Trends on Tuesday - The Big Rip (and some smaller ones)

I had an idea to do a different trend for today that went well with these pictures......and then it evolved into something else - does that happen to you too?  I used a mix of papers from Simple Stories Awesome collection, Cosmo Crickets Tea for Two and a little October Afternoon Farmhouse as well.

On my blog browsing there are a number of scrapbookers that have perfected tearing beautiful papers up and making them look gorgeous.  It isn't something I have really played with, and it did take me a while to tear one of my favourite sheets from Simple Stories (I love newsprint but that is a whole other trend!).  It is really easy to do, and you can layer up all sorts of off cuts of papers behind the tear and I added a little lace too.

On the rule of odd numbers I went for 3 tears about my page - it is just a straight tear into the page.

You can then ink the edges, or just roll them over as is.

Layer up all your offcuts behind the tear - they act a bit like arrows pointing into the focal points on your page.  So be brave and have a go - you can use plain cardstock too as a tear, or just tear an oversized photo matt to reveal a paper underneath.  Here are some of the fantastic tearers I have come across on my browsing to inspire you some more.....

http://herhand.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/prima-mad.html

http://staceyeyoung.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/sharing-some-pretties.html

http://gabriellepollacco.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/making-my-own-texture-paste-fun-with.html

http://solangescrap.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/nova-colecao-firefly-prima.html

Katherine

Trends on Tuesday - Ombre

If you are like me then you will probably think 'ombre; what is ombre?'...it is a french term meaning shaded, graduation of colour.  Glitter Girl (Shimelle) has done a fantastic video about some different ways of creating this effect, she focuses a lot on misting (here is the link) and talks you through a whole page.  Watercolours are also a great and easy way as you can start with a dark colour and graduate it with the water.  For my page I decided to use the paper colours to create the graduated effect.

I went for papers from the same manufacturer (as they tend to use more similar colour tones in their papers and it was quicker for me to flick through) - they are all October Afternoon, but a mix of Farmhouse, 9 to 5 and also some Rocket Age.  I used strips of the paper starting from cream at the top to a dark blue at the bottom, and then layered over the top a parquet flooring die cut sheet too.  I also used the graduated shading for my banner going from light to dark.  I have often used colours in the rainbow order on pages, and the ombre effect works very similarly but just in a more muted fashion and draws your eye down and across the page. Here are a few links to give you other Ombre ideas:

Jen Gallacher

Creating Keepsakes

Doodlebug Designs

Kinsey Wilson

Filing & Organisation - Mel

So today I have been doing a job I have been putting off for a while - filing away a pile of finished layouts. I really don't enjoy filing layouts but I love looking through nicely organised albums.... so it is a means to an end!


I have tried various organisation systems over the years;

layouts filed in order I completed them
I found this too incoherant when I looked through the albums as I scrap when I get some inspiration for a photo not in the order they are taken.

layouts filed in chronological order
This worked fine until Olivia was born and then I started to think about who would have the albums in years to come - too difficult to separate them

"Library of Memories \ Photo Freedom" Stacey Julian style
I love this concept for storing photos waiting to be scrapped and I still use it for that but once the layouts were made I really didn't like the theme albums, they again seemed to incoherant for my chronology loving mind!

My current filing system I settled on and then amended slightly after doing Shimelles Cover to Cover Class.

I keep annual chronological albums for each of the girls. Pages with both of them or the whole family in go in whichever album has least of this type of page in at the time I am filing unless the journaling is particularly pertinant to one or other of them - In the photo above there are 3 postbound albums on the left which *swhould* be 2005, 2006 & 2007 for Isabelle. I say should because I hate adding or removing page protectors from post bound albums so they are not exactly in single year albums. I will probably swap at least one of the postbounds for d ring to make it easier. I would have swapped the lot but they are custom designed albums which were bought with Isabelles name in a decorative design on the front and sentimentality has made me stick with them! The brown and red albums in the left hand cube are 2008, Isabelle on the left, Olivia on the right! Pale blue and pale pink are 2009, green and patterned pink are 2010. Unfortunately only 5 albums fit in a cube and I didn't want part of a year in one cube and the other childs album in the next cube so the light green on the right on the middle cube is a travel album. In the far right cube I switched to WRMK albums and there is 2011 and 2012 in there.

In addition to the chronological annual girls' albums I have "Upgrade Albums" for big events (for us this is mainly holidays) and eventually there will be one for our wedding. My travel pages all go in a general travel abum and if and when there are enough pages to warrent a separate album for just one trip then the layouts get shifted into their own album. Finally I need another album for things that don't fit anywhere else! I need to find a home for layouts of my neices - they will no doubt have their own album and then there are the Book of Me type layouts as I have only recently decided to scrap any of those.

So - I have been organising and filing. Anyone care to share their systmes? What works for you and why?

August Design Team Gallery

Well it is well worth the wait in my opinion, the August Design Team gallery is now up and full of inspiration from October Afternoon products.  I mentioned a visit I had recently to Aldenham Country Park and I scrapped one of my fave photos from the day (of my two sons) using a mixture of ranges from October Afternoon.

The wooden fence I die cut from this lovely wood grain paper from the 9-5 collection.
The text paper strip down the right hand edge was from this paper which I also cut the FUN part of the title from the reverse side of dotted letters - perfect paper for making the most of both sides!
The grey stripe paper in my layout has a fun birthday side on the reverse which Mel used to make some great cards for the gallery.





Enjoy the rest of the gallery designs and let us know if we have inspired you to create with October Afternoon. If you want to combine the products with a sketch the October Afternoon blog has a great grid style one posted last week which you can find here.