Challenge #227 - week of 29th August 2016

There's just a hint of autumn in the air today which is enough to get me smiling as I do through the whole season. There's the rustle of dry leaves on the trees and some already on the floor, you can see plenty of late summer fruit around, it was dark at 6 o'clock this morning and it's a bit showery. I love it!

And of course, I just can't resist a colour scheme that makes me think of autumn.

This week, I'd like you to be inspired by this pinned colour scheme of teal, aqua, pale green, orange and coral with a hint of metallic.

Originally pinned from Etsy shop Marolsha by Maddy here.
This design is no longer available but her shop is full of simply gorgeous jewellery. 

Of course, you might just be inspired by the hair jewellery itself but either way, we'd love you to be inspired by this prompt and hope you will share your creations - there are now two ways to do this!

You can either upload your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#227 or you can post it in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group. We've decided that we'll save albums for special occasions so just load up your photo to the group with the tag WM#227 in the write up text so that we can find it.

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Challenge #226 - week of 22nd August 2016

Hullo! Leslie here, standing in while Lisa entertains family.

I recently printed off the entire list of Past Prompts from WM to see which ones I hadn't done yet. And guess what? I couldn't find one about family, but one of the things I love about WM is the quality of the prompts. They often transcend what inspired them & become more open-ended  & lead me to intriguing places I might not otherwise visit in my scrappy journey. In fact, I think this was the foundation of Lisa & Pam's vision for Whimsical Musings.

So! I'm challenging you this week to be inspired by where you come from.
This was a page about the history of my work in the last 15 years or so.

This one is about the area where we have a retreat property.
 

Some obvious directions to go in are perhaps your heritage or birthplace, your part of the world, your neighborhood or region.  More abstractly, the things that make you, you! Document your strongest tenet of life. How might you convey what inspires you to create? What is your strongest conviction?

We'd love you to be inspired by this prompt and hope you will 

share your creations - there are now two ways to do this!

You can either upload your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#226 or you can post it in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group. We've decided that we'll save albums for special occasions so just load up your photo to the group with the tag WM#226 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #225 - week of 15th August 2016

Arrrghghg, late again! Sorry :-(

Therefore, I'm keeping it quick this week with my late prompt.

I was "home" in the UK last week for new nephews and family time, and today my sister and her family are arriving for a few days. It's got me thinking....

This week, I'd like you to be inspired by siblings.

You might have brothers and/or sisters and if not, then there must be siblings in your extended family. Or how about how you feel so close to your best friend that they could be your sister. Or the relationship your kids, or fur babies have with their own brothers and sisters. There's a lot of different directions to take this one.

I've done many layouts about my own family over the years but let me just share one or two. I will have to find a different way to take it this time around!

We'd love you to be inspired by this prompt and hope you will share your creations - there are now two ways to do this!

You can either upload your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#225 or you can post it in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group. We've decided that we'll save albums for special occasions so just load up your photo to the group with the tag WM#225 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #224 - week of 8th August 2016

I've been doing a lot of clearing and tidying the last couple of weeks. I need to clear some space - this is definitely an ongoing project - and I need to tidy up so that we can be ready to receive guests the week after next. This is exciting, even if the tidying is less so! But to keep me occupied and entertained while I clear, I've been listening to Podcasts. BBC podcasts to be precise.

One of my favourites is Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs" which has been running now since 1942 if you can believe it. The concept is simple, a well-known (or sometimes less well-known) guest is invited to pick 8 discs to take with them to a desert island. These should represent their life and help them through the hard times of being deserted. Then they talk about the discs and their life before being "cast away" with the tracks. At the end, they have to pick one that they would save from the waves. I particularly love trying to come up with my own 8 discs at the same time as listening to details of lives that I might not have heard before or discovering interesting people I didn't previously know.

You can find the website here: BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs and there is a archive of  almost 1,500 guests. The older ones are wonderful with the plummy accents and a different approach to life but very often, it's the people who are less well-known to me who are the most fascinating and people who have particular skills or work in humanitarian files who make me stop and think. However, I can recommend some recent episodes such as the wonderful Tom Hanks, Hugh Bonneville (well-known these days for playing in Downton Abbey),  British Polar explorer Ben Sanders, a hilarious Dame Judi Dench or a particularly emotional Kylie Minogue.

Anyway you might have guessed it, I'd love you to be inspired by Desert Island Discs this week.

You could make a layout featuring your own 8 discs, your favourite piece of music, how a particular piece of music says something about your own life, perhaps how much you'd love to be stranded on a desert island - if only for a while - or maybe feature one of your own famous or unsung heroes. Which way will you take this inspiration? I can't wait to find out.

We'd love you to be inspired by this prompt and hope you will share your creations - there are now two ways to do this!

You can either upload your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#224 or you can post it in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group. We've decided that we'll save albums for special occasions so just load up your photo to the group with the tag WM#224 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #223 - week of 1st August 2016

I don't know about you but I go through phases of doing one technique all the time and then sort of forgetting it for a while only to remember it and start repeating it all over again.

My bunchy thread clusters or loops is one of those.

I've been clearing up my scrap room ready for visitors in a few weeks (it doubles as our guest room and is rather full) and I discovered a couple of brand new reels of thread - because I see colours I *need* and forget that I've already got them. And that's made me realise that I haven't done a messy thread element for a while.

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

Here are a few layouts I've shared over the years showing one or two of my favourite thread techniques.

Of course, you could also just use it to sew!

Or maybe you have another approach to this prompt - a story about watching a family member sewing for example? Or your sewing supplies. I'm sure you can find many ways of interpreting "thread".

We'd love you to be inspired by this prompt and hope you will share your creations - there are now two ways to do this!

You can either upload your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#223 or you can post it in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group. We've decided that we'll save albums for special occasions so just load up your photo to the group with the tag WM#223 in the write up text so that we can find it.