October Afternoon

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: Telling a story

Hi everyone, Mou here with today's post.

Did you know that April 27th is Tell A Story Day? So, in honor of this day, I want to share a little story about a family vacation we took over spring break last month. I'll show you the first spread today. To tell my story, I'm going to use

• Daily Flash pocket pages by October Afternoon
• Printed photos
• Drawn pictures
• Memento collected
• and some words, stamps, stickers, etc.

The first part of this process is in selecting the right pocket pages for my purpose.

I picked these two: SL-1073 - Daily Flash - 6x8 Sleeve for 3x3 (A) and SL-1074 - Daily Flash - 6x8 Sleeve for 3x4 (A). I also used the 12 x 12 Stamp Book paper and See The World stamp set from Travel Girl collection, Orange Soda alphas from Daily Flash collection and some label stickers.

Next is selection of photos. Obviously, there are several to choose from. I decided to pick those that will help me tell my story the best, rather than picking only those that looked the best. Here are some I decided on:

 

And there were sketches I did during this cruise that I wanted to include. My sketch wasn't the size to fit into any of the pockets, So I scanned it and resized it to fit.

I also included a little memento from the trip to tell my story. I had to cut off the rim to make it fit in the pocket. This is what the final spread looks like

I added the label stickers right on the photos and journaled on them. I cut a piece of the Stamp Book paper to fit in the center pocket and added the title and a stamp to it. I used the remaining space on the paper to tell the gist of the story.

What story would you tell with the Daily Flash pockets?

Monday Challenge: Pick a Color

Hey, OA fans! Good Monday to y'all! It's Mandy Koeppen here with your Monday challenge.

It's a pretty simple challenge this week just pick your colors. Pick 3-5 colors and work with only those colors for your papers, embellishments, and washi etc.

 

Here is the layout I created using green, grey, black, cream, and white. 

When I get stuck or feel like my creations need a little more of a change I challenge myself and this color thing is one of the challenges on my list. 

 

I used many different October Lines on this layout including Sasparilla, Travel Girl, 9 to 5, Daily Flash and Midway. Remember as you're searching thru your OA stash almost all the OA collections coordinate with each other which makes this challenge easier. 

If you get a chance to play along with today's challenge, be sure to upload your project(s) to theOA Flickr group. We can't wait to see what you create.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Mandy 

 

Monday Challenge: A Rainbow of Color

Hey everyone! Roree here with a Monday challenge for you.

Everyone who knows me knows that I love color. I am drawn to it, which is evident in so many of the projects I create. And that is just one of the reasons I love working with OA products—they are so very colorful!

I stumbled across this photo on Pinterest and it completely inspired me:

Isn't yummy?! I just love the layers of color all surrounded by the white frosting. It really makes the colors pop.

So here is my challenge: Get out your OA supplies and use this photo as inspiration to create a project filled with a rainbow of colors.

Here is the card I came up with:

I was so inspired by the cake layers that I created layers of color down the front of my card. I used papers from the Daily Flash collections, Girl Talk and Snapshots, and the Farm Girl collection, along with buttons from Travel Girl, Farm Girl, and Witch Hazel and coordinating thread.

I added some white ribbon for the "icing" and sprinkled the card with embellishments from Daily Flash collection, including Girl Talk and Milk Money.

It makes me happy. How about you?

If you get a chance to play along with today's challenge, be sure to upload your project(s) to the OA Flickr group. We can't wait to see what you create.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Thursday Sketch: Triangles

Hi, October Afternoon fans! It's Mandy Koeppen filling in for Amy to bring you this week's Thursday Sketch. Amy has had some curve balls thrown her way lately so if y'all could send her some happy healthy vibe that would be awesome. The sketch this week is AMAZING!! I fell in love and was so inspired by not only the sketch but the inspiration piece that Amy sent my way. I think y'all are going to have fun with this one. 

Here is the inspiration piece that Amy based the sketch off of. 

How cool, right?  I love the triangles, the vintageness, and the colors. And now for the sketch.

Here is the layout I created. 

As you can see I flipped the sketch, made my triangles a few different sizes, and switched the title and journaling up. I think this layout is my favorite creation. I had fun adding dimension to this layout with foam squares, left over chipboard pieces, stitching, and more. The 3 triangle pointing to the left I cut out with my craft knife then added the layers to the back. The 2 triangles pointing to the right are adhered to the top of the cardstock then stitched on the inside(which is totally easier for me than the outside stitching as you can tell). This was so much fun to create and I'm so glad that my friend Amy asked me to help her out otherwise I may not have created this layout. 

 

Mou is joining me today with a clean & simple Travel Girl card.

Here's what Mou had to say:

"I loved the clean geometrical lines of Amy's sketch. I cut out triangles from various papers from the Travel Girl collection and arranged them on my card. I stamped sentiments at the base using the Daily Flash Travel rotary stamp. The repetitive pattern of the sketch helped me put the card together really fast."

 

Thank you Amy & Mou for these great pieces of inspiration!

If you've been inspired to get triangular with this sketch, be sure upload your work to OA's Flickr gallery. We would love to see it!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day! 

Mandy 

Spring is Here! | Monday Challenge

Happy Monday, everyone! It's Amy here and we are officially in the Spring season in the northern hemisphere! Yippee!! I don't know about you, but our winter, here in the Northeast, has been brutally cold and snowy. In fact, Tuesday into Wednesday we are looking at MORE SNOW! Say it isn't so!!

Despite this recent forcast for more of the white stuff, I'm fully ready to bring on the sun and color and be outside! So, I thought this week's challenge could be all about Spring!

Here I've used photos from the onset of Spring 2013 as my muse and used some brand new OA collections like, Girl Talk and All Boy along with some bits and pieces from last year's spring collection, Travel Girl.
All of these colors work so beautifully together! Perfect for the fresh and crisp feel that spring provides in all of those wonderful photos and memories from Springtime!

  
I asked Vivian to join along with me on my Springtime fete and check out this gorgeous layout that she created!

 Here's what Vivian had to say about her page:

When Amy shared the spring theme of this week’s challenge, my 40th birthday bike photos immediately popped into my mind. The Daily Flash Girl Talk papers were perfect with these photos, as they are both spring-y and include a bike motif. I added some fun touches with vertical stamping and handcut flowers placed atop the bike basket. Thank you, Amy, for getting me to finally document this moment!

I LOVE it!! How fun is this page - and those PHOTOS! Eeek! Love them to bits! Thank you so much, Vivian for sharing your creation and taking on the challenge with me this week!

 

Has Spring begun to show it's beautiful petals where you located? Are you ready to put away your snow boots as much as I am?! Then get out your supplies and show us your Spring inspired pages, cards and other crafting on our Flickr page, for us all to enjoy! Thanks so much for joining us today! Have a super week!

Thursday Sketch

HI OA fans, Mandy here with today's sketch. There seems to be a trend with my sketches I create for the OA blog lots of squares and layers although this time I added a few circles and an arrow. 

 

This time I went a little bit of a different route I decided to create a layout then send Laura a sketch based on it.

for this layout I grabbed my scraps and anything that looked fun that would go good with my photo of my homebodies aka kids. There's some Travel Girl, Daily Flash, Farm Girl, Midway, and more. 

Today Laura is joining me with an amazing card! 

Here's what Laura had to say:

"I decided to make a card with Mandy's awesome sketch today.  I think one of my favourite things about sketches is the ability to make them work for me.  I didn't follow it 100%, and that's okay!  It gave me a great starting point that helped form the main design of this card.  I chose a few of the elements to focus on like the big square, arrow, and title off to the side.  I pulled out some older and much loved Midway papers and paired them with some newer embellishments from Daily Flash, and now I have a cute card ready for my nephew's birthday!"

Thank you for sharing this awesome card with us Laura!!

I hope we've inspired you to take this sketch and make it your own the next time you create. If you do, be sure upload your work to OA's Flickr gallery. We would love to see it!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day! 

Mandy 

 

Monday Challenge: Colors

Hi everyone, Mou here with today's challenge. I have a color challenge for you. 

When I saw this color scheme on Pinterest, I knew I'd want to use it in my projects. These bright, happy, soft colors have so much potential. They could match themes like Easter, new baby, girls, everyday, and so much more. But I challenged myself to use this color scheme on a school-themed card. Here's my take:

On this card, I have used

October Afternoon Daily Flash Milk Money 12 x 12 paper: Science 

October Afternoon Daily Flash Milk Money 12 x 12 paper: Social Studies

October Afternoon Travel Girl 12 x 12 paper: Stamp Book

October Afternoon Mini Market Alpha Stickers: Mint & Creme; Orange & creame

Others: cardstock, sewing machine, thread, adhesive

With the final exams for the school year rolling around, I made this card to wish good luck to my kids. I looked for sections in the patterned papers that suited my theme, such as the top most block saying 'Use No. 2 Pencil Only' from the Social Studies paper and 'F I N Al S' from the Science paper and arrange them on the card. I used the alpha stickers to spell out the sentiment and machine stiched in a couple of places to add a little texture. Here's a closer look.

Hope you like today's challenge and will try this color scheme in unconventional ways in your own projects.

Tuesday Tutorial: A semi-pocket page

Hi everyone, Mou here with today's tutorial!

I'm not a conventional pocket page scrapper. I don't do Project Life. But I like how the Daily Flash pockets look. So, I wanted to see if I could use these pockets as part of my design on 8.5" x 11" layouts. On this layout, I used a 6x8 Sleeve for 2x2 photos from the Daily Flash line. It seemed like an easy and fun way to save some of those Valentines the kids got this year. Let me show you how I included the pocket page on my layout.

First of all, lay out the Valentines and pick the ones that would look best on your page.

Insert the Valentines in the little pockets. Some might fit better at an angle. Some you will need to cut apart to fit. Once you are happy with the arrangement, trim off the spine section with the punched holes. Take care not to cut into the seam line.

Attach some paper strips (I used 12 x 12 Stamp Book paper from Travel Girl and 12 x 12 Carol of the Bells paper from Silent Night collection) and washi tapes (Tropical Sherbet and Red Mesh, both from the Daily Flash line) near the top and bottom of the cardstock.

Attach the pocket page to the cardstock. Even though the pockets are clear, attaching them with double-sided tape was not difficult when I hid the adhesive behind the pocket contents. You could also sew it in place following the seam lines. 

Next, add some Apple Cider Pop Drops randomly around the page to embellish. Spell out the title using Sherbet Mini Market alpha stickers. I also attached a cute cupcake topper to the page using some Tropical Sherbet washi tape. It's really cool how all these collections, as different as they are in theme and release date, they still work together perfectly!

I couldn't help splattering a little bit of the Pink Lemonade Sprinkler from Cakewalk collection. You could skip this, if you are not a fan of splatters.

Journal below the title. Insert photos into the remaining pockets. Stamp phrases on cardstock strips using the Inspiration rotary stamp from Daily Flash and attach to the layout to finish.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and will think of using your pocket pages on your layouts in different ways.

Challenge | Warm & Cool Colors

Happy Monday everyone! It's Amy here today with this week's challenge. 

I was looking back on some of my challenges and saw right away that I was using color palettes that were really "cool" in tone, namely because most of my subject matter was winter-related. So I thought, why don't we do a color challenge that plays on that same theme - using "warm" or "cool" palettes? Perfect!
Since many of my recent projects were using the cool palettes, I really wanted to try and use some warmer tones. I reached into my OA stash which included Silent Night, Travel Girl, Apple Cider and a little from the latest Daily Flash collection, Girl Talk and came up with a fun and warm page about my silly daughter. This photo was taken in mid-December when it was quite cold out. I could have easily created a cool-toned page for this to go with because of that, but by using all warm-tones, it gives the page a completely new feel, totally un-related to the temperature outside that we were experiencing.

 

I asked Alex to join me in this challenge, and she decided to use a "cool" toned palette for her take on the challenge. Take a look at her stunner of a page!

 

Here's what Alex had to say about the challenge:

"I never thought of using just cool or just warm colors for my layouts before, but I loved the idea. I pulled out my beautiful Silent Night collection and went for the cool ones. I filled a whole 12x12 page with hearts in Silhouette Studio and ran a Joy to the World sheet through my Cameo. A drew a black frame on the Carol of the Bells paper and adhered the hearts inside it, some of them using 3D dots to make them pop. Next, I layered a piece of Midnight Clear paper and vellum under my photo and that lovely chipboard piece and added them to the center of the page. I then added some tidbits, a tin pin , the black "love" sticker, vellum snowflakes and the Apple Cider pop drops hearts. For the title, I used the Strawberry Ice Cream chipboard alphas (love them!!!). Finally, I wrapped up my layout with some solid black twine. I am pretty happy with how this layout turned out. Thank you so much for the inspiration and this fun challenge, Amy!"

I just love everything about this page. It's just gorgeous! Thank you, Alex for playing along!!

Alex and I hope we've inspired you to reach into your stash and try using warm and cool color palettes this week! If you do, please post to our October Afternoon Flickr gallery so we can admire your work! Thanks so much for joining us today! Have a super day! ~Amy