October Afternoon

Tuesday Tutorial: A Garden Journal with October Afternoon

Hi everyone, Mou here with a spring project! The April showers have brought May flowers and new plants have sprouted. Around this time every year, we get ambitious and start our own garden at home. This year, I'm keeping a garden journal. I have always loved altering books with paints and gels. This time,however, I'm sticking mostly with papers to alter an old book I found at our library's used book shop.

I picked a book with a green cover for the garden theme. I cut out a seed packet from Farm Girl 12 x 12 Wheelbarrow paper and attached it at about the center to decorate the cover.

Next, I cut away some pages from the book. To do this, slide in a cutting mat below a stack of pages you want to remove. Leaving about half an inch from the binding, lay a ruler and cut with a sharp craft knife by carefully pulling toward yourself. Cut some windows the same way.

Of course I couldn't do away with paints altogether, so I splattered some on each page. Load your brush with a mix of paint and water, tap on the brush handle with a finger to splatter the paint, and let it dry.

Cut the rim around one of the seed packet images to frame the window. Add some banners from the Farm Girl Sew Fun Banners pack and stitch them in place. Use Woodland Park 12 x 12 alpha stickers to spell out a title for your journal. Attach a seed packet image to peek through the window.

Add some painted diecut tickets, patterned papers, chipboard accents, and washi tapes. Journal on the tickets.

Attach patterned papers and other accents to the page. Add photos. Journal.  

Add a coin envelope splattered with paint. Insert a tag in it to journal on. Use a phrase stamp to add words. 

Hope you enjoyed today's tutorial and would give altering books a try!

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!

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 

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!

Put some Spring in your walk with Woodland Park!

Melanie Fink, Guest Designer

I LOVE October Afternoon's Woodland Park collection! The cute little fox, turtle, mice and bunnies are what first made me fall in love with the collection.  Taking a closer look, I noticed how versatile this collection really is and how inspiring it is.  I was thumbing through the miscellany and I smiled at every single piece of it!

I was very inspired by the yellow strip of paper in the miscellany pack that says "laugh, enjoy the sunshine, play, go for a walk, feed the ducks, lay in the grass."  Who doesn't love going for a walk on a beautiful day, laying in the grass and having a picnic with someone you love? So, I decided to make a tote with treat holders (milk cartons in this case) that can be brought along on a walk. When you want to take a break from your walk and lay in the grass, you can enjoy the treats inside!

As I mentioned in my guest designer introduction post a couple of weeks ago, I love making things for others. This could be a fun gift for newlyweds or couples that have been together for years. It just makes a special day even more special or an ordinary day memorable.

The  tote and milk cartons are SVGs by Lori Whitlock. There is a video tutorial on how to assemble these SVGs at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdtQLToNyVE . The video tutorial is very easy to follow.

I first assembled the tote. I chose a solid green color for the tote so the Woodland Park paper and embellishments would really stand out.

Next, I cut out the cartons and assembled them. I used gray twine from the OA's Farmhouse collection to close each carton on top (just untie to enjoy the treats inside!).

The final step is embellishing the tote. There are so many gorgeous embellishments in the Woodland Park collection, I had a hard time picking out what I was going to use!

To give my tote a whimsical feel, I added flying butterflies. The butterfly die-cuts are from the Woodland Park Flower Sack and Chip-N-Stick sticker pack. To make the butterflies fly, I cut three 4-inch long pieces of craft wire. I curled the wire by wrapping it around a pen. Next, I hot-glued the butterflies to one end of each piece of wire. Then, I hot-glued the opposite ends of each wire to the tote.

The last step was decorating the front of the tote. I added the yellow strip of miscellany that inspired me in the first place, as well as coordinating Shape and Chip-N-Stick stickers, and die-cuts from the Flower Sack. Overall, I achieved the whimsical, romantic feel I was going for.

Now if I could only make the weather here in Minnesota feel and look like spring! More snow is in our forecast! I can't wait for that first walk in beautiful spring weather!

If you missed my post last week, I mentioned I had a surprise on my blog! I am giving away a bunch of goodies from the Midway collection (12x12 collection kit, 8x8 paper pad, brads, stickey keys, flair and more). Stop by my blog at http://thepaperretreat.blogspot.com  to enter! The giveaway ends next Friday, April 26th!

Melanie

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 

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: 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.

Tuesday Sketch: Simple Layers

Clean and simple, or lots of layers: who says you have to choose? This week's sketch features a marriage of two approaches that may seem quite different, but that can actually coexist in a single layout. 

Here's the 8.5" x 11" version...

and a 12" x 12" version. 

This sketch incorporates at least ten papers of varying sizes, making this an ideal opportunity to put those long-neglected scraps to good use. Although ten papers may seem to be anything but simple, the approach really is -- just trim the papers, overlap them, add a photo, a title, and some journaling, and that's it!

If mixing and matching so many patterns sounds a little too challenging, just use an already-coordinated favorite October Afternoon line, or choose papers with a similar color scheme, as Becky Novacek did:  

"When I received the sketch from Jill, I knew that I wouldn't change a whole lot...why mess with perfection? I did have a very specific color combo in mind, so that's where my focus was. Sometimes, I think it's a good creative exercise to let some aspect of what you normally focus on (like design) and focus on another. That's the perspective I went with. I mixed Midway, Farm Girl, Woodland Park and Farmhouse." 

I absolutely adore Becky's take on the sketch! The color combination is beautiful, and the mix of vintage book pages with the October Afternoon papers looks incredible. I also love how she added accents here and there, making the sketch truly her own and enhancing the overall theme of the page. 

Like Becky, I selected the papers for my own layout with a specific color scheme in mind. 

My usual style often includes lots of layers, so this sketch allowed me to do my thing in that respect, but I opted not to add any accents beyond a little bit of washi tape and some shading with a yellow-green watercolor pencil to match my kitty's eyes. Using minimal accents is fine -- the combination of different patterns and colors enlivens the page while also enabling me to keep it simple.  

With the exception of the cardstock, every single piece of paper here came from my stash of paper scraps. I pulled together papers from the Midway, Farm Girl, Woodland Park , Cakewalk, and 9 to 5 lines, and there is even some Witch Hazel included here! 

Whether or not you add accents, and regardless of how many different papers or patterns you choose to incorporate, you can most definitely find a way to adapt this week's sketch to your liking. We would love to see your projects, so be sure to share them in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery. 

Happy scrapping! 

-- Jill