully this sketch will inspire you not to stash, throw out or store those scraps.......

just waitin'

and waitin'

and waitin'

for the perfect time to pull them out again (if you're anything like me...smile)

 

So, let me share my variations of the sketch with you and YES, a whole lot of the patterned papers from the Travel Girl line.

 

 

smile card

 

 

hello card

 

 

 

hello sunshine card

 

 

 

 

you are a peach card

 

 

 

 

 

AND maybe, just maybe you have the perfect paper without adhering strips to your cardstock as i saw with this fun paper in the Travel Girl line

 

 

 

happy father's day card set

(fun notecards to send to loved ones for father's day)

 

 

I hope you will save the sketch for your scraps and give it a try.  If you do, please upload your creations to our FLICKR GALLERY

 

Thank you so much for joining me today!

Happy creating♥

danni

Tuesday Sketch: Round 'Em Up

Happy Tuesday!  It's Jill here, with this week's sketch, which takes the guesswork out of deciding where to place the items on a layout.  Just round 'em up -- arrange them in a circle, stitch over and around them, place the title and some journaling in the middle, and you're done! My own layout incorporates a series of labels, on which I added my journaling -- a list of my daughter's pet peeves. She and I had some fun coming up with this list together. After printing the journaling, I arranged the labels in a circle over a piece of Postcard patterned paper from the new Travel Girl line and stitched over them. 

The labels are from the Sugar Shack and Licorice label sticker sheets.  I get a kick out of how the abbreviation "No." on a few of the stickers actually comes to mean "no" here, placed amidst a list of the things that get on my daughter's nerves. I also love how the "This Way" Travel Girl tin pin starts to answer the question posed in the journaling just under the title. 

The die-cut title is taken from an expression my daughter uses often. I like the visual pop of the bright yellow (from a piece of Daily Flash Snapshots Focus paper) against the aqua background. 

I also had a chance to use the new Daily Flash Catch-Phrase "Inspiration" and "Travel" stamps here, repeatedly stamping a few "catch-phrases" among the labels. 

I'd love to see how you make this sketch your own.  Be sure to share your layout in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery.  Happy scrapping!