Challenge #239 - week of 28th November 2016

Advent has just begun which is always the last indicator that Christmas is just around the corner - as if we didn't need another reminder.

Advent is an important point on the German Christmas calendar and I've embraced it as a symbol of the season. Over the last couple of years, I've allowed Advent to inspire my challenges for you and so I decided that this year should be no exception.

In the past I spent a lot of money on gorgeous Advent wreaths but trying to save some money last year, I decided to have a go at making my own Advent candle display. It cost a fraction of the cost of my over the top but wonderfully gorgeous Advent wreath, and I loved it.

I focused on metallics and specifically, copper which is not only a trend colour right now but also a colour I've been bringing into my home decor. I hope to find a way to do this again this year.

So, with that in mind, I'd like you to be inspired by this colour scheme of copper, pinks and burnt orange. 

Of course, you might take your project in another direction and concentrate on Advent itself, a weekly activity, a count down/up to something, the shape of the candles and mini baubles, or maybe just the candles themselves. The colour sample I was able to make from my photo doesn't show the metallics of course, but I know that this is where I'll be going with my project - I have them all in my stash right now! How many different metallics do you have?

We'd love you to use 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#239 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#239 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #238 - week of 21st November 2016

Another Monday and another prompt for you. And because my US friends will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I'm going traditional.

I'd like you to be inspired by blessings.

I know that many of you undertake some sort of thankfulness project in November or at your Thanksgiving table so you might like to consider this as your contribution this week? I know that I've made layouts about things I'm thankful for in the past but will you want to take this in a slightly different direction perhaps?

This is the layout I made for challenge #15 where Pam asked us to be grateful for something about ourselves. I consider my pragmatism a blessing.

We'd love you to use 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#238 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#238 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #237 - week of 14th November 2016

So, while the UK and many other countries were having two minutes silence in memory of Remembrance Day at 11am on 11th November (see last week's prompt), here in Germany 11.11am on 11th November marks the beginning of the "fifth" season of the year. Germany celebrates their own Remembrance Sunday at another time.

This fifth season is the beginning of German Carnival, something particularly strong around Düsseldorf and Köln as well as other cities around Germany.  If you'd like to find out more, Wikipedia has a lot of information about the traditions surrounding this "special" time of the year.

I've given you the topic of Carnival as a prompt before (something I don't personally celebrate but appreciate the traditions all the same) and so this time, I'd like to just take it in a slightly different direction.

I'd like you to be inspired by a fifth season.

I don't have a suitable photo for this prompt but how about just a gorgeous seasonal shot?

What would that mean to you? Would you want more sun, more winter, more snow, less change? Would you like to create your own fifth season by heading out of town on a long trip at the same time every year to escape weather in your own area that makes you unhappy? You could just look at it in regards to weather - what do you have or don't have that you'd like more of less of! How about making it a little more philosophical and thinking about the seasons of life - Jennifer Wilson over at Simple Scrapper uses this analogy often when discussing how to approach life and crafting. This might be a little more abstract than usual, but I do think that there are ways to take this and make it your own!

We'd love you to use 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#237 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#237 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #236 - week of 7th November 2016

A change of pace this week.

Tomorrow is my granddad's birthday. He died 26 years ago and we all still miss him every single day. He was a wonderful man, a great role model, and my favourite man in the world while he was still alive.

And Friday 11th November marks Remembrance Day which commemorates Armistice Day 1918, when the guns fell silent on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" marking the end of World War I. 

Coming so close together, these two events are always linked in my mind and my heart. Happy memories of my grandfather tinged with sadness with him no longer being here and the memories of fallen soldiers as part of Remembrance Day. 

I thought of making this week's prompt to be inspired by sadness but that seems a little melancholy for sure. Not that I don't think there is space in one's albums for a little sadness but let's try to lift it a notch and make it a little brighter.

Therefore, this week I'd like you to be inspired by the remembrance poppy.

A beautiful hand-crocheted poppy made by the über-creative Lesley over at Oh! Blog it! 

The poppy is a symbol of Remembrance Day, bringing to mind the poppy fields of Flanders where so many young men fell during WWI. But at the same time as representing something sad, it's something more for me. It's almost as if the poppy of Remembrance Day is also there for me to remember my granddad and the bright red flower which I wear with pride adds a splash of colour on an otherwise sad, dull November day.

I've scrapped about Remembrance Day before and also featured my hand-made crocheted poppy which reminds me of home. 

You might also have a poppy story and for those in the UK, you might have been lucky enough to see the Tower of London poppy art installation in 2014. There might be a symbol that you chose to wear to remember something specific or you might wish to create a project about remembrance or a relative who served in WWI or another conflict. What about your own Remembrance Day (different countries call it different names but the meaning is always the same)? What about someone special to you who also has a birthday this week? Or you could tie it in to bittersweet feelings like I described. Several ways to take this prompt this week and they are certainly not all sad.

We'd love you to use 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#236 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#236 in the write up text so that we can find it.