Challenge #252 - week of 20th March 2017

Well, I wanted to get a prompt out there that wasn't related to a specific day on the calendar but when it's International Day of Happiness, it's just a no-brainer, isn't it?

Therefore today, I'd like you to be inspired by International Day of Happiness.

Apparently, this day was created back in 2012 by the General Assembly of the United Nations and is said to have been inspired by the Kingdom of Bhutan who consider national happiness an important indicator in the "wealth" of the country. (Incidentally, there's a wonderful Ted Talk about the wonderful Kingdom of Bhutan which is sure to bring a smile to your face if you'd like to check it out here which discussed them being the first carbon neutral country in the world. Another reason to be happy.)

Happiness is good for us - we all know that - and as scrapbookers, I know that we often record the little, and big, things that make us happy.

And I know that we've had prompts around happy and happiness before, so how could we take this prompt in a different way today?

Well, you could talk about what you do to bring happiness into your home. Perhaps you are fan of the Danish concept of "Hygge" which is thought to be the reason that they have been the happiest people on earth the last few years (Norway has just knocked them off the top spot for this year!). The top five happiest countries in the world include 4 northern countries - Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland - so why not think about being inspired by these lands - cold on the outside but clearly warm on the inside! Perhaps you'd like to create your own happiness index as in Bhutan and record that on your project. Perhaps there's something in your life that brings you much happiness but it's something that others don't really understand - surely a snippet of you to bring to the page. Hopefully, you can find a jumping off point right here for your happy page!

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#252 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#252 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #251 - week of 13th March 2017

This week, so many places will be celebrating the infamous St Patrick's Day and it will feel like the whole world has turned green.

Being English, I don't celebrate myself but let's see if we can find some way of bringing this celebration into a Whimsical Musings prompt.

A couple of years ago, I asked you to be inspired by a green colour palette (#127 here) so I'm not going to go down the colour route - but feel free to head back to this prompt if it talks to you!

How about we go with one of the most Irish of all symbols, the shamrock?

Yes, this week I'd like you to be inspired by clover, aka the shamrock.

Said to represent the Holy Trinity (the Son, the Father and Holy Ghost) as well as hope, faith and love, it was used by St Patrick as a visual aid to teach the Pagans his message.

I don't have a connection with the three leaf clover personally, but here in Germany the four-leaf clover is used at New Year to represent luck so that is a way I might head. But you might want to take the literal route this week and create a project about your own St Patrick Day celebrations, the number 3 (or four if you go with my extension of the symbol) or fields full of clover.

You could talk about another day of special meaning to you with its own symbolism. You could remember a trip to Ireland or just an eponymous Irish Bar. How about those of you with Irish roots? So many directions to take this.

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#251 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#251 in the write up text so that we can find it.