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!

♥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

 

 

 

Working FROM 9 to 5 made more enjoyable by working WITH 9 to 5

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

I have been having great fun with the 9  to 5 Collection! I worked in a corporate office for many years and I have to say there was more than a touch of the Mad Men about it and I just love the imagery of the vintage office theme. I made these pieces just for me, which is a real rarity. Read on to see a little more about how I created them

Craft Tools Box

This box came as a flat packed mdf kit and measures a huge 14.5" x 6". I started by covering the edges with the 9 to 5 washi tape, which makes for a fast and bright alternative to painting, and then I fully lined and covered the box in patterned papers from the collection. I suggest using a solvent-based glue when creating these types of projects as it dries quickly, will not warp the paper and it cleans up very easily with an adhesive eraser if it seeps from the edges. After I covered the entire piece in paper I started on the decoration.

The perfectly coordinating collection embellishments make this super easy and I started by decorating the two ends of the box - this way I get to see the pretty side wherever the box is sitting! It’s easy to layer the die cuts and stickers, and to add dimension I used foam dots to mount the various elements.

I created the “pull handle” for the top of the box by making some decorated glass tiles and mounting them onto the small wooden strip that came with the box. You can see a little tutorial showing how I did this below - these make great custom scrapbook and card embellishments:

1.      Gather up some paper, flat glass beads or tiles, Glossy Accents adhesive and a sharp knife.

2.      Spread a thin even layer of Glossy Accents onto the back of the tile.

3.      Press the tile firmly onto the paper, moving it around in small circles to get rid of any air bubbles and to ensure the thinnest layer remains.

4.      When dry, cut around the tile carefully with a sharp knife.

5.      Ta-daah! These are super quick to make.

6.      Make lots – use what you need, glue a magnet on the back of the extras and you have a great new set of fridge magnets!

 Memo Pad

This started out as another plain mdf piece, and this time I inked the exposed wooden edges with Distress Ink and then used a stylized woodgrain stamp and some brown ink to create a simple woodgrain pattern.

I covered the exposed sides with paper from the collection, picking out elements I wanted to display such as this sentiment (Picture 1). I often work with my window open so I have made this handy cover to stop the tiny memo pages from blowing away (Picture 2) and this sticker was just too cute not to use on the reverse of the cover (Picture 3).

Mug

This mug came ready-made with a template sheet of paper you can use to cut and create your own photo inserts. I really wanted to use this “Shorthand” paper in one of my projects so I cut a strip to size and then added stickers to complete my office set!

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

(Watch for more posts and projects by Lowri McNabb on the OA blog every Friday during the month of May!)

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!

Congratulations to our National Scrapbook Day Giveaway winners!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our National Scrapbook Day Giveaway!  More than 600 of you shared stories of your favorite vacations or dream getaways with us for a chance to win some great prizes from our new Travel Girl collection! 

Eight lucky winners have been randomly selected to receive prizes.  Two will receive a Travel Girl collection kit and six others will be awarded a Travel Girl 8x8 paper pad!

If you are one of our winners, please email your name and shipping address to [email protected] and we will ship your prize right away.

So, without further ado, here are our lucky prize winners and the comment they left on our blog:

Travel Girl 8x8 Paper Pad Winners:

Angeline Tan - My dream trip will be to Alaska to watch the Aurora with my boyfriend. It's our common dream. :)  Hope to win this kit to document my other travels before my dream comes true :). Thanks so much for the giveaway!

Kathy H. - Since the passing of my Mom back at Thanksgiving and my Dad passed away of Alzheimers on Father's Day weekend last year, I have been wanting to make several scrapbooks for our family. I have so many pictures. I would love to honor their many years of travels together through the 66 years they were married and Travel Girl, plus some other of the OA lines, will be perfect for completing this dream. Thank you for always being such a "10 out of 5 stars" company to all you serve.

Joan Fowler - I just returned from the trip of my dreams - Italy - touring Rome, Sorrento, Pompeii, Florence, Orvieto, and Venice. I just finished editing over 1,400 photos and am now ready to start my Italy scrapbook. This collection would help me on my way.

Donna Gabbard - Travel Girl is just what I need to motivate me to work on my scrapbook of last year's vacation ... which was a Mediterranean cruise. We visited Italy, United Kingdom, France, Portugal and Spain. I have my vacation photos and keepsakes piled up but dread the task of scrapping ... I think Travel Girl would help me get the job done! Thanks for the chance to win!

Candee Schamber - Adore OA and your products! This package would fit wonderfully in my travel scrapbook of our trips to South Dakota!

Debra Stoner - We are planning to bike the Canal du Midi in southern France for our 25th wedding anniversary next year ... how perfect would the Travel Girl Eiffel Tower journal card and biking sticker be!? Thank you for the chance and the inspiring blog.

Travel Girl Collection Kit Winners:

Barbara Gee - I have two huge bins of my grandmother's travel photos from the 20s through the 80s. Travel Girl would be PERFECT to bring light to these gorgeous photos that are currently trapped in a closet.

Stephanie Patterson - I was lucky enough to take a trip to the Netherlands and Budapest in November to visit my niece that was studying abroad. I went with my sister and it was the most time we have spent together since living together. I've been waiting to make the album for just the right paper. Love October Afternoon SO much!

Congratulations ladies!  Remember to email your shipping information to [email protected].

Tuesday Tutorial: A Punched Title

Happy Tuesday!

Today's tutorial begins with a scrap stash excavation: dust off the tools you may have once used to set eyelets (remember those?). If you don't have these, then any kind of paper piercer (such as an awl) or small hole punch will work. I love the boldness of the letters on this sheet of Daily Flash Snapshots "Click!" patterned paper. The words and phrases can easily be substituted for letter stickers to create a title for a layout. I decided to add some whimsical flavor to the letters by punching holes in them. 

I positioned the setting base (a.k.a. the tool thingie with interchangable tips) over the base of the letter, and pounded it once with a hammer.I then kept punching the holes equidistantly, moving the setting base accordingly.

(On a side note, my neighbor has a bird who became entranced by the sound of my hammering, and each time I would pound the hammer, the bird would attempt to replicate the sound, squawking loudly. You can see a few imperfect areas below that were the result of me laughing so hard.) After punching holes in each letter of the word "photograph," I was ready to assemble my layout, with the punched title featured prominently, its colors similar to the those of the black and white photo of my husband. The word "photograph" wasn't just an arbitrary choice. It relates to other elements in the layout, as well, all of which were compiled from the Snapshots and Travel Girl lines. There are so many great photo-themed items in those collections! 

So how are you sprucing up your titles? I'd love to see your ideas!  Be sure to share them in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery. 

Thanks for stopping by today! 

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!

Win great prizes! Enter our National Scrapbooking Day Giveaway!

Here at October Afternoon we can only think of one thing better than celebrating National Scrapbooking Day by giving away some cool prizes.  That would be WINNING some of those cool prizes!

So, in honor of National Scrapbooking Day on Saturday, May 4th, we're giving away some fabulous prizes from our new Travel Girl collection!

ENTERING IS EASY:  Just leave a blog comment telling us about a trip you have taken, or the location of the "dream vacation" you hope to someday take, and how the Travel Girl collection might fit into your plans to document and preserve the memories of that getaway. It's that easy!

Two lucky winners will receive a Travel Girl Collection Kit containing 24-sheets (2 of each design) of Travel Girl paper plus one sheet each of Shape Stickers, Word Stickers, Alpha Stickers and Label Stickers!

But wait ... there's more!

Six lucky winners will receive a Travel Girl 8x8 Paper Pad containing 24-sheets (2 of each design) of Travel Girl paper on 65-lb. cardstock!

Your deadline for entering is 3 PM CST on Tuesday, May 7th ... we'll post the winners on the blog on Wednesday, May 8th! 

Good luck and Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

 

 

 

Introducing: Lowri McNabb, guest designer for the month of May!

Hi!  I'm Lowri McNabb and I am thrilled to be invited to guest design for October Afternoon this month. I'm really looking forward to showing you what I have created with their gorgeous products!

Despite dabbling in a number of crafts over the years, nothing has ever captured my interest like papercrafting.  Like many, I started out after my first child was born and I have been hooked ever since! My style is probably best described as product-driven with clean lines and lots of color. I love to create mini-albums, stationary, altered projects, dimensional cards and small papercraft pieces.

Since starting my blog, I have created projects for several manufacturers, including Echo Park, Pink Paislee, Making Memories, Teresa Collins and Little Yellow Bicycle. I have also had my work featured by Cosmo Cricket, Kaisercraft and Crate Paper, as well as in several on-line craft and lifestyle publications. I have had several projects published in the Kaisercraft Workshop magazines and newsletters, as well as the Echo Park e-books and digital downloads.

I live on a vineyard in beautiful Marlborough, New Zealand with my husband and three young children. I am originally from South Wales in the UK and also lived in Canada for several years on my way to settling in New Zealand. Before raising my family I spent many years in corporate banking before realizing a lifelong dream and training as a chef.

My blog is called PaperVine (http://www.papervinenz.com/) and it is packed full of papercrafting ideas and tutorials with the odd kids craft and cooking tip thrown in. I also have a really active Facebook page too (https://www.facebook.com/papervine), so please swing by and introduce yourself ... I look forward to meeting you!

Here's how Lowri responded to some questions we asked to help us get to know her better: 

Are you a layout person, a card person ... or both?

Neither really! I make a lot of mini-albums, altered projects, stationary and small papercraft pieces, though I do enjoy making themed cards for spcial occasions and holidays.

What is on your scrap desk right now?

A bit of everything!  I am a horribly messy worker - but when I clean it all up (which I do every month or so) I am going to start on a baby album for my sister. I always have a drink too - tea, Diet Coke or maybe a wine, depending upon the time of day!

What is your favorite October Afternoon line or product ... and why?

Of course this a tough one - but I am VERY excited about the new Travel Girl collection. It's fun and elegant and offers so much potential. I also have a big soft spot for "Thrift Shop" as I used to make my sister's wedding stationary and the Stickey Keys and Mini Market alphas are hands down the best on the market! Oh yes, and ALL the Christmas collections!

What can you NOT scrapbook without?

A very sharp knife - I go through a lot of blades! I always keep an adhesive eraser and some fine grit sandpaper handy, too ... both of which are essential to getting the perfect finish to many of my projects.

What is your favorite source of inspiration?

I like to browse online blogs, galleries and, of course, Pinterest. There are so many talented people out there. I also like to look at gift ideas in stores and figure out if I could re-create the gift with my own twist. I also browse through antique and thrift stores to see if there is anything old and unused that I can put to a new purpose!  

What is your favorite movie, TV show or book?

I often scrap with favorite movies or TV shows playing in the background on my computer. I love my old favorites, especially Seinfeld, action/adventure movies and anything that doesn't require too much thought at the end of a long day!

What is your favorite food?

I am a bit of a foodie and love to cook, but since moving from downtown Toronto to rural New Zealand - I really miss hot fresh pizza delivered to my door.

Besides scrapbooking and papercrafts, what do you do for hobbies or enjoyment during your "free" time?

I used to be an avid squash player, and when the last of my kids attends full-time school next year I am determined to start playing again. I love to cook, spend time with my family and I am determined to start a couple of home decorating projects this year as well.

If you were a superhero, what power would you possess and why?

That's easy ... my superpower would be to create more hours in the day! Like so many people, I am always busy and finding time to relax is hard. If only there were a few hours a week where everyone else stopped, I could grab a coffee, sit down for 10 minutes - and maybe grab a little nap!

If you could have dinner with anyone, living or deceased, who would it be and why?

I would love to be able to bring all my family members, past and present, together for a big dinner. My grandparents would have a chance to meet my children, I would ask my ancestors about their lives and it would be fascinating to see what traits had survived the generations. There would be a lot of laughter, wine and a few wild tales for sure.

 

 

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