October Afternoon

Tuesday Inspiration: Layers upon Starry Layers

Hi there! Happy Tuesday! Emily here with today's inspiration piece! When I was searching for inspiration, I came across this fun photo of star confetti:

(source)

I was hesitant to use this for my layout because I've already used stars on a number or layouts for October Afternoon, including this one using stars cut from map paper. After searching for awhile without any luck, I decided the star confetti was meant to be!  I pulled out a few different star punches and began punching away at stars on every piece of blue, red, gray, and orange patterned piece of paper I could find. These colors matched my chosen photo, which is of my kiddos on Halloween this year. I also included a few plain black stars that I cut from cardstock. When I had a large collection of stars, I literally dumped them on my page into a giant pile and then spread them out around my paper. I wanted the layout to be very multi-dimensional and I didn't want the stars to be perfectly placed or adhered to the background. 

After sticking all the the stars down (definitely the longest part of my process) I added my photo on top of the stars and cut out a title using my die cut machine. I wanted a big, bold title, so I used black cardstock and a very simple font for my title, "Fun." The title comes from a Facebook status I included with this photo.  I had hoped I could convince my kids to have matching costumes this year like they have had for the past few years. However, they all had their own ideas, and I was a little bit sad about their mismatched costumes. After a fun night of trick-or-treating I concluded, and posted, "I have reached the point in parenthood where I realize that it doesn't matter if they all match, it only matters that they all have fun."

Finally, I added a few simple embellishments to my layout. Let's face it, it's a pretty crazy layout already, I didn't feel like I needed to add a ton more. I even opted not to include my journaling, because I couldn't find a good place to put it. Instead, I will simply write it on the back of my layout, which is something I frequently do! 

 

Here is a look at my final layout. I love good color combinations, and I can honestly say this is the first time that I have ever used red, orange and blue...it might be a new favorite!

I would love to see how you are inspired by these fun confetti stars! Upload your project 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!

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!

Tuesday Inspiration: Polaroid Collage

Hi there! Happy Tuesday! Emily here with today's inspiration piece! I knew I wanted to use a photo collage of some sort on my layout this week, so I did a Pinterest search for collage inspiration.  I found a few really unique polaroid collages similar to these:

(Both of these images have broken source links!I My apologies to the original photographers!)

I really love the look of breaking a single photo up into a few different photos and layering them on top of one another. I had a perfect picture in mind - of the bottom half of my kids at the pool last week. I have a similar one with their heads, but I kind of love this one of just their bodies and feet!!  The only problem, however, is that I wasn't exactly sure how to crop the photos to make them all fit together just right. I ended up using my cropping tool in my photo editor to create four squares in each corner of the picture. Each square looks pretty similar...here are the four sections:

I printed all four out and tried to layer them, however it wasn't working as well as I'd hoped. I decided to make all of the photos a bit off kilter from one another, which is why my little guy on the right kind of has two heads! I probably could have just left off the bottom row of photos, as they only show the concrete, but I like having four photos versus only two. I know there is probably some way to make my collage look as cool as the two inspiration pieces, but I'm not technically savvy enough to figure out, so this will have to do!

I used foam adhesive to create different levels on my layout. The bottom two photos are flat against the background, the third is raised up by a single layer of foam adhesive, and  the very top actually has two layers of foam adhesive. I really wanted there to be a lot of dimension, so I also raised up my die cut title.

Finally I found as many blue and aqua elements I could to include! The adorable little fish from the Summertime Pillow Puffs was perfect for this layout - especially after my title ended up a little off center!  The fish just swam on to the end like he was meant to be there! There are also tons of beautiful blue papers and embellishments in the Treasure Map line that made their way onto this layout!

I would love to see how you are inspired by these cool photo collages! Upload your project 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!

Tuesday Inspiration: Maps + Stars

Hi there! Happy Tuesday! Emily here with today's inspiration piece! If you follow me on Instagram, you may know that I (along with a great many other people) have a little bit of a *thing* for maps. I collect United States map puzzles and vintage globes. I also have a large vintage map hanging in my living room. What can I say? I love maps!  I came across this image of star "confetti" created out of old maps. 

(Source)

I LOVE the look of these stars, but I have to admit, it made me shed a tear (just a single one, of course!) thinking about beautiful vintage maps being cut up! Luckily for me, October Afternoon makes couple of fun map patterned papers, like True North and Shipwreck Coast in the Treasure Map collection and my favorite piece, Social Studies in the Daily Flash Milk Money collection. I gathered up my map papers and began to punch away! Ultimately I only ended up using the Social Studies stars.  

 Once the stars were punched out, I needed to figure out how to align them on my page. I started with them in the upper right hand corner and moved them around until I had a version of the triangle (or the music teacher in me wants to call it a "decrescendo!") near the top. I decided to move the entire shape down to the center of my page. I used foam dots to adhere each star to give the entire layout a little more dimension. I put my photo at the top of the page so I wouldn't cover up the map stars. Placing it at the top like that kind of throws good design principles out the window, but sometimes it's fun to go a little crazy!

Finally, I used my die cut machine to cut out a title and I added a few simple embellishments, stamps, and some blank ink spots.

I feel like this is a layout that is technically very simple but packs a pretty decent visual punch!  Here's a look at the final layout:

I'd love to see how you are inspired by these fun map stars! Upload your project 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!

Emily's 30 Minute Layout Challenge!

Hello, and happy Wednesday!  Emily here with fun (and fast!) little challenge for you. If you are like me, summer is filled to the brim with swimming lessons and camp and bike rides and friends and ice cream...lots of ice cream! All of this fun leaves me with not much time to scrap.  I am not a quick scrapper. I am a paper pusher. A mind-changer. Most of the time when I scrapbook, I take twice as long as I should, because I'm always second guessing myself.  When I sat down to create my layout this week, it was a late night after a long couple of days, and I decided to force myself to do something I never do - make a layout in 30 minutes or less. This meant I needed to plan out my layout and stick to the plan!!  

Now, let's go back to the ice cream!  I love taking photos of my food on Instagram - yes, me and every other instagrammer out there! I've been working to perfect my "hand out holding the cone" pose this summer, which means I need a LOT of ice cream to practice on! It's a good thing my kids and friends also love ice cream and are willing to indulge me!  I decide to print out some of my favorite ice cream shots from this summer to use on this layout. I am a bit embarrassed to admit there are actually more cone pictures and few other "cups of ice cream" photos that didn't make it to this layout!  Six square photos lends itself well to a grid design, so I just went with it.  I used two squares of Summertime patterned paper to add a little more color and pattern to the layout, and I embellished with some stickers, labels, and tin pins.

For my title, I used the aptly titled "Strawberry Ice Cream" chipboard letters. I finished up by outlining select squares and labels, spattering some ink and including little handwritten journaling.  

The layout took me 26 minutes to complete  - and then I used my final four minutes to add a bunch more stickers and enamel dots. It still looks a tad bit to simple to me, but I am reminding myself that simple is okay!!

Are you up for the 30 minute challenge? I would love to see what you create in your summer spare time! Upload your project 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: Summer Hues

Hi there! Happy Tuesday! Emily here with today's inspiration piece! This week, my inspiration piece jumped out at me right away. I discovered it on my aptly titled "Inspired" board on Pinterest.  

(Source: Shinotakeda)

I absolutely love this piece - the colors, which are perfect summery, beachy colors, and the way the they blend together so seamlessly. I knew that this would be a great inspiration piece for both myself and Mou Saha who is playing along with me this week. Here is what Mou had to say about this inspiration: 

"There was so much inspiration in the simple piece Emily chose. I loved the summer colors and the simplicity of the vase. The colors matched the Heat Wave patterned paper from Summertime collection and I used it as my card base. In the spirit of finding beauty in simplicity, I decided to keep my card super simple. I cut a block out of the Blue Skies paper, also from the Summertime collection and used it as my sentiment. To tie everything together, I machine stitched around the sentiment block as well the base block. Thank you Emily for a beautiful inspiration piece!"

I loved the glaze of pottery so much that I decided to use it as the background of my layout.  This means I had to go and be a little artsy, which is really not my style at ALL!  I am usually scared by things like paint and chalk and pastels!!  But, I happen to have some art supplies that I rarely use, so I pulled them out for this layout.  There was a bit of a learning curve, and I make some major mistakes the first time I tried to make my beautiful smears of color!  But, by the second, and then the third, okay, I'm I'm totally honest, the FOURTH time, I was pretty happy with the results. I tried using the colors on the entire page and also just part of the page. In the end, I liked using the colors behind the photo and keeping the bottom section open for my title and journaling.

For the final version of my layout, I first printed out my journaling at the bottom. Then, I used my art supplies to create my "watercolor" section on the top. It was totally coincidental that my daughter happens to be wearing a pink shirt and the bottom section of the layout is also pink!  It's also difficult to see in the photo, but the middle section and the very bottom are actually painted white. This is a lot more evident in person. The only thing I am not happy with is the fact that my cardstock warped a bit from being wet. I'm very new to this mixed media type of scrapbooking, so if anybody has any suggestions for how to combat that, I'd love to hear them!

To finish off my layout, I added my photo and my die cut title, as well as a bunch of different embellishments that fit with my color scheme, including some stickers from the new Summertime line and the Daily Flash chipboard stars that I think I include on every layout!! One of these days I am going to run out of them and need to find a new go-to embellishment! A word to the wise - make sure your paper is DRY before you add black mist.  The big white star is actually doing a fantastic job of covering up a giant back mist splotch that bled when I sprayed it on the wet page!

I'd love to see how this piece of pottery with its summer colors inspires you! Upload your project 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!

Tuesday Inspiration: Summer To-Do List

 Hi there! Happy Tuesday! Emily here with today's inspiration piece! We are in our first full week of summer at our house, and even though it's been raining for the last three days, we are trying to have some fun!  Every year we make a list of things we would like to do during the summer.  I've noticed a lot of people document their summer lists up in their homes for everyone to see - like this chalkboard example:

(source)

Last year I made a layout with our to-do list, and I wanted to create another one this year.  I asked my kids to think of everything they could that they would like to do this summer - the list is pretty long - much longer than last year's list!!  I knew I wanted to use the large Treasure Map alphabet stickers for my title right smack in the middle of the page, so I ended up making my actual list around the outside edge of the paper.  First, I tried to use my typewriter, but it was a lot more difficult to do than I had anticipated! After a few test runs with the typewriter, I decided to use my laptop instead. I used Power Point to create text boxes around the edge of my document, and I used a typewriter font to create my summer list. It took awhile, but I'm pretty happy with the result.  It's not perfect, but I like imperfection!

I used lots of papers and elements from the new Summertime line. I love the fun, bright pastels! And, of course, I had to include my favorite chipboard stars! I love that they coordinate with just about every October Afternoon collection! I went back and forth trying to decide if I should use a photo on this layout.  I ultimately decided that because this is a list of items for the future, versus a layout documenting something that had already happened, it would be fine to keep it photoless. I think I might display it in our kitchen where we can keep tabs on what we have accomplished!

Are you planning on scrapping your Summer To-Do list?? I'd love to see what you come up with! 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!

Thursday Sketch | Suz and Emily #oasketchday

Hello everyone! Suz here along with Emily to share today's #oasketchday challenge, along with our takes on the design.

 

First up, the sketch:

 

Here's Emily's adorable design and what she had to say about it: 

"I really liked Suz's sketch, and I thought it would work perfectly for a card. I used the the adorable new Summertime line to create a quick little card. I kept my card pretty true to the sketch. I used the Swimming Pool paper as my background and included two overlapping rectangles of the Puffy Clouds and Sunshine patterned papers. I also loved the cute little sun sticker and layered it with one of the Summertime Tin Pins. Finally, I used some labels to highlight my sentiments. A big thanks to Suz for the fun sketch!"

 

The full Summertime Collection can be found here: Summertime Collection

Thanks so much Emily for playing along and sharing your time and talents here! :)

And here is my design. Clean + Simple. My traditional style for cards. 

 As you can see, I didn't strictly follow the sketch but you can see elements I extrapolated from it like the placement of the title and the stacked rectangles. I flipped the "embellishments" in the design and omitted a few as well. Oftentimes, one needs to do that when creating with cards, due to the smaller scale of the creation.

OA ITEMS USED: Treasure Map Word Stickers, Treasure Map, Border Stickers,Treasure Map Clear Cling Stamps, Treasure Map Designer Brads, Treasure Map Hangman's Cove Patterned Paper, (Side B), Treasure Map Siren's Point Patterned Paper (Side B). The full Treasure Map collection can be found here: Treasure Map Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you play along with this sketch challenge, please share with us on Instagram by tagging us @octoberafternoon and use the hashtag #oasketchday. As always, you can share on our Facebook wall, the OA Flickr gallery, on Twitter (@oct_afternoon) or leave a comment below with a link to your design. 

TGI Fri-YAY is nearly here! Our June Guest, Jen Haggerty, will be back sharing some of her OA creations with you! 

Tuesday Inspiration: Camera Collection

Hi there! Happy Tuesday! Emily here with today's inspiration piece! I usually spend a long time finding the perfect inspiration piece for the Tuesday challenge. This week, well, honestly, I opened up my Pinterest app, saw this photo, and knew it was perfect. It took about seven seconds. ;)

(Source)

I love so much about this room. The cameras on the wall, the rows of shelves, the square album storage, etc. This isn't the type of inspiration I usually choose, but so many different ideas jumped out at me! I sent this image on to the super talented Roree to see what she could come up with.  I have a bit of a crush on Roree and just about every card she makes, and I knew that she would make something fabulous. I was right! 

Roree says, "What a fun and inspiring piece! I just love the symmetry of the like items on the shelves in the photo, so I decided to create a similar symmetry on a card using the Treasure Map collection. I chose the Moaning Cavern patterned paper for my background and lined a Tin Pin and circle die cuts from the Sew Fun Banners pack to create my rows. I dressed up the die cuts with buttons from Midway and Witch Hazel, along with a chipboard star from Daily Flash and a sentiment from the Treasure Map Tidbits pack. I framed it all up with a Treasure Map Border Sticker and a little bit of machine stitching."

The first thing I noticed in the image was the camera collection. I have to be honest, while I always love all the cute camera embellishments out there, I am never quite sure how to just slap a camera on my layout and make it look natural...so I had a whole bunch of unused chipboard and sticker cameras just begging to be put on this layout!  I chose five different cameras and staggered them to the right of my photo. One might think this would be an easy task, but I think I pushed them around for about fifteen minutes before I was happy!  Because the cameras didn't fit perfectly together, I included a few hearts and other elements in the open spaces. I used foam tabs to raise some of them up to create some dimension. It's a fairly simple layout, but I felt that adding much more would make it look cluttered...well, more cluttered than it already is!

I would love to see how you are inspired by this image! 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!