October Afternoon

'On the Go' with Travel Girl ... Win the projects featured in this blog!!

Hi everyone - Lowri here and welcome to my last guest post for the month of May.

I was thrilled when a box full of goodies from the Travel Girl Collection arrived at my door. I had so many ideas but in the end I decided to create a couple of projects where I could showcase the most design elements from this fabulously-put-together set.

“On the Go” Album

This album was created as a “Smash” style project. It’s all ready to go – just slip it in your backpack when you set off on your travels and journal like crazy as you go along!

Before we take a look inside – I will show you quickly how I made this button on the front. It is simply threaded onto some elastic and tied at the back – but having a closure like this keeps everything together and makes it less likely your treasures inside will be lost.

I used this simply gorgeous stamp to create the button. Before starting – gather your supplies:

A stamp, Stayzon ink, a small piece of cotton fabric and a brayer/roller. You will also need a handmade button blank – available at any sewing store.

1.     Ink your stamp really well

2.     Gently lay your fabric on top

3.     Carefully and firmly pass the roller over the fabric – ONCE ONLY

4.     Remove fabric – and Voila!

All you need to do now is use that fabric to cover your button blank as per the manufacturer instructions. Let’s take a look inside the album:

I have used many elements to create and decorate the pages – see below for more details:

a)     The inside cover tells the start of the story – jetting off on an adventure. The airplane card is from the Miscellany Pieces.

b)    I have added some glassine envelopes throughout the album – which can be used to contain maybe a boarding pass or a memento from your flight.

c)     Small tags are great as you can use them to jot down a quick thought or memory you want to preserve.

d)    I have used elements from the Word Stickers and Banners to decorate these.

     

e)     You can use tags horizontally and vertically to create a layered effect.

f)     Plain cardstock folded in half makes a great showcase for larger stickers and can be left blank so you can add some favorite photos at a later time.

g)     Some of these elements are so playful! These cards from the Miscellany are so cute!

h)    I have also used blank postcards and pieces of patterned paper cut to size to create pages.

One of my favorite things to do in albums like this is to create little folders to tell a story within a story. They are “self contained” within the album as a whole – here is how you can easily do this:

1.     Using a larger element as the front and back “cover, thread only the back onto your binding.

2.     Thread on your other elements, largest first down to the smallest.

3.     Finally – thread the front cover page on and continue assembling the rest of the album.
(Note: the bottom three pictures depict the technique only and are not the exact same elements as in the main picture!)

“Journaling Folder”

I have also created this journaling card folder – packed with blank notes for you to tuck into your bag and fill in whenever you like! For those that do Project Life – these all measure 3” x 4” too!

This picture above shows the folder opened up. You can see there are two pockets stuffed with journaling tags

This cute dog and taxi are a great example of the fun imagery included in this collection!

I have used a few different elements here:

1.     I have simply cut out and corner rounded some cards from the Journaling Cards paper.

2.     These are mini envelopes cut from plain cardstock and decorated with cards from the Miscellany Pack – they will be great for storing all those ticket stubs and receipts!

3.     These folded cards are blank inside and will hold a lot of journaling text.

4.     The folder will easily fit inside your bag – however light you choose to pack.

I hope you have enjoyed my projects this month. I would like to say a huge THANK-YOU to October Afternoon for the opportunity to showcase my work. They have been wonderfully generous and a joy to work with.

Please post a comment with any questions AND be sure to follow my Website or Facebook Page as I have a few more giveaways coming up. I will also be asking October Afternoon to select a random winner from those who comment on this post – and the winner will receive the projects shown this week! Happy Travels!

Lowri

Thursday Sketch: Bits and Pieces

Happy Thursday!  It's Jill here with this week's sketch challenge, which invites you to take a second look at the bits and pieces in your stash. 

Just place your photos in the middle of the page, and surround them with smaller elements, such as labels, stickers, pieces of patterned paper, brads, and die-cuts. Intersperse the journaling among these items. 

My layout focuses on one of the "signs of summer" -- the increase in the number of trips my family takes to the North Shore to get shave ice (I know that standard English would dictate that the term should be "shaved ice," but the proper term here in Hawaii really is "shave ice"). The summery color palette in the Travel Girl  and Daily Flash collections works wonderfully on this page, as do the labels, stickers, papers, stamps, and brads from those lines. 

I took an over/under approach to the layering, placing some items under the photos and some items over them. I overlapped many of the accents to create a unified feel.

To create the title, I punched the letters from a sheet of Travel Girl "Subway Token" patterned paper and placed them atop hand-cut cardstock "cones." 

Danni Reid joined me for this week's sketch challenge, and she took the sketch in a delightfully surprising direction, creating a card that works in bits and pieces seamlessly: 

Here's what she had to say about working with this sketch:

I absolutely love this sketch from Jill and will definitely use it for a layout soon. Today, however, I wanted to share that even when you are using a very detailed sketch, one that will make creating a layout easy and fun, you can scale it down for cards or Project Life pages, too. 

I chose to use the new Travel Girl label stickers as the "blocks or squares" and use one of the picture mats instead of two, for the focal for my card. I cannot tell you how I love the Flash Alpha Dandelion -- I love the font, the color, everything! Thank you, Jill, for the wonderful inspiration to work with. I can't wait to see everyone's interpretation of it.

I must agree -- I can't wait to see where this sketch takes you! Be sure to share your projects in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery. 

Thanks for visiting today! 

Nicole gives the Travel Girl collection her stamp of approval!

When we all saw the images of the brand new Travel Girl collection, I think I remember literally squealing when I saw the stamps ... WOW!  So when they showed up on my doorstep, they were the first thing I reached for!

I used bits and pieces of all three of the new Travel Girl stamps in this layout ... have a look!

I began with a piece of vanilla cardstock as a neutral background since I knew I'd planned on stamping quite a bit. I was playing around with the map background stamp and stamped it twice using silver ink, side-by-side. Then I layered a few pieces of paper between the two stamped images.

I LOVE that the two sets of stamps include both large and small images, plus phrases. For example, the tiny heart stamp may look plain all by itself, but when you stamp it repeatedly directly on the photo with both gold and silver ink, it really makes an impact!

Next came the journaling. I know sometimes people shy away from it, but I let the phrases in the two stamp sets lead me in the right direction ... and incorporated them into the actual message. I also stamped directly on top of the silver map background after it had dried. Love the way the wrods and images look on top of the more subtle map image.

If you decide to play around with some of your October Afternoon stamps, don't forget to upload your projects to our OA Flickr Gallery or email them to Jon at [email protected] to post on our Facebook page. We always enjoy seeing fellow OA lovers use our products together!

- Nicole

Monday Challenge: Pieces of Pie

Pie charts are a big recent design trend. Today's challenge is inspired by that recent trend, and, more specifically, by this image of a t-shirt:

Today's challenge is to create a shaped pie chart, taking inspiration from the heart-shaped pie chart featured on the t-shirt. When I (Vivian) first saw this image, my mind immediately went to Travel Girl and to maps. Here's the end result:

 

To create my map of the United States, I cut 4" X 4" squares from the 8" X 8" Travel Girl Paper Pad and from the Daily Flash Snapshots mini collection and then cut each in half on the diagonal. I pieced the triangles together radiating out from the center of my die-cutting machine mat and then fed the mat through my machine to cut out the United States. I also cut a second map from scrap cardstock and then adhered the patterned paper pieces to it. That enabled me to treat the map as a large embellishment and move it around more easily as I was designing my layout.

Mou joined me in today's challenge and created this gorgeous card:

Mou had this to say about today's challenge: "When I saw Vivian's inspiration piece, I wanted to use the appliqued heart idea with more subtle colors and a bit of pattern. I chose papers from the Travel Girl collection and a couple from the Daily Flash collection. I also used the adorable girl stamp from the Travel Girl collection. And there you have it, a simple card with an everyday sentiment."

Let's take a closer look at Mou's stitching and stamping details:

So...what pie chart shape will you create on your next project? Whatever it is, we want to see it! If you take inspiration from today's challenge, please share your projects in our October Afternoon Flickr gallery.

Guest Designer Lowri McNabb adds some dimension to her crafty cards!

Hi Everyone - Lowri here and welcome to my third guest post for the month of May.

This week I have three “dimensional” cards to share using the Farm Girl Collection. One of the things I love about the October Afternoon Collections is the versatility of their papers. The patterns and prints are always varied, sophisticated and offer opportunities for everyone, no matter what their style. I hope these cards demonstrate the versatility of this lovely collection.

“My Favorite” Side-Step Card

I have used my Cameo to create the base for this card using this file here – but there are several free templates on-line you can use to handcut very quickly. Once you have the base created, it is easy to add the decorative elements. I used dimensional dots to mount some pieces as this really gives the card a lift without adding too much bulk. Layer the pieces you want to build up some color and if you want the card to fit into a standard envelope – do not make any element stand higher than the tallest panel.

I love these little chickens and the strip of words from the Miscellany Pack adds a splash of color along the bottom.

“Just for You” Centre Step Card

Once again I have cut the base using my Cameo and this file – but again, great templates are available online. The key to making this style of clean and simple card is to try and get perfectly aligned layers. They don’t work well unless everything is perfectly lined up with even margins, and it’s simple to do. Just take your time and use a repositionable adhesive, so if it’s not quite right the first time – you get a second crack!

This type of all-purpose card is great to have on hand for when you need a card on short notice. The Farm Girl collection lends itself to making projects for those who appreciate hand-made items, cards and gifts.

“For my Friend” Swing Card

This is one of my absolute favorite style of cards – and it really impresses non-crafty people too! The cutting file for the base can be found here. This is more of a masculine style card which I made to showcase the versatility of the collection – which at first glance might not seem suitable to more grown-up projects – but the papers really are truly beautiful.

This little piece from the Chip ‘n Stick pack was my favorite – I just love the vintage style imagery of the tomatoes and they match the gorgeous stained woodgrain print so well.

All of these cards fold completely flat for easy mailing. They also will fit in a standard size envelope – and let’s face it – no-one like paying more for postage than they have to!

I hope you have enjoyed these projects – please post a comment with any questions and be sure to check back next week for some more ideas.     – Lowri

♥ 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!

A mini-album and something for Dad from the Midway collection!

Hi everyone - Lowri here and welcome to my second Guest Post for the month of May.

This week I have been busy using the Midway Collection. This fun and bright collection was perfect for creating this mini-album and I have used some very informal cell phone pictures taken on a day-trip to the carnival!

Midway Mini Album

I have created this album from scratch using my Cameo and two die-cutting files from Lori Whitlock (found here and here). The album can be created by hand (search online for accordion fold binding) but using a digital cutter makes light work of a lot of the measuring and all of the cutting!

I have chosen to make all of the inserts out of envelopes and tags – but the cutting files offer a number of options which are all included with the download. I also scaled down all the cutting files by 65% before I started as I wanted my album to be smaller. Just remember to scale all elements in the same proportion – otherwise they will not fit together.

The picture above shows a couple of details from the album cover. I cut a slit in the hat and slotted a couple of stickers into the cut. One of my favorite tips is to use talc to remove the stickiness from the back of stickers – which basically turns them into die cuts and lets you play around with placement without fearing you will stick them in the wrong place! The little camera button is my favorite embellishment of all – I could have used 10 of them in this project alone!

This album has a simple construction and is held together by the accordion fold spine. There is a detailed instructional video on YouTube which guides you through the process and each set of two fold is held together with eyelets (see Pictures 1 & 2 above). I chose to reinforce the covers with chipboard but you do not need this step. Each “page” is slotted into the spine and you can choose to glue them in. I found they were a tight fit without gluing and I like being able to pull the envelopes out to look at too, so mine were not glued in (see Pictures 3 & 4 above).

The picture above shows the envelopes and tag inserts in more detail.

The tags and envelopes are simply decorated with several elements from the collection including the Word Stickers, Brads and Tid Bits.

There are so many fabulous design details in these collections – I know that I am going to use every scrap of this one over a few years to come as my kids grow up!

Dad’s Treat Boxes

To demonstrate how versatile this collection is – I have used a couple of bits and pieces to make these fun Father’s Day treat boxes. They both contain a gift voucher to a wine boutique for my husband and Father-in-Law (hope they don’t read this blog!)

I have cut the boxes using my cuttlebug and this great Sizzix die and then used some of the Sew Fun Banners and Tin Pins to decorate. Fun, simple and a great way to use up some of your leftovers too.

I hope you have enjoyed these projects – please post a comment with any questions and be sure to check back next week for some more ideas. – Lowri

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!

Join us in welcoming Laura "Lulu" Craigie to our Design Team!

October Afternoon is pleased to announce another new addition to its Design Team by welcoming Laura "Lulu" Craigie!

Laura resides on an island in Canada with her husband and three little boys. Her passion for photography and crafting led her to scrapbooking 8 years ago and she hasn't looked back since. When she's not scrapbooking, Laura can be found watching her boys play sports, puttering in her garden or out hunting for a Geocache.

Laura's work has been published in Scrapbook Trends, CARDS, Scrapbooks Etc. and Scrapbook & Cards Today magazines.  She has worked with several different companies and is currently a Garden Girl for Two Peas in a Bucket.

Below is an example of Laura's work. To see more and to get to know her better, visit her blog at www.paperlulu.com.

Watch for Laura's contributions to the October Afternoon blog beginning in June!