Challenge # 63 - Week of October 29, 2012

Hello again.

Back in my grandma's time (and as recently as my childhood) photos and film were expensive and not as easily accessible  Therefore, in those days you only photographed big events, holidays and trips and your shots were farther and few between these events. 

Digital cameras [and I would add phone cameras] have changed this for us. 

Take for example this little collage.


A quick sweep of my hard-drive turned up this collection of images. Yes, I love Pepsi. I drink one daily... but why do I have so many pictures of pepsi cans and bottles?  Back in the days of film I would have never wasted it on capturing this silly aspect of my daily life. But I think the fact we have this technology and use it this way is a telling story in and of itself. These images mean something to us and that is why we take them.

an older page I made about my love of Pepsi for another WM challenge...

Like this example, there are tons more of photos I collect because it really doesn't cost me anything to take them. For you this may be flowers, clouds, self-portraits in front of a mirror, Starbucks drinks, your kids with their faces dirty, your husband reading the newspaper, the inside of your closet, your messy scrap desk, a certain tree by your house, your puppy napping by the fireplace... Did that list spark any ideas?

Well that is our inspiration point for this week - I want you to create a page using a collection of photos featuring the same topic all taken at different points in time. What does this collection of photos say about you and what is important to you?

I hope you are able to spend some time looking through your pictures. I think you will be surprised with what you find. 

#62 Inspired by Home

When I set out to accomplish this week's prompt I knew I would tell stories I needed to tell. I knew which products I wanted to use from my stash of Ready Set Go stuff. What I didn't anticipate was that I would be making one of my favorite spreads of all time.

I am not sure why I am in love with this page above any other of recent times. The pictures are fun, the products are great... but mostly it is the story that I think makes me love this page. But enough babbling, let's get to it.

The first page of the spread used a sketch from Simple Scrapper's Premium Membership - the November collection. It was initially a 8.5x11 which I easily converted. And boy, am I glad I did. The wood paper really sets a tone for these pictures. They were taken over the span of 10 years and document the transformation of the home. The title doesn't make much sense and the page seems a little bare...

 
That is why I added a 6x6 page. I was able to add a picture of Steve, the mastermind behind the transformation - and a pocket for hidden journaling. I traced the heart from the die cut and placed it on the opposite page. I love the symbolism this creates. The heart of that house was Steve. 

 

But I had SO MANY photos of the years fixing up the house that I wanted to add many more photos. So I added a divided page protector with 6 more photos to complete my spread. I even found a photo of Gaby and I working on the house back in 2002/03! I tried to place the before and after shots side by side for comparison. 

 
I then added the patterned paper with the birds because this country home ALWAYS had colorful birds around. It is one of my most vivid memories of the house. I added the rest of my title to the front of the 6x6 -  and I like the message it has on it's own. I also added the address since it was something I wanted to document. And I used the stamps from Ready, Set, Go to tie this page with the opposite side. 

 
to finish it all off, I added all three layouts into page protectors, lined everything up like I wanted and stapled on the seams of all three pages to create a cohesive page. Pretty cool, huh?

But wait, that's not all.

I had one more [or seven to be honest] stories left in me.  I chose to document my current "home away from home" in this colorful and fun one page layout. believe it or not, I used as many pictures as in the previous layout but I didn't mind shrinking them into there 4x4 collages. It was more about the feelings these photos elicit versus the details of the home. 

 

I had a blast [well, except for all the times the first layout made me cry] making these pages and adding these meaningful stories to my albums. Thanks so much Lisa.

I have already seen knock-out beauties in the gallery and I hope you will contribute your story too. I love seeing your work based on these prompts.

I will be back tomorrow morning with our new assignment.

xo,
Pamage

Challenge #62 week of 22nd October 2012

By the time you read this, I'm hoping I am settled into our new home - more or less.

It's hard work and stressful to move house and right now, it looks like I will be living without a working kitchen for the first however many weeks of living there. But hopefully the boxes will be mostly unpacked, the garden will begin to gain shape, my scrap stash will have found a new place in my new room, and I will feel a bit more settled once again.

This is my new scrap space. It's unpacked but not yet sorted. I've yet to find out how it will work for me and it most certainly needs prettying up to make it mine. Not nearly enough pink!

While my move was not planned, or even wanted at the time we decided, I'm hoping that this "house" will really become our new "home".

Home can mean different things to different people. When I am in Germany and talk about home I could be talking about the UK, but I'm usually talking about where I live. When I'm in the UK, you have to pay close attention to the context as I might mean UK, my mum's home, where I live or just Germany! But my heart is mostly in Germany so that's always a good place to start.

Home is where you go to at the end of the work day, home is where you kick off your shoes and plonk down on the sofa in front of the TV, home is where your loved ones or loved one (in my case!) is, home is where you cannot wait to get back to at the end of a holiday, no matter how great it was. Home truly is where the heart is.
I recently did this layout for LOAD about those darned packing boxes, so once I'm back and running when I get back "home", I'm hoping to get an unpacked layout done for this prompt :-)

Now, if you hadn't already guessed, I'd like you to be inspired by home this week.

Can't wait to see what you think about home and we'd love to see your creations over in our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery {here} with the tag #WM62.

Have a great week everyone!

#61 Inspired by Adjectives

pages like these are so fun for me to make. I could make one for each of my friends and family members...

but I chose to make my subject someone that doesn't ge featured a lot in my scapbooks - my little cousin Francisco.

As the middle child, he hardly gets any attention and therefore has developed a knack for causing trouble. But it is that same knack that lends itself to his very defined personality.


I chose a favorite sketch from Simple Scrapper's Premium Membership and went to town with my alphas.  

I tried to choose colors that would make the colors on the layout pop. The touches of red were subtle but the choice of the two red alphas bring out this color on the page. I also chose to showcase these traits by making them red as they stand out more.

I kept my clusted on the top simple, but tried to incorporate all the colors on the layout for continuity. 

I didn't have a tag that matched, so i traced an existing tag unto the grey dot paper and cut it out.

How did you fare with your list of adjectives?

Until next week,
Pamage

#60 Inspired by Autumnal colors

oopsie daisy - i forgot to post my layout. Oh well, here it is a day late.

as I mentioned before, I am participating in LOAD and it has been quite fun to follow the prompts this time around. One of the prompts pushed me to re-visit a technique-gone-wrong and I remembered wanting to scraplift this lovely layout by Shannon Tidwell {here}.

So I did and the photo I chose to showcase went wonderfully with the beautiful color combo Lisa picked out for us. Although she probably had in mind some autumn pages when she chose it, I think it is funny how both of us chose to scrap non-autumn pages altogether.

what I love most about this page is the message of hope and the breezy feeling of the butterflies mixed with the calming nature of the colors helps convey that.

this page means a lot to me emotionally. I want to thank Lisa for the inspiration.

And thank you all for being with us week after week.

xo,

Pamage

Challenge # 61 Week of October 15, 2012

Ahoy!

Don't worry. It's not pirate week! 

I just thought it'd be nice, wonderful, fabulous, entertaining, cute and funny to introduce this post that way.

I am feeling sassy, daring & bold this week, so I thought you wouldn't mind if I acted a little quirky & nutty.

And if by now you haven't caught on that something is up then you might be a little helpless, uptight or confused.

Have you guessed what your challenge is?

Adjectives!

I think layouts like this one say so much.

Your challenge this week is to use one, a few or a whole lot of adjectives to describe a person, place or thing in your life! 

I sincerely hope you don't think this challenge is lame, dull, crazy or boring and that your are excited, enthusiastic and thrilled to embark on this journey of words with us and create something whimsical. Here's a little help to get you started: List of Adjectives.

Dare to be brave this week and remember to post your creation on our gallery so we can be jealous, proud and happy.

have a FANTASTIC week.

xo,

Pamage

#60 inspired by Frosted Autumn colours

I'm happy to be here today with a quicker internet than yesterday so that this post does NOT take me four hours to complete! Long story but anyway, those of you with good WIFI at home should count your blessings! Ha ha!

I picked out the Frosted Autumn colour scheme by Design Seeds for us this week and I have to admit I'm in love with it.

I could easily make a whole pile of pages using these colours in different quantities or shades. From true autumnal pages that you may have expected from me through to this one which is anything but!

I discovered by chance that my October Counterfeit kit, Brighter, had almost all the colours in the scheme and I went with it. I turned the mustard yellow a bit brighter and the citrus into more of a citrus green and then all I needed was the darker brown which I added in through the letters. I need to remember them more often - I have white, brown and really dark brown in two fonts and they are the perfect small size for titles. Note to self to store them somewhere more obvious!

Without wanting to jinx myself with my internet connection and push my luck, I'm going to keep it short and hope that you find/have found time to join in on this week's prompt. I love how we all take it in different directions and I can't wait to have time to go through the gallery (which is impossible right now - but soon I promise!).

If you do create, don't forget to share over in the Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#60

Challenge #60 week of 8th October 2012

Hi everyone.

It's a good job I checked into this pre-written post to check it out before I posted it. I'd written it weeks ago in an attempt to get ahead and now I find there's just a photo and a line of text. Oh boy, my brain is frazzled right now!

Anyway, I know that some of us are trying to complete LOAD1012 right now and I certainly have enough to keep me out of trouble so I thought I'd give us an easy prompt. And it's that wonderful time of the year at the moment that makes me smile every single day.

So put the two together and here's what could be taken as an autumnal colour scheme to play with.

Colour scheme found at Design Seeds

It's late, so I'm keeping this short and sweet!

I have managed to complete three WM prompts this week via LOAD (this week's and two older ones) so I will try to get them posted as soon as I can :-)

We'd love to see your creations over in our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery {here} with the tag #WM60.

Have a great week everyone! I'll be thinking of you all in moments of peace! Ha Ha!

#59 Inspired by altering stuff

Ok, guys, I have a little confession to make.

this prompt was a little like cheating for me. I almost ALWAYS alter stuff. Very rarely do manufacturers make products just like I want them and so everything gets a little personalization before it goes on the page.

But I thought this prompt would give us all an opportunity to focus and share our little tips for making products match our style and pages.

While every page I made this week could count towards this prompt, I decided to share with you the only one I took process photos of. :) I apologize beforehand for the crappy colors. The lamp on my desk doesn't allow for natural looking photos.

I love these wood veneer tags. I got mine from this etsy shop {here}.

But of course, I wouldn't use them as is. With my neocolor pencils I colored in the bottom in a gradient by applying less pressure to the pencil as I went. 

Then I added a little water and created a customized ombre tag!

Next, I took this awesome layered ampersand sticker from the Ready, Set, Go collection, but the colors were totally off and didn't match my page. So I pressed the whole thing into my embossing pad and add silver embossing powder.
 

before taking the heat gun to it, I dusted off a few spots to show the orange underneath for a distressed look.

I remembered these awesome wood letters I have, but of course I didn't have enough R's. I had one R, but I had two P's... so I decided to give the same treatment to both P's. I cut up the legs off of the X and added them to the P's - and presto!

And here's a look at the completed page. I can't imagine this page without those little personalized touches and to the inexperienced eye, these things seem like they were purchased that way. 

 

 Hope you had fun finding ways to change up your stash this week.

Show us how it went! Remember the tag is WM#59.

xo,
Pamage

Challenge #59 week of October 1st, 2012

My wonderful Whimsical Muses - hello there!

This week starts another month. Can you all believe it is already October? It also starts LOAD for those of you who participate in that realm of creativity (I know many of you do). 

For that reason (and simply because I love this) the challenge for this week is a rather simple one. Well, maybe.

The challenge this week is to alter something before adding it to your page- personalize it, add to it, subtract from it, cut it up, re-arrange it... 

I will share with you some examples from past layouts where I have done this.

I misted this background to add leaves for my fall layout. 

i sanded the letters to make them feel more vintaged.

I painted the plain canvas flowers to match the colors of my layout.

with ink and markers I personalized the hexagons and alphas to create matching embellishments

I couldn't find enough chipboard letters in one style for my title so I painted several letter types in white for a more cohesive look.

I colored in some of the designs of the b&w paper to add other punches of pink.

I used different colored alphas as a mask for this title, not to mention - created my own background paper to match using stencils and mists

Altering your stash can definitely stretch it and give new life to forgotten stash. The ideas I shared above are just a few of the things you can try. There are plenty of techniques out there that can help you change something you no longer like into something you can use. There are even products that are meant for altering, such as plain chipboard, mistables, the resist products from Heidi Swapp and more. You can fix coloring issues, missing letters, layered stickers, die-cuts with (the wrong) words and much more by simply applying a little creativity.

So, as you find yourself busy creating this week, won't you find a way to give some embellishment (or paper) a new life and share it with us?

We hope so.

Hopefully the gallery will fill with pretty ideas of how to fall in love with our stash again and look at it with new eyes. The tag for this is WM#59. See you on the message boards!

xo,

Pamage