Challenge #320 - week of 25th February 2019

As you know, I'm part of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge (find us on the blog here or join our online community over on FB here).

Master Forger Julene organised our February inspiration kit and challenges and the kit she selected was actually a full collection - Anthology by Kaisercraft - which featured a whole bunch of butterflies. You can find all the details of the kit I made on my blog here and you can see that I tracked down quite a few in my stash.

It would seem that butterflies never really go out of fashion and this is our inspiration this week.

Be inspired by butterflies.

My first thought for this prompt is to concentrate on butterflies in your stash but you might also like to take your project in the following directions:

• product - I'm sure you've also got a bunch of butterflies on your patterned paper, in die-cut packs, as wooden veneer, or even as single embellishments. Do you have any older stash from the days of Jenni Bowlin who featured butterflies on many of her gorgeous designs. Yes, those items you've been hoarding?!? This week might be the right time to honour them!
• punches - I've got three or four punches for butterflies and they can be easily punched and used in large numbers on pages. 
• stamps - I also have a treasured set of Martha Stewart stamps that feature about half a dozen beautiful designs. I've used them as stamps or even as tone on tone embossed images - in fact this technique was featured on a layout I made with my Counterfeit Kit back in September 2011 when I was asked to be GD. I've included that page below.
• story - maybe you have a butterfly story to include on your page this week. A visit to a butterfly park, the butterfly visited buddleia in your garden or just a love of these little creatures fluttering around in nature.
• metaphor - you might have a little free spirit in your family that you often compare to a butterfly. This might be the time to record a story about them.
• colour or design - you could think about taking the colour scheme from one of your favourites or consider the idea of the symmetry that those pretty wings offer.

So as you can see, there's more than one way to take this stash inspired prompt this week-

Whichever way you decide to go, I really hope you'll share. It would be great to see what you make.  You can connect with us in our Facebook group here. Tag your entry with #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

Challenge #319 - week of 18th February 2019

I don't know about you but I love love love looking through the photos on my phone when I have a few minutes to kill. Having those memories right there in your hand when you're in the mood is one of the best inventions ever! And of course, there are Apps that support that desire to look back in time while you're standing in queue at the supermarket. One of my favourites is "Timehop" which reminds you of photos you have in your photo stream or on social media in previous years.

Last week I had just such a reminder - one of my favourite ever photos of my beautiful niece from 6 years ago popped up and I realised that I had a brand new one of her that I could match up with it for a "Then & Now" shot. Now that makes me happy

So this week, I'd like you to be inspired by then and now.

How you could take the prompt this week:

• a then and now composite photo such as the one I've posted above using an App or make your own collage to use on your layout.
• just take two photos and bring them together in a then and now concept on your page - like we did before reminder and photo collage apps ;-) 
• take a now and then story and compete two times - technology or growth are typical topics for these types of pages.
• Compare your own story at a point in the past with that of a child of the same age today - it's the same principle but a different comparison point of view.
• make a photo or a story heavy page with your comparison.
• My Mind's Eye had a collection line called "Now & Then" which you might have in your stash - this could be the time to use it up (heading over to my own MME supplies to see!) and I noticed that there were several digital kits featured online when I entered the search criteria "then and now"
• how about combining old and new products to give the prompt a different twist. 

I hope you'll give this prompt a try and find ways to look at "then and now". It would be great to see what you make.  You can connect with us in our Facebook group here. Tag your entry with #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

Challenge #318 - week of 11th February 2019

It's Valentine's Day week and I'd love to find a way to inspire you with everything hearts and romance this week without actually using the name "Valentine's Day"! I know, I know, it's a bit strange but we haven't done it so far and I want to challenge myself!

Let's see what we can do....

You all know that I have a "thing" for stars and constellations and night skies and I was so delighted to find this totally gorgeous Valentine's Day card when I was in the UK last week...

I could almost feel my heart do a flip when I saw it with all the laser cutting, stars, hearts and sprinkles and even though it was ridiculously expensive, it had to come home with me.

So... this week, I'd like you to be inspired by "I love you to the moon and back"

This has become a much used phrase in recent years - although the original phrase we repeat to each other is "to infinity, beyond and back again" - and I've included it on several of my pages when I purchased the Kesi 'Art Moonlight collection which I love and wish I could track down some more! I think you can see how versatile this phrase or even supplies can be.

I used it here on a layout about a special and rather untraditional Christmas Eve dinner in Prague...

and here on a page about my one and only...

and here on a New Year's Eve page...

and here to express my ongoing love for the still much-missed Bowie.

This layout uses a sketch from the March 2019 collection and a Story Starter® from the archives as part of the premium  Simple Scrapper membership, where I am on the Creative Team.

And then there are these two moon photo layouts - both using the same photo if I'm not mistaken - ha ha! But they have totally different subjects and won't be placed near each other in albums so I'm totally ok with that!

I hope I've since added journalling to this one or one of those tags is a pull out story card!

The pull out journalling here tells how I am very affected by the full moon and get positively grumpy and irrational at that time - it seems to run in the family 

Ways you could take this prompt today:

• You could literally take the phrase and use it to refer to a loved one, a child, a friend, someone you miss or something you can't live without. This is where you could pull out all the romance lovey-dovey Valentine's Day related stuff - if that's where you want to go this week!
• You could have a space inspired story - this year marks 50 years since man walked on the moon so that might be something in your family history to record on your page
• Moon inspired products are very trendy right now so maybe you have some that could be cut into today.
• Your story could involve a very very very long journey in one form or another.
• Night skies, constellations, the Milky Way, solar or lunar eclipses, full moons and other Solar System stories and supplies would all be suitable for this week's prompt.

Maybe you don't love all things stars and moons as much as I do, but I hope you'll give this prompt a try. It would be great to see what you make.  You can connect with us in our Facebook group here. Tag your entry with #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

Challenge #317 - week of 4th February 2019

Ah! February already.

Last Saturday was Groundhog Day which got me thinking about this week's challenge so... yes, you guessed it...

I'd like you to be inspired by Groundhog Day.

Let's have a look at a few ways you might take this prompt:

• Groundhog Day is when Phil tells us if there's going to be 6 more weeks of winter weather - if he sees his shadow - or if spring is on its way - if it's cloudy and there's no shadow to be seen. So you could talk about your own weather predictions or feelings about winter and spring at this time of year. 
• Maybe you've even visited a Groundhog Day event - of course, one of the most famous of which is Punxsatawny Phil in Pennsylvania. This might be the time to write about that trip.
• You can find out more about this day over on Wikipedia and I was interested to find that it seems to have its weather lore origins in Germany where badgers would predict the end of winter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day
• And what about the famous movie? I'm sure you've seen it and also had that feeling of living the same day over and over and over again! This could be the way to take the challenge this week.
• Weather stash and products would also work for this prompt as well as any product featuring groundhogs, squirrels (they come from the rodent/squirrel family), badgers or any such creatures.
• Or maybe you just want to celebrate something that happens on that day! The choice is yours.

Last year, I spent Groundhog Day in this gorgeous French hotel as it happens to be the same day as my bestie's birthday - love the layout I made of this sweet French village on that day.

Do you have somewhere to go with this? I hope so. However you interpret Groundhog Day this week, we'd love to see! You can connect with us in our Facebook group here. Tag your entry with #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!