October Afternoon

Monday Challenge : Black and White

Often, black and white photos take a backseat. At least for me, that's the case. Not today! This beautiful Monday I'm challenging you to scrap at least one black and white photo. My eldest daughter is into black and white photos right now and I thought why not use one of hers for my layout? :) Why not indeed. 

I haven't done this much layering in a while and it was so fun. I should layer more, I think! :) Those awesome papers from our Treasure Map collection are just perfect for me. They work for simple, graphic layout and are still amazing to use for a heavily layered layout like this one. 

I also used quite a lot of bits and pieces from older collections. Namely Daily Flash All Boy Double Take Stickers, Daily Flash Snapshots Snap Caps, Daily Flash Milk Money Memory Cards and Daily Flash Girl Talk Flash Blurbs. Can you spot them all?

The chipboard arrows, oh the chipboard arrows. . .  I don't know what I'm gonna do without them. I can't stop using them but at the same time I don't want to run out! Love them so! Do you have one pack of embellishment that you love like I do the chipboard arrows (and hearts &stars too)?! 

To finish my layout, I added yellow machine-stitching, and a sprinkling of colors, as usual. I love that the machine stitching and the splatters are part of my routine to signify the completion of a layout. I like the feeling of 'being done' if you know what I mean! :)

I look forward to see your take on this black and white challenge. If you do, @sashafarina on Instagram, feel free to tag me when/if you upload your layout. I usually post sneaks and my layouts with #octoberafternoon in the description. You can also share your creations with us via the October Afternoon Flickr Gallery.

 

Happy scrapping!

 

 

Making BIG letters: OA Treasure Map collection

Well guys...I tried something different this week and ended up with a 12x12 layout and lots of photos. I'm usually and 8.5 x 11, big picture kind of girl. I rearranged and reworked this one several times. Not entirely sure I'd do this again, but it's always fun to play with something new, whether it's a new size or technique or style :)

One of the trends that I'm really having fun with right now are those BIG chipboard letters. And that's kind of the idea I had in mind when I got to work on this layout.

I'm a hybrid scrapper. I use my computer A LOT! And I do have a Cameo...but it's out of commission at the moment. So I needed to come up with an alternative way to make myself some custom letters. I have always admired Becky Novacek's beautiful BEAUTIFUL hand cut lettering, and I'm not afraid to admit that I stink at doing it myself. So I did what I often do and started working with my computer. I started with an 8.5 x 11 canvas in Photoshop Elements and chose a big, chunky font to make a "template" for my title.

I printed it out on a heavy matte photo paper, although any kind of heavy weight paper would do. I cut them out, then chose a few papers from the Treasure Map collection.

I traced my letters onto the patterned paper (make sure you've got the reverse sides facing up!!) and cut them out as well.

This layout is a compilation of some recent snapshots of my kids together. I mixed up both black and white and colour photos, trying to minimize some of the competing colours. I love watching them grow into their roles as big brother and little sister. Not a huge story to tell here, really just a few favourite photos that I like seeing together as a collection.

I wanted to make sure this page still had some dimension to it, so I gently rounded up the corners of the photos and used foam dots to raise my letters off the page.

I replaced the "O" in my title with a chipboard circle and wrote in a little note. I also used a few miscellaneous stickers from the Treasure Map collection on a few of the photos.
Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you get a chance to spend some time crafting this weekend. Be BRAVE and try something new!

 

Thursday Sketch: Hearts in a Heart

Hi everyone! Alex here today bringing you this week's sketch. It's full of hearts.

I have also designed a cut file for the big heart full of hearts and I would be happy to share it with you. You can download it HERE.

Here is my layout using the gorgeous Treasure Map collection. This collection is so much more than just pirates ♥

I cut out the big heart from white cardstock and backed it with a piece of my favorite Moaning Cavern paper. 

This whole layout was actually inspired by the "treasure" sticker. My kids are my biggest treasure. I knew that I had to use it to scrap a photo of them.

I have adhered the heart with 3d-dots for more dimension and I put one of the border stickers underneath it. I like how that little detail turned out... And of course, what would an OA layout be without a couple of lovely Daily Flash chipboard hearts? :-)

I sent my sketch to super talented Emily, knowing that she would make something pretty awesome with it. Take a look at her amazing card!

Here is what Emily had to say about it:

"I love Alex's idea of a shape within a shape in this sketch! I knew immediately that I wanted to use stars, because, well, I really love stars! I opted to make a card rather than a layout which is a big shocker, because cards are not easy for me. In fact, this particular card probably took me longer to make than an average layout, which is crazy, I know!!  I followed Alex's overall design, keeping my large shape to the left and my "title" in the lower right. The Treasure Map Moaning Cavern patterned paper was perfect for my star because it automatically gave me stars within the star! I envision using this for a graduation or some kind of other celebration, and the Treasure Map Doo-dads, Tidbits, and Word Stickers all worked together to create an appropriate sentiment for my card. And, of course, I had to use my all time favorite stamp, the stars from the Inspiration Catch Phrase Stamp! Thanks to Alex for the great sketch!"

I hope you feel inspired to play with this sketch and/or cut file. If you do, please share it with us on one of OA's social media channels. If you use Instagram, tag me (@agadji) so I can see it too! Or just link up your project here! The most important thing is: have fun! :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Alex & Emily

October Afternoon's Annual Warehouse Sale - Spring 2015!!!

(*Yes, you read that right! SPRING 2015!)

Dates: Thursday May 28th through Saturday May 30th!   Donate to the Food Shelf on Thursday!   Please bring a non-perishable food donation for the Shepherd of the Valley / Our Daily Bread Food Shelf to gain "Early-Bird" admission on Thursday.   Back by popular demand: Pick your Pattern Paper by the sheet!!   Purchase Pattern Paper in quantities of 10 with no limits on mix & match!   Huge selection of products!  Don't miss out!   Follow the map on the flyer below...

Click Here for PDF Flyer

Questions? Please contact us at [email protected] Interested in helping out? Contact us at [email protected]

While in the area, don't forget to stop in at:

*Located in the same building with October Afternoon.   Carrying a full range of paper-crafting products from manufacturers such as:   American Crafts, Bazzill, Basic Grey, Doodlebug, My Minds Eye, October Afternoon, Tim Holtz, We R Memory Keepers, and more.   Store Phone:  952-955-9201   Store Address: 5708 Upper 147th St W #101 Apple Valley, MN  55124   Open Special Hours throughout Warehouse Sale!

Wednesday - Designer Challenge - Layers

Hello friends! Melanie here today, sharing with you a fun challenge that is close to my heart, creating with layers. Every layout I create has a form of layer, from the paper, to embellishments and journaling. Today I challenge you to incorporate one or all three of the type of layers onto your project. To create this project I used the amazing Treasure Map collection along with the Daily Flash Old Oak Alphas, Daily Flash Arrows and Stars. As you can see Treasure Map is a very versatile collection. Not only is it perfect for summer beach themed picture but can also be used with every day pictures and themes.

My first layer concept is created with the pattern paper using 3 pattern papers, a piece of velum paper and a journaling tag. Combining these elements together created the perfect anchor for my pictures, which are also layered. There is no right or wrong way to create layers with paper, simplify find colors and patterns that complement each other and start layering the papers until you are happy with the design.

 

Next up is layering with stickers, embellishments and chipboard. I wanted to create a focal point which would highlight the speech bubble and the star. By adding various texture and elements I was able to create a fun focal point that is sure to attract attention.

 

Last but certainly not least, the journaling labels. I love using these fun labels for my journaling, I selected various sizes all similar in length, add the journaling with my electric type writer and place on my layout in an overlapping fashion. A bit of gold stitching was added to complement the gold mist splatters.

 

I would love to see your take on this challenge! Upload your layout to the October Afternoon Flickr gallery, post it on our Facebook page, or connect with us on Instagram via #octoberafternoon.  Happy crafting!!!

Tuesday Inspiration: Stuff!!

Hi there! Happy Tuesday! Emily here with today's inspiration piece! I have a humongous Pinterest board filled with art and graphic design that I've so aptly titled "Artsy." This is my go-to board when searching for scrapbook inspiration. Today's piece appears to be a poster advertising some kind of festival...though I don't speak French, so I can't be too sure!  There is so much I love about this, but most notably the white handwritten title and boarder, the ombre sunset, and finally the fantastic collection of bits and pieces flaring out from the bottom. 

(Source)

Joining me today is the insanely talented Patricia who used the poster to inspire a cute card! Here's what she had to say:

I haven’t done a card yet with the Treasure Map collection  and when I saw Emily’s inspiration piece, I knew it would be perfect using one of the cards from the Journal Cards Pattern Paper.  I trimmed the journal card so the outline of “Ahoy” really stood out with the loops from the rope and layered it with a darker piece of pattern paper.   Similar to the inspiration piece with the objects at the top being the same color, this card is mostly blue with neutral colors of brown, off white, and grey.  I repeated the arrows at the top with a few stars from Daily Flash   Going along with the theme of the card “Ahoy,” I added the sticker saying “Chart Your Course By the Stars” at the top, and a small phase sticker at the bottom.  Everything works together by the repeating colors, and chipboard pieces.  The Treasure Map collection is so versatile with the nautical theme, this would make a great graduation card.  Thank you so much Emily for the inspiration!!

I decided to use a more direct interpretation of the poster.  As you may have noticed from my past layouts, I really like "stuff." I like filling up the space with little bits and pieces, just like the inspiration poster. I decided to create a layout about my son and all the little elements to represent his thoughts. My son is 20 months old, but he doesn't really talk. He only has a couple of words that he uses regularly, however when he was evaluated for speech, we were told his communication and understanding is actually above where it should be, save his verbal speech.  I wanted to show in this layout that even though my son doesn't talk, he's got all these brilliant little thoughts in his head.  

Whenever I create a layout that uses lots of embellishments, I usually pull out a bunch in each color and put them together almost like a puzzle. In this case I used a lot of chipboard elements (the arrows and the hearts and stars are my favorite), some pillow puffs, and lots of stickers and die cuts.  These are from a big mix of October Afternoon lines.

I would love to see how you are inspired by this poster! Upload your layout to the October Afternoon Flickr gallery, post it on our Facebook page, or connect with us on Instagram via #octoberafternoon. Happy Tuesday, and happy scrapping!

Monday Challenge: Destination

What comes to mind with the word "Destination?"  I think of my dream places I would love to visit and see, favorite vacation spots and favorite places like your favorite coffee shop, favorite store to shop.  I also think of where I want to be, my goals, dreams.  Destination can be a place, a dream, a feeling, or a goal...it is a word with unlimited possibilities.

For me, I have Summer on my mind and my absolute favorite place to be is in the pool.  It is my little getaway without leaving home.

After I picking my photo first, I reached for the new background stamp Out to Sea from Treasure Map and stamped it in white pigment ink on the dark blue Hangman's Cove pattern paper, then embossed in white.  Trimmed it out and adhered to the woodgrain Moby Dick pattern paper.  I layered more pattern papers from the Treasure Map collection behind my photo, and added some embellishments around the photo, like this adorable octopus.  I added baby powder to take away the stickiness, and then adhered him with a pop dot.

I kept the Out to Sea stamp as the extension of the water from the pool, and added my embellishments to either side of the waves.  

I cannot say enough how much I love this collection.  Using Treasure Map for this photo and my favorite destination makes me think of Summer, the beach, anywhere tropical and perfect for vacation and cruise photos.  The button is from an older collection, and the Destination stamp is the roller stamp called Travel from Daily Flash.

So excited to have Sasha joining me for this challenge, and see her interpretation of the word "Destination."

I dream about travel all day long, all year long. It's true! Have you ever heard the saying "if traveling is free, you'd never see me again"? Yes, that would apply to me. When I was given this challenge, I knew I would have to scrap about my wish to travel the world. 

I have an enormous amount of photos taken from the airplane and this is a perfect layout for them! :)

 

 

I used lots of Treasure Map collection on this layout. Pieces of True North pp was used to cut the words 'everything' and 'on my list' and Dead Man's Pass pp was hand cut into little wonky triangles. If you haven't taken a close look at Dead Man's Pass pp, let me tell you that the B side has ombre triangles on it. Very pretty! I then completed the layout with several pieces of stickers from Daily Flash Snapshots and All Boy collection, a heart chipboard and of course yellow machine stitching and some paint sprinkled all over. 

 

 

Thank you Patricia for this great challenge! I had a great time playing along!

 

What I love about Sasha's layout is she was able to use those airplane photos to document her desire and wish to travel the world and see as much as she can.  Just so long as she takes me with her!  Thank you so much Sasha for playing along!

 

How will you interpret "Destination?"  What is the first thing that comes to mind?  Scrapbook it with a photo or no photo.  Hope you will share either on October Afternoon Flickr Account, Instagram, and/or below.  Use the hashtag #octoberafternoon and #oadesignerchallenge.  Would love to see your interpretation!

Pocket Page Scrapbooking: OA Treasure Map

My favourite things to scrapbook are the little moments of everyday life. And pocket page scrapbooking is pretty much the perfect format for me to capture some of those details! So I thought I'd share a spread made with the beautiful bits and pieces of the Treasure Map collection.

I'm working with a 12x12 album this year, but I'm a big fan of mixing up the sizes inside. This spread is actually made of 2-9x12 page protectors, a full page on the left and 9-3x4 pockets on the right.

I've always been a fan of including photo enlargements in my projects. I do pretty much all of my printing at home on a standard sized Canon Pixma that is capable of printing borderless photos. For the left side of this spread, I printed a full page 8.5 x 11 photo on glossy photo paper and added an additional strip of journaling across the bottom to make up the size difference. I kept it super simple, mainly because I just love that photo. I added a label to indicate the date range and the journaling is just a few completely random things about my kids right now that will be fun to look back on in the years to come.

The right side was really fun to piece together! Each of those little pockets is like a new canvas to work with and try out different techniques! Here's a closer look at some of those pockets...

I like to add stitching to my projects because it serves a functional purpose of attaching bits and pieces together, but mainly because I just like how it looks :)
Tabs, tags and labels are definitely among my favourite embellishments to work with, which is probably why I love the little embellishment packs of Tidbits and Doo-dads so much.

The adhesive labels and border stickers are great for adding fun details to your Project Life cards without adding too much bulk to your page protectors. I've been leaning more and more towards typing my journaling instead of handwriting lately. I just prefer the cleaner look right now. I don't actually have a typewriter, so I do my journaling in Photoshop Elements and run the cards through my printer. 

 One of the things I've started to do in my Project Life spreads (and I'm really loving the look of!) is trimming down the photos that are going into my 3x4 pockets and adding some patterned paper/journaling in the space at the bottom (or top!). Adding a bit of machine stitching between the two pieces feels like the perfect touch!

I mentioned above about the advantage of not adding too much bulk to the pockets, but sometimes I really do like the added dimension of popping pieces up with foam dots. I like the way the shadows add a little something to my projects. That tag on the right is one of my favourite pieces in this spread!

I started off with a large plain white shipping tag, ran it through the printer to add my journaling, added a date stamp, some of that awesome patterned paper (it's called Shipwreck Coast) and a bit of stitching to bring it all together.

A few letter stickers on a full pocket photo...

and a section of patterned paper transformed into a journaling card! That is actually a small section of "Whale Bone Reef" that was perfect for tying everything together :)

Thanks for taking the time to check out my project today! I hope you found a bit of inspiration and some fun new ideas to try :) I'll be back next Friday with a more "traditional" layout.

 

Thursday Sketch with Sasha and Suz

Hi everyone! Sasha here!

I have a new sketch for you to jumpstart your layout today. This sketch would be perfect for you to showcase multiple photos. Suz and I will each be showing a layout example. 

Here is Suz's take on the sketch. I'm totally hungry after looking at this layout though! :D I love that Suz added that strip of patterned paper and a border sticker on the right hand side, and I adore the stitching lines for her precious handwritten journaling. 

 

Suz said :

"When I first saw Sasha's sketch, I knew it would work perfectly for some recent photos I took on a road trip with my hubby to an organic restaurant. I decided to use some photo and a few OA Doodads in place of where some of the photos are in Sasha's sketch. For the journaling areas, I decided to stitch a journaling box and a few stitched lines to journal above. I love the cascading movement to Sasha's sketch as it draws one's eyes down the page. Thanks Sasha for the inspiration!! :)"

OA ITEMS USED IN THIS DESIGN: DAILY FLASH: Flash Chip | Stars & Hearts, DAILY FLASH: Catch Phrase Roller Stamp | "Inspiration", DAILY FLASH: Eggnog | Pop Drops, DAILY FLASH ALPHAS: Snap Peas, Story Book ("green"), DAILY FLASH ALPHAS: Clover, Story Book ("Ruggles"), SATURDAY MORNINGS: 12 x 12 patterned paper; "Toast", SATURDAY MORNINGS: Doodads, SATURDAY MORNINGS: Border & Label Stickers

And here's what I made based on the sketch.

Can we take a moment and *sigh* for Treasure Map? I adore that collection oh so much!

I only used 2 photos and replaced the rest with randomly cut squares and rectangles of patterned papers, but followed the sketch quite closely otherwise. I scrapped about our very quiet vacation way back in 2009. We were practically the only family there. It was amazing to say the least. 

I completed the layout with some chipboards (heart and cloud), some Public Library doodads, a few pop drops from our Daily Flash Milk Money collection, and also a very cute Treasure Map anchor tin pin.

The title was made up from Early American Shop Front and Stop Light Story Book stickers. I'm still head over heels in love with those cursive alphas stickers just so you know! :)

We hope you'll have time to play with the sketch. I'm @sashafarina on Instagram. I usually post sneaks and my layouts with #octoberafternoon in the description. You can also share your creations with us via the October Afternoon Flickr Gallery.

 

Happy scrapping!

 

 

Celebrate Mom | Mother's Day Card

Hello everyone! Suz here with you today to remind you (lest any of you have forgotten) that Mother's Day is this weekend!  (Why do I feel that this is not news to you, but that I should be posting this reminder over on ESPN's Facebook wall?! LOL) ;)

Here's is a simple card I made for my momma by layering up a few items from the Public Library collection. Being a mom to two boys, I love taking any opportunity to break open the florals, the pretties, the more girly items in the OA collections. Card making gives me the perfect reason to do so and this collection worked well for my Mother's Day theme.

 

A little close up of the details:

 

 

 

OA PRODUCTS USED TO CREATE THIS CARD: Public Library "Librarian" Patterned Paper, PL Mini Market Index Card alphas, PL "Sh-h-h" patterned paper, PL Tidbits, PL acrylic stamps "true story", PL "Bookworm" Label Stickers, Daily Flash Milk Money Pop Drop (heart)

 

Hope each of you enjoy your Mother's Day weekend! Thank you for stopping by today!

Suz