Challenge #50 week of 30th July 2012

Hi again and apologies that this is a tad late up.

;-)

I had two possible prompts for this week and then suddenly at lunchtime today, I changed my mind and  just knew what I needed to challenge you...

You *may* have heard on the news (wink!) that the 2012 Olympics started on Friday evening. And what a start it was!

Now, I may be ever so slightly biased but WOW! What a show! And I know that I am beating the whole British thing a bit too much recently but we are having a great year and I think the London Olympics is something that most of the nation are proud of. The opening ceremony was everything that's good about British culture, style and humour, and I was sitting there with a lump in my throat (again!).

But back to the matter in hand. I challenge you this week to be inspired by the Olympics.

Whether you take that literally by creating a layout with a sporting theme, or maybe even about the Olympics itself, or whether you take a more abstract approach to this, maybe picking up the colours, the spirit or even a trip to Greece maybe, have fun with this and go for gold!

No, unfortunately I wasn't there at the ceremony but I managed a few not so perfect shots of the TV coverage!

Quite breathtaking

The Olympic flame just after the 7 young, "next generation", had lit it. I think it's stunning. 

If you decide to join in, and you know that we love it when you do, don't forget to share over in our Flickr gallery with the tag WM#50. We would love to see where this takes you this week.

# 49 - Inspired by names

I, like Lisa, had a story to tell for every one of the ideas I posted about last week... But this has been on my "to do" list for a long time, so it was time to focus. I will get to the other stories someday and I promise to add and tag them on the flick'r gallery.

In the meantime, here is my accomplished story. 

 the design was inspired/lifted from this wonderful layout by Emily Spahn {here}

I debated with whether the photo should be of me present day, a collage image with my namesakes or a baby photo. A baby photo won out because I decided I will be placing it in my baby album as part of the stories of when I was born. 

 I had to get creative with my alphas but I loved the repetition of the gray color and this one was the only gray alpha I had which was missing some key letters.

 Here is the printed journaling card outside of it's pocket for your reading pleasure. Fun story, huh? More on my namesake {here}

and here's a peak of how the journaling looks in it's home. It is meant for reading so I left enough of it peeking out as to invite others to pull out and read more. I placed it in an envelope for the aesthetics I was trying to portray and not because it is private journaling. So I wanted to make it obvious.

Pleased as punch with this one, mostly because of the trivial yet important story it tells.

#49 Inspired by names

Well, Pam really threw us a morsel of a prompt this week with her name challenge.

The biggest problem I had was deciding which way to go with the many ideas I had swimming round my head! Pam gave us a list of directions we could think about and each one inspired at least one layout for me.

That's another one of the wonderful side-effects of Whimsical Musings - a never ending list of future layout ideas. I don't even need to write them down as the inspiration is right here on the blog and over there in our Flickr gallery!

Anyway, back to this week's prompt. I decided to go down memory lane back to my teenage years and a crazy (well, I think that now!) idea about a new name for myself. Looking back, I find it hilarious but back then I was deadly serious!

I really don't have so many photos of my from those years, and I couldn't find a single one of me at 13 or 14 so I've just used one of me in my school uniform to represent that time. I think I might be about 16 in this photo. Ah, those were the days!

Rather than writing the journalling out here, I've included a photo so I hope you can read it- Go on, have a giggle at my younger self :-)

I'll get the next prompt up tomorrow as soon as I have a minute and in the meantime, what's YOUR name?!?

Challenge #49 - week of July 23rd, 2012

Well here we are again. A new week and a new challenge. Another topic driven week here for you.

This week we will be inspired by names. More specifically I want us to be inspired by where names come from. I love hearing stories of family names or how nicknames were born. Or the funny coincidences that happen when people marry and take new names.

And because I can't just leave you hanging like that, I want to give you a few ideas to get you going:

1. Were you named after someone? Or were your kids named after someone? Or your pets?

2. A nickname you or someone you know was given and the story behind it.

3. The meaning of your name - you can look it up at {thebump.com}

4. Did you ever want to have another name? 

5. Have you ever given a proper name to an inanimate object?

Just a few suggestions to get your gears turning. Let's get those stories told.

And if you do, remember to upload it to Flick'r with the tag WM# 49. As always, Lisa and I will be posting our layouts by the end of the week, but you can always stop by the gallery to see other's creations.

Have a wonderful week.

xo,

Pamage

#48 Inspired by Ice Cream

This would have been hard for me since I am not a big ice cream fan. But being that it is summer and that we have my niece here for the summer, of course we had to have ice cream. We happened to be on our way to Serendipity in New York City last Monday when this challenge was posted. So these photos are spanking new.

I tried to keep to ice cream colors and simple design. 

Serendipity

the sketch came from Studio Calico {here}. I created two 6x6 photo collages and added a pioneer woman action for a seventies effect. this allowed me to create a 6x12 photo area. (yes, I had to print photos at home which isn't my favorite). 

the crate paper banner with the strawberries was the perfect addition to this page.

I also scattered little elements of teal/magenta punches, pale yellow butterflies and pale pink brads around the page.

I also pulled out and dusted my quickutz to cut out the title since i wanted a deep pink alpha and didn't have anything like it in my stash. (plus, it would be impossible to find an alpha with multiple e's and i's).

And that's it from me this week. It's been a few weeks since I have been able to manage multiple layouts in one week, but I haven't had a lot of time this summer. 

I hope you have been able to get out and enjoy ice cream. Keep this little inspiration in your back pocket for future pages. And if/when you do, remember to post it for us to see on the flick'r group. 

xo,

Pamage

#48 inspired by ice cream

Well, we are still sitting here patiently (or not so patiently) for summer, although blue skies were spotted briefly today ;-)

And in an attempt to get us in the mood here, I asked you to be inspired by ice-cream.

I had a few ideas and really wanted to create a layout with ice-cream colours. Then I remembered I had some photos of the first ice-cream of the season from a year or so ago but I had run out of printer ink (grrr). Then I lost an hour looking through photos I already had. And so on and so on until I decided to use an old photo of me and my sister but I needed to turn it into black and white so that I could get it printed (double grrr). I thought I would probably change out the photo but looking at how it turned out, I will no doubt lave it. It kind of adds to the retro feel of the layout.

Anyway, to cut a long story short!

Where did ice cream take you this week? Don't forget to share over at our Flickr gallery with the tag WM#48! Looking forward to seeing what you've come up with. ;-)

Challenge #48 week of 16th July 2012

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone is happy and feeling ready for another week.

Here in Germany, we are having a pretty terrible summer. It's cold, it's rainy, there are thunder storms, I can't remember the last time the sun shone all day :-(

So today's prompt is an attempt to bring a bit of summer feeling into my life.

Pinterest find

We have a lot of wonderful ice-cream parlours in Germany and it's a summer thing (and also a winter thing to be honest) to go along and have one of their amazing home-made creations.

And my brother just arrived this weekend to spend a month with us and a trip to our local ice-cream extravaganza is on the agenda every year. I can hardly wait!

Pinterest find here

So, this week, I'm asking you to be inspired by ice-cream.

Pinterest find here

However you want to take that :-)

I'll be posting my creation for last week's prompt as soon as I can.

See you on the Flickr board (here) and don't forget to use the tag WM#48.


Have a great week everyone!

#47 inspired by large photos

I don't use large photos often enough which is sad as I really like the effect of them. But I tend to be lazy and I have a pile of 4x6s that I have sitting around and I tend to go there first. So Pam's prompt this week was a refreshing change for me that had me sitting here considering which photo would be special enough.

And while I was looking for inspiration for this week's challenge, my eyes were drawn to my magnet board next to my desk and there was a large photo that I love and which I had recently taken out of a frame. It was fate! And the story with it is just another little story that might not have been told. And really, there's not much story - more of a "you had to be there" type of thing. But it's another piece of our Nova Scotia adventure and one that makes me happy.

The main thing is that I remember that moment when I look at this photo, so now it's on a page, that's perfect!

I used my Counterfeit kit, Beach-house which seemed only appropriate and I've just noticed that I forgot to put the date and place on that little tag to the left. I'll do that right after I finish this :-)

Excuse the not so good photo - I was in a bit of a hurry to get this done and up!

A simple story told with a large photo that takes centre stage on this pretty beachy colour paper. It didn't need much added for decoration and the journalling was short and to the point.

This week was a great reminder to get out those larger photos and make them shine. And for me, that often means a simpler, quicker page than usual and that's a double win!

Don't forget to show us how you handle your oversize shots and share with us over in the Flickr gallery - use the tag WM#47 so that we can find it :-)

#47 Inspired by large photos

well, like I said, I have no problems using large photos. I think is a useful story telling tool and I turn to it from time to time.

However, I love enlargements so much that they hardly sit in my "to scrap" pile for long. I knew making this challenge that I would have to print a new picture for this. 

I like my pictures to be really large and good quality. So I usually don't print at home. Even if I can overlook the quality issue, the largest my printer can handle is 8x10. The new challenge for Simple Scrapper called for a freestyle grid and I used that Template/Sketch provided by Simple Scrapper (which will be posted the first week in August).

 That gave me the idea that I could use this tutorial by Elise Blaha from {enJOY it} to print my own 9x9 photo.

titi pam loves u 2 pieces

I thought the title fit the page quite nicely, because the picture was all cut up. You can still appreciate the main parts of the photo despite the cuts. Granted, this technique  works best with divided page protectors... but for the perfectionists out there, you can really line up the photos better and still get a seamless look. I just preferred the puzzle look.

I took an uninteresting corner of the photo off and replaced it with a smaller photo which I printed and cut with my large round punch. this draws the eye around the page.

I balanced it all with the title placement on the bottom left corner which creates diagonal interest - a little design tip I picked up from Shimelle's video.

i also added the journaling right on top of another uninteresting corner of the photo. 

i am so glad this story is in my books and i know that little smile will make me grin every time i flip through those pages.

Thanks for joining us for another week of Whimsical Musings. We are getting so close to our anniversary! If you joined in, we would love to see your work on our gallery with the tag (WM#47).

xo,

Pamage

Challenge # 47 - Week of July 9th, 2012

This is Pam here again with another (hopefully) fun challenge for you this week.

First, I have a few pages from my archives to show you. What do these pages have in common?

Well, besides the round elements, I hope the most obvious element were the Oversized Photos. Often large pictures scare us into a corner since it is such a large element to incorporate that the task may seem daunting. However, it is not much different than having a large block of photos. In fact, that is a tip I often use when creating my pages with oversized photos based on a sketch. I look for blocks of photos I can combine into one image.

Yes, you guessed it, the challenge for this week is to use an oversized picture. I consider anything larger than 4x6 "oversized" - You will notice I work with a variety of sizes and some of them irregular. So, go ahead, pull out your 5x7, 6x8, 8x10 or any other combination thereof and get to playing. This is the perfect excuse to finally use up all those professional shots we always order enlargements of and then have in a folder collecting dust. Or go ahead and print up a picture you just adore specifically for this challenge.

And why don't you add a few more pictures in the process? I don't limit my oversized photo use to single photos layouts. The page above used 7 photos without looking too crowded. You are welcome to use as many photos as you like, just make one of them larger. It is a strong storytelling tool and I think you'll enjoy it. If you need extra help along the way, here is a recent Glitter Girl adventure which tackled this topic {here}. And of course, we are always on the message boards to discuss and chat with you and how you are taking on the challenge. 

Remember to share with us on the gallery which is linked above with the tag WM#47. Until next week.

xo,

Pamage

#46 inspired by thinking

As you might recall, there's been a major change in my life over the last few months and I have to admit that I find myself again and again sitting there at my desk pondering these changes. Wondering how on earth I've ended up where I am, in another country, in another job, speaking another language. Makes you think ;-)

And so my layout was born.

The company colour is orange where I work now so my July Counterfeit kit, Beach-house, was perfect with it's rich summer tones. I added in a couple of orange tags for my journalling and tucked them behind the photo block for a little privacy. The photos are a little abstract but they represent a lot, as do most of the elements I've added to the layout. 

And I couldn't resist adding a little orange glitter to the layout to add more sparkle to my misting.

Where did your thoughts take you this week? We'd love to see!

Don't forget to link up over in our Flickr gallery (here).

#46 inspired by thoughts

This week Lisa challenged us to think a little or a lot.

Well, I am thinker, so this was easy. And I am usually aware of my thoughts. More than recent photos, or products, or prompts, my scrapbooking is mostly guided by thoughts that come up and drive a story. But I was more aware of my thoughts this week and listened carefully for story ideas.

A thought that kept coming up is how much I love my closest girlfriends and how lucky I am to have them. While I have hoards of pages about my relationship with each of them and our adventures together, I had never scrapped about them collectively. 

I am sure I would have eventually arrived at this story anyway, but this week allowed me the opportunity to get it told in a meaningful way. And the fact that three of my favorite people are on it makes me happy. 

The important thing here was the story so I just chose photos from my pile that didn't have an actual story. I have loads of those and layouts like this are my favorite way to use them up rather than trying to force a story about them.

my embellishments were pretty loud so I kept them to a bare minimum. I think they are so cute for a page about girls. Also my typed journaling is covering my initial handwritten journaling which was crooked and full of misspellings. Rather than trash the entire page I just created a text box in the size of my area on Word and then I treated the cardstock to green splats like all the other elements to make it fit in better.

Thanks Lisa for making us pay attention to our thoughts. We hope you will join us in adding your layout to our gallery. Just remember to tag it WM#46.

xo,

Pamage

Challenge #46 week of 2nd July 2012

 

I think. A lot. I find myself staring into nowhere and letting my mind wander all the time. Now that's all very well and good if you're sat at home having a quiet moment, but not so good when you're at work
(shhh... don't tell!) ;-)

But my thinking got me thinking. Like it does. And I decided that's what we need to do for our next challenge.

So, I'd like you to take 5 minutes out of your busy day and just sit. Quietly. Don't try to think of anything in particular. Just let your mind wander....

Where did you go?

• Did you find yourself making shopping lists or thinking about the laundry?
• Or did you gaze out of the window and marvel at the beauty right outside your door?
• Were your eyes drawn to a dust bunny sitting in the corner of your room, mocking you (well, they do round here anyway!)
• Or maybe you found yourself suddenly caught up with a memory from the past?

Whatever it was, be inspired by where your thoughts took you and capture something of that on your creations for this week.

Short and sweet for today because I know this this time of year is busier for many of you.

Don't forget to share over in our Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#36.

In the meantime, have a lovely summer week everyone and take your time to just "think".

#45 Inspired by social media

I really related to Pam's prompt this week once I'd given it some thought. Does that happen to you?

At first, I just thought that I don't really engage on FB (I'm a serious lurker) and I stopped tweeting some time ago so it would be hard to really fulfill this prompt. But then I started to think about my own blog and of course Whimsical Musings, and Flickr, and Instagram, and What'sApp and realised that I am totally and utterly engaged, just not on the minute by minute tweet/update kind of thing. And I need this connection or I'm lost. If I don't have online access, I feel helpless! Silly I know.

Pam is such a huge part of that connection these days. I am always amazed at how close I can feel to her and yet we've never even spoken to each other :-)

So the subject of my layout was suddenly clear. Our mutual creative endeavour and the reason you are here reading this and sharing your creations!

It's not a deep and meaningful layout. I will make one of those but today I was in the mood to play a little with my CKC June kit, Subtlety and to use some inspiration I found over on Pinterest (here).

I'm a bit disappointed that the banner isn't really diagonal enough and now just looks a bit wonky! But anyway!

I'll be getting the next post up for the morning but in the meantime, don't forget to share your creations (with the tag WM#45) over at our Flickr gallery (use the page link at the top of the blog here - did you notice that Pam has given us a bit of a facelift!?!).

Until then, Happy 1st July!