Challenge #250 week of 27th February 2017

Today is the main day for German Carnival (Rose Monday) and I wondered about finding a prompt around that before I realised that I'd kicked off the Carnival 5th season with prompt #237 so I'll save the big event itself for another year.

However, even though I don't personally celebrate Rose Monday or Carnival,  the day before Ash Wednesday is Shrove Tuesday in the UK which I most definitely do celebrate in its more colloquial form of "Pancake Day" .

This week, I'd like you to be inspired by pancakes or flipping!

I know I've made a page about pancakes before but I can't track it down anywhere!

You can read all about Pancake Day online including details of some of the more quirky aspects of this "all the pancakes you can eat" sort of day, such as Pancake races. These often have strict rules about flipping the pancake in the frying pan at the beginning and end of the race. When we were children, it was a highlight of the day to watch the varying success of our parents' flipping skills and when I make them for myself these days, there will be at least one attempt at a true flip!

Now, if you celebrate some sort of pancake day itself, this would be the ideal time to capture this snippet for your albums. Or maybe you have a thing for breakfast pancakes that needs to be recorded. How about some sort of food cooking technique which may or may not have been perfected in your house? You could take the "flip" into your design such as flipping a sketch around, mirroring some elements of your page, or scattering something. I'm sure you can find a way of being inspired by Pancake Day!

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#250 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#250 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #249 - week of 20th February 2017

I don't know about you but I find that February can be a hard month. It's still cold and dark and pretty uneventful - boring and dull. A sort of a nothing month with nothing exciting happening. It's the longest, shortest month I can imagine and it does nothing to lift my spirits. (I exaggerate of course but you know what I mean!)

So I often look for ways of brightening up my day and mood, which is where I'd like to take the WM prompt this week.

My go to inspiration for colour is Design Seeds® and this image caught my eye. It's got a bit of everything... Pretty colours, flamingos, pom poms, party, pink!

This week, I'd like you to be inspired by this colour scheme of pinks, blush, fuscia, mustard and soft blue.

Photo credit: Design Seeds® { color party } image via: @hellopartyinsta

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#249 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#249 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #248 - week of 13th February 2017

It's St Valentine's Day this week, and as always I've been thinking about a prompt which is related but not typical. No bright red hearts round here as prompts! And I think I've come up with an interesting take on the day of lurve.

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

Traditionally, St Valentine's Day is about receiving a token of love and affection from a secret admirer. I remember getting a card at the age of 13 or so and convincing myself it was from my (not so secret) crush. I held onto that card as a symbol of my teenage affection (someone much older and totally unsuitable - he he) and spent hours scouring it for signs to prove me right. I found that card recently and immediately recognised my dad's handwriting!!! So many years of self-deception evaporated at that moment but it made me laugh out loud all the same. I am so happy that I will never have to be a teenager ever again! Maybe that's the story I need to tell this week.... Unfortunately, I now realise that I threw the card directly in the bin or I could have taken a photo of it to illustrate my story!

What secret will you tell this week? Or maybe you will incorporate some secret element to your page or how about some secret symbolism into the things you use on your page that only means something to you. You could write about secrets you had as a child, the secrets you share with your partner or your bestie, the secrets related to surprises or presents. You might have had a secret love sometime or found out that someone was secretly in love with you. This might be the time to capture that moment in your albums!

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#248 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#248 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #247 - week of 6th February 2017

Today marks the 65th Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth II. Today, I learnt that this is represented by sapphire and a lovely official photograph has been released today of the Queen wearing some rather impressive sapphire jewellery (even if it's totally not my style!).

Now you all know just how much I love my Queen. She makes me very proud to be British and I hope that she is around for many more years on the throne.

Photo by ©️David Bailey - found on Instagram here

So I was trying to find a way of bringing this milestone into the Whimsical Musings prompts for today but we've had quite a few blue themed ones, plus jubilees and even where you come from, so none of these work.

But how about going the completely obvious route? Therefore, this week I'd like you to be inspired by royalty.

As always, I think you could take this in different directions and find a way to make this prompt work for you. There's the direct route of telling a story about the Queen or royalty related to your own country. You could create a project about a royal event - a wedding, a coronation, a special anniversary or even a death. What about royalty in terms of very important people? This takes the challenge into all sorts of different areas such as people in your own family, circle, work environment, celebrities etc.

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#247 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#247 in the write up text so that we can find it.