Challenge #129 week of 31st March 2013

I had something else planned for today, but something the delightful Pam said the other day got me thinking and I decided to change out the prompt.

We all have them. I know I have a lot! And when I look back through my pre-digi photos, there are more than I'd care to admit to. I know you've got them too.

Blurry photos!

This week, I'd like you to be inspired to create a project with a somewhat out of focus photo.

Especially those rather bad, older photos can be hard on the eye but still have very precious stories attached that you might still want to capture. And I don't know about you, but many of my iPhone selfies are on the blurry side but I still love them and try to find a way to use them on my pages.

I'm hoping that Pam will join in though I can't remember now what blurry photo she had said that she wanted to use. However, I'm sure there are a few from our New York adventure too.

I know that if you've been doing LOAD for any time, there have been several prompts to use less than stellar photo so it can be that you've a layout or two already featuring those blurry photos but I hope you can find another story to tell. In fact, LOAD212 had the theme of Past Perfect and LOAD514 will be asking us once again to delve into our past. So many of the layouts from that LOAD (you can see my set on Flickr here) have bad photos due them being film photos. I'm always surprised at just how bad these older photos are with terrible composition, heads cut off, out of focus, under or over exposed! You have it all. But some of those layouts are among my favourites of recent years.

This one for example:

A truly out of focus shot but it brings out so many wonderful, happy memories, Well worth preserving on a page.

So this week, I'd love you to be inspired to fish out one of those blurry photos that has something to say and share your creation with us over at our Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#129.

Challenge #128 week of 24th March 2014

A lot of the ideas I get for upcoming prompts come from things I've been doing or thinking about recently. Maybe posts I've written on my own blog, or challenges over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge, or even a technique I've recently tried out or been asked to do.

So this week is inspired by a set of layouts I recently made for the UK's The Scrapbook Magazine.

I needed to make three layouts featuring hidden, interactive, pull-out elements to hold extra photos or journalling etc. It was tricky to come up with three different techniques but in the end, was happy with the results and I'd like you to give it a go yourself this week.

Be inspired by a method of incorporating more on your page using pull-out elements.

To give you an idea of what I mean, here are the three layouts that were featured in the magazine.

There's so many ways to get interactive on your pages - can't wait to see what you come up with. We'd love you to share your creations over at our Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#128.

Challenge #127 week of 17th March 2014

Back to earth with a bump after my whirlwind trip to the big city last week. I had an amazing time as I knew I would and meeting Pam was the highlight of course! She is one of the most adorable people I have ever met and am delighted that she is my friend! Love that girl.

I will be late creating both the last two prompts while I work through the 1,100 photos I've come home with but they will come, I promise you. :-)

However, today I'm here to wish you a *lucky* Monday with a suitable colour scheme to give your day a pretty shade of green. I don't celebrate St Patrick's Day, being English, but I know that lots of you do so I tried to find something that could work for us all. :-)

Design Seeds has been my go to colour inspiration since the first palette Pam offered Whimsical Musings back in prompt #1 and this one is no different.  I love the luscious green along with the softer neutral tones and the buttery yellow, which I'm thinking might go in a gold direction on my layouts. Mmmmm, green and gold - sounds good to me!

I'd love you to create a lucky layout using our colour inspiration and hope that you'll share at our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#127.

Challenge #126 week of 10th March 2014

While I'm writing this, I'm full of anticipation of my upcoming trip across the pond. And while you are reading this, I'll be there - in the middle of it all, enjoying my last few hours. So I hope you will indulge me once again with this week's prompt!

What else could I ask you to be inspired by this week than New York?!?

Now, I know that we've had prompts for "Big Cities" (WM#83) and "Christmastime in the City" (WM#114) but this time, I want you to concentrate on just this one big city.

Pinterest find. Source here

I think there are many different ways to take the prompt, regardless of if you've been there or not. If you've never been here, then you could talk about how much you'd like to visit (or maybe how it's one of those places you don't want to visit!). You could talk about a time you were there or someone special to you. You could approach it through film and/or TV and be inspired by your faves which are set there. How about scrapping some of your favourite buildings, events or landmarks there? How the Times Square New Year's Eve on TV is always the backdrop to your own NYE events? Which Sex and The City girl you are in real life. 

Pinterest find but original Flickr source here 

I hope you can find a snippet of NYC in your own scrapbook story this week and that you'll share at our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#126.

And of course, watch this space for the creations that Pam and I will be busily whipping up after our adventure!

Challenge #125 week of 3rd March 2014

Today is "I want you to be happy day" and this was going to be my prompt for you this week. But you'll have to wait for it now because I'm going to schedule it later on and you will just be surprised by it one week.

I made this change because I want to celebrate the fact that this is the week I am going to travel to NYC and while I'm there, I'll be hanging out with my bestie Pam!

This will be the first time we have ever met in real life even though we've known each other for nearly 4 years now. How exciting is that?

I made this layout (and shared it here on WM last week) about my fabulous Valentine present during LOAD (doesn't she look cute!)

and this one to put down some of my thoughts about the trip

Yes, you could say that's pretty much all I'm thinking about right now.

But at the bottom of all this excitement is the fact that we'll be face to face for the first time and that's what I'd like you to be inspired by this week.

Be inspired by meeting someone for the first time - whoever it was and in whatever circumstances, capture that very first get together on paper.

We hope that you'll share over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#125.

#119 inspired by Civil Rights

This was not an easy challenge. And it needed to brew in my brain for quite some time before I got a real feeling for what I was going to do with it.

I knew I wanted to talk about begin a woman, a little bit of feminist talk perhaps, just a few of my personal feelings.

And as it happens, LOAD214 #20 asked us to bust the myth that quotes need to come from a real book or a famous person just at the right time and this all came together for me.

I was listening to a BBC report where they were discussing that despite the fact that female authors have been scooping up all the literary prizes recently and that women make up more than 50% of book readers, book reviews of books written by women, and female writers of book reviews are still woefully in the minority. Sometimes as low as 25% of reviews. Mmmm. Got me thinking. And then the report had requested a response from the London Review of Books. Their statement started with the line, "Counting is a feminist weapon". Bam - that got my attention. It took me a few minutes to realise what they meant and how it related to the context. But it stayed with me. Of course, this statement can be used for both sides of the feminist argument, depending on how you build on it. But my brain was whirring and I even noted it down in my iPhone while I was driving along.

This would be the basis of my layout.

To begin with, I made the main page with the title and quote before deciding I could use it as a note to my niece - now only 18 months old. I used a photo of my sister when she was heavily pregnant, mostly because I seem to have three copies of the same print and I think it's so lovely that it seems a shame not to use them in any way I can!

This uses items from my Counterfeit Kit Challenge February kit, Tender - lo#8

Then a few days later I found the time to make an additional 12x6 page for the journalling. As ever, I tried to ensure that there were a few elements of paper and embellishments to tie the two pages together into a coherent design. Finding the right words, however, was more difficult. I wanted to try to maintain some positive feelings, even though there is a little bit of negative in there. But most of all, I wanted to express my views on what I see is a realistic assessment on what it is to be a woman today. Not all good, but not all bad either.

I'm not sure if I did that, or if it comes across as a bit silly, or if anyone agrees or disagrees. The main thing is, that it turned out pretty much how I had imagined it which is always a winner in my book, and whether I'm right or wrong, this is what I'm thinking, right now in February 2014.

Which direction did this prompt take your brain? I hope that you'll share any creation you were inspired to make with us over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#119.