# 45 ~ Inspired by Social Media

Hello, hello.

I have a ton of stories to tell about this particular part of my life that seems oddly missing from my pages. But as always, when I posed the challenge I knew I'd struggle to come up with the story I wanted to tell. One kept coming to the forefront above all others as I discussed on the discussion board but I wasn't sure how I wanted to present it. Eventually, with a little nudge from Lisa today, I felt ready to tackle this story. In the end it came together quite quickly and to my surprise, I love it.

Because this was mostly story driven, I started by typing out the journaling, which is an approach I hardly ever take. Journaling, even when I make the space for it, is usually the last step for my layouts. But with this, I wanted to make sure I got all the details and I could edit it until I got it right, so I decided to type it. Next came the pictures which are screen captures from my phone's Instagram application. Lastly, once all these elements were in place, I looked for a design that would fit these nicely but still give me a bit of white space.

If you are not familiar with Instagram, it is my preferred time-sucker these days and a great way to document the moment and share with all your "followers". I have a ton of more ideas for this prompt, but I think this page got me off to a good start documenting this aspect of my everyday life. If I end up completing future pages, I will upload them to the gallery and tag them WM#45. I hope you will join me and do the same.

Lisa will be posting her page soon and remember to come back on July 2nd when the new challenge will be posted.

xo,

Pamage

Challenge # 45 - Wek of June 25th, 2012

Hello my lovely ladies. Another Monday is here. Can you believe it?

This week we are going to talk about something that invades all our homes and takes up a lot of our time and that we all have in common... Can you guess what it is?

It's Social Media.

 Although we are miles apart in different countries and speak different languages (well, we all speak English of course, but know other languages) we are all brought together by our love of scrapbooking, yes, but also through Social Media.

 Whether you blog, tweet, Instagram, text, Facebook, upload to our flick'r gallery, make YouTube videos, pin your favorite recipes, or all of the above you are partaking in a whole new technology that didn't exist in as recent as my lifetime. 

You can go in many directions with this and here are some suggestions:

- make a page about all the different sites you belong, follow or participate in

- make a list of bloggers you follow and feel like you know

- make a page celebrating people you only know online

- document your blog

- document "a day in the life" through social media, like: wake up and read blogs, photograph my outfit and load it to Instagram, check Facebook by lunch, tweet about the long day I've had, look up a Pinterest recipe to make dinner, make a scrapbook page and upload it to flick'r, then blog about it.  or something like that

- talk about your dislikes, fears and feelings about this rising trend

- compare and contrast how we communicate and keep in touch with how your parents did or grandparents

Most of all, have fun. Enjoy. Make a page you love that tells a little more of your story. Don't limit yourself to my suggestions. Take this prompt and tell the story you need to tell. And after you are done, upload it to our flick'r gallery [wink] and tag it WM#45.

With all the choices out there for social interaction, we are glad you have made Whimsical Musings a part of your week. Have a great week and see you all next Sunday.

xo,

Pamage

#44 Inspired by little girls

I knew as soon as I read this prompt that I was going to have a hard time. Not in completing a layout, but in narrowing down a subject. I love little girls and pink and butterflies and sugar & spice and all that.

In the end, I came up with three very different approaches to completing three layouts about little girls... with about as many unfinished ones sitting at the table waiting for me.

Thank you Lisa for providing me with an excuse to play with pink paper and glitter.

Princess or Dinosaur

 for this first layout i chose three very recent pictures I had a specific story for. I wanted to document how she is not your typical little girl in that she is fascinated with dinosaurs and vampires. I tried to keep the girliness oozing out of this layout to a minimum since she is not that type of girl. I like the playful feel of the layout and the contrast in the title fonts. 

 for added dimension, I took a brush with water to all the little handcut pieces and let them warp and dry before adhering them to my page. 

I also wanted to try to show the texture on my photos. I have been printing my photos on Persnickety prints which does my favorite size of photos {3x3} and they do them in a variety of papers including this pearl linen cardstock. 

little girls...

next up was a totally random layout using pictures that are 14 years old. I first found the photos which I loved but I had no real story to go along with them so I looked up quotes and found this one by Robert A. Heinlein which was perfect since I already had punched out a bunch of butterflies. I decided to make this my girly layout so I went full on with the glitter, pink, ribbon, butterfly punch and doily. It looks a little too full for my taste but it totally makes me feel like a girl. 

LOVE pink

For this last layout, I wanted to use even older pictures, so I went through my picture drawers looking for pictures of my childhood. Even at less than 30 years you can tell the quality wasn't all that great and that the pictures have yellowed quite a bit. But I found a connection between these pictures where I was wearing all pink outfits. 

  I had already handcut the LOVE title. I don't have a silhouette or any of those other cutters, but I like the look so I re-created it by tracing the letters in reverse on the backside of the paper and then cutting them out by hand. The other part of the title was inked and then embossed. 

Thank you for playing along with us for another week. I had a blast this week visiting all these old and not so old photos of the little girls in my life. I hope you'll share your creations with us on the flick'r gallery. Every week the gallery is filling up with fun creations by you - our readers. And Lisa and I are both delighted.

I will be back soon with another challenge.

xo,
Pamage

#44 inspired by little girls

Once again stumped by my own prompt this week, and then a time issue on top! But I managed to pull something out of the hat at the last moment (promptly knocking over a full bottle of mist all over me, my scrap table and nearly over my layout but that's another story!) and decided to take a gorgeous photo of my two most beautiful nieces in the world and make a super simple but über-pink layout.

I will be adding a few lines of journaling to this when I have time but I'm calling it done for now before I end up with more of a disaster than I already have in here! ;-)

Girls for me sum up pretty, and pink, and adorable. And these two are all that and so much more.

Nothing more to say really!

I'll try to get a better photo up tomorrow when I have daylight and am not fighting a river of glitter liquid. ;-)

I'm looking forward to seeing what direction my pretty, girlie prompt took you this week so don't forget to link up over at Flickr (here) with the tag WM#44 and Pam will be sharing too soon.

A new prompt will be up again tomorrow.

See you over at Flickr when I'm feeling a bit calmer!

Challenge #44 week of 18th June 2012

As we approach the longest day of the year (for those of us in the northern hemisphere anyway!), does anyone else feel like the year is rushing by at a pace that's a bit scary?!? After 21st June, it's downhill to Christmas as far as daylight goes which is a bit freaky!

But the weather here in Germany is not really playing very fair right now and everyone is yearning for some real summer weather so maybe when/if that happens those days will feel a bit longer and slower. We can hope anyway.

Here we are again with prompt #44 which means that Pam and I have been creating these weekly challenges for almost a year! Wow. We started off completing a month of daily prompts in July and then just kept going. I love having this gentle nudge each week to get happy with paper and it's been so wonderful to see our group growing and joining in. That makes us really happy ;-)

But onto this week's challenge.

And once again, Pinterest made me slap my head and shout "Doh!" out loud as it suddenly became clear what this week's prompt should be about.

Pinterest source here

There's a little girl expected in my family towards the end of the year and this week, Pam created a layout or two about her own little girl experiences, not to mention some of the memories LOAD stirred up for me about my own little girl childhood. And there it was. The perfect idea for this week's challenge.

Be inspired by little girls!

It would be lovely to see where this prompt takes you, so be sure to link up to our Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#44

#43 Inspired by Ads

Hello, hello.

As promised on the boards (please don't forget that Lisa and I actively check, read and post on the discussion boards of our flick'r group - here), I created two layouts this week inspired by each of the suggested ads.

Of course, having noticed the ads myself, I knew I found them appealing and that this week would be easy for me. But in the process I wanted to show you how you can take something so graphic, clean or different and make it fit your style. I hope I accomplished that with my two layouts this week.

{best of} summer twenty ten


First off was a page inspired by the Sally Hansen Ad

from the get go I knew I wanted a strip of orange paper running up the length of the page and white alphas. This was the part of the page that drew me... but I couldn't decide if the nail chips should be embellishments or photos. In the end I chose a combination of both.

 I was able to incorporate little scraps of a variety of patterned papers which fit my style quite nicely.

 For actual embellishments I kept it really simple, with a layered sticker about the subtitle and fussy cut cameras from an Amy Tangerine paper from AC.

Overall the page feels like me although it was clearly inspired by the ad. It was the perfect way to incorporate 12 photos while still having some white space.

Easter 


Next up was the Banana Republic ad and admittedly this was more challenging.

First off, I wanted to find an oversized picture and couldn't find one in my stash. I also wanted to find a bold and vibrant floral paper for my background and came up empty handed. So I settled for multiple photos and a colorful floral paper.

 I completed the page above quite quickly and then let it sit on my desk for a few days to simmer. It felt too graphic and plain for my taste. Yes, I could have left it like that and called it a day - but I didn't. It had a lot of the elements of the ad that I loved, like the multi-sized titles in black, and the large photo area with frame around it. But it needed a little more whimsy.

This is the final result. I randomly stitched along the border several times and then inked the paper around the edges in the bold magenta and orange shades from the ad, giving me the "bold" I was going for. I also added some tone on tone embellishments that dress up the page without detracting from the general clean design.  The finished page more aptly fits my whimsical style and I like it better.

And there you have it. My layouts for this week. I hope you will share your creations with us on the gallery. Lisa will be back tomorrow with what promises to be another fun challenge.

xo.
Pamage

#43 Inspired by advertising

Pam reminded us this week that we can learn a lot from professional graphic designers who create advertising to entice us to purchase. They will have studied the principles of design and layout to achieve a visually pleasing result.

So, why invent the wheel, right?!?

I've done this exercise before and even though I thought I'd try to select my own advert to be inspired by, I decided to double challenge myself by using one of the two suggestions Pam had provided us. This isn't necessarily an advert I would have "noticed" but the blocking, the white contrast to the wonderful colours and the differing black font sizing seemed like things I could work with.

I started off trying to find something really bright and colourful to reflect those summer colours in the photo. This older BasicGrey paper jumped out at me and it's a line I've always found difficult to use so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I selected two or three sheets with the brighter pinks and oranges and another with some turquoise tones. The last thing I needed was a sheet of white cardstock which I stole the middle from and a colourful photo that stood a chance against those bright papers. A panoramic photo from Dubai seemed to hit the mark.

I layered up different elements in a similar way to the original advert and finished that part off with the title work using three different sizes of font to match the advert. This was the part of the design which had particularly drawn me so it was interesting to see how that worked. The date is ever so slightly squashed up but on the whole, I like the line up of the three lines.

And then it needed a little something to be a bit more me so I wrapped several different twines round the middle picking up the aqua colour and some white, and then created a little flower cluster, adding in some older blingy elements and a couple of chipboard elements from the Marrakech line.

I think I will end up writing some journalling round the edge along the white border but for now, it's finished.

I can't say it's my favourite page and it's not even really "me" but I really enjoyed breaking down the elements of the advert to see what appealed to me and how to use it. I was really pleased to find a way to use this bright paper which I've struggled with in the past and now that I've cut into it for this layout, I can see me using a few scraps of it again. The wonderfully alluring colours of the original advert was just the summer feeling I needed today :-)

This is one of the things I love about our weekly challenges. They get me to try new things, to have a go at something that isn't really me, and pushes me to experiment a bit more than I would normally or can during something like LOAD. This layout has proved to me that I still love that layering, I can use the bright colours and that I should try different title work sometimes!

What have you learnt this week?

Don't forget to share over at Flickr in our gallery with the tag WM#43.

Challenge # 43 - week of June 11th, 2012

Wow, is it just me or are these warmer weeks just flying by?

Today, I want to share with you one of the pages I recently created and love - and the source for inspiration.

if you know me by know, you know I almost exclusively scrap on a white background. Anything else feels cluttered and off to me. So you may wonder how it is I came upon this choice of background? I was inspired by the ad from a magazine photographed below.

you can easily tell that i picked up the layout composition, color pallete including the accentes in white and black, the title color and placement; even the little bobbles were inspired by the model's earrings. One of the smartest things I ever learned from Stacy Julian was this - media ad artists are paid to do this. They have gone to design school to make things that are visually pleasing to us. Why not use this free inspiration that is readily available to us?

Well, you may have guessed it, but that is our challenge for this week. But I know some of you may be saying, 'yes, but Pam, how do we find an ad we can easily break apart like you did?' or 'Pam, I don't even buy magazines'. I don't buy magazines either, but this is what I do while my nails dry at the salon - I flip through the magazines, not for celebrity gossip, but for future layout ideas. And lucky for you I have a few still sitting in my inspiration file on my computer that I haven't used. So to start us off, I have two inspiration pieces for you. 

Inspiration Option # 1

Banana Republic Ad

Inspiration Option # 2

Sally Hansen Ad

I hope you can draw some inspiration from these two ads and that is eases the process for you to create. Even if just lifting the color scheme or title placement of photo placement, try using these ads for inspiration and see where it takes you. 

If you do create based on these ads, please upload it to our flick'r gallery {here} with the tag WM#43. Lisa and I will be back next week with our results. Like always, thanks for playing along.

xo,

Pamage

#42 inspired by celebrations and Jubilee

Lisa challenged us to be inspired by celebrations this week. And to be honest, I was stumped. I have no ties to the Bristish Jubilee so that wasn't an option. And I was pleased to find that almost all other celebrations in my life had at leas been documented once. 

But I was determined to do this great challenge justice. So I just thought harder. And when the idea finally came, I was surprised it hadn't occurred to me before. Of course, there where the awful pictures from the disposable camera that had probably prevented me from scrapping this event... or the fact that it happened on not such a happy time in my life. But still, the pictures where there, the celebration had happened and the story needed telling.

and here is my layout

jubilee @ 15

to emphasize the celebration, I kept to pretty muted colors with splashes of coral and orange. What I did highlight were all the different textures: ruffles, stitching, doily. The page was just full of tiny little details I kept adding that reminded me of feeling like a princess and just pure girlishness. 

  of course, what jubilee layout would be complete without some glittery fun? this little strip of glitter tape somehow snuck it's way into this layout. 

 i added a little envelope just at the last minute to write some of the more personal thoughts about this day. 

and one of my favorite things for sure was using the sewing machine to add details to this page. although the thread was white, i feel it adds so much to the page.

I hope you were reminded of past celebrations or found new ones to document. There really is so much to rejoice about - we just have to look for it. And sometimes it comes in the form of some old, not-so-good pictures. I hope I am teaching by example that we must use those photos!

I will be back shortly with a new prompt. Thanks again for joining us on this inspiration adventure.

xo,

Pamage

#42 inspired by jubilees

Once again, my own prompt jinxed me!

I had a simply wonderful Diamond Jubilee celebration to honour the 60 years that Queen Elizabeth II has been our Queen full of red, white and blue, rousing songs, patriotic feelings and quite a few lumps in my throat. :-)

It was just what I had hoped for but when I came to look through my photos, I realised that they were not as good as I'd hoped. And then I got out my themed papers bought specially for exactly these pages and drew a blank.

I had all sorts of ideas in my head at first but faced with a blank piece of cardstock, they all evaporated into nowhere!

In the end, I've created something that's "ok" but that isn't anything like the layout I had in my mind. There's no detail at all on the page and just a few lines of journalling so there's quite a lot missing. Couldn't work out how to fit it all in.

I have several deeper ideas that I will try and attack when I have some time - thoughts about how it feels to be British; what I think, deep inside, about the Queen and the Royal Family; some more of the details of the day. Watch this space and I might share them when I get around to them.

I've already had a sneak at Pam's layout and it's gorgeous so do check out her blog post. You'll fall in love too. Don't forget to link up your creations in our Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#42. It's always a delight to see your creations.

And her new challenge will be up tomorrow, it's bound to be a good one!

Challenge #42 week of 4th June 2012

I'm writing this ahead of time and scheduling it as I will be a bit caught up at the weekend and the beginning of the week.

My mum is coming to visit for a few days as we have some serious celebrating to do. Can you guess what?

Perhaps this helps...

Ha ha! Perhaps you've heard that Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee. And if not, well she is!

And we will be celebrating in good British style with afternoon tea and much flag waving and wiping away of tears! This is a historic event in my lifetime and in fact, in the lifetime of generations to come and I intend to rejoice in the moment.

Now I know that most of you won't have a clue what I'm talking about but the longer I live away from my home country, the stronger my patriotic feelings are. And who can resist scones with lashings of cream and strawberry jam with a fine cup of tea or a glass of very British gin & tonic? Probably most of you I know, but I think you know what I mean!

So this week's challenge to you is to celebrate your own Jubilee on your pages. What anniversary do you want to remember and record? Where will you take this prompt?

I'd love to see in which direction this leads you so please share with us over on Flickr (here) with the tag WM#42!

#41 - Inspired by Superheroes

Hello my beautiful ladies. This post was scheduled ahead of time, because I am glad to report I finally had a weekend away. I am probably eating some Maple Candy in Boston.

Anyway, let's get to the juicy part of this post - my layouts. I couldn't decide if I should go the serious or silly route so once again I created two layouts interpreting this challenge.

super pam

yes, believe it or not, that superhero is me. It was a few days before Halloween 2010 and I realized I didn't have a costume for the festivities, so I quickly pulled together this ensemble from my personal wardrobe (who else owns black leather pants but me?!?) only adding the wig, cape, mask and belt buckle. My favorite part of the story were the details in the "highlight" section. I didn't take a single worthy picture of my get up all night, but I was able to make the most of this bad iphone selfie by covering the clutter with patterned paper and washi tape, leaving just my crazy costume as the front and center part of this page. I chose bold prints and colors to emphasize the superhero feel (and let's face it, because they make me happy). Because there wasn't much story and the photo wasn't showcase worthy I took a cue from Lisa's book and made it 6x12. Overall, I am thrilled I made this page and told this funny story of how I had a wedding reception to attend before the party and so I wore this under my dress and at the end of the party changed quickly in a bathroom and exited in costume. I felt like a total super hero.

[hero]

when i sat down and thought above who the brave and courageous are in my life, my brother immediately popped into my mind. The picture doesn't really portray him as such, but I just picked one from the file and went with it. I like that he looks ordinary in it because it fits the quote I found so well. I kept the journaling, which was very personal, hidden. But i wanted to give readers a clue of the reason for the page, so I stamped the quote (which was very time consuming) and added a short line of journaling up one of the sides.

I also was inspired by the colors in the photo, so I pulled papers and products that matched those colors and I love the results.

I hope you all had a fun time creating if you played along with us this week and I look forward to seeing your creations in the gallery (tag WM#41). Lisa will be back tomorrow with another great challenge to get us started in June. 

Until next week,

xo

Pamage