Challenge #71 week of 31st December 2012

Happy New Year's Eve everyone. I hope that Christmas was good to you and that Santa filled your stocking with lots of scrapbooking goodies.

Image found here

Before I talk about this week's challenge, I want to give a huge shout out to Pam who held the fort for me during December while I was away on business.  I'll tell you all about it sometime but just take it from me that it was not glamorous and being in the tropics the first two weeks in December is just too disruptive - ha ha! But bless Pam. She was so supportive and even though she was really ill just before Christmas, she kept it going and posted Tara's wonderful layout for us.

We are both hoping for calmer times in the year to come - though she may have less luck than me with that - *wink, wink*!

Anyway, back to this week's challenge.

I'm not a big fan of  New Year. I always find it a bit sad. The old year is coming to an end and that time is over. See, told you I was a "glass half-empty" type of person... So when I was thinking about the prompt for this week, I decided on the theme of "goodbye".

Now, this doesn't have to be maudlin and sad (like me on NYE!), there are many ways to put a positive spin on this.  It could relate to giving things up as part of new year objectives, or a new direction, new home, new job. You could even interpret as trying out a new design type. Of course if you want to take it down the more literal route, that's fine too and so would a NYE page itself. As ever, this prompt is wide open for you to be creative and inspired in any direction you wish. :-)

Pinterest image here

Wishing all our lovely readers a most wonderful New Year celebration. See you over at our Flickr page and here's to an inspired year of crafty goodness here on Whimsical Musings.

#70 Inspired by Lists - Guest Designer

This week we were lucky enough to have Tara Mesonides join us in designing for this challenge.

I will jump right into her fantastic layout and what she had to say about her process. I am sure you will enjoy it.

*****

My list....I have a bucket list at least a mile long. I love it! There are so many things I want to do, see, and accomplish. So, I will continue to make my list and check twice. In my 39th year...as I approach the big 40...I have some items that have moved to the top of my list.  In capturing them, I created this page and had so much fun doing so!

The This Is Me title was fun for me. I used sticker felt and cut out with stencils which is way out of my comfort zone. I enjoy using different papers in many of my layouts and this one is no different. The contrast of pink and blue was fun for me and kind of symbolic of my personality of being a very "outdoorsy" yet feminine person.

*****

Lisa and I both love this design and direction to take the prompt in. We can both appreciate Tara stepping out of her comfort zone to create something for her girls to get to know her better. I particularly love the girly yet outdoorsy elements. Well done, Tara.

This is probably something we will incorporate more of in the coming year, so look forward o seeing other guest designers featured on our blog.

Have a very Merry season.

xo,

Lisa & Pam

Challenge #70 week of 17th December 2012

Time is flying, the reindeer are warming up and this time next week, it will ALL be happening!

Especially where I am as Christmas Eve is the big day and therefore,  I get to have two big days which makes me happy. When I have time, I am a Christmas freak and love every single bit of it.

But as you know, we have slowed things down a bit here this month and are giving us all time to breathe but still engage in some creativity when time and energy allows. We hope you are enjoying the different pace here on WM and we aim to be back up to our usual brain stretching next month :-)

Now for something completely different.

This week's prompt is to be inspired by, "He's making a list, he's checking it twice..." Which is just one of my favourite songs for Christmas. I remember it from my childhood, the Phil Spector version, and whenever I hear the word "list", I say this phrase in my head (which can get embarrassing if I'm in a business meeting!)

It often makes its way onto Christmas cards:

But I've realised I don't make many layouts with lists and they are too easy a technique to miss out.

Pam makes a list every year of things to accomplish before her next birthday and I joined in last year. Ok, so I might have failed miserably and only managed half a dozen or so (am too ashamed to actually count up what I actually got to do right now!) but the principle is one I love. And one I intend to do again. And I have the excuse that my list is a LOT longer than Pam's and obviously, it gets longer every year.

And Pam has enchanted us with these over the months.

So what's so different about this prompt then, I hear you asking?!?

Well, we decided to ask one of our trusty WM friends to join us on this challenge and be our very first Guest Designer. We got our heads together, approached Tara and were thrilled when she agreed to play along with us this week. Tara is a more than regular contributor to our Flickr Gallery (here) and has gone back to older prompts and has delighted us with her interpretations of them again and again. It's lovely to see these previous subjects inspiring new layouts.

Let me allow Tara to give a short introduction:

Hello! My name is Tara Mensonides and I am thrilled to be the Guest Designer here at Whimsical Musings this week!  

I started scrapbooking after the birth of my first daughter 10 years ago. Then I stopped scrapbooking after the birth of my second and life was crazy. I started dabbling back into the scrapbooking world about a year ago and it was at that time that my dear friend Lynnette guided me towards the wonderful Whimsical Musings family.  Since joining, I have been motivated and inspired and am thrilled with all of the progress I've been making and the people I've had the chance to get to know through story telling and photos.

Tara made this layout for WM#44 - Thank Heavens For Little Girls

Tara has had a heads up on this week's prompt and now you REALLY have to tune in on Sunday to see how she has interpreted it. :-)

An extra incentive for you to come on over next Sunday (as if you need it!)! I know you will love where she took the prompt this week.

#69 Inspired by Non-traditional color schemes

I tried to keep it simple this week again and with how hectic life these days that was just what the doctor ordered. 

All these blues and greens chose my theme for me : Blue Christmas.

 

This will be my first Christmas without my friend Steve. This week I got an ornament in the mail with the card tucked in the layout. This clearly made me sentimental so with a quick collage of Christmases past and a load of blues and greens I created this quick page. Hope you're enjoying your Christmas and cherishing every moment you have to spend with loved ones.

xo,
Pamage

Challenge #69 week of December 10th, 2012

Well, that most wonderful time of the year is well underway in my part of the world. Parties, gatherings, shopping, planning, traffic, busyness and more. But a lot of us still need that little alone time at our work desks in order to maintain our sanity (if we can manage it).

So whether your are overwhelmed with all the red, gold & green or you just need a little jumpstart to your creativity, your challenge from this week actually comes from Paper Trey Ink and it is a non-traditional holiday color scheme.

Inspiration from {papertreyink.com}

So try to use this color combination in your projects this week. Think outside the box and don't limit yourself to just layouts. Whether it is a holiday card, a present wrapping, a home made plate of cookies, a handmade gift or other project, the possibilities are endless.

If you are so inspired by these colors, remember to share with us over at the gallery. We would love to see what you are up to this season.

xo,

Pamage

#68 Inspired by Cards

Hey there.

Lisa asked us to be inspired by a simple and cute card design last week. But since I made a card back in June I wanted to do something different. of course, the rebel in me decided to come up with a fresh approach to this design. 

It isn't entirely revolutionary. I just created my title element using the clever use of buttons with a die cut.

 
It works as well on this layout as it worked on the card design. So I'll have to keep that in mind.

 
I chose pink buttons just like the ones on my take of the card. I think this color really makes this design pop. The die-cut this time was punched out of a KI memories paper.

 
I added a few more die cuts and circle elements to create repetition and continuity added my handwritten journaling for a simple and fast layout. 20 minutes and done.

 

Are you getting (or making) time to document memories new & old this season? I know as December arrives we all get so busy, but I like the balance of giving myself a few minutes to connect with something I love. 

I will be back shortly with this week's simple prompt.

xo,
Pamage

#67 Inspired by a Layout recipe

Hello, this is Pam here posting for Lisa. 

As you may know she is traveling internationally for work and without access to our little group. Before leaving, she created a wonderful layout using my little recipe. She enlisted my help in posting it.

So without any further ado here are the images from her layout.

Thank you Lisa for creating this wonderful page and sharing it with us.

#68 Inspired by cards

Not that I'm at all smug, but I'm writing this post ahead of time and just today I reached hand-made card #70 meaning that I'm all done! Ready and finished. Just waiting to be written and delivered.

What a weight off my shoulders. Thank heavens for Jingle Belles where we start with card right at the beginning of January and then continue all year long. *sigh*!

But this card isn't actually anything to do with Jingle Belles - this is from our very own Whimsical Musings prompt #68 where I took a card I'd made in July when Pam and I were making cards every day. We used 2Peas Finally Friday series for that initial inspiration and now I've been inspired by the card I made then.

And while the design itself is almost identical to that original one I made, I have changed it up a little by attaching a charm to the front that can be taken off and hung up somewhere for good luck. It's a bit hard to see but the ribbon is attached to a small 4 leaf clover. I did this a few times last year so I'm happy to have found a way of managing it again. I can't tell you who this is destined for but maybe they  will already have received it by the time this posts.

Even though I used older BG for this design, it really doesn't look very Christmassy which is just the pretty, delicate look I was hoping for. A collection of white, pearl and clear buttons sprinkled with pearls and I'm happy with how this turned out!

So, what are you waiting for? Get making those cards. In fact, this card would be perfect for production like creating - so simple and yet very eye catching.

I hope you have been inspired by this different type of prompt this week.

Remember to share with the tag WM#68. Can't wait to see what you make :-)

Happy December everyone and here comes Christmas!

Challenge #68 week of 3rd December 2012

And here we are on the last stretch before Christmas.

Pam and I have been talking about what to do this month. Everyone's busy this time of year and I know that I'm busier even than usual. So we are slowing things down a bit here on Whimsical Musings.

For once, we have collaborated on what our challenges will be each week and we decided to make them a bit lighter, somewhat easier. maybe less brain taxing! We hope you enjoy this change up and as always, join in if you can and when you can. There are no deadlines round here - we love to see what you create whenever you create it!

So, for our first prompt of the month, we decided to go with card inspiration.

Back in July, Pam and I did a daily card challenge, picking out inspiration from the 2Peas Finally Friday series. We had such fun and kept it light and easy. And got a bunch of cards ready to go whenever we need them to boot! Success all round.

One of my favourite cards was this one:

which was inspired by this one by Kristina Werner:

This was Pam's interpretation of the same card design:

And this is what I've created for you this week:

Rather than using buttons, I have a collection of wooden snowflakes that I thought added some extra texture and dimension along with the tiny jumping Rudolph in the bottom corner. Now I know I haven't changed the design of the card all that much with this one, but why change a winning design. The only thing with this is that I have to be sure this is a hand delivery card as it will cost a lot to post and the dimension might too much for the delivery system as well as the wooden pieces being too delicate.

You could create a card, use this design as inspiration for a layout, take an element of the design and incorporate it, take any of the sentiments as inspiration or maybe even one of the colour schemes.

Do share if you find time in your holiday preparations to join in over at Flickr (here) with the tag WM#68. 

Off to have another Starbucks Toffee Nut Latte now in the much anticipated red cup so have fun and see you next week!

#67 Inspired by a Layout Recipe

And here we are. I actually surprised myself and completed this layout Monday. I think we shall try this again in the future since it was so much fun for me. What did you think?

I often change up where I start my layout process. For some it's the products, for some the sketch and for other a story. Yet, most often than not I am inspired by my photos. I decided to start here for this layout. I searched in my recent favorites for 4 pictures I wanted together on a page - and what do you know? I found cooking related ones from Thanksgiving weekend.

From there the process was easy peasy. I chose some teal papers to offset the orange tone in my not-so-perfect photos. But then I gravitated to adding some orange papers for warmth. I love this color combo. Since I know I like three or more colors on my layouts, for my 5th paper I chose a lemony yellow. Next I chose my buttons - three orange ones. Then I went in search for brads. Since I had a pretty defined color scheme it was easy to go searching for matching embellishments. I quickly found three teal and three yellow. Then I chose a journaling card and some fonts and went searching for a sketch to bring it all together. I 
 
I was lucky enough to find a sketch fitting all my photos in the latest collection in Simple Scrapper's Premium Membership. That helped with figuring out paper, photo and embellishment placement. I decided to create three groupings of button+2brads to for my visual triangle. 

 
The tag I chose originally was too large for my sketch, so I quickly substituted it for one that worked.

 

I sprinkled some doodles around the embellishment area to add a personal touch and pull everything together. You can do the same with splats, glitter or tiny stamps if you don't feel comfortable doodling. 

 
Although I used my two fonts for the title, I felt it was disconnected from the home-made feel and theme of the page, so I added some adjectives in my handwriting.

Did you enjoy this process or was it challenging for you?

xo,
Pamage

Challenge #67 - Week of November 26, 2012

Here in the states we are recovering from a long weekend of eating, family and holiday traditions. 

I know a lot of you [those who can cook, unlike me] were busy making delicious dishes over the weekend... following treasured family recipes.

And in that spirit, your challenge for this week is a bit of a recipe. A scrapbook layout recipe.

Ingredients:

A journaling card

Two fonts for the title

buttons (3)

Four photos

Five coordinating patterned papers

A sprinkling of six brads

A dash of an optional supply

Process:

Mix well. Create a layout. Photograph, chill and serve to our group {here} with the tag WM#67.

Of course, as in all of cooking, feel free to make your own variations to this list of ingredients and adding your personal flavor or substituting ingredients for what you have on hand.

And go ahead, feel free to be inspired by recipes and cooking if you'd like.

Can't wait to see how your delicious creations turn out. *wink*

xo,

Pamage

#66 inspired by star signs

I have to say that Pam knocked this prompt out of the park! She never fails to impress and once again I adore what she did this week.

And by the quality of her creations, she pushes me to try harder :-)

So this week, I had a bit of an direction of what I wanted to do with this prompt but I had a few ideas and it took until today for the one to come to the fore.

I'm a cusp girl and this gives me Sagittarius characteristics along with the strong Scorpio and is probably one of the reasons I clicked with Pam so strongly and also the reason it works so well with my husband. Water and fire is not always a good combination but this time it works!

So the cusp side of things was the direction I wanted to go and to highlight one or two of those personality traits from each side of the line.

Sorry for the poor quality, electric light toned photos - I'm really fighting with the light now that winter is coming.

But my November Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit, Dempster is giving me the warm autumn colours that make me feel great right now. We've had some beautiful November weather recently and I was even lucky enough to have blue skies on my special day - now that makes me smile!

Where will the stars take you this week?

Hope you'll share and let us know where you are on the signs.

#66 Inspired by Star Signs

Hoping everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday {for our U.S. readers}. There is just so much to be grateful for these days in my life. I knew my week would be full so I had to get right to work on this challenge by Lisa.

When I read the challenge I knew I didn't just want to do a page about being a Sagittarius, but rather what makes me such a good one. So I searched for quotes, descriptions, traits, etc.

It didn't take long in my search to come across this wonderful quote which in a nutshell is me. I have done several pages about the fact that I am single... but never talked about the fact that I am happily and willingly single. {This theory} that it may be tied to the stars makes it even more magical and interesting.

For the title I decided to play on the nickname for my sign: the Archer. I feel it adds another dimension to the story and how I feel when paired with the quote.

one of the coolest new things I tried here was printing on a tag, which I decided to try after {this tutorial by Aimee Maddern}

  I also decided to make my own little archer embellie by stamping my initial, an arrow and adding a bracket from the title alpha. I think it's pretty cute and totally fitting to the story. 

It was really fun to make and come up with the page. Definitely outside of the box for me. Thanks Lisa for this wonderful prompt.

xo,
Pamage

ps: Oh and Happy Birthday, Special girl. We love you so much! 

Challenge #66 week of November 19th 2012

Pam and I have a lot in common. Even though we are so different! And we just fit.

Such a good friendship... :-)

And one of the things we share is November birthdays.

My November birthday has always been special to me even in the years when I didn't like November all that much because I always knew that it was special to be a Scorpio. I'm not fanatical about star signs but there's something to it that intrigues me and a lot of truth to be found in the characteristics of each sign. My ascending sign is Sagittarius and so there's a lot of that sign in me too, even though the good (and bad!) parts of Scorpio are stronger. Maybe another reason why Pam and I fit (she's on the other side of the cusp!)

Anyway, you might remember this layout from LOAD earlier this year and I was surprised to find that I hadn't talked about being a Scorpio on my pages before. Sometimes the best layout subjects are right under our noses.

So this week, I'm asking you to be inspired by Star Signs. Your own, someone you know, serious or light hearted.

Be inspired by your rising sign.

Don't forget to share your creations with us and our merry band over at Flickr (here) with the tag WM#66.

And if you go back and look at older prompts (and we LOVE that too!) let us know which one by using the corresponding tag too. We love it when you share.

#65 Inspired by album covers

A quirky prompt from Pam this week that got me thinking back an awful lot of years to when I was a teenager.

Music was the driving force of those days. It was what you talked about. What you pored over in the music magazines (NME or Smash Hits in the UK). It was the topic everyone discussed on the bus to school the morning after Top of the Tops (Thursday evenings - always!). I can remember the feeling, the passion, the excitement of that time when your favourite band or singer brought out a new single or 12" album and you had to wait to get it for your birthday because they were expensive and there was no downloading the songs just because! Sometimes you only heard it once or twice as you had to wait for the radio to pick it up and start promoting it. But you knew it was going to number 1. You just knew. It had to. And you had to have it. Even if it cost you all your weekly allowance.

Those were the days.

So this was the time when music was so much more to me that just music. Right from when I was really really young, music was important to me. And none more so than David Bowie. And a musical turning point was the release of Ashes to Ashes followed by the album Scary Monsters.

So that was my starting point.

I remember the thrill of this album cover when it first came out. It was the very first album I thought of when I read Pam's prompt and I loved the strong design. For a scrapbook page, it was challenging but I wanted to tie in the design with the memory.

I really liked this a lot more before I covered the centre with journalling, but this was a double challenge for me and I wanted to get down some of the feelings I had at the time this album came out. So I filled it with writing and lost the somewhat cleaner lines of the original design. Something new for me. And one I might try again sometime with a different approach to the journalling!

An interesting prompt Pam and one I hope to come back to!

Thanks for taking me back in time :-)

(oh and I've just realised that the "l" in always is actually a "j" so I'll be changing that out asap!

#65 Inspired by Album Covers

Hope you had a great week. At the time this post goes live I will be strolling about in the nation's capital. Just a little weekend getaway. So I had to hurry up and get to work this week.

As you know last week I decided we were due for a quirky prompt - and I finally challenged you to use Album Covers as your source of Inspiration. This has been on my wishlist for prompts for a while... 

So of course I was excited to try it myself.

And in true quirky fashion I added tons of doodles, mists, markers, sequins, confetti, punches...

I used {this} album cover as my inspiration and although I took a few liberties with the design I think it is easy to see the concept and in my opinion it translated nicely to this layout. I don't think it feels forced or like a CD cover at all - and yet that was the starting point.

There were a few others I wanted to try but time didn't allow for much this week. So there you have it - my whimsical layout.

xo,

Pamage

Challenge # 65 - Week of November 12, 2012

Phew! Here we are again.

Here at Whimsical Musings we try to change it up with the prompts - sometimes driven by color combos, other times by design elements, other times by story prompts or sketches. 

We hope you enjoy that aspect... but often times when deciding the next prompt, I try to find a balance. And in this case I think we are due for a quirky inspiration source.

I am a lover of music. I spend more time listening to music than any other activity. So it didn't take long for the scrapbooker in me to realize that Album covers are square - just like 12x12 layouts. Now unconsciously, I can't help but see sketches whenever I see an album cover. 

And here are a few interpretations from my own collection.

Inspired by THE SUBMARINES - HONEYSUCKLE REMIXES

inspired by THE SUBMARINES - HONEYSUCKLE WEEKS

inspired by THE IN CROWD - THE ULTIMATE MOD COLLECTION

I've curated a board on pinterest {here} with a few pieces to start you off. But you can create your own version of one of the pieces above; or you can find an album cover that speaks to you. Either way, be inspired by album art this week [and link us back to the source so we can appreciate how you were inspired].

As always, we encourage you to stop by the flick'r gallery and share your work with us with the tag WM#65. Also, feel free to join the chatter on the message boards. We are always there to help or cheer you on. 

Have a great week and I really can't wait to see what you come up with. 

xo,

Pamage

#64 Inspired by Babies

Every once in a while you create a layout you just LOVE.  I mean, you just want to look at it and share it with others and not put it away just yet...

Well, at least that happens to me. Sometimes. And that happened with this layout. 

I will confess that I am intimidated by all things pastels. Especially pale pink and pale blue. Together they are even more of a nightmare for me. I don't even own any baby product lines. So I was a little skeptical of how I could make this prompt my own. It is NO secret that I love babies. Although I don't have any of my own, I have plenty of little ones to scrap. But how to make the topic fit my style? I have scrapped plenty of babies before with no problem, but I felt this prompt required an especially baby-feeling page. 

Well, the scrapping muse must have been feeling friendly this week because I did it. And this has become one of those pages I just adore. 

that's right. Only one page this week. 

The color scheme came from the 6x6 paper from the new Dear Lizzy collection. From there I was inspired to recreate those polaroid frames to hold my pictures and washed them with watercolors in the same colors as the frames. This allowed me to better define the groups of photos in the collage since they are grouped by color. The washi border allowed me to inject some bolder shades of the same colors to add that touch of my style. For the title, I layered a bunch of scraps in my colors for a bit of dimension and mixed some fonts in bold colors and some tone-on-tone fonts. To finish it off I sprinkled hearts and glass stars. 

My favorite thing about the page is that I got to tell a real story about my life this year and summarize a big part of 2012 in one page. Plus, I have all those adorable pregnant bellies/baby pictures. I dare you not to smile. 

Hope you were able to be inspired by Lisa's invitation to scrap babies this week. We would love to see your layout on our gallery. 

xo.

Pamage

#64 inspired by babies

Hi again.

I'm still playing catch up with scrapping stuff, moving in stuff and stuff in general! I know that you all know what I'm talking about :-)

So once again, I'm keeping this short and sweet today.

I asked you to be inspired by babies this week in honour of the new little bundle who arrived in our family recently. *sigh*!

I really wanted to be unpredictable and do a layout that would have surprised you but in the end, the predictability won out and I just went with the layout I've had in my head all week. Just an expression of feeling towards our new niece. I kept it light and pretty and feminine and everything you might have expected.

And I love it!

So, I'm sorry if you were hoping for something a bit more clever. Sometimes you just have to go with what's in your heart. :-)

I know that Pam has already shared her super clever layout full of little scrumptiousness so make sure you check hers out - I love that she's always giving these layouts such clever directions. When my head is a little clearer, I hope to be able to do a bit more of that too.

If you've been inspired by babies this week, please don't forget to share over at our Flickr gallery with the tag WM#64.

And the same applies if you go back to older prompts and get inspired - don't forget to share those either and use the tag for the week you've chosen. That way, not only can we find them more easily, we can also connect the layouts to the inspiration you've taken.

Thanks for playing along every week. We appreciate each one of you!