October Afternoon

Under the Tree: Mini Album | Guest Designer: Kim Mathura

Happy Friday everyone! Kim here with my last post as your September guest designer. It has been such an honor designing for October Afternoon. I had so much fun creating with the Under the Tree collection. Thank you very much! 

I have definitely saved the best project for last! It is going to be this cute Christmas mini album (measured 5” x 7.5”), using products from the Under the Tree collection.  

The inspiration for this mini album came from my first week’s project, which was the Christmas shaker card project. I wanted to create a mini album that had a window or an opening through the front cover. The solution was to use acrylic covers!

I hope you will enjoy looking through the pictures of my Christmas mini album. Grab some cookies and a glass of milk because there are a total of eleven pages in this mini album!

Front Cover - It was done by using the Tree Trimming and Cocoa Sipping papers. I used a Christmas tree die to cut out the middle part of each paper, creating a Christmas tree window through the acrylic front cover. It was a wonderful surprise to find out that most pieces in the ephemera pack were double-sided. Looking at the back of my front cover, I love how the deer peeks out through the Christmas tree window.

Page # 1 – To create this page, I used the First Snow background stamp to stamp on a piece of Vellum with VersaMark ink. I then sprinkled gold embossing powder onto the vellum. Heat set and Voila!

Page # 2 – This is a pocket page. I used the Mistletoe Kissing and Family Gathering papers to make a top loading pocket. The Candle Lighting paper is the photo mat inside the pocket. 

Page # 3 – I used the Candle Lighting paper to make this pull-out page. I have had this Vintage plastic deer for quite some time. I cut out a square from the two pull-out pieces. When closed, the deer peeks through the square window. 

Page # 4 – I cut a piece of the “Daily Flash 6 x 8 sleeve for 2 x 2” down to six 2” x 2” squares. I then cut the sentiment from the Merry Making paper into four pieces and inserted each one into a 2”x 2” pocket. The Music Notes washi tape was used to decorate the spine.

Page # 5 – This is a pocket page. The base of this page is the Story Telling paper. I used a piece of leftover vellum from page # 1 to make the pocket.

Page # 6 – This page is an envelope for your letters to Santa. The snowman is a cut-out from the Gift Giving paper. For a vintage touch, I affixed an old (20 cents) Christmas stamp to the top right corner of the envelope.

Page # 7 – This page is a Christmas Card List, which was cut from the Card Sending paper. 

Page # 8 – I used the fuse tool and cut down the “Daily Flash 6 x 8 Sleeve for 3 x 4” to fit my album. The Music Notes washi tape was used to decorate the spine.

Page # 9 – This is a double pocket page. I used the Cookie Nibbling paper to make this page. 

Page # 10 – This is a top loading pocket page. I cut this piece from the Merry Making Paper. When I saw this paper, I knew right away that I wanted to make an opening in the middle of it. I cut the white center part out and glued a piece of acetate behind it. I used the Stocking Hanging paper to make the photo mat. 

Page # 11 – I love making a “mini” inside my mini album. This page is no different. I used the fuse tool and cut down the “Daily Flash 6 x 8 sleeve for 6 x 8” to fit my album.The Music Notes washi tape was used to decorate the spine. I cut a piece from the Family Gathering, Cocoa Sipping and Story Telling papers, folded and stacked them to make this “mini.”

Back Cover – I covered the inside of the back cover with the Cocoa Sipping paper. I used the Tree Trimming paper for the back cover itself. The jingle bell sentiment is from the Merry Making paper and the tag at the bottom of the back cover is from the Tags & Cards pack.

Again, thank you very much for having me as a guest designer this month. I hope I have inspired you to make beautiful projects this Holiday season using the Under the Tree collection.

Happy Creating!

 

Designer Challenge: Little Photos

Hi there! Emily here with a fun designer challenge for you. I recently had the privilege of visiting Camp Wandawega with two friends. This "summer camp for adults" has been in the news and social media a lot lately, and I am lucky that I only live a little over an hour away. Between the three of us, my friends and I took hundreds of photos of this perfectly curated camp. I am hoping to create mini album of our camp adventures, but in the (rather likely) event that I don't get around to it, I wanted to be sure to at least document our time in a layout!  In order to include as many photos as possible, I decided to use lots of small photos on my layout. 

My printer makes it easy for me to print small photos by offering me the option of printing 1, 4, or 8 photos on a page. I decided to make three 4x6 sheets of four, giving me 12 total photos. Once I had my photos printed and cut, I arranged (and rearranged...and rearranged) them on my page until I was happy with their placement. I decided to orientate my photos in a grid in the top righthand corner of the page, with the title underneath and some colorful strips of paper as a boarder on the left.  

I used foam adhesive to raise a few of the photos off the page, and I decided at the last minute to swap out one of the photos for a Daily Flash woodgrain chipboard heart and the perfect (and true) "Instagrammed" sticker. I like how it breaks up the grid a bit and makes it a bit more visually stimulating. 

I used a piece of patterned paper from last year's December Story kit to cut my title. I love the plaid - it is reminiscent of the blankets they leave everywhere to snuggle up in and perfect for a camp layout!!  

Along the left side, I included a bunch of different colors and patterns. I knew that I wanted to include some yellow in the layout so that it didn't have too much of a holiday vibe. The little cluster at the bottom is appropriately "vintage" - the Daily Flash Girl Talk badge features an antique phone dial, and the Sidewalks "Little Flyer" flag is truly vintage October Afternoon - it has a copyright date on the back of 2011!!

I contemplated adding journaling to this layout, but honestly, the photos tell so much of the story, that I didn't feel like it was necessary. It's a rather busy layout, and I didn't know that adding MORE to it would be the best idea!!  Here's the final product:

Tell me, when is the last time you went to summer camp?  How did you document it? I'd love to see your take on my little photo challenge or see any camp-inspired projects you may have! Upload your work to the October Afternoon Flickr gallery, post it on our Facebook page, or connect with us on Instagram via #octoberafternoon. Happy Wednesday, and happy scrapping!

Tuesday Inspiration

Hey, everyone! Roree here with a little inspiration for you this fine Tuesday.

Today's inspiration comes from an Oreo's advertisement. 

I have been seeing this "Wonderfilled" ad quite a bit and was totally inspired by its simplicity. I created a card inspired by it using the new Under the Tree collection:

I used the Tree Trimming patterned paper for the base and cut a circle from the Cookie Nibbling patterned paper for the center of the card. I layered a holly sticker from the Shape Stickers sheet and the bird tin pin from the Tin Pins pack over the circle. I placed a sentiment under the circle with the Working - 12x12 Alpha Stickers sheet and added a gold star Pop Drop to one of the letters. I finished with some machine stitching around the outside edges.

If the "Wonderfilled" Oreo ad 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.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Under the Tree: NOEL Banner | Guest Designer: Kim Mathura

Happy Friday everyone! Kim here with my second project as your September guest designer. Today, I would like to show you how I made this stinkin’ cute Christmas banner, using the Under the Tree collection. 

In addition to making cards and mini books, I also love making banners. Christmas decorating would not be complete without a cute banner hanging somewhere in my house. It just makes me happy every time I look at it.

Creating banners is relatively easy. Once you know the basics, you will soon be making banners for every occasion.

Here is how I made this Christmas banner…

Step 1: Gather the supplies.

For this project, I decided to use triangle (with scalloped edge) chipboard banner pieces. I painted the edges of each chipboard banner with grey acrylic paint.  

My plan for the letters was to cover each one with the shabby white embossing enamel from Stampendous. Before I could apply the embossing enamel to each letter, I painted it with Gesso to prevent the embossing ink from soaking into the chipboard letter. Once dry, I covered each letter entirely with the embossing ink dabber and sprinkled the embossing enamel on top of it. Heat set and voila! The “NOEL” letters now have a white enamel look with a touch of gold. Mission accomplished!

Step 2: Cover each banner piece with patterned papers.

Cover each piece of the banner with various papers from the Under the Tree collection – Cookie Nibbling, Cocoa Sipping, Candle Lighting and Mistletoe Kissing, leaving about a ¼” border around the edges. I then decorated the top of each banner with Christmas ribbons.

The faux stitching on the banner piece was done by gliding the tracing wheel along the edges and connecting the dots with a fine tip black pen. I then punched two holes at the top with a Crop a Dile and reinforced each hole with an eyelet. 

Step 3: Make the Rosettes.

        1. Cut two 2" x 12" strips of paper and punch out two scalloped (or plain) circles.

        2. Score every 1/2" and accordion fold each strip of paper.

        3. Join the two strips of paper to make a circle, using a strong adhesive.

        4. Make the rosette. 

Step 4: Assemble.

Attach the rosette to the banner piece. Attach the letter to each rosette and decorate each banner with elements from ephemera pieces, shape stickers, word stickers and tin pins. Here is a close-up of each banner piece…

I hope you enjoyed my banner tutorial and are inspired to make a Christmas banner this year. I will be back next Friday with my last project as your September guest designer. 

Happy Creating!

Thursday Sketch

Hey, everyone! Roree here with you all today sharing a card sketch.

Playing around in Photoshop, I came up with this:

This sketch was originally designed for a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card but you can easily adjust it for a square card, or you could add a photo in place of the flower and use the sketch for a layout—whatever works best for you!

I created a card with the new Under the Tree collection.

I used the Tree Trimming patterned paper for the base and added strips of the Merry Making and Cookie Nibbling patterned papers, along with some machine stitching. I then layered a snowman and sentiment stickers from the Shape Stickers and Word Stickers sheets over the strips and finished it off with a heart Pop Drop.

If today's sketch 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.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Tuesday Inspiration: Frame Gallery

Hi everyone! Alex here bringing you this week's inspiration piece. I was browsing Pintereset for frame gallery inspiration, when I came across this image. I fell for the frames arranged as a heart and decided to use it for this week's layout.

I started by cutting a lot of 1.5'' x 0.75'' rectangles out of different Summertime patterns. Then I build up a heart with white cardstock strips and started to play around and arrange patterns until I was happy with how it looked. Finally, I adhered the patterned rectangles to white strips and put it all down on a lovely B-side of the Backyard Lights paper. 

Once the heart and my photos were in place, it was time to pull out all the Daily Flash goodies and start decorating.

I have used bits and pieces from DF Snapshot and DF Girl Talk. 

I also added a chipboard arrow and some Eggnog pop drop hearts. 

I hope you like this inspiration piece and that you feel like scrapping after reading this :-)

Have fun!

//Alex

Under the Tree: Christmas Cards | Guest Designer: Kim Mathura

Happy Friday! Kim here, with my first project as your September Guest Designer. Today, I would like to share with you how I made these lovely Christmas shaker cards, using the Under the Tree collection.

I love sending and receiving handmade cards. This year, I am inspired to make shaker cards to send to my friends and family. Shaker cards are going to cost a little more in postage, but they will certainly put a big smile on the faces of your loved ones this holiday season!

  Here is how to make this deer card…                                         

Step 1 - Gather your supplies.  The measurement of the card base is 5” x 6.5.” Cut a 5” x 6.5” piece of the Cookie Nibbling (blue) paper and cut a 4.5” x 6” piece of the Merry Making (star) paper. Die cut a star from the star paper and save the cut out star for step 2.                   

Step 2 – I used a piece of leftover page protector for this project. Use the cut out star, which you had saved from step 1, as a guide to fuse the page protector together (following the outline of the star), leaving an opening for the sequins.

Step 3 – Fill your star pocket with sequins and seal the star pocket shut with the fuse tool.

Step 4 – Trim around your star pocket, leaving about a 1/4" space away from the fused line.

Step 5 – Turn the star paper over and apply some strong liquid glue around the star window. Adhere the star pocket behind the window. Voila! You now have the foundation of a shaker card. 

To finish the card, adhere the blue paper to the card base. Draw stitched lines around the border and tie a piece of twine to the bottom of the star paper. Apply foam tape to the back of the star paper and adhere it to the front of the card. Decorate the card with the elements (deer, rush label and holly label) from the ephemera pack and label sticker sheet.

I decided to make a couple more shaker cards because I had so much fun making the first one. 

These two shaker cards were done by applying a piece of acetate behind each cut out. Feel free to use the clear stamp set on the acetate. Here, I stamped the “Fa La La..” and music notes on the acetate, using Stazon ink.  

I applied foam tape to box around the back of each cut out, creating an area for the sequins. I then filled in the boxed area with sequins and adhered a piece of patterned paper as a background, which also prevented the sequins from falling out.

I hope you enjoyed my shaker card tutorial and are inspired to make shaker cards this holiday season. Thank you so much for stopping by. I will be back next Friday for another fun project.

Happy Creating!

                 

 

 

Thursday Sketch: A Gathering Place

Happy Thursday! It's Jill here, bringing you this week's sketch. This one has lots of room for photos and journaling. 

In fact, it's a great sketch to use if you're planning a page that pulls together lots of little photos related to a single topic. Here's your chance to gather together those candids of your cat (you know you have millions -- and you know I'm not exaggerating) or the slew of bathroom selfies that you're not brave enough to reprint as large photos, or, as in my case, tons of pictures of the weather. 

It's been a crazy last 30 days around here, what with brush fires, 100% humidity, drought conditions giving way to sudden but short-lived rainstorms, record-breaking temperatures, flash floods, vog, and three (count 'em -- three!) category four hurricanes surrounding the state of Hawai'i at the same time. The series of photos taken over the course of the past month documents this meteorological madness. 

The page includes a mix of October Afternoon favorites, including Daily Flash chipboard and papers from the Saturday Mornings and Summertime collections. 

I pulled together photos depicting the landscape and skies over the past month, and sized the photos to 1" x 1" before printing them. On the layout, I give the photos a little boost by backing them with 1.25" x 1.25 squares of patterned paper, and placed the gathering of photos over three weather-themed patterns. The sketch allows for lots of journaling space, but I created even more space by overlapping the photos with journaling strips. 

I'd love to see your take on this sketch! Be sure to link me up in the comments below, and/or add your page to the October Afternoon Flickr gallery! 

Thanks for stopping by today!

 -- Jill 

Monday Challenge: Inspiration Right Under Your Nose

You hear it all the time, "inspiration is everywhere."  I think sometimes it isn't a problem finding the inspiration as it is interpreting or just actually committing and doing it!  As I was planning my week and projects, I just happened to notice how pretty the box of Kleenex sitting on the counter was.  I almost didn't give it a second thought.  

I thought the shapes looked like leaves and almost used them in a different way then clustering them for a background.  That can be for another layout!  After I cut the background, I used Saturday Mornings pattern paper and Apple Cider pattern paper to fill in the background cuts.

Since the colors were Fall and my photo was about school, I used the Apple Cider puffy pillows, Milk Money Stickers, Stamps, Daily Flash Stamps, and Public Library embellishments.

And last but not least, since it inspired the layout, here is the box of Kleenex! 

I really hope you not only find inspiration right under your nose, but make the time to create something with that inspiration!  I would love to see what you create.  Hope to see your project uploaded to either the October Afternoon Flickr gallery,  our Facebook page, or connect with us on Instagram via #octoberafternoon.

September's Guest Designer | Kim Mathura

Hello there! My name is Kim Mathura. I am so excited and honored to be your guest designer for the month of September. It has been a dream of mine to be a part of October Afternoon’s family. I can now check it off of my bucket list! Checked!  

I was born in Bangkok, Thailand. I moved to south Florida in 1997 to pursue a degree in Business Management. It was at the college, where I met the love of my life. We have been together for eighteen years but married for thirteen!

I was so fortunate to be born into a family, where art and creativity were always encouraged. For as long as I can remember, I have been collecting papers and stickers. Even though I have been doing some type of crafting all my life, I started scrapbooking when we moved to Tampa, Florida in 2007. My signature style has to be the ability to incorporate real vintage object findings with my work. I like to layer different products and embellishments on my projects while maintaining a clean and organized look.

You can see more of my work at the following links:

Blog - http://kimmathura2015.blogspot.com/

Instagram -  @kim_mathura

Facebook - Kim.Mathura2015

    

I am so lucky to be working on the brand new Under the Tree collection. I love Christmas! I hope you will enjoy looking at my projects throughout the month of September. 

Let’s get started with a little Q&A…

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

I love making cards! There’s something special about sending handmade cards to my friends and family. In addition to making handmade cards, I LOVE making mini books. I love the fact that there is a beginning and an end to the mini book. I always look forward to making a mini book after taking a trip. 

What is on your scrapbook desk right now?

Right now, I am working on my weekly journal, which is a mini book, filled with notebook pages. In addition, I have the three October Afternoon – Under the Tree projects, which I will be sharing with you throughout the month of September. My desk is filled with pictures and embellishments and is messy when I am working on a project, but I usually clean it up as soon as I am done.

What is your favorite October Afternoon line or product?

I knew this question was coming! It is so hard to pick one, but if I have to, it would be the Travel Girl collection. I love the little girl with glasses in this collection! My October Afternoon favorite product is the Miscellany pack. Opening a bag of Miscellany pack is like opening a gift. My heart starts to race because I get so excited to go though the fun bits and pieces that come in the bag. 

What can you NOT scrapbook without?

I could not scrapbook without my Fabri-Tac glue. I have one bottle on my craft table and one spare bottle in my drawer at all time. It’s my to-go adhesive when it comes to making mini books. Nothing bugs me more than having a page lifted from my chipboard cover after a short period of time.

What is your favorite source of inspiration?

Most of the time, the collection itself inspires me. When I see a collection that I like, it sparks the creativity fuse in my brain. I also find ideas from reading through magazines, blogs and Pinterest. 

And a few more…

What is your favorite movie or TV show?

My favorite TV show is The Walking Dead. My husband and I usually record and watch most of our favorite shows at a later time in order to skip the numerous advertisements. However, we often find ourselves watching The Walking Dead on live TV because we just cannot wait to see it.

What is your favorite food?

Naturally, I love Thai food. I also have an insatiable love for sushi.

What is your fondest childhood memory?

My fondest childhood memory was when I traveled with my family internationally. Because of the nature of my parents’ business, my brother and I had many opportunities to visit several countries. It was so much fun traveling to various countries and experiencing different cultures.

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

My name would be “The Transpacific Traveler.” My superpower would be the ability to travel back and forth from Florida to Thailand in a wink of an eye so that I could see my family in Thailand more often. I try to visit them at least once every eighteen months.

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

I would have dinner with my family in Thailand. Whenever I go there, I usually stay for two months and we always have dinner together every single night.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my interview with October Afternoon. I will be sharing my projects with you every Friday throughout the month of September. Hope to see you there!

Happy Creating!