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!

♥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!

♥ 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

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!

Tuesday Sketch: Banners

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

I was totally inspired by the Little Flyers flags and embellishment stickers in the recent collections. With those in mind, I came up with this card sketch:

Here is the card I created using the sketch:

The banners remind me of birthdays, so I thought Cakewalk would be the perfect collection to use with this sketch.

I used a Here & Now Chapter page for the base of the card, along with Little Flyers stickers, Miscellany, Chip 'n Stick, and Designer brads to embellish the banners.

Mou played along with the sketch this week and created this absolutely adorable card. (We definitely had similar ideas on how to use the sketch!) Here is what she had to say about it:

"When I saw Roree's sketch, I immediately thought celebration! With my son's birthday coming up, I'm in the mood for party invites right now. I used papers and accents from the Cakewalk collection in layers to make the card with a couple of banner strips at the bottom."

I hope you enjoyed today's sketch and the samples Mou 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!

Tuesday Sketch: All in a Row

Vivian here with our weekly sketch. Today's sketch lines photos up in a horizontal row, with the title placement and a few key page elements drawing attention to all the photos, with one focal point photo emphasized with a large chevron/arrow element:

Interestingly enough, both Roree and I interpreted this sketch as a card.

Roree rotated the sketch 90 degrees to the right and came up with this absolutely gorgeous card:

Roree had this to say about her card: "It is always so fun to see which direction a sketch will take you. Just by turning the sketch you can get a very different look. I just love that about sketches! I created my card using paper, stickers, and chipboard from the Farm Girl, Woodland Park, and Sidewalks collections. I decided to replace the photos/journaling boxes with a long strip of floral paper. I replaced the title with a scalloped edge along the paper strip. And I kept my sentiment towards the bottom like in the sketch and replaced the arrows with white twill ribbon that I misted using Comet Tail Sprinklers from the Rocket Age collection."

Let's take a closer look:

While Roree went in the gorgeous direction, I went in the whimsical direction. My card uses the sketch in its original orientation and combines patterned paper, stickers, and embellishments from the Midway line (including the fun Photo Booth patterned paper). A few white staples add the finishing touch:

We hope you are inspired by this sketch, whether you use it for a layout, a card, or any other project! We'd love to see projects inspired by this sketch, so be sure to post them to our October Afternoon Flickr gallery.

Monday challenge: Three's Company

Hi everyone, Mou here with today's challenge!

When I make layouts, cards, etc. I rarely stay within one collection. I like to use bits and pieces of papers, embellishments, etc. from several collections. In that process, I have found that the October Afternoon collections, as distinct and beautiful as they are, also work really well together. That's where my idea for today's challenge came from: Make a project with 3 patterned papers, 3 buttons, and 3 brads. 

Here's my take...

On this card, I used 

3 patterned papers

1. Berry Basket 12x12 paper, Farm Girl Collection

2. Elixir of Eucalyptus 12x12 paper, Witch Hazel Collection

3. Paper Staws 12x12 paper, Cakewalk Collection

3 Designer brads from Cakewalk Collection and

3 Buttons from the Midway Collection

In addition, I used a little piece of cheesecloth, a Cakewalk chipboard sticker and some Mini Market Mint & Creme alpha stickers.

Today, I have Becky playing with me and take a look at what she created...

Becky says: "One of the things I enjoy about challenges, is the fact that you can make it your own. When Mou gave me her challenge, I decided to be pretty literal in my approach. I used only 3 pattern papers, 3 buttons and 3 brads, and only added non-consumables, a bit of vintage ledger paper, misting and sewing in addition to my background chipboard. Made the challenge a little more challenging, but that was good for the creative process."

You rocked it Becky! Thanks :)

You can play along too. Upload your creations on the October Afternoon Flickr gallery  for all to see and be inspired!

Happy Monday :) 

♥ 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