4 months where did the time go?

Hey all! wanted to drop by to see just how much dust and cobwebs had gathered here on the ol blog. Boy was I surprised.
During the summer life kinda changed for me(personal stuff) and then it became fall and the start of winter and well I haven't been all inspired to share so as you may know the blog(if anyone is reading this), Facebook, and instagram went silent on my end. I'm sorry for that but life isn't all rainbows and unicorn or even a unicorn fart, you or at least I keep a bit more to myself I'm not a sharer sharer of all things in my life it's just not me.

Why not still share your work?you might be asking. Well, I just didn't feel like it. Could it hurt my designer position in the scrapping world? Honesty..Yes, probably and  if it does it will be ok. I actually thought about dropping out of this industry it was tossed around a few times. For now I am sticking around.

A few weeks ago while chatting with a friend she told me that I need to share, I need to seek out, make an effort. Right now I will just say uh huh and still be the same ol Mandy.

 I'll share my work here and there and make an effort to update the dust here and there more-instagram and the blog.  so for now here a few things from the past months.

~MK

Monday: Sneakage

Thought I would share some sneak age of some projects I am working on, with, and few things I will be sharing in the upcoming weeks.  Here we go…

October Afternoon Creations

Here are a few of the projects i've created recently for October Afternoon. 

Their Snowdate

This was for a Monday Challenge based on using triangles on your project. I used mostly the Snapshots mini collection. I love the bright colors and that typed quote on the stripe paper. 

 Q

I think I have shared before that when I scrapbook and come across a background paper I want to use but it's really not working as I push around the page elements I add vellum and it totally ends up working how I thought it would. That's what I did with this page and I really like how it turned out. 

 In the Backyard...

So if you've been following my work or know me you know I love my big photos and sometimes those big photos have alot of white space so I like to combine my title and journaling for one big effect. I LOVE this alpha from the October Afternoon Travel Girl line it's such a fun font! 

Hopefully I've inspired you today with these 3 layouts! see you again very soon~MK

Christmas Countdown

This was suppose to be posted a couple weeks ago but for some reason my blog decided not to :(


Tuesday Tutorial: Christmas Countdown

Hi, OA fans! Mandy Koeppen here with this weeks Tuesday Tutorial. Have your kids started counting down to Christmas? Maybe you have yourself? Today I'm going to share a fun and pretty quick Christmas Countdown decoration I made to put on out fireplace mantel.

Let's get started.

Here is a look at the supplies I used to create my decoration as always you can switch out, adjust, substitute whatever you like. Dig in that stash if you're like me you probably have an older October Afternoon Christmas line in there if you haven't already picked up the new Silent Nightline. As you can see everything I used is from the Silent Night line. 

Besides your favorite OA Christmas line you will need your favorite adhesive(tacky glue & glue gun come in handy)and a wood circle(found mine at Wal-Mart for less than a dollar) or frame(you could do something similar with a frame).

STEP 1:Adhere your background pattern paper to wood piece.

STEP 2: Cut excess paper off with scissors.

STEP 3: This step is optional. Sand edges of circle. I like to do this to make sure the edge is even. 

STEP 4:  This is where your tacky glue or glue gun come in handy. Adhere ribbon or lace across your circle.

STEP 5: Adhere mini clothespin to middle of lace/ribbon. 

STEP 6: Create title. I used this chipboard piece for my title then layered on several different pattern papers.

STEP 7: Adhere your title to the circle. I placed mine at the bottom but you can put yours wherever you like.

STEP 8: Embellish the circle. Leaving a space in the middle for your daily countdown number card.You could also do this step last but I decided not to wait. 

Step 9: Depending on how you choose to display your circle this is the step where I added ribbon to the back because I thought I would hang it but then decided to use a mini easel stand i had in my stash. You could hang it with ribbon, you could put a magnet on the back to hang it on the fridge, or you could get a mini stand like I did. 

STEP 10: Cut out one 12x12 sheet of the October Afternoon journal cards. Each sheet has 24 cards(12 on both sides) enough cards if you start your countdown on December 1st.

STEP 11: Cutout 1-24 using die cutting machine or use number stickers for each of the 24 days.

STEP 12: Adhere numbers to each side of the cards. You can also embellish the cards with washi and stickers if you like. Here are a few on side A

Clip on your number remember start with 24 and go backwards.You can Now we are done. 

Thanks for joining me for today's tutorial! I hope I've inspired you to create your version of a Holiday Countdown. Have a great day~Mandy

October Afternoon A Very Merry December Album: MK style

This year October Afternoon has put together a fabulous kit for you to document your December and your Holiday season. You can find info about OA's A Very Merry December kit HERE.

I knew I wanted to do something to document our December but I wasn't sure which direction I would take or what I would use so I pulled my own kit from my stash, I bought a kit, and then the OA design team was told about the A Very Merry December kit and I knew that was the way I was going the other 2 were nixed right then and there. I'm glad I made that choice, I really love the Daily Flash album and page protectors, I love the product included in the kit, and of course because it's OA I can pull other OA items from my stash and it coordinates perfectly. I can also add bits and pieces of my own too. Every week the Design Team is sharing pages from their album on the October Afternoon Blog. I am part of the Wednesday group along with Jill Sprott & Mou Saha(can you say OMG I crush on both of these 2 amazing ladies!). Yesterday we shared the first 3 pages and I wrote that I would give more detail on my blog so look for a post about the added extras I've added here on the blog on Thursday and probably Sunday's all throughout December.

I've changed things up a little bit so that my album will be different from years past(and will be completed by January 1st). This year I'm focusing on the everyday life along with the Holiday season because we don't do something Christmas related daily and my album will also include the days following Christmas. 

This page I cut down a page protector from the kit. Added a Webster's Pages Reindeer. 

The first day of December I was sick in bed most of the day so nothing really happened here. The 1 & Sick day stickers are from older October Afternoon lines: Rocket Age & Farmhouse. The right side is a Project life card from the Midnight collection, the tree is from an old American Crafts line, and the background paper is from Chronicle Books.

Day 2 our Elves arrived. On the left the 2 is from the October Afternoon Farmhouse line. On the right this is another page protector cut down. There is a note Santa sent in the box with Bernard and Eddie. The tag is from Jenni Bowlin. I stitched the tab to the page protector to help hold the tag inside it. 

Day 3 starts on the back of that cut down page protector. Everything on this page is from the kit except  for the October Afternoon Reindeer washi and Date card at the bottom it's from Pebbles. On the Right side the Photo Strip is another cut down page protector. I've added the October Afternoon grey washi. 

Here is a look at the variety of page protectors to give you an idea of how I cut them down to use them. 

I'm thinking maybe a video or tutorial would be good to add after i created the next few pages to share. 

If you have any question about my album you can leave a comment here or email(this can be found under the button at the top). 

Hav a great day! ~MK