October Afternoon

Monday Challenge: Mix and Match

Happy Monday! Vivian here with this week’s Monday challenge. Today we’re keeping it simple with a challenge that asks you to create something using three or more October Afternoon product lines. If you haven’t already noticed, one of the great features of October Afternoon products is that the colors coordinate across lines, making it easy to mix and match products with success.

Becky played along with the challenge this week and came up with a fantastic and fun layout that combines products from several different lines, including Sidewalks, 5 & Dime, Modern Homemaker, Fly a Kite, and Thrift Shop. Note how the yellows, pinks, and aquas combine across the paper lines.

After declaring this a simple challenge I went in a more challenging direction, as I decided to see whether I could use something from every October Afternoon line ever created, from County Fair (the first October Afternoon line ever) through to Sidewalks (in stores now). It was hard, but I did it! Note how the greens, reds, yellows, oranges, and aquas combine across lines and how the alphas coordinate.

I started with a strip of paper from County Fair (the aqua at the bottom) and then cut ¾” wide strips of patterned paper, choosing one paper from each line and gluing the strips to a 12” wide scrap of cardstock to form my own striped paper. I cut the striped paper in half once I was done and used a strip both above and below my photos. Product lines not represented in patterned paper include Schoolhouse (scalloped border sticker), Modern Homemaker (apple punched from patterned paper), Boarding Pass (taller letter stickers), 5 & Dime (Red Wagon sprINKler), Rocket Age (Comet Tail sprINKler), and Sidewalks (label sticker).

If you are an October Afternoon blog reader but don’t visit the website, I encourage you to check out the products section. You can click on each line to look at thumbnails of each product and can click on those thumbnails to get a closer look at products, including the A and B sides of the patterned papers. I’ll let you in on a little secret – I use this section of the website often to help plan my projects. It’s quicker and easier (and less messy!) than pulling out all my papers and embellishments, especially when I’m looking for certain colors, patterns, types of stickers, etc.

Hope you’ll participate in this simple (or not so simple, depending upon how you interpret it!) challenge that’s also a good stash-buster. If you do participate, please link up your work in our October Afternoon Flickr gallery so we can see your creations!

Happy mixing and matching!

Flickr Friday

Looking through the Flickr albums I came across this card from Linda McClain... just look at the use of Rocket Age!

You can learn more about it here.

Great card Linda!

Love.

Hello! Wilna here! Today's sketch is one that I have used before and that i love dearly. Here it is:

I took some pictures of my girls this fall, and ordered prints online and when they came i just knew i had to scrapbook them ASAP. Instead of using one big picture like the sketch shows, I used 3 smaller ones. I also used some sprinklers to mute the back ground papers. this is how it turned out:

Danni used the sketch and made 3 gorgeous cards. I love the texture and dimentional effect that she created in the cards.

We would love to see your creations on  the October Afternoon Flickr Pool!

Enjoy the beautiful fall weather! Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.  ~Albert Camus

Love and a kiss

 

Tuesday Tutorial on Wednesday: Layering With Fabric

Last week I blogged about making embellishments using fabric...this week, we are using fabric as patterned paper! Here's a little bit about my thought process when incorporating this bold fabric pattern:

1. Choose fabric.

2. Chose another fabric.

3. End up with a pile of fabric on the desk due to indecision. (Right here I should have stopped and realized that I needed to choose MY PHOTO first, like I usually do. It's a lot easier to choose colors when you have a photo to work with.)

4. Notice the red gingham fabric (from October Afternoon Farm Fresh fabric collection) overlapping a piece of pattern paper and decide it's a sign that those two patterns were meant to be together.

5. Rip the fabric into a rectangle and trim long strands.

6. Adhere fabric to paper and stitch around the edge several times. I used brown thread for two reasons: I like a dark contrasting thread on bold colors, AND brown was already in my sewing machine. (Another meant-to-be moment.)

7. I visited my scrap drawer to collect some strips for a frame around the fabric and stitched around those.

8. At this point, I wish I had taken a picture (hindsight is 20/20!) because I'd like to show how desperately the layout was begging for a neutral frame. I pulled my new absolute favorite Sidewalks pink grid (Ring Around the Rosie) and trimmed my page to fit on it with a nice, big frame border. MUCH better.

9. Here is when I realize that there are very few pictures in my extensive collection of digital photos that could possibly work on this crazy, colorful, in-progress layout. It was going to have to contain a LOT of white space! I was happy to find this photo from several years ago. Not only does it have lots of white space, but the colors are quite neutral. Happy me.

11. This is the place where I got excited and made the Chip 'n Stick banner with the twine from my Sidewalks Wrap Pack. (It's my favorite thing about the layout besides the photo.) I did remove the sticky back from the banner pieces so they would be easy to play with.

12. Originally I had thought I'd use the white space in the photo for the title, but it worked very well to put it on a Shape Sticker below the photo.

13. I spread the journaling out vertically to give the page a downward "flow" (and because that's how they fit!).

14. I forgot to add my own handwriting to this layout, so I will go back and write something (probably just the city and state) in the bottom left-hand corner.

I told my fellow design team member Jill Sprott what I was doing and she came up with this completely amazing layout:

Here's what Jill said about her layout:

"There is so much that can be done with the cute new October Afternoon fabric line, but even keeping it simple works, too! I sewed a square of the new October Afternoon fabric on a sheet of patterned paper from the new Farmhouse line, and used both as a backdrop for this photo of my great-grandmother. I've been wanting to tell this story about her for some time now. It's kind of a ghost story, but it's also a love story, I suppose."

More detail shots of this one (because I KNOW you want to get up close!):

Have you used fabric on a layout before? Try it. Or try it again! We want to see the results, so please post your creations in the October Afternoon Flickr Gallery!

 

Holiday Style in the Spotlight! And a give-away!

(blog posts from the DT are below this one)

Walking the downtown sidewalks that are freshly covered with a light powder of snow. Shopping bags in one hand and your child's hand in the other. On the corner you hear a choir singing Silver Bells. Along with others, you stop to look at the department store holiday window displays. Lines out the store doors of families waiting to see Santa. You can feel it in the air. It is Christmas time in the City. It is times like this that you wax nostalgic of being a kid yourself during the holidays.  That is Holiday Style, the latest holiday collection from October Afternoon.

 

Make Sure to see the Give-Away at the Bottom of this Posting 

(to see larger images please visit the Website)

PP740 - City Sidewalks

PP741 - Snow & Mistletoe

PP742 - Holly Jolly

PP743 - Santa Claus Lane

PP744 - Feliz Navidad

PP745 - Deck the Halls

PP746 - Toyland

PP747 - Figgy Pudding

PP748 - Oh, What Fun!

PP749 - Merry & Bright

PP750 - Ring-A-Ling

PP751 - Silver Bells

 PP752 - 8x8 Paper Pad

CB836 - Printed Chip Shapes

CB837 - Printed Chip Shapes

SS416 - 12x12 Shape Stickers

DC154 - Miscellany

SS415 - 12x12 Alpha Stickers

SS417 - Word Stickers

SS418 - Label Stickers

SS293 - Sticky Keys

ST385 - Rubber Stamp Set

RT669 - Rub-Ons

EM863 - Buttons

EM862 - Tin Pins

EM867 - Flower Sack

EM866 - Wrap Pack

EM865 - Little Flyers

DC155 - Journal Cards

SI968 - Sprinklers (set of three)

 

- WIN A SELECTION OF PRODUCTS FROM OUR NEW HOLIDAY STYLE LINE -  

Hey everybody! We hope you're as excited about Holiday Style as we are. Please share with us which product you like best from the above selection.  We'll be randomly picking a winner on Monday, October 24th.

Put your order in today! Holiday Style will be shipping by the end of October.

Fat quarter fabric winner! Larissa Haskett

We have a winner!!!

Thanks for all the kind words about our new fabric.

Larissa Heskett said: OMG!! I WOULD LOVE to win this!! THANKS SO MUCH for the chance!! I LOVE all of the projects!! The owl by Roree and the Mini Album by Danni are my FAVORITES!! THANKS for sharing and have a FABULOUS WEEK!! =)

Larissa email me your address and I will get your fat quarters out! [email protected]

Monday Color Challenge

Welcome to October on the October Afternoon blog! Lexi here today and I don't know about you, but October is one of my favorite months...pumpkin spice lattes are in full swing, leaves are changing color, and you get to break out those cute fall boots ;)  To celebrate this exciting season I have a color challenge for you today! 

I created a little vignette to get us started. Here we have black, white and of course, orange.  It wouldn't be much of a color challenge for October without some orange, right? A little aqua to bring in some more color and these bronze owls. They just seemed to fit right in. 

I pulled product from 5 different October Afternoon lines to make a Halloween-esque layout, about what else? Halloween candy :) 

The stars are misted with Comet Tail and the aqua splatters are from Miss Mary Mack--my new favorite sprinkler color. 

The ampersand is also misting in Comet Tail and I added some funky stitching. I had no patience to wait for the chipboard to dry so the stitching was extra crazy! I used a stencil with gold paint for the 'bronze' part.  

Kinsey joined me on the challenge with a super cute notebook! 

Here's what she had to say: "I made a mini notepad with a handmade 'gummed' graph paper pad inside. To make your own notepad just grab a stack of paper of your choice, 2 pinch clips, a piece of chipboard/cardboard the same size as your paper, and some rubber cement. Layer your paper on top of the chipboard and clip together on the left and right sides toward the top edge of your notepad and then brush on 3 thick coats of rubber cement. Let it dry and you have a custom notepad! 

I love carrying these around in my purse just in case I need to make a list or jot down an idea or sketch. My last sketch pad is totally full so this was perfect timing to whip a new one for fall/winter."

I love it! Looks like I need to make a mni notepad this week!

So how about you? Do you love this season? Think this color combo could work for you? We would certainly love to see! Link us up in the Flickr gallery and you could see your work featured here. 

Grab a pumpkin spice latte, get scrapbooking & Happy October!