October Afternoon

Monday Challenge: What's Old is New

Hi there!  Emily here with today's Monday Challenge!  Awhile back, I was looking through some old layouts, and I realized I have a LOT of layouts that use October Afternoon products! I've been a fan for many, many years! I though it might be fun to create a challenge around the concept of "OLD."  I decided to call my challenge "What's Old is New."  My friend Ginny Hughes is joining me this week, and I wanted her to interpret "What's Old is New" in her own personal way, so I told her to feel free to interpret the title however she pleased! She went a totally different direction, which I love - she chose an "old" memory as the inspiration for her layout!  Here is what she had to say:

When I found out the challenge today I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I recently took this photo of my father driving me around when we were on vacation and it was such a weird feeling, it took me back to when I was a kid! I used the new Saturday Mornings collection, it has a great retro vibe. The woodgrain paper is going to be a new staple for me, it goes perfectly with everything!

And here is her fabulous layout:

 

When I came up with this challenge, I thought I could either a) use old products or b) scrap in an "old" style.  I decided to do a little of both. I chose a single layout as my inspriation. I made this layout in March of 2012. 

My style has definitely change a bit in the past three years.  I have always been a lover of paper...thought I used to use a LOT more.  I started out my new layout as a "modified" direct copy of the old one. I had a lot of paper and a lot of patterns.  I pushed paper around. I added things. I subtracted things. I decided...I hated it. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this photo at 11:30 p.m. when I ripped my layout apart and started over:

I decided that, while I may have rocked the TONS of paper look in 2012, it just wasn't happening in 2015.  I went with a lot more white space and less pattern. I did keep a few elements the same, such as the blue strip + the tickets from the Public Library Miscellany pack, the Flower Sack die cuts from the Farmhouse line, and an old vintage doily from my personal collection.  To say I am much happier with the second layout would be an understatement! It's funny - I love the layout from 2012, but as my style has changed, it was impossible for me to create a similar layout that I also loved.  So..what's old is kind of what's new, but not exactly... ;)

(Excuse the bad photo quality - I'm having some printer issues.)

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

Monday Challenge: Creative Borders

Hey everyone! Roree here with this week's Monday Challenge.

Sometimes you find a great image or sentiment on patterned paper that is just to wonderful to cover up. That is what happened to me when I was looking through the Daily Flash "All Boy" 6 x 8 Paper Pack. I instantly fell in love with the "I Love You to the Moon & Back" Sentiment/Graphic.

I knew it would be perfect for a card. The only problem was the image is 4" square. That is pretty much the size of a card. It wouldn't leave much room to add embellishments (which is completely out of the question for me!), so I had to get creative. Here is what I came up with:

I created a unique border to highlight the image using strips of Me First! patterned paper (B-side). I adhered the image and strips to a King of the Hill patterned paper (B-side) base, and then i added lots of fun little goodies, including stitching, Daily Flash "Eggnog" Pop Drops, and buttons from the Travel Girl and Farmhouse collections.

I finished the card with a Pop Drop heart in the sentiment and a Daily Flash "All Boy" Snap Cap sentiment.

The border allowed me to leave the sentiment/graphic intact, while still being able to add little bits of goodness that stick with my style.

So here is my challenge to you:

Create a unique border on your next OA project.

If you get a chance to play along, post your project in the OA Flickr Gallery or share it with us on the October Afternoon Facebook page. We love to see what you are creating!

Hope you enjoyed today's project. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Monday Challenge: Monochromatic Tags

Hey October Afternoon Fans! Mandy Koeppen here today with this week's Monday challenge.

This week I'm challenging you to pull out those tags and grab your pattern papers of the same color and create. You could add the tag to a card, your layouts, mini albums, gifts etc. I have 4 examples for you today. yellow, red, green, and blue. As I've said many times here on the blog past and present October Afternoon collection colors always seem to mesh well together so creating monochramatic tags should be no problem. 

Here is a shot of all four tags together on the cork board.

The yellow "Thanks A Bunch" tag was created with a mix from Sasparilla to the new Daily Flash Alphas. 

"Remember tag" was created with all blues. Instead of the simple horizontal layers like the yellow tag I chose a bit of a different look with a woodgrain background and layers of circles and the blue doily. I added pop dots to give the remember some dimension too. "Baby O" the red tag was one of the first tags I created for this project. I wasn't sure where I was going but once this tag was done I was on a roll and had lots of ideas flowing: Baby showers, Birthday, Wedding, Graduation, Thank You's, etc. 

Last but not least the green "Congrats" tag for the 2014 grad. Simple layers of pattern papers and the fun new Daily Flash stickers made this a great addition to the grads gift.

These tags were really simple and easy to create. I'm sure your friends and family would love to recieve a tag from you next time. This is a great way to use up those scraps too! 

I hope I've inspired you to create some monochromatic tags 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!

~Mandy

Tuesday Tutorial: A Quick & Easy Stamped Background

Hey everyone! Roree here.

I have something to share with you all today. I am NOT a stamper. There... I said it. It is not some startling revelation I have made, just a fact. The problem with that statement is I love stamps. I collect them with full intentions of learning how to stamp, trying cool stamping techniques, but I just never follow through. I have so many of OA's wonderful stamp sets, but sadly I rarely ever use them. But today I am taking a step towards my dream of someday adding stamping to my list of crafting credits and I am creating a card with a quick and easy stamped background. Will you come along on my journey?

First, my supplies:

I started off with the Dude stamp set from the Daily Flash All Boy collection, an ink pad, and a panel of paper.

OA has put together a wonderful arrangement of stamps, so why mess things up? I inked the stamps directly in the package.

Then, I placed the stamp set on my paper panel:

And because I collect stamps but not all of the supplies needed to use them, I had to search through my supplies for something large and flat to press the stamps as evenly as possible. The spacer block from my Cricut Cuttlebug machine worked quite nicely!

After removing the spacer block and the stamps, here is what I was left with:

A beautiful stamped background! Now I know... some of the images aren't solid, but I wasn't expecting perfection. I am just happy I got all of the images on the paper. And I do like the way it turned out. It's just a practice panel anyway. Practice makes perfect, right?

After several more attempts, I put my practice to the test and added the stamped images to some patterned paper, added some fun embellishments, and came up with this fun card:

I just love the stamped images against the patterned background. The pattern helps take the eye away from any slight imperfections in my stamping. So does the stitching.

And the awesome embellishments from Daily Flash dress the card up and hide some of the spots in the middle where I didn't get an even pressure.

All in all, I say it was a success. And it was pretty easy too. I think you will all be seeing a little more stamping on my projects in the future. **fingers crossed that I keep it up**

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Thursday Sketch: Patterned Backgrounds

Hey everyone!  Roree here with today's Thursday Sketch Challenge.

I created this sketch while playing around in Photoshop:

I started with a 8 1/2 x 11" format that would also work for 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card. I had a fun patterned background in mind for my project, so I created a lattice/diamond grid pattern for the base of the layout. Then I added a square towards the upper center—perfect for a couple of photos or some fun OA embellishments.

Here is the card I created using the sketch:

I used my Cricut Expression® 2 machine cut the diamonds for my grid (Cricut® Font & Basic Shapes cartridge) and flowers (Southwest cartridge). I used Travel Girl and Farmhouse for the papers, Daily Flash Girl Talk for the memory card, Travel Girl for the buttons and label sticker, Sasparilla for the baker's twine, and 5 & Dime for the chipboard.

Since the memory card had a sentiment that was already at the top of the card, I just rotated some of the elements from the sketch to make it work for my card.

Amy played along with my sketch this week, and here is the amazing card she created and what she had to say about it:

"When I saw Roree's sketch I knew I could easily use it for a layout or a card. Since this week my kids went back to school, I decided on making a card for my daughter, who loves (bordering on obsession), loves, LOVES dogs. Instead of the two open spaces in the sketch, I opted to use one, so that I could showcase the adorable dog illustration from All Boy and couple that with all the gorgeous papers from Girl Talk. For the lattice background in the sketch I decided to use the diagonal striped paper from Girl Talk and add strips to it going in the opposite direction giving the illusion of a similar diamond-esque texture. I then stitched along the strips to add more dimension and contrast to the background."

I just love how sketches inspire creativity. You can re-create something following the sketch exactly or just use an element or two to get you started—whatever works to get you creating.

I hope you enjoyed today's sketch and the samples Amy and I created using it. If you get a chance to play along, don't forget to post your project in the OA Flickr group.  We can't wait to see how you interpret it.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Put some Spring in your walk with Woodland Park!

Melanie Fink, Guest Designer

I LOVE October Afternoon's Woodland Park collection! The cute little fox, turtle, mice and bunnies are what first made me fall in love with the collection.  Taking a closer look, I noticed how versatile this collection really is and how inspiring it is.  I was thumbing through the miscellany and I smiled at every single piece of it!

I was very inspired by the yellow strip of paper in the miscellany pack that says "laugh, enjoy the sunshine, play, go for a walk, feed the ducks, lay in the grass."  Who doesn't love going for a walk on a beautiful day, laying in the grass and having a picnic with someone you love? So, I decided to make a tote with treat holders (milk cartons in this case) that can be brought along on a walk. When you want to take a break from your walk and lay in the grass, you can enjoy the treats inside!

As I mentioned in my guest designer introduction post a couple of weeks ago, I love making things for others. This could be a fun gift for newlyweds or couples that have been together for years. It just makes a special day even more special or an ordinary day memorable.

The  tote and milk cartons are SVGs by Lori Whitlock. There is a video tutorial on how to assemble these SVGs at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdtQLToNyVE . The video tutorial is very easy to follow.

I first assembled the tote. I chose a solid green color for the tote so the Woodland Park paper and embellishments would really stand out.

Next, I cut out the cartons and assembled them. I used gray twine from the OA's Farmhouse collection to close each carton on top (just untie to enjoy the treats inside!).

The final step is embellishing the tote. There are so many gorgeous embellishments in the Woodland Park collection, I had a hard time picking out what I was going to use!

To give my tote a whimsical feel, I added flying butterflies. The butterfly die-cuts are from the Woodland Park Flower Sack and Chip-N-Stick sticker pack. To make the butterflies fly, I cut three 4-inch long pieces of craft wire. I curled the wire by wrapping it around a pen. Next, I hot-glued the butterflies to one end of each piece of wire. Then, I hot-glued the opposite ends of each wire to the tote.

The last step was decorating the front of the tote. I added the yellow strip of miscellany that inspired me in the first place, as well as coordinating Shape and Chip-N-Stick stickers, and die-cuts from the Flower Sack. Overall, I achieved the whimsical, romantic feel I was going for.

Now if I could only make the weather here in Minnesota feel and look like spring! More snow is in our forecast! I can't wait for that first walk in beautiful spring weather!

If you missed my post last week, I mentioned I had a surprise on my blog! I am giving away a bunch of goodies from the Midway collection (12x12 collection kit, 8x8 paper pad, brads, stickey keys, flair and more). Stop by my blog at http://thepaperretreat.blogspot.com  to enter! The giveaway ends next Friday, April 26th!

Melanie

Tuesday Sketch: Simple Layers

Clean and simple, or lots of layers: who says you have to choose? This week's sketch features a marriage of two approaches that may seem quite different, but that can actually coexist in a single layout. 

Here's the 8.5" x 11" version...

and a 12" x 12" version. 

This sketch incorporates at least ten papers of varying sizes, making this an ideal opportunity to put those long-neglected scraps to good use. Although ten papers may seem to be anything but simple, the approach really is -- just trim the papers, overlap them, add a photo, a title, and some journaling, and that's it!

If mixing and matching so many patterns sounds a little too challenging, just use an already-coordinated favorite October Afternoon line, or choose papers with a similar color scheme, as Becky Novacek did:  

"When I received the sketch from Jill, I knew that I wouldn't change a whole lot...why mess with perfection? I did have a very specific color combo in mind, so that's where my focus was. Sometimes, I think it's a good creative exercise to let some aspect of what you normally focus on (like design) and focus on another. That's the perspective I went with. I mixed Midway, Farm Girl, Woodland Park and Farmhouse." 

I absolutely adore Becky's take on the sketch! The color combination is beautiful, and the mix of vintage book pages with the October Afternoon papers looks incredible. I also love how she added accents here and there, making the sketch truly her own and enhancing the overall theme of the page. 

Like Becky, I selected the papers for my own layout with a specific color scheme in mind. 

My usual style often includes lots of layers, so this sketch allowed me to do my thing in that respect, but I opted not to add any accents beyond a little bit of washi tape and some shading with a yellow-green watercolor pencil to match my kitty's eyes. Using minimal accents is fine -- the combination of different patterns and colors enlivens the page while also enabling me to keep it simple.  

With the exception of the cardstock, every single piece of paper here came from my stash of paper scraps. I pulled together papers from the Midway, Farm Girl, Woodland Park , Cakewalk, and 9 to 5 lines, and there is even some Witch Hazel included here! 

Whether or not you add accents, and regardless of how many different papers or patterns you choose to incorporate, you can most definitely find a way to adapt this week's sketch to your liking. We would love to see your projects, so be sure to share them in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery. 

Happy scrapping! 

-- Jill 

FRIDAY FIND: Farmhouse Bundle

October Afternoon’s treasured collection of things found down on Grandma and Grandpa’s farm have been bundled in this week’s Friday Find for you to enjoy!

This nostalgic collection includes a number of endearing papers and products that capture memories of rural life when times were not necessarily easy, but definitely more simple.

Imagine traveling the gravel road to the farm, enjoying a cool glass of summer tea while sitting on the porch swing or listening to the old phonograph. No need to rummage through that dust-covered trunk in the attic, all the treasures of the Farmhouse can found in this Friday Find!

Best of all, you won't have to sell the farm to get the Farmhouse Bundle …. it's priced at JUST $14.99 (plus shipping).  That’s nearly 60 PERCENT OFF the retail price!

Here’s what you get:

Farmhouse Bundle

2 - Her Bureau 12x12 paper

2  - Attic Trunk 12x12 paper

2 - Gravel Road 12x12 paper

2 - Faded Wallpaper 12x12 paper

2 - Porch Swing 12x12 paper

2 - Phonograph 12x12 paper

12x12 Alpha Stickers

Label Stickers

Mini Market Stickers (Grey/Cream)

Key Caps Sticky Keys

Rub-on Transfers

Wrap Pack

Flower Sacks

Don't delay ... order yours today while supplies last!

Shipping

Continental U.S., Alaska & Hawaii - $9.00

Canada - $13.35

All Other International - $20.45

a quick canvas art project

Good Morning! It's Becky here today and I have a simple project for you to try. I am a huge fan of creating one of a kind artwork for the walls of my home. I like to be able to customize the colors and the vibe that I want, so quite a few years ago, I started playing with stretched art canvases. 

Here's the canvas that I'm going to show you how to make:

I started with an 11"x14" canvas. The one I used wasn't perfect, it actually had some marks on it, so I painted the front and sides with a soft off-white acrylic paint. 

Then I did a little splattering with the Farmhouse Screen Door Sprinkler. I hadn't waited for the paint to dry completely, so it didn't have the look I wanted. Easy solution, I took paintbrush and ran the paintbrush over the sprinkles. It gave it just the look I like. I thought I would be starting over, but it ended up being a happy little mistake.

Then while the paint was drying, I took a simple secondhand frame that I picked up at an estate sale and measured the inside, then I cut a piece of ledger paper to fit.

I layered up a few fun pieces from the Woodland Park collection, including an oval sticker label that I had typed part of the sentiment on-

Lots of Woodland Park and Farmhouse Flower Sack pieces (my favorite!), as well as a little WP washi tape and an office supply tag, tissue paper and a little machine stitching. 

Here's the finished canvas again-

I attached the framed piece to the canvas and added a few butterflies from the Flower Sack collections. So quick and easy! This would be a great project to do with older kiddos. 

If this project inspires you to try something with canvas, or even copy this project, please share it with us on the OA Flickr group. We'd love to see your creations!

Monday Challenge: Alpha Stickers

Hey everyone! Roree here with today's Monday Challenge post. Since we are spotlighting alpha stickers on the blog this week, I thought it would be fun to gear the challenge around them. 

If you are like me, you have tons of alphabet sheets in your supplies. I am crazy for fonts and I have a hard time resisting the urge to add more and more to my collection. The problem is that with so many to choose from, it is rare that I use more than a few letters from each sheet for a title here or there on a project. So I challenged myself and I am challenging you to get your alpha stickers out and use them on a project for something other than a title. 

I made a couple of projects for this challenge using alpha stickers from the Farmhouse and Woodland Park collections.    

For my first project, I went a little sticker crazy. I created a background for my card.  I layered stickers onto a sheet of scrap paper and trimmed it to fit my card base.

Because the stickers were different sizes, I layered some stickers to fill in the gaps.  I created a really fun background pattern.

This is great way to use a lot of stickers all at once.

For my next project, I created a flower by cutting some 'O' and '8' stickers in half and used them for the petals.

Using different colors and patterns gave the flower a fun and whimsical look. 

What fun ideas do you have for using your alpha stickers?

If you get a chance to play along with today's challenge, don't forget to post your project in the OA Flickr group.  We love to see what you are working on! 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

~Roree