October Afternoon

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!

Monday Challenge: Something Old, Something New, Something Stamped and Something Blue

Happy Monday October Afternoon fans! Nicole here to share a fun challenge that our newest design team member Mandy helped me whip up.  There are so many different ways to interpret it that you simply can't go wrong.

We have a wedding to attend this summer, so when Mandy suggested the "something old, something new" theme, I jumped on it! There is a wee twist ... so check out our challenge:

Something Old (prior to the Midway/Farm Girl collections)

Something New

Something Stamped (there's that twist I mentioned)

Something Blue

Check out Mandy's beautiful work ... she has long been a favorite of mine!

Mandy always makes me want to enlarge a favorite photo and let it take center stage. How fun is the angle here? Lots of variations of the blue, the cool stamped pie chart, brads from the Midway collection, and older Boardwalk and Woodland Park papers round out the challenge list. Love this cluster of round embellishments to offset the graphic angle of the photo up top.

I broke out lots of the brand new Daily Flash line for my take ... you can't ask me to choose a favorite piece because it is chock full of AWESOME!

(I know, I know ... another pic of my sweet grandpa, but I just couldn't help myself!)

I cut the titles from the Focus paper from Daily Flash, backing one piece with gold glitter sock card and the other with an older dark polka dot. I tend to think "linear-ly" so I let those pieces lead the way as the starting point.

The red memory card was perfect for a touch of color, as was the blue "Snapshots" square that was cut from the Compose paper.

 I couldn't help but add a few stitched stars and pieces from the Snap Caps and Flash Blurbs.  And, as promised in a previous post, the Everyday Roller Stamp can't help but make an appearance! Don't worry about lining them up perfectly, it adds a touch of fun to have them off-kilter a bit.

I adore all the little die cuts in the Daily Flash Program.  That camera tab and the ledger word bubble could honestly end up on every page I make from here on out! I used a few of the Travel roller stamp phrases as well, but wanted to point out a neat find: each of the Decades roller stamps has an arrow of some sort built in ... like this one:

I used it on the red Memory Card with some gold ink.  Cool discovery, right?

So, let's see if I covered the challenge criteria:

Something Old - Woodland Park papers (black polka dot, green and blue stars) plus Woodland Park Alphabet Stickers.

Something New - All of the Daily Flash items.

Something Stamped - The 2010s Decade Roller Stamp, Travel and Everyday roller stamps.

Something Blue - Lots of blue elements scattered about.

I love that even with the name "recipe", Mandy and I both came up with different ways to interpret the challenge! We can't wait to see your take on this classic!

Monday Challenge: Travel Tags Inspiration

Hey everyone! Roree here. For today's challenge, I went searching through my Pinterest boards for a fun inspiration piece and I found this:

I thought this travel tags image would work perfectly!

I was inspired by the tag shapes, the travel theme, and the font used for the airport codes, and with that in mind, I created this tag-shaped card:

I used paper, a sticker, and a tin pin from the new Travel Girl collection, the Daily Flash Summer Catch Phrase roller stamp, letter stickers from the Sasparilla collection, and a sticker from the Boarding Pass collection.

I just love the way the colors and the mix of products came together. These new collections are going to be fast favorites—I can already tell!

Vivian played along with my challenge and created a travel-themed layout. Here is what she had to say about it:

"I took inspiration from three different aspects of Roree’s inspiration piece: theme, shape, and technique. I decided to create a travel-themed layout using the new Travel Girl line (with a bit of Daily Flash thrown in). The tags in the inspiration piece included multiple city airport codes and I pulled inspiration from that in two different ways: 1) I used the B side of the Plane Ticket paper as my background, and 2) I die cut letters from black cardstock and used them as my title. I loved the look of all the different-colored tags with the open holes allowing the background to peek through.

I die-cut three tags from Travel Girl papers and used them as the main color and design elements on my layout. I loved the painted tone-on-tone look on several of the the tags in the inspiration piece and interpreted that differently on each of my three tags, using Sprinklers from the Art Box, Woodland Park, and Witch Hazel lines. I used an even coat of color on the tag on the left, adding the gray Tin Type Art Box Sprinkler over the cream-colored map. For the center tag, I used a piece of cardstock as a mask with the aqua Woodland Park Springs Sprinkler, creating a strong diagonal line. For my third tag, I sprayed the ink from further away, creating a misted look with the orange Jack-o’-Lantern Witch Hazel Sprinkler.

I cut 1.5” off the bottom of each tag and layered those pieces underneath the bottom of my photos, stamping on the orange tag with the Daily Flash Travel Catch Phrase roller stamp. I finished the layout with a Shape Sticker, two Tin Pins, a Doo-dad, and a Tidbit from the Travel Girl collection, plus a Snap Cap and a Flash Blurb from the Daily Flash Snapshots mini-collection."

Isn't is just amazing!? I absolutely love each and every detail!

I hope you enjoyed today's inspiration. If you get inspired to create a project using this inspiration piece, make sure to post it in the OA Flickr group so we can all see. Thanks so much for stopping by!

buttons, buttons...

Hi everyone! Becky here today, sharing a few simple ideas for using what you have in your stash...specifically buttons. In my opinion, buttons are one of the most economical embellishments to use to add depth and impact. The October Afternoon buttons available in many of the collections come in an abudant package, so you can use them without feeling as if you should "save" them. Whenever I use buttons, I thread twine or thread through them. My friend Kelly has a thing about the buttons being threaded, so I guess it rubbed off on me. I can't seem to use a button without having it threaded! 

For this layout, I only used about 1/3 of a package of OA buttons, so there are plenty left over to use for other projects.

I simply lined them up to border the pattern paper that the photo will be adhered to.

There's actually a mistake on this layout. This is from Addie's 5 year session, not her 6 year session. 

I also tried something I've wanted to try for a while on this layout, I used an OA sprinkler sprayed on a stamp. The OA sprinkler that I used was Witch Hazel Witches Brew.  You can see the stamp from the Midway collection that I used here. 

I think it worked fairly well! Fun to play around with for sure. I did dab it on paper towels before stamping to get rid of some of the excess. 

I also did a little machine stitching to adhere the ribbon and label down at the bottom of the page.

I hope you enjoy trying one of these ideas and share what you make with us on the OA Flickr gallery!

 

Technique Thursday: Repetition Stamping

Happy Thursday!  It's time to get some extra mileage out of your October Afternoon stamps while also putting your Sprinklers to use!  In the past, I've shared my love of stamping with Sprinklers, and today, I will walk you through an approach to stamping with Sprinklers that I love: repetition stamping. 
The term "repetition stamping" has multiple meanings. While it can refer to simply repeating a single image multiple times, it may also refer to repeating (and possibly overlapping) an image multiple times without stopping to reink the stamp each time. The effect of that kind of repetition stamping is a series of images with different intensities of color.  

Here is the approach I took to create the layout above:

Preparation.

- Choose a stamp that you can envision repeated multiple times on the background of a layout. I chose the pinwheel stamp from the October Afternoon Midway collection. 

- Select several bottles of Sprinklers in similar colors or analogous colors (that is, colors next to each other on the color wheel), so that when the colors combine, they will blend well. I worked with blues (Carbon Copy and Lagoon) and a neutral gray (Token) on this layout. 

- Consider using a box as you spray the Sprinklers over the stamps; it will help to keep the "blowback" under control.  

- Place a piece of sturdy cardstock (your stamping "target") on a flat surface nearby, and back it with scrap paper (like newspaper, magazine pages, or catalog pages). This way you can stamp off the edge of the paper without making a mess on the surface below. 

Step 1. Place the stamp on an acrylic block and spray the first color of Sprinklers over it. Don't worry about coating the whole stamp. I just sprayed toward the center. Complete, crisp images aren't the goal here -- just go with the flow! 

Step 2. 

Stamp the image multiple times on different areas of the paper, with different areas of the stamp. I was able to stamp three to four times per image without reinking.  

Step 3.

Without cleaning the stamp, spray the second color of Sprinklers over it. Once again, don't feel the need to cover the stamp thoroughly. 

Step 4. 

Stamp the image multiple times, just as you did the first time. Try to stamp the image in open areas. Overlapping edges isn't just okay -- it's preferred.  You'll start to notice that the colors blend in lovely ways. 

Repeat the entire process with additional colors of Sprinklers, until you have covered the entire background. 

Step 5. 

After the background dries (mine took just a few minutes), add some stitching to the images for a bit of extra texture and charm. I machine-stitched the centers of the stamped images, turning the page slowly as I sewed. 

I love the overall effect! 

I completed the page by adding my journaling on October Afternoon label stickers, and used some 9 to 5 letter stickers for the title. 

So what do you think?  Are you ready to try some repetition stamping on your next layout?  I'd love to see it!  Be sure to share it in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery. 

Thanks for stopping by today! 

-- Jill 

♥ sketchy tuesday--arrows, trim, stamps? ♥

Good morning OA fans, Danni here with you today with a new, fun sketch to the start of our spring colors and weather (fingers crossed)

Here's this week's sketch

 

How will YOU interpret today's sketch?  What stands out to you?  Do you see a row of arrows?  A row of distressed stamping?  Possibly sticker trim?

 

 

Here is the card I created from this sketch

 

 

 

I wanted to use some of the diamond-shaped stickers in the OA Midway Line and this sketch allowed me to do so in a fun way

 

 

 

And joining me today is the incredibly talented Jill with her amazing take on the sketch.  I am completely WOWED and know you will be too! 

Here's what Jill had to say:

One of the first things that stood out to me about Danni's sketch was the line of arrows at the top of the page. Initially, I thought of adding an accent line, but then it occurred to me that I could fill that space in another way, with stamps and mist! I used the clock stamp from the 9 to 5 stamp set, and stamped the image repeatedly with white ink. I then added spray ink -- Tinsel and Lagoon Sprinklers -- holding the nozzles close to the top of the paper and tilting the paper at an angle to allow the Sprinklers to drip down the page. I then pressed the whole page against some scrap paper (a large junk mail envelope, actually) to remove any excess and to allow the page to dry quickly.  I then gathered my papers, photos, and accents together, and stitched across the top. Without this sketch, this page may never have come into being, and I am so glad that it did! Thanks, Danni!

 

 

 

I KNOW right?  Amazing page Jill, thank you so much!

And, we can't wait to see how this sketch will inspire YOU.  If you are inspired to create a layout or card using this week's sketch, please share your creations in our OA Flickr Gallery

We'd love to be inspired by YOUR take!

Happy Creating♥

Danni & Jill

 

 

Monday Challenge: Get Those Spring Holiday Photos Scrapped!

Happy April! Vivian here with this week's Monday challenge: get those spring holiday photos scrapped! I'm finally in a spring-y mood now that our snow has melted and the daffodils, crocuses, and hyacinths are starting to bloom. I find that I often ignore spring holidays in my scrapping, probably because springtime always seems so busy and I file away the photos amidst the mayhem and then forget about them. This week's challenge gave me the jump-start I needed to pull out photos from last year. There are lots of spring holidays (St. Patrick's Day, Passover, Easter, Mother's Day, etc.), so if you're playing along, take your pick!

Nicole joined me for this week's challenge, and created this gorgeous layout with an Easter photo from her childhood:

Here are three quick tips to pull from Nicole's layout:

1. Create your own layered spring embellishments. Nicole die cut two different sizes and designs of butterflies from each of three different patterned papers, then layered and stitched them, creating a quick and easy row of stunning embellishments.

2. Use banner shapes as a shelf. Nicole cut long banner shapes from two different patterned papers and used those elements as a shelf for her main page elements (photo, title, and journaling). Banners are simple to make - just cut a triangle out of the end of a long rectangular strip of paper.

3. Design with corners. Nicole created a fun corner element in the upper left corner of her layout by layering patterned papers. She misted right below that and then echoed the misting in the bottom right corner.

I created a clean-lined layout with photos from last year's backyard egg hunt:

Here are three quick tips to pull from my layout:

1. Sometimes a blurry photo works! The picture of my kids running in opposite directions really captured their excitement and the motion of the morning.

2. Don't be afraid to use non-spring-themed or non-spring-colored products on a spring-themed layout. My kids were wearing orange and aqua so I went with it!

3. Use fun elements to draw attention to a title. After backing die cut patterned paper title with solid cardstock, I added chipboard bunnies (from the Woodland Park collection) facing toward it on either side to draw further attention to it.

So...with two layouts and six tips, hopefully there's something here that you can draw on to help you get your spring holiday photos (past or present) scrapped! We'd love to see your spring holiday layouts in our October Afternoon Flickr gallery.

Guest Designer Shay Tibbs: My Little Farm Boy

Anyone else ready for a wonderful weekend? This week has been our spring break here and we have been busy, busy ... lots of time with the little guy.
 
I was totally inspired to grab some old photos I hadn’t scrapped yet and get busy with the Farm Girl line, but using it for a BOY. The homemade feel of this line makes me constantly reach for it. It’s probably my favorite of all the collections I get to work with it. Surprising, because I didn’t think I’d be able to make it work so well for me, but the colors are a favorite.
 
The base of the layout was inspired by the Midway stamp. I love the angles, so I cut my papers to adhere to it, folding some of them to add dimension. Hand stitching, staples, brads, mist—all kinds of embellishments built up this layout, and it’s a new favorite. Not to mention these adorable pictures of my munchkin when he was little.

Don’t you just love going back to the same places each year and see how they grow?

Thank you for stopping by today and for all the kind words you’ve left on my projects so far.  I’ll be back next Friday with a really fun mini book that I can’t wait to share with you!

I cannot say how thankful I am that October Afternoon asked me to guest design. It is SO much fun and I love the October Afternoon products so much. It is seriously a dream come true!

Shay Tibbs, Guest Designer
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