October Afternoon

Product Spotlight: Little Flyers

Little Flyers are these super cute mirror image sticker flags.You can bend them around toothpicks, string or anything. They are great for layering.


Here is some samples of uses for the little Flyers from our Design Team.

First is a sample from Vivian...

The "Fourteen Years Ago" layout features Little Flyers. I have been layering the stickers to make fun banners, and put them on skewers (pointy ends trimmed off) for this layout.

From Jill Sprott

From Marcy Penner

From Lexi

I loved how the Little Flyers looked one on top of another and make the perfect accent for a birthday card. You could also just stick them in the flowers randomly on their own. Ribbon was placed in the fold of the sticker for a little something extra. The second project is simple :) I think this is a fun way to dress up the apple giving to a teacher or even in a child's lunch box. The Little Flyers are easily typed on and, as you can see, easily sewn on :)

From me, Jennifer Stricker

I found these super cute cupcake cones at my local bakery. Aren't they cute? They look like ice cream, but they're a cupcake.

The little Flyers will be coming out in all the new lines, including Holiday Style.

Tuesday Tutorial: Little Pieces

Happy Tuesday! It's Stacey here today with a scrappy idea for using up little pieces.

But first, I have to show you what I have been doing in my scrap room. It had gotten a little messy! I spent about a week deep-cleaning this room...it started out like this:

and this:

But now it looks like this:

And this:

It feels great to be in there now! One of the best things about this project is that I didn't just move all of the mess out - I addressed every item in every container and either put it where it belonged, threw it away, or donated it.

One thing I have trouble getting rid of, though, is scraps. I can't bear to throw away even the smallest pieces of patterned paper, so I made a drawer that I call "scraps." Original, huh?

This is what it looks like on the inside - I love it:

I have had this little kitchen project in mind, and decided to make it using scraps from recent projects. It's a "dry erase board" with a banner background made with just scraps. The background is framed and the glass can be written on over and over with a dry erase marker.

Not only is it so sweet and cheerful, but it tells the family what's for dinner and it requires me to actually cook what I write on the board! Accountability is a good thing.

I kept getting a glare on the photo of the framed project, so I took a few of the background outside of the frame. The banner pieces are stitched in a string of pieces (instructions here), and then I adhered them. It's just so much easier to play with the positioning of the pieces that way.

One of the banner pieces has a scalloped top edge because I found a piece in the scrap drawer that was border punched:

I also made a fun card using little pieces (and a few Sidewalks stickers and buttons!) from my scrap drawer:

Do you have a pile of little pieces? Get creative with them, and make sure you post your creation in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery so we can all see!

Challenge :: Everyday Travel

Hi there everyone! It's Amy here today and I hope that you have had a terrific weekend! If you were in the path of Hurricane Irene, as I was, I hope that you weathered it well and were able to keep safe!

Today's challenge is about everyday travel. I don't know about you, but during an average day, I spend a lot of time in my car taking my kids from here to there, commuting in traffic, and just daily errands. With the recent release of Boarding Pass, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to record these unglamorous, sometimes forgotten, many hours of our daily lives.  

For my project, I decided to document my husband's daily commute routine which includes car, train and walking travel to get to his work, totalling 4 hours of commute time each day. It's exhaustive and it's a major part of his and our lives. I love how Boarding Pass has all the elements for all types of leisure travel, but also fits for commuter travel as well. Because let's face it, most of us have to deal with a commute of some type at different points in our lives. Wouldn't this be the perfect opporunity to document it? This is where Vivian's awesome page comes in. She took a completely different take on the challenge of everyday travel by taking a retorspective look throughout her life thus far.

Not many of us think to take photos of our everyday transportation (I know I don't). Vivian did a fantastic job of showing us that even a photoless page can be just as expressive of a story as as one with amazing pictures.

I love what she had to say about her page: "It's definitely the most bizarre layout I've ever done, but kind of fun, too. ". I agree, Vivian! It's definitely, FUN!! And a great documentation of where she's been and how she got there! I LOVE it!

So what do you think? How do you travel each day? Do you take a train? Do fly frequently for work? Or like many of us are you a Mom-taxi? Why don't you give this challenge a go, and let us see how you travel each day! Then make sure to upload your project to our Flickr Gallery so we can all see your wonderful work!

Our Last Inspirational Design Idea from our Guest Designer Michiyo Nobeno (aka poki)

When you wish upon a star.

What a great layout. Someone loves Rocket Age! And doesn't she make it look great. I love the added touch of the stars made out of patterned paper and the edges sewn. I just love this layout.

 Now before she goes....

One last project, a beautiful card.

Look at this super cute card from Poki. Look how she used the mini market stickers. I love how she put them around the circles. And an added touch is the sewing along the lines of the paper.

It is sad that today is last day for our guest designer Poki. She has been a great guest designer! Please help me thank her for her insiprations.

Sketchy Thursday--Cards

Good Morning OA fans, it's Danni here with this week's sketch. We, all, are getting the kids back to school, and it's a busy time, so we thought it would be fun to bring another card sketch this week (just in time for back-to-school cards).

Here's the card sketch for this week:

 

I wanted to create a quick-card sketch this week that could be used to create very quick cards or embellished and layered for a more elaborate card.

Joining me this week is Lexi and she created this adorable card using Boarding Pass. I absolutely love the way she layers the tickets and cards from the Miscellany package and that chipboard car with button tires....omycuuuuute!

detailed shot of that cute car:

For my card, I pulled out Sidewalks and wanted to play with some of the Chip-n-Stick. I love every single image on the chip-n-stick sheet, there is so much inspiration just looking at it.

 

it was a lot of fun playing with the chipboard banner

 

 

We'd love to see our FLICKR gallery fill up with cards, cards and more cards. The sketch leaves so much room for interpretation and we can't wait to see your take on it.

happy creating♥

danni

Are you guys ready for some Holiday Style?

Being the 24th of August we thought we'd give you a sneak peek at the new Holiday line! Just think only 4 months until Christmas... that's 24 weeks, 120ish days, 2880 hours. Are you ready?

Here's what this line will come in...

12X12 Double Sided Paper

Shape Stickers

Alpha Stickers

Miscellany

Clear Stamps

Word Stickers

Label stickers

Stickey Key Stickers

8 X 8 Paper Pad

Chip 'n Stick

Journaling Cards

Tin Pins

Buttons

Sprinklers

Wrap Pack

Little Flyers and Flower Sack

(images are subject to change, as we're still finalizing the line)

Note:  "Holiday Style" will be shipping end of September / beginning of October.  This is between Farmhouse & Sasparilla.

Tuesday Tutorial: Thrifty Titlework Idea

Hi Everybody! It's Becky here today sharing an easy and thrifty idea for titlework. I love to make the most of my supplies, so I'm always trying to think of ways to use every little bit! With this idea we'll be using the negative, already used sticker letters you have and the last little drop or two of your Sprinklers. 

Start with grabbing whatever alpha stickers you have sitting around. Trim around the letter you need and adhere the negative to your cardstock. 

Then, take a black fine tip pen and trace around the letter. Leave the sticker in place and take a Q-tip and dip it in the bottom of your nearly empty Sprinkler bottle and dab the inside of your letter. It takes very little and you can actually make one little dip to fill in several letters. As you finish a letter, peel the sticky back off and move to the next letter. The color dries quickly and there isn't any problem with smearing. 

As I was thinking of what I'd like to share with you, I took a peek in a few of my inspiration journals and had done a similiar title in one of my books, which I liked very much. I thought it would adapt well for a layout. Here's the page from my journal:

I drew the letters freehand, which works well too.

Here's the final photo of the finished layout:

I hope this idea spurs you on to try something new! I'd love to see what you come up with, so feel free to post your take in our Flickr gallery. Have a great day!

Monday Challenge

Hello all!  Marcy here with another challenge for you.

I'm a creature of habit.  When I find something that works I stick in my comfort zone and do it over and over and over.  Anyone else like that?

So my challenge for you today is to step out of that box.  Do something out of the norm for you. If you don't stamp... do.  If you never do two-pagers... do.  If you've never broke out that bottle of mist... spray away!  If you never use enlargements... do.  If you always do... don't.  ;)  You get the idea!

If you ever take a look at my gallery and see my pages side by side you'll notice something they all have in common... even when you look at them as itty bitty thumbnails.  They're all on white backgrounds.  Very rarely a pattern.  Yup.  I've tried colored backgrounds... I used to use them all the time... but for the last year I haven't.  I've found my comfort zone and I stay there.  I even used to use (gasp) patterned paper as a background!  Can you believe it?

So I challenged myself to use colored cardstock OR patterned paper for my background.  And here's what I did (I chose a patterned paper background over a colored background).

 

Now... I know.  The graph paper is pretty much as neutral as you can get.  But for me this is huge! 

I may have used patterned paper today, but I guarantee you that it'll be white backgrounds again tomorrow!  LOL  

I tossed this challenge over to Jaime (who by the way uses patterned paper backgrounds brilliantly).

She challenged herself to use her own handwriting.  If you look through Jaime's gallery you'll notice that she prefers typed journaling over handwriting.

(And all these little banners Jaime uses... these are the new Little Flyers.  So cute!)

So, that's my challenge to you.  If you're playing along we'd love to see what you make!  Just post it in our Flickr gallery and link us up over here so we can check it out!

More Inspirational Design Ideas from our Guest Designer Michiyo Nobeno (aka poki)

Good Morning! Poki here to show you a fun layout that uses a number of elements including SPRINKLERS !

I cut out white card stock in varied size circles and then sprayed them with 6 different colors of Sprinklers. Because I love every color,  I thought if I had all the colors together, they might look like a rainbow. The white amongst all the colors somehow softens the rainbow colors.

OA Sprinklers are simply so adorable!! I used Circus Peanuts which has the stripes as a background paper and also some other scraps of paper and Rub-ons.

I machine stitched them along the stripe so that they blended in with the background paper.

The fun bubbles are represented with cut-out circles.

__________________*******************__________________

Doesn't she do a wonderful job of layering! As always super cute! Way to go Poki!!!!

Thursday Sketch Challenge!

Hi everyone, Roree here, and today I have a sketch challenge for you! 

Here is my sketch:

I decided to go with an 8.5 x 11” format.  I kept the design simple with the opportunity to use multiple photos.   But for me, a square or rectangular box on a sketch doesn’t always read as a photo.  I love to fill them with fun embellishments.  And that is what I did.

Here is my take on the sketch:

Collections used:  Sidewalks, Campfire

I created the sketch before I created the layout, so I had to make some adjustments to it to make it work with the photos that I decided to use.  I went with two horizontal photos instead of the one that is shown in the sketch.  To make up for the extra space I had to use, the border around the whole layout had to be changed up and just used along the top and bottom of the layout.  I did stay pretty close to the actual layout placement, but I used one of the boxes for a little scene rather than a third photo.

For the journaling and scene, I created stitched boxes (machine and hand stitched) and place some Chip ‘n Stick chipboard pieces around the edges.

The Sidewalks products were so fun to work with.  Such beautiful colors and sweet images…  Everything about this collection just makes me happy!

Amy played along with my sketch this week, and she had such a wonderful take on it.

Here is her layout:

Collections used:  Sidewalks

And here is what Amy had to say:  “I used the sketch as the jumping off point for the focal of my page. I shrunk the overall sketch down and then used it pretty much as is for the grid for my photos. The only changing that I did was to move up the photo placement on the right so that it was flush with the top left photo, which I also rotated into a horizontal photo. I’m really happy with how it turned out, as its simplicity was perfect for using multiple photos!”

I just LOVE Amy’s layout, don’t you?!

I hope you all get a chance to play along with the sketch.  If you do, please post it to the OA Flicker Gallery, so we can all see your take on it.  And who knows, uploading to the gallery may just get you featured on the OA blog. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!