Challenge #175 week of 29th June 2015

One thing I learnt from our good friend Pam, as well as my artistic brother is to keep my eyes open when I am out and about. You never know what inspirational treasures are out there, just waiting to be found. My brother is particularly interested in street art and shared some of his Viennese faves when we were in the city last week. And I know that Pam loves to find a street art wall and get her photo taken there.

So when I was standing at a train platform, having missed my connection and having a few minutes to kill, I was interested to see that this graffiti really caught my eye.

There's a lot of tagging, street art and graffiti in Germany, some of it good, a lot of it not so. (And please understand that I'm not condoning graffiti - it is, after all, vandalism of property) But even I find myself admiring some of the more artistic creations and this one falls into that category.

So this week, I'd like you to be inspired by this graffiti.

I love the colours combined here - the blues, aquas, even the orange and green outline. I love the letter style and the spotty pattern here and there. I like to think about the meaning behind the word  "Spiun" - it says nothing to me per se but is clearly something very important to the "artist" who created it. Or is it "Spion" which means "spy" in German? Perhaps it will inspire me to talk about my new found attention to street art and how my brother now IGs me when he's found a new one in Vienna to add to his collection.

Will it be the colours, the design or the topic that inspires you this week?

As always, it's wonderful when you share your creations over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery and don't forget to tag it WM#175.

Challenge #174 week of 22nd June 2015

The year is flying by and we are officially in the part of the year where, here in the northern hemisphere, the days are getting shorter again! When did that happen?

And then this morning, my Timehop app reminded me of this photo from Midsummer's Night last year where we sat outside with friends until it got dark - this photo was shot at 11.14pm - and enjoyed the balmy air that signalled the beginning of summer.

(Oh yes, and there might have been some football involved too if I remember rightly, it being the middle of the FIFA World Cup at that time...)

Now, while I may not be the biggest fan of summer - shock horror - I do love to note the passing seasons and the markers throughout the year that signal those changes. Summer Solstice is one of those and that is what I'd like to inspire you this week.

Be inspired by Midsummer's Day... or however you want to recognise/name 21st June

You could take the prompt literally and just feature what you were doing on any 21st June, or broader about the summer in general. You could talk about sitting outside in the long summer evenings, or maybe you went along to a Midsummer Party at some point. This day and night is celebrated in a big way in Sweden so that could drive your inspiration - holidays, Scandinavia or even Ikea. I think there's a lot of scope to find something that fits.

As always, we love it when you share your creations so be sure to head over to our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery and upload your projects with the tag WM#174.

Challenge #173 week of 15th June 2015

Yes, I have yet to create a layout with one of the recent Whimsical Musings prompts, but I live in hope :-) Perhaps this week will be the week. What about you?

This week I'm inspired by this postcard I picked up in one of the cafe's I visited last week in Vienna. It made me smile.

So, be inspired by "I *heart* ...." and fill in the blank.

So many very different ways to take this prompt. Something, someone, somewhere... Whatever is making your heart soar right now is prime for the subject of your project.

We love it when you share your creations over at our Whimsical Musings Flickr group so don't forget to tag it WM#173.

Can't wait to see what you are loving this week!

Challenge #172 week of 8th June 2015

I actually picked up the inspiration for today's challenge last week, intending to post it on Monday. Yeah, that happened!

But with other week comes the hope that it will be more organised and that scrapping and creativity will be achieved.

The weather has definitely turned here and I think summer is here to stay. We were caught out by the high temperatures and strong sun at the weekend and even managed to get a little sunburn - stupid me.

So I'm following on with the sun based creativity.

I saw this flyer in our local café and thought how wonderful it would be for some happy Whimsical Musings inspiration.

I love the combination of colours - the orange with two shades of strong red and subtle teal/aqua against the neutral beachy colour. Then there's the mix of sizes in the font, the geometrics along the bottom, even the layout of the design that might inspire you. It's advertising a summer music event so maybe that's where you will take this challenge.

Whatever you do with it, we'd love to see what you create over at our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#172.