October Afternoon

Mix it Up Monday

Hello OA fans, Melanie and Sasha here today for Mix It Up Monday!!!  This week our weekly theme is Love is… This theme really opens up the door for so many different possibilities and journaling prompt. I wanted us to do some creative thinking, so along with the this theme I challenged Sasha to use a picture that represent a loving action, people’s faces shouldn’t be part of the picture, it must solely focus on the action.

As you can see Sasha rocked this challenge. Her layout is so amazing, I just love the sweet picture of her daughters holding hands, what a beautiful story to document. 

I decided to scrap this old photo of my girls, holding hands while watching TV. While they hold hands occasionally now, they certainly don't do it while watching TV! :D  I typed out my journaling and printed it straight onto the white cardstock. I cut strips of the Biography Patterned Paper from our Public Library collection and placed them as borders for my design. That paper is one of my favorite of all time, I think you can tell if you have been following my work for some time. I then embellished my layout with a star chipboard, pop drops, an ampersand sticker from this sheet and I added my girls' initials using this adorable Strawberry Ice Cream Alphas.  What a wonderful challenge Melanie! Thank you for the nudge to scrap this photo! :)

 

Like Sasha I decided to use a hand holding picture of our youngest daughter holding hands with her father. The journaling focuses on our feelings towards her, what her little hand in ours represents. To create this layout I used the Saturday Mornings collection, paired with kraft diecut letters I purchased at the dollar store. Love how those big letters really enhance the love theme of this layout. I also created small clusters of embellishments using Stars & Heart chipboard, Partly Cloudy chipboard, Tin Pins, Pop Drops and the title was created using one of my all-time favorite alpha Flash Chip Grey Flannel.

 

We would love for you to play along! Upload your layout to the October Afternoon Flickr gallery, post it on our Facebook page, or connect with us on Instagram via #octoberafternoon. Happy Monday, and happy scrapping!

Days like these | Saturday Mornings

Hello again, it's Nicole Nowosad back again with another Guest Designer post on the October Afternoon Blog!

If you read my intro last week, you will have read that I love patterned paper. I have been a hoarder of October Afternoon for years now, and so this was a great opportunity to force me to use up some of those supplies along with the newest collection Saturday Mornings!

This page is primarly made up of the Saturday Mornings collection, but I also added in some Chipboard from Daily Flash, Pop Drops, Tin Pins from Snapshots and lots of Label Stickers too from other collections.

The Memory Card Mix from the Saturday Mornings collection is perfect on both the A and B sides of the cards. I used a few here layered on my page, and adding Label Stickers for detail.

I love the Chipboard Heart & Stars from Daily Flash and added a few hearts to the photo group on my page.

 

Thanks for stopping by the blog with me today! I will be back next Friday with another page made with lots of scraps of October Afternoon!

Here's a sneak for you :)

Thursday Sketch: Simple Heart

Hey guys :)

This is Laura here today with a simple card sketch, although you could definitely use it as inspiration for a layout, or pocket page as you will see bellow!

Here is the card I made using lots of goodies from the Daily Flash Girl talk line.  I thought the colors were perfect for a sweet valentines card.  I won't even tell you how many times I had to hand cut that heart to make it look even remotely good.. But in the end I'm happy and think it was worth the effort.  A bit of machine stitching helped to finish the heart and card, tying the look of them together.

I paired it with a cute chipboard heart, and a pop drop heart to add to my love theme.

And of course here is the sketch I made to share with you guys.  As usual my sketch making skills are amazing ;)

 

I have Ginny with me today to see her inspiring take on the sketch!  I was so amazed how she made it work for her.

Here is what she had to say:

When I  saw the sketch the first thing that drew me in was the heart in the center, so that was my starting point. I decided to do a pocket page layout for my yearly album. I love to have see through pockets, I think it really adds some visual interest when looking through this type of album. So I knew that was where the hearts were going to go! Then I just filled in the surrounding pockets, the color scheme came from the cute desk card from the Public Library collection. I adhered the chipboard hearts to the inside of the pocket, I then stitched directly through the whole pocket. I don’t think the hearts would have fallen out, I just like to stitch through any and everything ;)

Ginny is a girl after my own heart with all her stitching!  I just love it.

So thanks for stopping by today, I hope you are having an amazing day. If you guys feel inspired to use my sketch, then please share your creations in the October Afternoon Flickr Gallery!  I'd love to see them :)

 

Laura & Ginny 

Inspiration | October Afternoon

Hi, everyone! Roree here with this week's inspiration post.

So very often when doing an inspiration post, I head straight to Pinterest. With so many ideas at your fingertips, it is THE go-to place for inspiration. But this week, I decided to look for inspiration a little closer to home. October Afternoon has the cutest products on the market and I just love each and every collection they come out with. The new Saturday Mornings collection is no different and that is where I found this weeks inspiration piece.

I fell in love with the Omelette patterned paper as soon as I saw it. The retro images of children watching Saturday morning cartoons took me right back to those early Saturday mornings when I was little. I was so inspired by the old-timey televisions sets, that I decided to make this card:

I cut out a retro TV image with my Cricut Explore and Nifty Fifties cartridge using some brown cardstock and the Pancakes and Crepes patterned papers, adding the darling bear sticker from the Shape Stickers sheet under the top cut.

I added two buttons from the Midway Buttons pack for the TV knobs.

Then, I finished the card with some sentiments from the Word Stickers and Border & Label Stickers sheets, a die cut heart, and a heart sticker from the Daily Flash Snapshots Double Take Stickers pack.

It's just a fun little shaped card with a bit of a masculine feel—perfect for a little "Love Letter" to your valentine. ;)

If today's inspiration piece inspires your next project, please share your creation by linking it on Instagram with the hashtag #octoberafternoon, along with tagging @octoberafternoon, so we can see! You can also share your projects on our OA Facebook wall or the OA Flickr gallery. Have a great week!

Timeless Love

Happy Tuesday everyone! Suz here along with Alex who is with us today sharing an inspirational design that was created as a result of a prompt by Mandy K; "timeless love." Here is what Alex had to say about her creation:

From Alex: "I rarely scrap about me and my husband. It could be because we don't have any newer pictures of us together... Mandy's "timeless love" challenge was perfect! The pictures doesn't have to be new. I love him today as much as I did eight years ago when this photo was taken. I searched for "timeless love" quotes and chose one that I wrote on my photo before I printed it. I cut a page full of white pop-up hearts and backed it up with my favorite Dish paper from the Daily Flash Girl Talk collection. I added a couple of Girl Talk flash blurbs and some grey Milk Money heart pop drops. My title is made with the lovely Strawberry Ice Cream chipboard alphas and the Meringue stickers. This turned out to be a quick and easy page full of love :-)

 

Thanks for the fun challenge, Mandy!"

How awesome is the dimension created by that cut file?  I love how Alex placed the adorable Dish patterned paper behind the cut file. Stunning effect!

 

If you play along with this "timeless love" prompt, please share your creations by linking us up on Instagram with the hashtag #octoberafternoon  and tag us @octoberafternoon so we can see! You can also share on our OA Facebook wall or the OAFlickr gallery. Have a great week! 

 

Mix it up Monday: A Love Letter Recipe

Hello, and happy Monday! Emily here with a Monday challenge for you! As we mentioned last week, we are changing things up a bit here on the October Afternoon blog, and every week will be focusing on a theme. This week's theme is:

I decided to do a recipe challenge along with our theme.  My "ingredients" include:

• 1 love letter
• 1 photo
• At least one heart
• At least one label
• The color green

Joining me today is the super talented Melanie Blackburn.  I was super excited to have Mel play along, because I pretty much adore everything she creates! She did not disappoint!! Check out her fabulous love letter layout:

Mel says, "I was so excited to be playing along to Emily's fun recipe challenge. This type of challenge is always a sure way to spark an idea. I incorporated all of Emily idea's on my layout, however I did tuck the love letter under the picture. Since this is a private note to my husband I felt it was more appropriate to hide this love letter. To create this layout I used the Public Library collection, even though it is not love themed it was still perfect for this layout. I was able to pull elements from this line to complement my love theme. The large chipboard numbers from the Daily Flash collection were ideal for my title, which I completed with a die cut word. Hope you enjoy this challenge, I can't wait to see what you create. Thanks Em for the inspiration!!!"

Next up is the layout that I made. I have to admit, when I found out that this week's theme was "love letters," I think I may have let out an audible groan. I am like the least love-lettery person ever. I can barely bring myself to write a romantic one sentence Facebook status on my anniversary.  I decided to just ditch the traditional love letter and do something a little silly. ;)  So...I wrote a love poem.  To my shoes. Yes, my shoes.  I actually like to think of it as a little shoe love rap.  Check it out:

I know. It's totally ridiculous, but sometimes it's take a little leap outside of the box a bit!  The layout itself is super simple. I used some papers from the new Saturday Mornings line, as well as a mix of other green and aqua products.  You may notice that my green mist was still wet when I took this photo - daylight is precious right now, so I didn't have time to wait for it to dry.  

What about you? Are you a love letter writer?  We would love for you to play along! Upload your layout to the October Afternoon Flickr gallery, post it on our Facebook page, or connect with us on Instagram via #octoberafternoon. Happy Monday, and happy scrapping!

February's Guest Designer | Nicole Nowosad

Good morning! My name is Nicole Nowosad and I am very excited to be guest designing for October Afternoon this month!

 

I am a full-time working mom to two boys (12, and 9) and our princess who is almost 6!  I live a busy life, and that is just how I like it.

I have been scrapbooking in one way or another for about 15 years now. If I had to describe my personal style, it would involved a few words - color, pattern and stitching. I love using pieces of paper instead of whole sheet and yes, I keep even the smallest of scraps! I have am very fortunate to be on the Design Teams for Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine, Jillibean Soup, Silhouette, Bella Blvd and Hip Kit Club.

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

I mainly scrapbook layouts but do make cards also! I would say most of my creative time surrounds scrapbooking 12x12 layouts.

 Q. What is on your scrap desk right now?

 

I just switched desks, so right now there is actually nothing which is odd for me. I always have something on the go, whether it is just some Silhouette cut shapes for my next project or odd supplies that need to be tucked away.

 

Q. What is your favorite October Afternoon line or product?

 

This is acutally a tough question! I have been hoarding lots of October Afternoon, but I would say I still love Cherry Hill, Sidewalks and Snaphots the most. I love the October Afternoon floral patterns and fun B side patterned papers. I could scrap all day with just OA papers!

 

Q. What can you NOT scrapbook without?

 

Oops, I think I just answered that! Patterned paper, it is my go-to supply. I try to make everything and anything from it. Tool-wise, I would say my Silhouette Cameo. I would even give up my paper trimmer for that.

 

Q. What is your favorite source of inspiration?

 

Truthfully, I don't really look for inspo. unless I have absolutely no mojo. I don't often go into galleries, I do Pinterest though. If I am needing some mojo, I will search shapes or graphic art prints on their to peak my interest.

 

 

 

Q. What is your favorite movie or TV show?

 

Well, I am sad to admit that I have watched Days of Our Lives since I was about 12 years old... so maybe that??? But, I do LOVE Scandal!! It's my new fave. Love that Olivia Pope :)

 

Q. What is your favorite food?

 

Hands down - Pizza. I even worked in a major pizza chain for 18 years and you would think I would hate it. Nope.

 

Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?

 

Hmm, good question. When I think back to my childhood, I always recall the times my family spent camping at various places in Canada, so I will have to go with that! 

 

Q. If you were a superhero, what would your name be and what power would you possess?

 

Oh my. Hmm, Multi-Task Mama. I would possess the power to get multiple things done in a flash.

 

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

 

That's easy. My deceased grandparents. There is so much to ask them, and I never had the chance.

 

 

I look forwards to being with you every Friday in February!

 

You can follow me here:

 

Blog:  Nicole Nowosad

Instagram:  http://instagram.com/nicolenowosad Username: @nicolenowosad

Facebook:  Nicole Nowosad

Twitter: Nicole Nowosad

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/nicolenowosad/

Galleries:  http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/469117.html

OA Sketch Day

Happy Thursday everyone! Suz here along with the fun and fabulous Mandy K to share with you this week's sketch challenge and our takes on it.

First up, the sketch:

And here is Mandy's fantastic take on the design and what she had to say about it:

 "The sketch Suz created for this weeks challenge is awesome! I had lots of ideas swirling in my head but I decided to keep it simple and create a fun date card to send to a friend since a "Pancake Date" with my girl Lisa is at the top of my list to make sure gets done this year. I love the cut stickers and fun paper from the Saturday Mornings collection it make it simple a quick to create this little card.

Thanks for asking me to join along with this fabulous sketch Suz!" 

 

*ETA--Isn't that card adorable! Love the way Mandy used the pop drops to add motion and dimension to her card!  Thanks for playing along with the sketch Mandy!

For this sketch, I created with the Saturday Mornings Collection and kept pretty true to the sketch, opting to use one of the four squares to house my photo and the others to use some stickers and patterned papers from the Saturday Morning collection to complete the look.

I kept the title in the approximate location as depicted in the sketch, but chose to journal on one of the Saturday Mornings Word Stickers instead. For the lower triangle image, I placed the fork and spoon Shape Stickers in a "v" pattern. Then I added some stitching and a bit of Lemon Drop SprINKlers, dropping a few slashes across the page to mimic batter droplets. ;)

This sketch would translate well to a card design too.

We hope this post leaves you inspired to crack into your stash of OA goodies or even your new haul of Saturday Mornings and to start creating with them! Please share your creations on OA's Facebook wall or on Instagram. On Instagram, please tag us @octoberafternoon and use the hashtags #octoberafternoon #oasketchday so we can see what you've been creating with OA products!

Have a great day! 

Inspiration: Pinterest

Like most of you, I find Pinterest to be so inspiring, and helps nudge my creativity.  

This piece inspired me in a few ways...the repetition of the word love (slight differences in text), tone on tone, simplicity, and the way the ends are raised on each word.

I was tempted to do a literal interpretation, but decided to go with repetition and simplicity...maybe even a little of that tone on tone.  This is what I did.

I used the new Saturday Mornings collection and used the Silhouette to cut circles at size 1.097.  Then stapled with the Tiny Attacher.  Once I had them placed where I wanted, I added in some random/messy stamping with the Everyday roller stamp, then adhered my circles.

This week's theme is Love List, and on the top of that list are lazy weekend mornings.  I used stickers from the Saturday Mornings collection and cut them to work into the design.  (TIP:  You don't always have to use a sticker as is).  I stamped, embossed and fussy cut the ampersand, and added in some chipboard as well from Daily Flash.

I kept with the simplicity of the inspiration, but I did add a border strip from Saturday Mornings collection and added my typed journaling on a scrap piece of Kraft cardstock and stitched in place.  I like the framed look it gives the layout.

Hope you will find your own interpretation of this inspiration piece and share on Instagram.  Tag me at Patricia_Roebuck so I can see and use hashtags #octoberafternoon #oainspiration.  Thanks for joining me today!

Topic Tuesday: Constant Cravings

This week's blog theme is "The Love List," which can be interpreted in many different ways. Listing is one of the easiest (and, depending on the list, most amusing) approaches to journaling on layouts. Today's Topic Tuesday prompt challenges you to create a culinary "love list," based on the kind of love that demands to be indulged from time to time. We all have cravings. What are yours?

Let's get started! Make a list of your food loves, and put those food-centered Instagram and Facebook photos to use (you know you have a bunch). Here's my take on this week's prompt:

I won't lie. My full list could have filled at least two more layouts. Still, I was able to fit quite a few of my food loves on this page, thanks to the listing approach, which doesn't require complete sentences. Between each item on the list, I added bullets and the occasional culinary-themed accent from the Apple Cider and Saturday Mornings collections. 

Those two collections, in fact, include a variety of food-related accents and patterns, as do collections from years past. I worked in a few "vintage" October Afternoon bits, like the punched circle above from the Road Map collection and the hand-cut ice cream cone below from one of the Fly a Kite Wild Cards. 

If you're feeling ready to take on this week's prompt, I must share a word of caution first: creating a page like this builds up one heck of an appetite! 

Be sure to share your projects in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery. I can't wait to taste -- er, see -- your love list! 

Thanks for visiting today! 

-- Jill