October Afternoon

ANNOUNCING...

Hello there and happy Labor Day weekend to those of you who celebrate it!

Well, the "Coming Soon" news can finally be shared! October Afternoon has many fun and exciting changes in the works and has been working feverishly behind the scenes to bring you new designs, new collections (one of which will be shared here as soon as humanly possible!) and a new OCTOBER AFTERNOON DESIGN TEAM!!

We are thrilled with the pool of talent that is on this team and cannot wait to share their October Afternoon designs with all of you OA blog readers! (Quite honestly they can't wait to as well!)

Design Team Members (from top left to bottom right): 

Sasha Farina, Roree Rumph, Mou Saha

Patricia Roebuck, Jill Sprott, Ginny Hughes, Mandy Koeppen

Emily Spahn, Aleksandra Gadji, Mel Blackburn, Shanna Noel

Laura Craigie, Suz Mannecke

 

Q: What does the expansion of the October Afternoon Design Team mean to you OA readers?!

A: More blog posting, more challenges, and more inspiration!! 

During the month of September look for the designers to challenge you on Mondays, inspire you on Tuesdays, share their workspaces on Wednesdays, Sketch it up on Thursdays, and on Fridays the newest October Afternoon Design Team members will be spotlighted. Links to each of these talented ladies' blogs are located under the Design Team sidebar located at the top left of this blog. You can read more about each designer there. 

This is just the beginning of exciting changes and exciting news here at October Afternoon!! We will be updating you here with the latest DT inspiration and OA news as well as on other social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) so be sure to stop back in and/or to follow along! 

 

Thursday sketch: White space

Hi everyone, Mou here with today's sketch for you.

 

As you can see, I wanted to create a clean layout with plenty of white space. I arranged most of my elements in a straight line on the top half of the page leaving most of the bottom half empty. Here's my layout based on the sketch.

I used Daily Flash All Boy 12 x 12 paper Top Secret as my background. While the paper isn't solid, the pattern is fairly simple in keeping with the white space goal. For my elements, I chose Daily Flash Milk Money Snap Caps. These flat and colorful diecuts were just right for this layout as I could cluster them to create interest in an otherwise simple layout. Here are some close-ups of my layout.

Hope you like today's sketch snd inspiration layout and would use it in your own scrapbooks :)

Coming Soon... (Friday, August 29 to be exact!)

Hope all of you readers are having a great week! Here at October Afternoon we thought we'd help you over your mid week slump with a little sneak of something exciting coming to the OA blog this Friday!! Here is a hint:

 

Any guesses what it is?

Check back here this Friday, August 29th for the complete details! 

 

 

 

Tuesday Inspiration: An Assemblage of Accents

 Accents are sort of like potato chips: you can't stop at just one. This week's inspiration piece proves it. 

 Source: ban.do

I drew from the idea of a cluster of badges forming a kind of network, and followed suit on my layout, which features an interconnected mix of buttons and tin pins from October Afternoon. 

Given that the page celebrates my husband's fortieth birthday and includes a photo of the forty candles on his cake, it was only right to include forty acccents in the form of multi-colored buttons and various tin pins from past and present collections. The happy face tin pin, for instance, comes from the Schoolhouse collection (one of my all-time favorite OA collections) while the "DUDE." tin pin comes from the more recent Daily Flash All Boy collection. Some of the buttons date back to the Modern Homemaker collection, while others are from the new Public Library collection. 

They all keep company so well together, don't you think? Like the years they represent, each one is a treasure in its own way. 

The colors of the accents are repeated elsewhere on the layout, as in the journaling block, the patterned papers, and the stamped title block (where I put to use the number stamps from the 2013 Very Merry December kit -- they aren't just for Christmas, people!). All in all, the layout captures the fact that "the big 4-0" need not be associated with the color black and "over the hill" jokes -- it is an age at which life can be more colorful than ever. 

If you're feeling like dipping into your button stash and/or using some of those tin pins (instead of just admiring them in the packaging, as I have been doing for too long), I'd love to see how you riff on this week's inspiration piece. Be sure to share your work in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery, and leave me a link below in the comments. 

Thanks for visiting today! 

-- Jill 

Monday Challenge: Document the feeling

Hi everyone! Alex here bringing you this week's challenge.

Most of the time when I scrap a photo, I tend to document a happening, something my kids have said or done, or just the way they are right now. So, when I was making this layout about my daughter's first day at school, I started to write what they did and said and how excited she was, but then I stopped... I threw away the piece of paper with my journaling and started over. I decided to tell her my story, how I was feeling that day. That's my challenge for you this week. Try not to document what happened when a photo you scrap was taken, try to document how it made you feel.

The Daily Flash Milk Money collection is a must have now when the school is starting again. I knew I had to use it. I used my favorite paper from the collection, Reading, as my background. I cut a piece of white cardstock and placed it in-between two of the book shelves. That was going to be my photo area.

I used a lot of Milk Money memory cards on this layout. Some of them to journal on, some of them stuck under my photos. I also used a tin-pin, some double tape stickers, pop-drops and the cutest "here!" pillow puffs sticker.

I love using arrows as embellishments. For this layout I have used chipboard arrows from the To The Point and the Photo Booth sheets. For my title I have mixed three different Daily Flash alphas: Mason Jar, Rhurbarb and Night Owl.

I hope you want to play along! If you do, please post a link here or upload your layout to OA's Flickr Gallery. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

//Alex

Thursday Sketch: Layers

Hi everyone! Alex here with this week's sketch. I stepped out of my comfort zone this time and created something with lots of layers.

For my take on the sketch, I played with the lovely Public Library collection and made this layout about me @33.

I love that Public Library alphabet stickers are of different colors and styles. A mixed title adds an interesting touch to a layout/card.

I cut the wheels off the bicycle that comes in the Miscellany pack and used them as decorations on each side of my photo. Buttons are from the same pack as well.

I made the number 3 printed on the Encyclopedia paper part of my title.

I can't seem to make a layout without adding one of the chipboard frames, arrows or hearts from the Daily Flash collection to it. They are my absolute favorite embellishments! What are yours?

I hope you feel inspired to play with this sketch! Share it with me if you do :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

//Alex

Tuesday Inspiration: Triangles & a Circle

Hey, October Afternoon fans! Mandy here with this week's Tuesday Inspiration. Today I'm sharing a pin from one of my inspiration boards on Pinterest.

I have a love for triangle right now and this had to be pinned when I first saw the image not only because there's triangles but the repetition of triangles, the circles, the stitched look and the many ways my eye thought this could go on a scrapbook page. I actually did not use the image as inspiration for a scrapbook layout this time instead I chose to create a card.

I decided to use one row of the triangles and the circle flipped horizontally for this card with minimal embellishing. I freehand cut the triangles from pattern paper and the circle is a chipboard button from the Public Library collection layered on a doily sticker. 

I used a mix of products from Public Library,Daily Flash All Boy, and  5&Dime on this card. Simple, fast, and easy to create! 

We'd love to see how you're being inspired , so please post your work to our October Afternoon Flickr gallery.

Thanks for joining me today! MK

Monday Challenge: Back to school

Hi everyone, Mou here with today's challenge.

School starts back here this week and the kids are reluctantly gearing up for going back to school routine. In that spirit, my challenge for you is to create a first day of school card/ gift using mainly one of these two October Afternoon collections: Daily Flash Milk Money or Public Library.

Here's my take. I used mainly the Public Library collection. The papers I chose are: Encyclopedia, Card Catalog, Biography and Due Date. I also cut out a few leaves from the Daily Flash Apple Cider Harvest paper to embellish.

Here's a close-up of my card.

Hope you'll take today's creative challenge to make your own back-to-school gift or greeting project. Have fun and thanks for stopping by.

 

Thursday Sketch: Layered Clusters

Hey, October Afternoon fans! Mandy here with this week's Thursday sketch. The sketch is a simple layout design of layered clusters in opposite corners of the page and can be easily adjusted to suit your style. 

and here is my layout.

 

I love the Public Library collection!it actually inspired this layout from start to finish! The "Silly Goose" is the first thing I picked up when I started creating then I found my pictures and boom the whole layout was done in like 30 minutes. 

 

I love all the layers in the clusters. Tucking bits and pieces here and there is something I love to do and such a great way to use up some of those little odds and ends laying around. 

Remember take the sketch use it as is or make it your own it's up to you.  We'd love to see anything you create with this sketch, so please post your work to our October Afternoon Flickr gallery.

Thanks for joining me today! MK

Tuesday Inspiration: Tags and Twine

Hello!  It's Laura here with an Inspiration Tuesday for you.  

I love being able to share how I draw inspiration from things.  For the most part when I just don't have any great idea on the top of my head I will turn to Pinterest, and scroll away till something sparks the creative fire.

Today I saw this image of a simple tag tied with twine around a gift, and for some reason it popped into my head that label stickers would make a great tag.  

(Image Source)

So then I pulled out my Girl Talk Daily Flash papers, and some label stickers and created this card.

I used a hole punch in the top of the tags, and attached it to the card with some light hemp cord wrapped around the card front.  To get the cord to stay in place I again used my hole punch and punched half circles on the top and bottom of the card.  The cord will be visible in the inside of the card, but that doesn't bother me.  I feel it adds to the home made whimsical feel.

I made the sentiment with a die-cut "hello" and Daily Flash Alpha stickers.

So that's my card for today, I love how it only took seeing a simple inspiration image for an idea to pop into my head and give me a creative direction.  I hope that it can do the same for you!

If you get a chance to play along, post your project in the OA Flickr Gallery or share it with us on the October Afternoon Facebook page. We love to see what you are creating!

Thanks for stopping by!

Laura :)