October Afternoon

Thursday Sketch: Make a card

Hi OA Fans, Mou here from colorhappycreations.com with a card sketch today!

I kept it really simple and open to your interpretation. Here's my take.

To make this card, I used elements from Under The Tree collection.

On the card base, I attached a block of Carol Singing paper. Layered a bird duo sticker from Working Shape Stickers as the main image and sprinkled some red Pop Drop circles all around and finished with a sentiment strip from Working Word Stickers.

This is super quick and easy if you need to make last minute cards to hand deliver.

Here's a close up of my card.

If you celebrate, a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours and Happy New Year to everyone!

Monday Challenge: Stripe it out

Hey October Afternoon fans, Mou here with today's challenge and it's all about STRIPES! You have to mix at least two different stripe patterns in one project, be it card, layout, or anything you can imagine. Here's my take.

To make this 6" x 6" card, I used Carol Singing and Stocking Hanging 12x12 papers from Under the Tree collection.

These two papers provided not only contrast but also different widths of stripes.

To make this card, I cut out a 6"x12" piece from Stocking Hanging and two 2" x 6" strip from Carol Singing papers. With scissors I notched the ends of the smaller strips of Carol Singing paper and folded the Stocking Hanging paper in half to make the card.

I stacked the cut out notches to create a Christmas tree, added a sentiment from the Merry Making paper and a star from the Shape Stickers to finish the card.

What will you create with stripes?

Tuesday Inspiration: Christmas for Halloween

Hello hello my fellow October Afternoon fans, Mou here today with your Tuesday Inspiration!

You guys have seen the new and merry Under the Tree collection I'm sure. Look at these papers... it is clearly a Christmas Collection!

 

And now, look again...

I suddenly see Halloween in them. HOCUS POCUS!

And to prove my point that you can be totally inspired by Christmas papers to scrap Halloween and other autumn-themed photos, let me share with you our visit to the pumpkin patch in search of a jack-o-lantern.

 

The papers I used here are: Carol Singing, Working-Merry Making, and Candle Lighting, all from Under the Tree collection. I even pulled some of the blue-green from Working-Merry Making when I hand cut my fall leaves. Here are some close-ups of my layout.

So, what will you scrap with this collection beyond Christmas?

Thursday Sketch: Photo Booth Strips

Hi everyone, Mou here with today's sketch!

Do you like photo booth prints? I feel that the photo strips help tell a story in a very fun way. Now, while there are limitations to what you can take to a photo booth, there are no restrictions to what you can do with the look. With that inspiration in mind, I created this sketch.

You could create a simple linear layout with a sketch like this or you could give it a touch of mixed media like I did.

I started this layout with a neutral grey cardstock as my photos are very colorful. Rather than just placing the pictures one below another, I created a staggered strip of photos mounted on slightly wider strips of Bonfire and Hayride  papers from Daily Flash Apple Cider collection. The papers instantly warmed up the grey background to match my Autumn photos. I cut my title out of Pumpkin Picking paper and created an embellishment by cutting out a tree from the Hayride paper.

Fall reminds me of sweaters and textures. To create that feel on my layout, I machine-stitched around the photo strips and title. I cut out leaf shapes from Bonfire paper and sprinkled them around the page like leaves falling from trees. Next I splattered paints around carefully as not to drop a lot on my photos. To add a date to the layout, I used the Daily Flash 2010's Decade Stamp. Finally, I journaled at the bottom.

Here are some close-up shots of my layout.

I hope you like my layout and find the sketch useful. So, how are you documenting fall this year?
 

Monday Challenge: Record Your Summer in Pocket Pages Part 3

Hello there October Afternoon fans, Mou here today with your Monday challenge!

Summer is wrapping up here. Schools start this week. This has been a summer of big events for our family. We have moved from Florida to New Jersey. And yes, for the first time, I am sensing that summer is really coming to an end as the evenings are getting rather chilly. New Jersey is not the land of everlasting summer... but I'm looking forward to welcoming autumn because that has always been my favorite!

At the beginning of this summer, I challenged myself and invited you all to join me to record this summer in pocket pages. You can read my original post here. I have used the October Afternoon Daily Flash system to record our summer. In order to not miss a single beat, I have taken photos all summer with my phone and posted them on my Instagram account with #oursummerof2015. As I progressed with my project, I realized yet one more time, how helpful the Daily Flash system is..

Here are two more spreads from my album.

As I continue working on this album, I find myself reaching for more October Afternoon Collections than just Summertime and loving it because they all blend together seamlessly!

So, how is your summer memory keeping coming along? Please share in your comments.

Thursday Sketch: Lots of Journaling

Hi everyone, Mou here with today's sketch and it is one with lots of room for journaling!

If you are like me, you might like to tell your stories in detail and that needs space on a layout. When I sketch, I keep the length of my story in mind so I don't have to struggle to make it fit at the end after everything has been glued down. Here's my layout

On this layout, I used not only my own handwriting but also patterned paper, stamps and stickers in the journaling from the Summertime collection. I started with a strip of Swimming Pool paper at the very top to let the words set the stage for a summer layout. Next I added a wider block of Puffy Clouds paper in the middle and a block of Heat Wave paper at the bottom. I cut my title out of Green Grass paper. I embellished around the title with a Tin Pin and some star stickers from the Double Take sticker set. Finally, to add my journaling, I used the Summer rotary stamp and words from the Double Take sticker set and wrote out the story with black pen. Here are some close ups of my layout.

Hope you enjoyed today's post and find the sketch helpful when you have a longer story to tell. Thanks for stopping by!

Monday Challenge: Record Your Summer in Pocket Pages Part 2

Hi everyone, Mou here with today's October Afternoon challenge which is a continuation of my June challenge to record your summer in pocket pages.

Last month, I shared the first three pages of my album and this time, I'll show you how have continued on that journey. I recently opened an account on Instagram to keep my summer images together in one place so that I can print those images and put them in pockets without going back and forth too much. Here's my account  and you can see almost all the images at #oursumerof2015.

And here they are in October Afternoon Daily Flash pocket pages.

 

I added a journaling spot using a Memory Card right on top of my photo.

Here are more 2 x 2 photos in the back with some blocks cut out of Blue Skies paper.

Next month, I'll share more of my summer of 2015 album right here. So, be sure to check back :)

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!

Monday Challenge: Record Your Summer in Pocket Pages

Hi everyone, Mou here with today's October Afternoon challenge! And the challenge is to record your summer.

Summer maybe relaxing for kids, but as an adult, I find myself quite busy during summer... you know, organizing activities, making sure all the right things are packed for summer camps, that the kids don't bicker just to escape boredom and all that kinda stuff. So, creative time is rare, especially, this summer with the move. But it is also a summer I really want to remember because it's our last in Florida for the time being. That means I need a plan. And I'm planning to record the summer of 2015 in pocket pages using the October Afternoon Daily Flash 6x8 Sunshine album. The collection I'll most use for this is Summertime and maybe add elements from other collections.

This is the first page of my album.

Here's page # 2 and 3. I haven't journaled yet but getting the photos in those pockets and saving spots to add journaling will help.

I'm hoping to take as many photos as I can even if with just my phone to record this summer. The rest I can fill in as time goes on. So far, I have used Blue Skies and Green Grass patterned papers from the Summertime collection. You can get so much mileage out of just one 12 x 12 patterned paper! They are like built-in embellishments. The other products from the collection I have used are Double Take stickers, Memory Cards, Tin Pins, and Grey Flannel alphabet stickers.

So, how will you record your summer this year? 

Thursday Sketch: Building Blocks

Hi everyone, Mou here with today's sketch! Once I put the sketch together, it started to look like little building blocks that kids play with. Start with these basic blocks and go as far as you like with embellishments.

 

Here's my layout. I started with a kraft cardstock. Then chose patterned papers from Daily Flash Girl Talk: Dish, Chatter, Giggle, Gossip and Saturday Mornings Scones. I arranged the base layer on white cardstock following my sketch. Just like interlocking building blocks, I cut into my patterned papers following the outlines of images and tucked the photo in. Next, I cut out some images from the patterned papers and used them to embellish. One of the patterned paper cutouts also became my page title. Couple of  Treasure Map Label Stickers to journal on and I had a fun layout all done.

Here's a close-up of my layout.

Today, I have Roree with me and here's her beautiful and clean card take on my sketch.

Roree says: "For Mou's sketch, I created a card using the new Summertime collection. I used the B-side of the Backyard Lights patterned paper for the background of my card and the Puffy Clouds patterned paper (both sides) in place of the color-block row in the sketch to create a little sunshine scene. I added a sentiment from a Memory Cards for the title and replaced the journaling block in the sketch with a bow and tag created from a Little Labels sticker. I dressed up the tag with a heart sticker from the Double Take Stickers pack and a Pop Drop from the Daily Flash Apple Cider collection. Thanks for the fun sketch, Mou!"

 

 

Here's a closer look at Roree's lovely and bright card!

I hope you guys find my sketch useful for one of your projects too! Thanks for stopping by.