October Afternoon

Designer Challenge: Non-holiday layout featuring holiday product

Hi! Emily here with a designer challenge for you! I am loving the brand new Under the Tree collection, but I have to be honest, I'm just not quite ready to jump onto the holiday bandwagon yet!! Luckily, the papers and colors in this collection can easily be used for both holiday and non-holiday projects!  I chose a photo that included some red so that I could use the red papers that come in this collection. My six year old daughter completed her first triathlon at the end of the summer. It was her first competitive sporting evert ever and she was ecstatic at the finish line (and, I should mention, not even tired, crazy kid!). My husband snapped this photo of her right as she was coming out of "chute." I love how realistic the event organizers made the entire triathlon.

I chose red, gold, blue, and black as my color scheme, which worked well with my daughter's red shirt in the photo. I also included a lot of stars to imply that my little athlete is our own super star! I love the idea of using lots of stars without actually using the word "star" in my layout.   The little gold stars on the Merry Making patterned paper were a perfect backdrop. I also included some star paper from last year's December Story kit.  Because the background is a little busy, I decided to outline all of my elements in black to make them stand out. I found a few non-holiday elements that matched my color scheme, including a little "3" tag from the Ephemera package which was perfect for this layout! I think my favorite embellishment is the sweet little "A good memory" tin pin that also included a star!

Above the photo, I added a little flare of stars (stickers and pop drops)  as though they were confetti flying out of her hands at the end of the finish line.

I cut a bold title out of black cardstock using the Pacifico font and added a few lines of journaling near the top lefthand corner. Overall, it's a fairly simple layout that includes a few fun visuals!  

Here's a look at the final product:

How are you feeling about Christmas?  Too soon to scrap the holidays? I'd love to see your take on some non-holiday layouts using our Under the Tree collection! Upload your work to the October Afternoon Flickr gallery, post it on our Facebook page, or connect with us on Instagram via #octoberafternoon. Happy Thursday, and happy scrapping!

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!

Thursday Sketch: Green is for...

Hey guys :)

This is Laura here today with a 12x12 layout sketch, although you could definitely use it as inspiration for a 8.5x11 too as you will see bellow!

Being as our theme for this week is "Green/Luck", I thought I'd focus on the green aspect, and do a layout about how we color coded our kids when it comes to cups, and things.  Our middle guy could never remember his color so it became a bit of a mantra I would find myself saying over and over "Green for Griffin".  My printer has decided to go wonky and not print so there is not visible journaling on the page yet.  I've written my thought on the back of the page and will print it out for the front once it resumes working.  

I knew there were some great greens in the December Story kit so I pulled that out and started with the green trees on white.  I turned it on it's side and they now look like arrows!  The gold stars and striped journaling card were also from the kit.

My favourite part of the page it the cut up label stickers along the edge.  It's such a fun way to use them, and I totally cut them in half and used the other sides so as not to waste any of them.

It was just enormously fun to dig through my stash for green products.  

I have Emily with me today to see her fun take on the sketch!  I was so excited by how she made it work for her.

Here is what she had to say:

When I saw that the theme for this week was “luck,” I knew I had the perfect story to document.  Last year while I was walking with my two boys, a man stopped me and asked about them. When I told him I also had a daughter, he exclaimed, “Wow!  Two girls and a boy!  How lucky can you be?” Usually when I’m out with all my kids I get comments like “you sure have your hands full.”  I absolutely love that this man saw they joy and love that comes with having a bigger family!  I used a lot of elements from the Daily Flash Milk Money collection because I love how their bright colors contrast with my black and white photo. I was sure to include lots of hearts, because this layout is about luck and love!  My layout stayed fairly true to Laura’s sketch, although I knew I wanted to use a big title, so I moved the photo from the right to the left so I could include my vertical title!  Thanks to Laura for such a fun sketch!

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 & Emily

Saturday Shares | December Story Version

Hello everyone and happy Saturday! Today Patricia and I are back sharing some designs created with our December Story kits which are now sold out! (Thank you for your continued support of October Afternoon!) With the holiday season, over we figure some/many of you may be finishing up your December Story albums or perhaps just barely started. Wherever you are at, it's ok because today's share is sure to give you some ideas to jump start your creativity and get some December documenting done! :) 

 

Patricia has been productive and has quite a few pages to share. As you will see, she has created with the December Story kit outside of the traditional OA 6x8 sized album! One of many ways to get the most from your December Story kit/s!

Here is what Patricia had to say about her designs:

"I didn't get to use October Afternoon's December Story kits for my Document December, but I wanted to use it for my Project Life to finish up 2014.

Here's what I did. We started decorating in November...so there's a couple of pages in November where I wanted the the Christmas Story kit to work with. I felt kind of "off" at first...and the reason why is I finished up November and December differently than the rest of my Project Life. Instead of weekly, I tried monthly.

This is Black Friday and then going into the first of Dec...where I felt like I started to get into the groove of this whole month way of documenting. I used on of October Afternoons smaller pocket pages there on the right to start off December.

 

Turning that small pocket page there...and then going into to document December using October Afternoon's 3x3 pocket page...another huge difference as far as Project Life goes for me. Once I got that first page going, I loved the different look.

 

The kit comes with 3x3 cards...but I also trimmed down the papers to fit. This is such a change from my traditional Project Life. But I really liked this fresh take on it for me.

 

There's still some of the same photos I used in my Document December project, but I was able to include even more. I kept it all with a Christmas feel. The kit worked well with the winter feel of the month.

I printed all the photos I wanted for the whole month of December using the Epson PictureMate. I have templates in Lightroom and printed them all to fit into the 3x3 pockets. So was able to work similar to how I would normally with Project Life. Placed the photos, and then added papers and cards to fill in, then added journaling, stamping, and embellishing.

Loved the stamps and labels that came with the kit...I enjoyed working with my first October Afternoon December Story kit...have always wanted to, and so excited I was able to!! (days of the week stamp, December, and gingerbread man)

 

The left side is a full 12x12 page of the 3x3 pockets. The right is half of the 12x12 page. I just cut it along the outside of the second row.

Christmas is pretty well documented in my Document December album, so I didn't include a lot of journaling on this last half 12x12 pocket page. I was able to include some vellum and more embellishing in each pocket...and more photos that didn't get included in my main Document December album.

The back of the half page...between Christmas and New Year's:

Love that 'to be continued in 2015' card...it was 3x4, so trimmed down to 3x3. Perfect way to end my 2014 Project Life album."

Aren't her pages so inspiring!? Love them!

And in staying true to my "keep it simple" mantra this season, I created a simple page using a few of the journal cards, tags and stickers from the kit. I also added a bit of the packaging from the yummy cookies we indulged in from the hotel we stayed at. I added just a touch of stitching and vintage type and the page was done in a matter of minutes. Keeping it simple has been key to feeling motivated and inspired to finish my album. With only twelve days to document in December, it has been and is totally doable!

We would love to see your pages/creations that you have made with your Dec Story kits! Be sure to share with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Please use the hashtag #oadecemberstory and #oasaturdayshares if you have other OA creations you want to share with us. Tag us @octoberafternoon (Instagram) @oct_afternoon (Twitter) so we can see them!

Happy Saturday!

 

 

Thursday Sketch: To the right

Hey OA friends!  Its Laura Craigie here today with a sketch I made for you guys :)

I will be the first to admit that I do not have the best "sketch" making abilities.  But that said I do love working with them, so here I am anyways, and I hope you can look past my poor sketch and play along with me.

Here it is:

And here is the layout I made to share with you guys.  I used lots of goodies from the All Boy Daily Flash line.  I started with the gorgeous wood grain paper because I liked that it mimicked the wood fence in the photographs.  To keep with the wood grain theme I also used the Old Oak chipboard letters for part of my title, which I paired with the red alpha stickers from my December Story Kit.

I love creating little clusters of embellishments; it's such a fun focal point on a page.

I was still in the mood to be crafty so I pulled out my new Saturday Mornings goodies and made a cute card by flipping the sketch on it's side.  It's not a perfect replica of the sketch, but it gave me a great jumping point to get my crafty juices flowing.

I love that little spaceman sticker; he's just the cutest!  I added a pop drop to his belt buckle, and a swipe of glitter pen over his helmet bubble, and rocket flames.  It looks way better in person.

Well that's it for today, I hope you guys feel inspired to use my sketch and if you do please share your creations in the October Afternoon Flickr Gallery!  I'd love to see them :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Laura :)

Designer Challenge | Magazine Inspiration

Hello again everyone! Suz back again today along with the lovely and talented Mel to share two design takes from the same inspiration piece.

While perusing Pinterest, I came across this inspirational, graphic design from a magazine.

 

Source

I immediate saw all sorts of possibilities with it, from the two page design, the oversized, bold text, and the areas for journaling or embellishments.

Mel shares how she utilized this inspiration piece and tweaked it to fit her own design style. I am constantly amazed and inspired by how my fellow OA designers the inspiration pieces to fit their own styles and create something completing inspiring and different from the others!

Here is what she had to say about her creation and the inspiration piece:

"I am so very excited to be playing along to Suz’s challenge today! The inspiration piece really sparked a lot of ideas. I debated using a very large picture to mimic the focus on the right side, I also (very briefly) thought of doing a two pager but I’ll be honest, I let go that idea pretty quickly (2 pagers just aren’t my thing). In the end I was inspired by the design structure of the piece, that being; the focus to the right, the arrow, and of course the title, which the font is an exact replica of the Daily Flash Nightfall alpha stickers. The Daily Flash - Flash Chip arrows were the ideal items to use as a focal point. I used the negative part of the chipboard sheet as a guide for placing the arrows, and then I added stitching to each arrow. I also used the December Story kit for embellishments.

 

 

This was such a fun and quick layout to put together, I had been hoarding those arrows for very long time and I’m thrilled to have been able to use them in such a predominant way. Thanks Suz for the inspiration!!!"

(*ETA-You are welcome Mel! Thanks for playing along with this challenge! -Suz)

********

My take on the design was more of a direct translation. I loved the big, bold oversized text and decided to keep that element of the design as well as the two page element.

I choice this inspiration piece as an opportunity to complete yet another day in my December Story album too.

 

 

I decided to keep the one page photo as well, and this photo of our Elf on the Shelf scene my boys playfully set up fit the bill. Since my title words contained my letters than the original title, I used two smaller arrows running across the page and added a few to the right hand page for the trajectory of the Lego dude's weapon. (Yeah, this is definitely a page that epitomizes life with imaginative boys. It also depicts that in this stage of my life, with two teenagers in the house, the fact that actual photos of them are few and far between, so taking images of things that represent their interests, their personalities, their antics has become the "go to" photographic captures.

 

I used elements from the December Story Kit  (Chipboard elf, Little Labels, and patterned paper) as well as Daily Flash - Eggnog. Daily Flash Flash Chip -To the Point, Daily Flash Eggnog - Pop Drops, Daily Flash - Flash Blurbs - Eggnog, Daily Flash Snap Caps - Eggnog.

I really loved this inspirational piece!! I already have at least two more designs in the making from it! I hope you find it inspiring in some way and share your takes on this OA Designer Challenge by posting on Instagram, tagging us @octoberafternoon, @suzmannecke, @melblackburn05 and use the hashtag #oadesignerchallenge! We'd love to see your takes too!

 

December Story Kit Pages Challenge | Git 'er Done!

Happy Monday everyone! Suz here with you today to check in on how you are coming along with your December Story pages. Making progress? Yes? No? 

If the answer is no, I may have a few ideas for you to help you get those pages completed.

If the answer is yes, way to go!! Please share your pages in the OA Flickr gallery, on Instagram, or on our Facebook wall! We would love to see what you have created with the December Story Kits and albums. Tag @octoberafternoon and @suzmannecke on Instagram and use the hashtag #oadecemberstory so we can see your designs!

 

First off, as you may recall, I decided for many reasons (time constraints -I knew my time to document in December was minimal, this is my 7th or 8th year of documenting December) to cut down the number of days that I documented in December to a simple dozen. By doing so, I could shave off some creative time that I simply didn't have and it also allowed me to focus a bit more on stories.

 

Secondly, a tried and true idea: the whole "KISS" mentality - Keep it Simple Silly!

Grab a photo, an embellishment or two, a piece of memorabilia, a journal card. Journal one memory that photo evokes from the day it was taken (or just an emotion or memory it evokes) and slip it as well as the OA pretties into the page protector and call it done! Don't worry about it being perfect. Let go of that if at all possible! Making progress is sure to inspire you and to move you forward in a positive direction. I can almost guarantee it! 

 

Here are a few pages I created recently that came together in short order because I kept it simple:

On the left is a piece of the sheet music patterned paper and doily included in the kit, I simply tucked in the adorable gift card memorabilia and then set to creating the right side of my layout. I added the Chipboard numbers to the outside of my pocket protector and dropped in some of the fun sequins (and snowflake) also included in the kit. Then I sewed up the top. I took like five seconds to do that since my machine was right behind me, threaded and ready to go. Next up was my journaling card. Using my vintage typewriter, it was completed in a flash! I simply added the "Special Delivery" Cut Ups and the adorable Santa sticker to my photo and my design was complete.

I this design, I broke out the kit stamps and used them on the top left journaling card as well as the sentiment card at top right (snowflakes). A couple of stickers from the kit were added and some sequins, a touch of patterned paper and that sweet holly Pillow Puff. A bit of stitching and done!

This close up of another page I completed shows how I documented the day we opened our gifts. Lots of journaling about the gifts received and in the gold polka dotted envelope I placed my oldest son's wish list. It was on a bright neon yellow Post-It Note, so I liked having the ability of knowing it is there tucked inside and not a glaring distraction on the page. On the bottom left I used my Big Bite to punch an extra hold in the manufacturer's product card of my son's gift. Just a few ideas of how you can incorporate what was given without using a handful of photos of each gift received. And if you are like me, gift opening is often a big blur, with everyone caught up in the moment and not taking time out to have photos taken anyways! 

So, there you have it! A few ideas of how you can keep your Dec Story kit simple and yet something you enjoy looking back on in the years to come! Your challenge is to get two days done today? I think that is totally doable. Set a timer if it helps. Turn on your favorite soundtrack and simply get started. :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!!

Suz

 

 

 

Tuesday Inspiration Challenge

Hello friends! Melanie here today to share a fun Tuesday Inspiration challenge, grab a beverage and let’s get started! I think the very cold weather has influence my choice of inspiration. Who doesn’t love wrapping itself in a warm cozy quilt, spending some quality time with a good book in front of a fireplace with a nice warm beverage? It’s one of my favorite things to do. So it goes without saying that my need for warmth and comfort has influenced my choice of inspiration. I find that quilts are so beautifully designed; such a labor of love, one of my favorite quilter is Blue Elephant Stiches. I actually own one of her beautiful quilts; it keeps my sweet baby warm on these cold nights.

For my challenge I selected this amazing quilt inspired wall hanging.  I love the strips of fabric, the bold colors and the fun quote. Such an inspirational piece – I just want to make.

 

My initial idea was to use strips of paper and add stitching, then I debating use the colors as a guide for my layout and then I thought the quote could also work well on a layout. So many options, my head was spinning with ideas. In the end I took a simple approach, I stitched on my white cardstock multiple lines, with white thread. It creates a soft texturized background, the tone on tone effect is always one of my favorite technique.

 

To create my layout I used the December Story kit, I love the versatility of this kit. Perfect for a mini album but also for scrapbooking and cardmaking. The sequins included in the kit were the perfect element to add to those stitched lines. They added just a little tad of sparkle, which compliments perfectly the picture of my oldest daughter who is bursting with joy and excitement.

 

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 New Year | 2015

2015 is here already!? How is that even possible?!

On behalf of October Afternoon I (Suz) would like to wish you a happy, healthy, properous and creatively productive new year! 

With that being said, I set to work today being creatively productive by playing with some newer and a few older OA lines. Here is a little card that fit the bill for celebrating today. 

 

 

The background paper is from Public Library and the woodgrain paper is Board Room from 9 to 5. I used Pop Drops from the Eggnog collection and the stamps from my December Story Add-on Kit (2015, Joy, and the crossed wreath image). The "Happy" alphas and the gold star patterned paper are from the December Story kit as well. The new year banner and sentiment are from a set I had on hand from an online kit club.

 

So what are you up to today? Any creating going on while watching parades and bowl games?! Whatever it is, make it a great FIRST day of 2015!! 

Happy New Year! Be sure to stop back in tomorrow to see who our JANUARY GUEST DESIGNER is!

 

Suz

A December Dozen | Suz's December Story

Hello everyone! Suz here with you today. I hope you have been enjoying the holiday season and what remains of it. (Happy 2015 to those in the eastern hemisphere who are already celebrating!) 

We are finally home for the holidays after a month filled with Christmas details and travel. Yesterday, I managed to squeeze in some creative time to play with October Afternoon's fabulous December Story Kit! 

Since I knew my December was going to be even busier than usual this year with two trips on the books and also because I have been documenting december in a daily type of fashion for probably 8 years now (Days 1-31), I decided I wanted to simplify this year. I am cutting the days I document down to a dozen days in December. And instead of documenting 12 days in a row, I am freeing myself from those constraints and simply documenting twelve days. (Rule breaker LOL)

TWELVE DAYS.

That's it.

Plain and simple.

The other thing I am trying to do is to focus on the journaling.

To focus on telling the story.

The story might be from a Christmas past.

An annual tradition.

A favorite meal.

A favorite holiday memory.

A favorite ornament.

A favorite gift.

A favorite Christmas Carol.

You get the idea.

But again, I really want to emphasize the story.

To emphasize the words.

 

Ok, I think that's enough on the back story of my design. On to my DECEMBER STORY intro page!

I used the fun 2x2 square grid page protectors included in my kit and set to work cutting down to size pattern papers and adding a few embellishments. The fabulousy fun and festivegold polka dot washi was used to cover up the chipboard zero. I then embossed (with silver Zing) the rest of the yearly numerals. (2, 1, 4). A little bit of stitching and stamping with the adorable sentiment and holiday icon stamps included in the main kit and add-on and I called it done!

 

I played off of Mou's cute little holly embellishment here and made one of my own with a bit of a twist - I cut the leaves to look like actual holly leaves. Quick and easy with a few snips of a scissor!

 

 Here I have used the Add-on kit stamps to create a happy little "gold wreath" and placed it on some of that awesome plaid patterned paper and a doily included in the kit.

I simply adore the little icon images included in this year's kit and add-on!! Here I used gold, silver, and green. The photo really doesn't do the images justice as they shimmer in the daylight in real life. 

 

How are you coming along with your December Story? I would love to see your creations! Please share with us on our OA Facebook home page or on Instagram. Tag me @suzmannecke and @octoberafternoon so we are given a heads up on your designs. Please use the hashtag #decemberstory #oadecemberstory so we can find them easily!

Have a very merry and safe New Year's Eve and a happy and healthy 2015!!!!

Suz