Let's Celebrate - WM#100

Oh, the best laid plans.

I had high hopes of creating this week, perhaps even a layout per prompt. I thought I might make a video to share. And one or two other little things. But I know you'll know exactly what I mean when I say that life took over once again and I've been busy with my sister and her family the last three days, giving me little time to prepare as I'd wanted to. I know you'll forgive me and let me put these things on the list for another time! :-)

But what a week we've had. I was thrilled with all our WM Friends Guest Designers. Their willingness to join in, to come up with a prompt and then to create a page for us following my 100 theme made me very, very happy and I'm sure you will agree that they were fabulous. So a round of applause for all of them.

So... to Cathy

 Michelle

Lynette

Sherrie

and last but no means last... Leslie

THANK YOU! 

Your layouts wowed us and inspired and you all showed me how great it is to have GDs on board spreading the fun around. Something for the future...

I promised to recap on the prompts we had this week so we had :

• Be inspired by a centenary celebration - celebrations around a centenary anniversary whether that's a person, a place, a historical event, the birth or death of someone famous of historical (or someone not so famous), the turn of a century, or even a millennium, maybe even celebrating doing something 100 times 
• Be inspired by your top 100 - top lists of anything you love (or even don't love) - books, music, films, places, people, events, art, things to do, things you've done or places you've visited, scrapbook items, way to spend your time. The list of lists is literally endless. Or perhaps you'd like to focus on just your top 10 or top one as Cathy did, whether you use it in your design or creation, or have it as the focus of your journalling or subject of your page.
• Be inspired by 100 items - 100 items on your page, 100 items in the journalling of your page, 100 items featured in some way in the design of your page. Think large numbers on your page or in the design of your paper or products like Michelle did, or as the main feature of your photo or journalling. Use 100 different scrap items on your page, 100 words in your journalling. I read a report sometime ago about a family who had decided to downsize - to 100 items per family member. What would your 100 things be?
• Be inspired by the song "100 years" - create a timeline of your life, your year, your week or even your day. Think about the concept of time flying so fast - what are the things you want to capture right now? You could create a timeline for so many different topics whether it's your own life, your family's, perhaps an ancestor or a historical figure. You could think about history and create a timeline about an event, a place or even a holiday. What about your likes or dislikes over the years, your development in certain areas of your life? Or just using a timeline concept into the design of your page in some way. I know that this is one that is going on my list for sure
• Be inspired by heading to 100 years of age - think about hopes and dreams for the future, where you are, where you've been and where you'd like to be. Think about you in relation to the other women in your family and how your life has developed in relation to them. Sherrie started thinking about this page when she thought about the longevity she can expect when looking at the ripe ages other women in her family are reaching. Think about a baby and how their life will change over the next 100 years. You could write a letter about your hopes for them. Technology changes could also be another direction to take this. When I think about my own grandmother who is now 91 and could well reach 100 as she's in relatively good health and then think back to the changes she has seen across her life, it's amazing. I could imagine talking to her about what her ideas were about heading to 100 when she was younger.  
• Be inspired by 100% - this is such a fun prompt to take literally or in a more abstract way. What are you 100% inspired by. What is 100% in your life? You could be inspired by test scores or surveys or breaking things down into proportions. I like the idea of thinking about my daily activities and making a super trendy pie chart showing where I waste, I mean spend my time! Again, incorporating numbers is a great way to take this inspiration, if that's as a design feature or in the page subject. Think about engaging in activities 100% or creating a list of things you (100%) know. I created a page like this some years ago and have been promising myself to update it so this could be the time. Or things you want to achieve. Wish lists that are being worked through or have been finished. 

I don't know about you, but I could work on these 6 prompts for the next 100 pages in one way or another? I love the fact that we all came up with something different for the prompts and took them in different directions, even if they sound similar to begin with. 

And of course, you are interested in prizes! Who doesn't love the chance to win?

Like I said, it's busy season for us all, so you have until 16th September to create and post your layouts/projects to our Flickr Gallery (here).

For those of you using one of the 100 prompts from this week, don't forget to use the tag WM#100 (or the individual WM#100 tags listed in each post) for the chance to win this

Or go back over the previous 99 prompts found in the "Whimsical Musings Past Prompts" page tab at the top of the blog (link here) using the appropriate tag WM#XX to be in the draw for this 

Congratulations to Lynette for being the first to post a WM#100 layout in the gallery. She'll be getting something in the post as soon as I can catch my breath after our busy week. Watch your mailbox Lynette! :-)

And of course, to be inspired by other WM friends, be sure to come on over to Flickr and join in the discussion. We'd love to see you there and are always thrilled to see new followers.

I'd like to extend an extra special thank you to Lynette and Leslie who jumped on board right away when I emailed them about my ideas for this week of celebration. They both offered to help in any way they could and Lynette took on the role of WM Promoter through her blog, the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog, Scrap Happy as well as right here within our WM community, while Leslie offered plenty of motivation and also to update our previous prompt list for me and keep it up to date this week. They both offered encouragement and support and for that I am so very grateful. There has been a lot of commenting this week on the posts about the friendships that have been built through this hobby of ours and I'm so happy to have "met" these lovely ladies and become their friend. 

Each of my GDs have a place in my heart and all our WM followers are special so a big thank you to you too. You made my celebratory dream come true.

But of course, there is someone out there who deserves an extra special mention. Someone who is my BFF in the scrapbooking community. Someone without whom none of this would have happened. Pam! When Pam and I decided to do our own little daily layout challenge more than two years ago now, we loved it so much, we went on to challenge each other every week. Taking it to a sharing level seemed the next step and the Whimsical Musings blog came to life. We've had such fun inspiring you all over all those prompts and were so thrilled to find that our other "besties" in the virtual scrapbooking world wanted to join in on the fun. But without Pam's amazing talent and her ability to motivate me and make me happy, we wouldn't be here today. She is a wonderful, inspiring and loving person to have in my life and I want to take this opportunity to thank here for all she's done for me and for us.

She may be taking a creative break right now, but we all hope she'll be back with us when she can. Pam, we all miss you and and will be here for you when you return :-)

So, that's it everyone. Our 100th celebration is coming to an end. But there's still lots going on over at Flickr and that chance to win will continue for another three weeks so get creating.

Have a wonderful Sunday and see you over at Flickr!

Let's Celebrate - WM#100 Guest Designer Leslie

Welcome to our last day :-( of Whimsical Musings Guest Designers and please say hello to the very talented Leslie.

Another LOAD connection here but she very quickly joined in with the Whimsical Musings family and she has proved to be a true friend to us all. A listening sounding board, a creative inspiration and a calming influence to us all, I am so very happy that she agreed to help out this week with her own prompt to help us celebrate our special milestone.


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I think everyone can point to things in life – milestones - that mark a distinctive encounter with something or someone that changed things. Whimsical Musings was one for me.

WM - two remarkable women, separated by a great sea, who connected because of their love of all things scrappy & their admiration for each other’s artistic gifts. Generous paper artists who share their own weekly challenge, who inspire, whose signature moves infuse our pages with creativity.

WM#14 “Incorporate, or be inspired by, maps” was my first. I was inspired by Lisa’s clustering skills.

Hi, I’m Leslie from just outside of Flint, Michigan, USA. My childhood sweetheart & I share our little acre with our grand-dog Lila & our cantankerous cat, Captain Hook. Retirement is looming and with 3 grandbabies to spoil & enjoy it should be sweet :~)

It is with great delight that I join in this week’s celebration of 100 Whimsical Musings prompts!

100%   

is my take on the 100^th prompt.

The butterflies were fussy-cut from a scrap along with the b/w doodles framing the photos. Over at CKC our second August challenge was to use scraps so I trolled for any & all black or yellow tones as well as accents from my Girl Power kit. The yellow legal pad conversation bubbles were in my kit but I didn’t feel like I needed any journaling so I used them to anchor the butterflies instead. They make a nice layer underneath & add some movement to the page. 

I am loving the chalkboard trend & the medallion shape - a recent gift from a friend - seemed perfect to use with these latest studio shots of my granddaughter Chloe. I felt the left side of the layout seemed out of balance. I decided to just doodle over the floral pattern in the paper, there & other random places. Subtle but added just what it needed!

The banner came from my kit as well & I backed it with black to help the medallion not feel so heavy at the bottom. As usual I regretted not matting my photos so this time I just added a simple drawn line around them, tying them to the salvaged scrap doodly accents that frame them up so well.

 I made sure to overlap the arrow onto the medallion to keep it from being a floating element. Can this little cutie sell lemonade or what? These photos definitely DO make me smile!

 Lisa & Pam, one million thanks (or should that be 100, lol) for being such an inspiration! I am hard at work to complete my first 100 prompts & can’t wait to see what’s in store for the next 100.  

I would love to invite your visitors over to my blog at Out of the Mire for a little goodie bag giveaway in honor of Whimsical Musing’s Challenge Blog’s success!

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The next, and final prompt for this week is therefore,

Be inspired by... 100%

Take it and make it yours but don't forget to share your creations over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr Gallery (here) with the tag WM#100-6. 

Leslie can be found creating scrappy lovliness at her blog (here), over at the WM Flickr Gallery (here) and as part of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge design team (here). And she will wow you with her counterfeiting, so do make sure you check out those posts on her blog - where does she get her ideas?

But that's not the end of the party! We hope you will drop by again tomorrow for a round up post and a reminder about the prize draw giveaway. 

Let's Celebrate - WM#100 Guest Designer Sherrie

It's Friday which means it's time to present Sherrie.

Sherrie is a prolific scrapper when she is on a roll and can easily create dozens and dozens of pages in a very short period. Always impressive. And she is so much fun, making me smile with her pages and her comments. She also provides me with tangs of envy as she's lucky enough to live in Canada - my dream destination in case you didn't know! I am secretly planning to descend on her one day for a weekend of scrapping and chatting in her scrap space which is big enough for the two of us as well as a few more of our WM friends!

She dragged herself out of the garden where she spends most of those long, long days to create a page just for us so let me hand you over to her.

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Slouching Towards 100! part 1

Hello friends, and welcome to day 5 commemorating Whimsical Musings' 100 weeks of prompts.

My name is Sherrie Breese and I have been seriously scrapping since 2006. I love the paper, the ribbons, buttons, bits and bobs. The pleasure of playing with tactile products is what pulls me in and can hold my attention to the exclusion of all else. Sometimes I get so immersed in the design process, it surprises me when I look up from the desk to see that the afternoon has turned to evening or even night. I wonder how that can happen, yet it only feels like I have been working for an hour or two.

Lisa and Pam became a part of my life when I joined  up for LOAD1011. Their design sensibilities had a major influence on me and I can say with certainty that they have had a huge impact on my scrapping style.  From Pam, I learned to use white cardstock and to (sometimes) allow some negative space. From Lisa, I learned to turn my random collages into clusters with focus. Through them I have also learned many fun tricks, like doodled borders, wrapping pages with string and twine, using paper doilies, tiny slivers of curled paper, photo collages with picasa, and I am sure a few more.

In celebration of their 100 weeks of prompts, I created a layout that is a retrospective of my first 50 years on my way to 100. I used my June Counterfeit Kit, Country Cousins Mel & Sam. The photos are representative of each decade. The idea came from the lineage of longevity afforded to me by the women in my family.  Hopefully I will be able to complement this layout  with part 2 in another 50 years or so.



 

Don't you just love the idea of using a whole "lifetime" of photos on one layout. And the idea that this is just part 1 is such a great take on the idea of a full and happy life as well as paying homage to the older women in her family.

Typical Sherrie to combine so many different elements, colours and patterns - it all works so well

Love the green dymo labels - that's the second layout this week to remind me to get my dymo out !

In the meantime, the WM party continues at my blog (here), where we will peruse the BBC's "must read" list of 100 Books. How many have you read?

Scrap "sis-stars" Lisa and Pam, thank you for all the work you do bringing us inspiration and challenges for the past, (almost) two years.

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So, Sherrie is expecting to reach 100 which is certainly something I suspect many of us can hope for too. So think of a life full of living and... 

Be inspired by... heading to 100 years of age. 

Whether you are half way there or even just 25% of the way to 100, think about heading to that wonderful number and make a page about some aspect of it. Please share your ideas and creations over at the Flickr Gallery (here) with the tag WM#100-5 - we'd love to see where you go with this today.

When Sherrie isn't out enjoying her garden and grandchildren, she can be found on her blog (here), as well as over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr group (here) or the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog (here).

ETA: Congratulations to Lynette who was the first to share her WM#100 layout over at Flickr. A little extra surprise will be winging its way across the ocean to you for being the first to join in :-)

Let's Celebrate - WM#100 Guest Designer Lynette

Today it’s time to introduce someone who is sweet and kind and thoughtful. Lynette. I just know we’d be really great friends in real life just as we are in the virtual world.

Another fellow LOADster and now a member of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge team as well as a more than regular contributor to the Whimsical Musings prompt, Lynette is always there to offer supportive comments or to impress with her perfectly executed layouts.

And if you want some giggles, you just have to check out her Counterfeit kit reveal blog posts every month – she wins the prize for best kit presentation each and every month. I never fail to laugh out loud when reading her reveals.

Here's Lynette.

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Happy 100th Prompt Whimsical Musings! One hundred is certainly a monumental milestone. Back in my elementary school teaching days, we would always celebrate the 100th Day of School with counting, writing, singing and movement activities all based around the number 100. To a child, that number may as well have been one billion! My young students always felt such a great sense of accomplishment to reach that day mid-way through the school year.

Even as followers of the Whimsical Musings Challenge blog, we should feel a great sense of accomplishment for reaching the 100th Prompt. Whether you’ve followed from the very beginning or just started…whether you’ve created one or 100 layouts…whether Pam and Lisa’s inspiration even just made you think differently about life, 100 thought-provoking, artistic-inspiring prompts is worth celebrating!

Now, for my celebratory prompt, I’d like for you to think of your life in terms of a timeline. Are you familiar with the Five for Fighting song, “100 Years”? It’s a poignant journey of a man throughout his different stages of life. The events stream by faster and faster and while 100 years seems like a long time, life often moves along quickly “when you only have 100 years to live”. Most scrapbook to hold onto to those moments that seem to race by us. 

Having children certainly has sped up the pace of our lives. Seems like just yesterday when my son was born and now he just turned 12 last week! Take a look at the timeline layout I created focusing on the evolution of our family starting with my marriage to my husband to the birth of our 2 children.  I decided to print the photos of our past in black and white and our current family photo in color. This helps to cut down on the distracting colors and draw the focus on the present. I used my “old school” Dymo label maker to highlight the important details, just as you would see in a timeline in a history book and anchored all of the photos on a thick black strip of paper creating the actual line. Certainly, this is not necessary, but felt it drove home the timeline feel. It brings a smile to my face to see that young couple getting married, to having children, to the present day. We’ve come a long way and it’s interesting to see our growth on this page.

  

The use of black and white photos for the supporting photos really helps the main photo stand out. And the use of frames and elements really directs your eye down the page to the different elements to take in. A happy, but totally meaningful page.

Lots of dimension and small details to take in 

Love the multi-coloured title. It catches your eye and is a fun element on the page

This makes me want to get my Dymo out and get stamping!

Think about a period of time in your life and create a layout showing a timeline. It doesn’t have to be from birth until now. It can even be “A Day in the Life” type memory documenting the everyday events. Whatever you decide, I hope it helps you slow down your life for just a bit and take stock in all of the changes and blessings in your life.

About Lynnette…

I met and became inspired by Lisa and Pam through the Layout A Day scrapbook challenge. Both women were so encouraging to a scrapper just trying to find her style and groove. After completing a LOAD challenge and feeling like I needed something else to keep my mojo going, I decided to check out Whimsical Musings. I was immediately hooked by their approachable style that alternated between story-based and technique-based prompts. I enjoy the small, grassroots community here and the encouraging environment that carries no ulterior motives. I certainly will always have more to learn and room to grow as a memory keeper, but Whimsical Musings has helped me flourish and become a confident scrapbooker.  

Thank you for your encouragement and dedication, Pam and Lisa.

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And there you have our second Whimsical Musings prompt of the week:

Be inspired by... the song “100 Years”.

For those of you (like me) unfamiliar with the song, you can find the song lyrics here (or on YouTube here).

Where will you take this prompt today? We’d love you to share at the Flickr Gallery (here) with the tag WM#100-4.

Lynette can be found keeping us smiling and happy over at her blog (here), at our very own Flickr group (here) where she is helping to moderate the message board, and as part of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge design team (here). Don't forget to check out her kit reveal posts every month. Guaranteed to make you smile.

Let's Celebrate - WM#100 Guest Designer Michelle

Today I'm thrilled to introduce another of our WM friends, Michelle. We initially connected through LOAD and then Michelle was the second to join in on our prompts over at Flickr. Her first prompt was WM#13 which is a very long time ago! She has been a regular ever since and I'm so happy she agreed to contribute to this week's celebration with her very own 100 prompt. 

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Hello, Michelle here.

Excited to be a “behind the scenes” part of WM for a change! I have been scrapbooking since about 1994 - was introduced to it by a co-worker. Loved the idea of creativity AND photos combined. One of my first layouts was in a spiral album about a trip my husband and I took to Arizona – lots of stickers, die cuts, and colored marker journaling back then! 

Michelle must be so happy to have the story and photos in this album, even if her style has changed "a bit" since then.

During one of the LOAD challenges, Lisa mentioned the Whimsical Musings blog she and Pam had with the weekly challenges. I thought it sounded fun, and had admired Pam and Lisa's work during LOAD. So I started following it. I'm not sure if this was the first challenge I actually tackled, but the “triad color scheme” inspired a whole mini-album of my oldest daughter and her stuffed bison, Buddy, during our Yellowstone trip. My favorite part is that the “triad” jumping-off point was just the spark I needed to start AND complete the album. I loved that about WM.

I remember when Michelle first shared this album with us over at Flickr - we all loved it. You need to go back to the beginning of the gallery entries to find it, but it's worth it. Such a cute album.

When Lisa asked me to contribute to the 100 celebration, I was thrilled. I always have to think for a bit about the challenge. But this one came to me pretty quickly, as it was something my daughter mentioned a couple weeks back. 

When she was little she LOVED the book Barbie 1 2 3. We would read through it many nights, looking to answer the questions on each page. But her favorite part was the last page, number 100. It had a collage of different items that combined together to represent 100 items. She had a little box with her “collection” of some of those items, and would get the box out and lay the items on top of the similar ones in the book. In fact, in 3^rd grade she even brought the book and her collection to our Brownie Girl Scout meeting about Hobbies & Collections. She (now 12 years old) grumbled to me a couple weeks back that she can't believe I talked her into giving up that book. When I started looking at this layout, she was reminiscing with me. I love that we have a permanent memory now of her childhood personality.

A perfect colour combination for this girlie, Barbie page. 

Michelle sprayed this background paper herself. The colour scheme is so well carried through across both sides of this layout.

Pink was chosen to represent the girliness of Barbie and green because it's one of Michelle's daughter's favourite colour. A perfect combination. I especially love how she has used strong black accents with the title and washi tape. It works so well as a contrast.

Michelle told me how it was pure coincidence that she came across this green bling which had been hanging around in her craft room for YEARS to dress up her chipboard flower. Not planned in any way,  you would think that the flower came ready blinged. What a lovely surprise.

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So our next prompt for this week is:

Be inspired by... 100 items. 

Can you find a way to include 100 items on your page? Michelle did this by referring to it in her journalling and making the simple but eye-catching 100 title. She has also included misted number background paper that she made herself (don't you just love that!) as well as washi tape with numbers and even the photos are full of numbers. Extra brownie points to Michelle for all those great ways to get numbers on her layout and the clever way to make a layout that really is about 100 things! And I have to admit to being ever so slightly in love with that bold "100" title. 

Don't forget to post your creations over at the Flickr Gallery (here) with the tag WM#100-3

Be sure to check out the Whimsical Musings Flickr Gallery (here) for more of Michelle's creations. She is a regular contributor and you have to make sure you look at the rest of the Buddy at Yellowstone mini-album!