October Afternoon

Thursday Sketch Challenge

2012-01-26T05:00:00-06:00

Hey everyone! Roree here, and I have today's sketch challenge for you.

I had so much fun a couple of weeks ago with the inspiration photo that I used to create my January 12th sketch, that I decided to find another photo to use for today's sketch.

Here it is:

(image found on Pinterest)

With this inspiration photo, I created this sketch:

I loved the rows of circles, so I focused on that element. I added in the frame, title, and journaling to make it a little more scrapbook friendly.

I have been having so much fun making cards with the sketches lately, that I stuck with it for this sketch too.

Here is the card I created:

I used the Sidewalks collection to create a banner in place of the circles. I added little details like layering and stitching the banner shapes together to add more texture and dimension.

I then cut a sticker strip into three pieces and put it in place of the title and journaling.

Becky played along with my sketch this week, and here is the beautiful layout she created:

She really loved the inspiration photo and went with a more literal interpretation of it. She made it her own by adding her photo in place of the 'O' in the title. Such a fun take on the sketch, don't you think?! :)

I hope you enjoyed today's sketch. If you get a chance to play along with this week's sketch, don't forget to post it in the OA Flickr group. We love to see what you all are creating with OA products!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

~Roree

Here's what you've been waiting for

2012-01-25T08:03:14-06:00

The last sneak peek!

We'd like to introduce Woodland Park!

Tuesday Tutorial: Misting, Masking, & Stamping Oh My!

2012-01-24T05:00:00-06:00

Hey everyone! Kinsey here with a quick and fun tutorial on masking with a combo of stamps and sprINKlers. Here's what I used for this fun spin on masking:

First, I used a paper punch to create the resist and the mask (a die cut machine would do the trick as well) and then used the punched shape and misted over it...

Next, using the opposite piece of the mask (the excess or outer part of the punched shape) to cover the misted area, and stamped inside the masked shape using a doily stamp from the Farmhouse stamp set...(tip: using a thin piece of paper for this step allows the stamped images to appear seamless)

Check it out!

Last but not least, I added a few extra touches to snazz it up a bit :) I outlined the scalloped shape (this technique looks really cute with a stitched border too), added one of the Farmhouse little flyers, and the 'Hello' stamp is from Studio Calico. Here's the finished tag:

Thanks so much for stopping by today and hanging out!

Kinsey

Monday Challenge-Scraplift yourself....

2012-01-23T09:14:18-06:00

Scraplifting yourself is just the beginning of this challenge. Becky here today, with a multi-faceted challenge. Every year in January, I challenge myself to create a layout and then duplicate it for each of our grandchildren. You can interpret this as you wish...I would suggest a couple of ideas. Maybe you could recreate layouts for each of your children, or perhaps you have a great photo (or more than one) of a group of friends or family members who you could create a page for. This year we added two new grandsons, so last year I made 8 layouts based on one design and this year, I made ten!

The second aspect of this challenge is to convey something across the board. Something that is important to you. Something you can communicate in a page.

And the third aspect is to use past collections and scraps. I still adore many of the past October Afternoon collections and wanted to use them and not just hoard them : )

Take any part of this challenge and make it your own. Spin it, turn it, interpret it as you like! It's just a starting point. I've enjoyed challenging myself to do this for the past several years and there is something extremely gratifying and freeing to me about it year after year.

This year, I assembled all of my photos and had a design in mind before I started. Once I began, it went very quickly. This is not my usual creative process. I normally have a mindset of doing something very fresh and of masterpiece quality! But for this challenge, I allow myself freedom. No pressure to create something completely fresh or new, no pressure to make it just right. It's more an exercise in creating and conveying a sentiment.

On a sidenote, I make a lot of pages for my grandchildren. My goal is not to make albums that document their lives. They have parents who can document their lives if they choose. My reason for creating pages about them is to document my feelings for them and my memories about them from my perspective. I keep a book (or more) for each child that they will be able to take someday if they want. Right now, it's fun for me to do. A creative outlet.

So here are the ten layouts based on one design:

I don't know if I've ever made ten layouts in a day and a half before! But using this process really did work. If I were going to a crop, I think this would be a fun approach.

Wilna joined me in this challenge and I asked her to interpret it as she liked...and I like how she chose to do it! She went back and found a layout she had made in 2005-

From this layout, she created this beauty-

I think it's great! kind...smart...important. LOVE.

So please take up this challenge, any part or all of it and share with us what you make! Please post your take on the OA Flickr group!

Thanks!

Probable (Sasparilla) Dreams...

2012-01-20T09:04:00-06:00

Hello!
It's Michelle here with another Guest page for you, this month. :)

When I saw the super-cute cowboy-inspired 'Sasparilla' line, it immediatly made me think of all the ways I could use it for mister husband's side of the family - all of them being really manly men with loves of outlaw movies and such.

I saw this photo of my little nephew and wondered what little minds would be dreaming of...and then guessed that it might be similar to what his older relatives dream of...cowboys!

It's definitely probable. :)

I added a cluster of cowboys on the top of the page, and stitched little lines coming from the photo up to them to make them look like thought bubbles. And the rub-ons were so fun to work with! They go on like a dream, and look great all bunched together...

Stand in a circle on your numbered square, start the music...

2012-01-20T05:05:00-06:00

STOP the music. Someone reaches into a bucket to pull out a number. You are looking at the table full of homemade cakes. Would you choose chocolate or carrot or the one with sprinkles? Waiting in anticipatation, is it going to be your number?!?

Name that game!

You are right CAKEWALK!

That is the name of our second line we are realasing at Winter CHA.

Oh my goodness wait until you see what the Creative Team came up with!!!

Such talent.

We are so happy for those procastinators out there who still have to scrap their birthday parties (like me from 10 years ago, oops). And for those who have parties coming up!

So get ready for some super adorable prints...

The Alphabet paper

The Stars

The Elephant

Oh My!

And that is just a teaser, can you imagine what the WHOLE line looks like?!?!?!

Sketchy Thursday

2012-01-19T05:01:00-06:00

good morning everyone. danni here with this week's sketch. today i decided to switch it up a little and create a lo sketch but it could easily translate into a card sketch or mini album sketch.

with all the cute banners in the Farmhouse and Sidewalks lines, fun chipboard stickers, Miscellany packs and Little Flyers, i wanted to create a sketch that would include a banner as one of the focals.

here's the sketch

joining me today is marcy who created this amazing lo. i love her splatters, her notebook, her titlework, her banner, it's all...well, "rad"

rad by marcy

here's what marcy had to say about the sketch creating process

"I made a few tweaks to the sketch. I kept the little notebook element in the middle, moved the title down and extended the banner. In my little notebook I included additional photo and some journaling as well as layered some labels from the Farmhouse collection. To make my banner I trimmed triangles from the patterned papers and also trimmed some of the flags in half."

and here is my interpretation

tea by danni

i created my banner, cutting one of the lace banners from the Farmhouse pp here:Clothesline, die-cut a scalloped circle which i folded in half and stitched onto the banner, cut an additional block banner from the same sheet of pp, layered on top of the lace banner, layered with some buttons and tin pins and even a paper strip from one of the pp titles.

i decided to move my title down so as to allow the butterfly to remain the focal on the left side.

the layered notebook element inspired me to layer my picture several times and create a layered large butterfly focal. to create the butterfly, i printed the large butterfly image on the backside of my pp, decreased it in size, printed it on the backside of additional pp. i then layered the butterflies and stitched them together.

love all the chipboard pieces in the Miscellany packs, they are so much fun to create with and layer

we hope you enjoyed today's sketch. if you can play along with us this week, please share how this sketch inspired you in our OA Flickr group.

happy creating♥

danni

What do you do for your 9-5 job?

2012-01-18T08:11:38-06:00

WE CREATE!!!!

and have this PEEK just for you of the first of three new lines being released at CHA !!!

This one is named, 9 to 5, of course! Stop back later in the week, as well as next week for the other two releases.

Oh my gosh! So cute! Let us know what you think. We love feedback!

Tuesday Tutorial: Hanging Hearts

2012-01-17T03:30:00-06:00

Good morning! It's Lexi on the blog today bringing you a simple tutorial on this happy Tuesday. The inspiration behind this post came from, where else, Pinterest. *sigh* I really could waste hours, if I had hours to waste!, on that site. Surely I am not the only one, right? Lately I have been pinning Valentine's Day inspiration--already? It's almost hard to believe that it is next month.

How fun are these crayon hearts, courtesy of Martha Stewart? (I think I need to make them with my kiddos.) I took the general idea of the hanging hearts and translated to a layout using the Farmhouse line.

First, I decided what pic to use and the title. I knew I wanted the hearts to fall from the top of the page so I scrapped my title and photo closer to the bottom.

I used my Cameo to cut out all the hearts, but you can just as easily use a heart punch. The only heart punch I had was tiny and I wanted some bigger hearts with varied shapes, so using a die cut machine came in handy.

Looks valentines-y already :)

Start to arrange your hearts to get an idea of their placement. I knew I wanted them falling in a straight line leading to the photo and title.

To get dimension, stack your hearts on top of one another and sew down the middle. I like to add several layers, with different patterns and heart sizes.

I loved the frosty look the wax paper gave the crayon hearts in the original inspiration image, so I punched smaller vellum hearts to add to the layout. Some are sewn with the bigger hearts. All the paper used is from Farmhouse, except for the red/white dot, which is from Holiday Style. The smaller hearts all come from the Farmhouse Flowersack and worked perfect for this idea.

another view-

and all together now-

I loved this little tag and used some of the twine in the Farmhouse wrap pack to tie it around the photo. You can see a few of those vellum hearts peeking out.

While I had these scraps and this idea of hearts on my mind, I decided to whip up a card too. Do you ever do that? Make a card with your scraps after creating a layout? The negative space from the cut out hearts were perfect as a background for a Valentine card.

All of this is from the Farmhouse line as well. I added the label sticker on top of a piece of lace from the Wrap Pack and a scrap of linen material. You can see the negative space from the hearts that were cut out...and a few vellum hearts sewn down. A mini, more simple version of the layout.

Are you already thinking Valentine's Day? Maybe you are now! If you do try your hand at a hanging hearts layout or any kind of Valentine's project using October Afternoon we would love to see! Link us up here or add it to our inspiration-filled Flickr gallery :)

Thanks for joining me and have a great Tuesday!

Monday Challenge: Using Your Not-Quite-What-You-Expected Photos

2012-01-16T02:00:00-06:00

Happy Monday! Stacey here, bringing you a new challenge for this week.Use a photo (or a pile of them!) that didn't turn out right. It could be blurry, too dark, really light, or have something weird in the background. Or maybe your child got ahold of the camera and took pictures of things from his perspective. (This happened to me once, and I had a whole lot of pictures of dolls, stuffed animals, and feet - and this was before I had a digital camera, so they were on real film and I paid to have them developed!)

The inspiration for my challenge is a photo of my daughter that I had printed in 8X10 size for the grandparents for Christmas (scroll down - there's a lot of white sky at the top of the photo):

Since it is a digital photo, I had to pay close attention to the cropping when I sent it to Sam's Club for printing. I printed about 40 photos that day and digitally cropped them all - except for this one! In the layout below, you'll see what happened. I still LIKE the photo, but it's not what I was looking for (I needed more than her head for the framed gift photos). As soon as I saw the mistake I'd made, I knew I could use it for a scrapbook page...I love white space on photos, and this one has an abundance of white space!

The title on this is inspired by a sign I found on Pinterest. The big alphas are hand cut - I just eyeballed the letters. It's been a while since I cut anything out freehand like that, and I like how they turned out for this one! I used several October Afternoon collections - even some older ones like Night Light and Cherry Hill!

Here's a closer shot, just for fun:

When I told Jill Sprott my challenge theme, she said she knew just what pictures she wanted to use! She said she had some that turned out blurry, but she still wanted to use them. Here's the layout she did - I love how she cropped and edited the photos a little so that the blurriness isn't so obvious. Here's what she said:

"Taking photos of my husband is always a challenge, but recently, I was able to hold him hostage for a minute outdoors. That didn't stop him from clowning around the whole time, though, resulting in a lot of blurry photos. Still, I found myself smiling as I went through the photos, and knew that they would be perfect for this challenge. How do we judge what is a "usable" photo anyway? A little blur is inevitable when you're trying to capture life as it happens, after all.

One way to make blurry photos a little easier to work with is to make them smaller, which is what I did on this layout. It also helps to make the photo black and white, as I did with one of the photos. This way the expression on my husband's face becomes the emphasis, and the fact that most everything else is out of focus becomes inconsequential.

Imperfect photos can share space perfectly with other elements. On this page, I pulled together lots of blues, greens, and neutrals from various lines, including Rocket Age, Sidewalks, and Farmhouse. I had so much fun layering and embellishing the patterned rectangles and journaling cards."

I really hope you enjoy this challenge!