Challenge #322 - week of 11th March 2019

Hello hello!

A little late but still here. A lot of activity over in the #Calvinball2019 community - hosted by Scrap Happy this year after the closure of Get It Scrapped - means that several of you have completed one or two WM layouts - insert happy dance here! Go all of you!

I'm up to about 20 points which consists of a grand total of three layouts and that means I'm rather behind the others :-) WM friend Leslie for example is up to 247 at time of writing! Ha ha. But it's all good stuff and if you haven't checked it out yet, it's never too late to join in the fun! You can find out more info over at the Scrap Happy FB group here. Just jump right in - it's chaotic anyway so there's no way to not do it right!

But in the meantime, I'm back with some hope to get more scrapping done this week and a new prompt for this week.

I'd like you to be inspired by tassels.

Has this trend ever really gone away? I wonder. They seem to pop up from time to time and I love them. I mean, I really love them! If I get hold of a pack from a scrapbook manufacturer, I tend to use them up right away but I've also been noticing that they are appearing in other types of shop too.

Look at these luscious versions attached to the most gorgeous pouches in a local shop? I really need at least one if not all of these bags. Saving pennies!

Or maybe I should just treat myself to a single, luscious tassel to hang somewhere?

And I couldn't resist picking up these in a local home decor shop. I am totally using these for scrapping!

How about this colourful chipboard element on a page I made last year?

And last summer I picked up a pack of Crate Paper tassels that got put to use on pages immediately.

So, these are some ways you could use tassels on your pages:

• product - think paper, chipboard, die cut or real twine or thread tassels such as these I've showcased above. I know that the Simple Scrapper line Mama Llama (was that the name of the collection?) has a full patterned paper with banners covered with tassels - so much fun.
• make your own - you could definitely make your own and I've done that in the past too. I was surprised just how simple they were to make even if they were a bit fiddly. You can find my FOF post on my blog with mine here
• travel stories - I think that tassels are an integral decoration that you might find on your travels. Do you have a photo from a journey where you can see tassels or something you brought home with you that you could base a page around.
• clothes - many clothes have tassels on them so maybe you have a story about an item of clothing or a photo that features someone wearing something with tassels. How about combining clothes and travel with something like a belly dancer or traditional clothing from somewhere you've been. These are my favourite types of pages!
• home decor - think Paris, luxurious hotels, soft furnishings, ski chalets or bedouin tents! They probably all feature a tassel or two!

I think that gives you some ideas of how you could take it literally as an embellishment on your page or a direction to take a story. Where will you go this week?

Wherever you 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 #254 - week of 10th April 2017

Spring is in full bloom right now and the blossom trees are as pretty as ever. And it would appear that us scrappers are inspired by this time of year as my Pinterest feed is full of gorgeous, floral-filled layouts. Hand-made flowers, die-cut outlines of flowers backed with pretty paper, photos of blossom tree lined avenues. All so very pretty.

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

Go literal and feature flowers, blossom, spring or petals as the subject of your page or get creative in incorporating floral embellishments, fussy cut flowers or paper features. This is a wide prompt this week and there's so many directions to take. I'm particularly in love with using the Cameo to create an outline à la Paige Evans or even a stitched detail.

Here are just a few of the layouts or details I've made over the years featuring flowers or petals - it seems to be a real go-to for me.

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#254 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#254 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #246 - week of 30th January 2017

CHA 2017 is over and I have to admit that I'm not really aware of all the new stuff and I'm not sure I've got time to go through all the videos and blog posts online to catch up! Sure I know that all the popular designers had new releases, many of which will no doubt make it onto my wish list in the next weeks - Shimelle and Paige for example. But other than that, I'm keeping my eyes open for trends - colours, product or designs - to add to our Whimsical Musings inspiration in future weeks.

However, the new Globe Gallery by American Crafts caught my attention because I adore all types of globes and these home accessory models are especially gorgeous. They particularly remind me of Anthropology with all the gorgeous products you can get there. That was the first place I saw decorative globes like this when Pam and I visited Lynnette in Montclair.

Globe Gallery by American Crafts here on their blog

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

There are a lot of globe embellishments around these days in die cut packs, stickers or as a paper design that might inspire you on your page. Maybe there's an heirloom globe in your family or a new, modern one recently purchased for yourself or your children. You could think about travelling around the globe as the subject of your project or even how you like to dream about future travel plans. Or you might just want one of these pretty home accessory globes for yourself!

I've made at least two pages over the last few years about my love of globes:

This layout talks about my love of this glorious relief globe at one of my work locations some years ago. 

This layout, made as a Guest Designer on Shimelle.com last year, talks about my love of Atlas who carries the world on his shoulders. This particular statue was a highlight for me at the Amsterdam Royal Palace.

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#246 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#246 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #241 - week of 12th December 2016

I read recently that the 13th Wedding Anniversary symbol is lace. That's a difficult one to think about with regard to a present for a man but what about including it on your project?

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

Back when I started scrapbooking, lace, ribbon and fibres were so popular to use and my layouts were unbelievably lumpy bumpy. I need to go back over some to slim them down but I really loved to use them all. Then, these items seemed to go out of fashion and my ribbon collection has reduced to just a handful of lengths which I often forget to use.

But here's a few layouts from way back which I might use to remind me how to use it on my project this week.

This layout features paper lace trimming - remember when that was popular?

How about a lace border punch?

Keeping it simple with a lace bow - I still love this effect

Or you might have a piece of paper with a lace design

I hope you will fish out your lace supplies and give this neglected supply a chance this week.

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#241 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#241 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #187 week of 12th October 2015

I appear to be managing to post here every second week despite the very best of intentions. Sorry for that. I clearly need to consider my options for this blog as I'm not doing very well.

Anyway, back for another week and another prompt to hopefully inspire you to create and share.

I brought home a considerable amount of the Pink Paislee Memorandum with me last week *sigh*! I just love it and had to have it. I know that you know what I mean :-)

Here's the collection in case you haven't seen it.

Pink Paislee Memorandum here

But that's not the inspiration this week. Or not entirely.

As well as the pockets and washi elements, I also picked up the gorgeous gold and white photo frames.

Pink Paislee Memorandum here

I have a lot of photo frames in my stash and love using them in all sorts of ways although I don't think I use them often enough. So this week, let's be inspired by our photo frames.

Here are a few layouts I've made using frames to get us started.

It's always wonderful to see your creations so why not share what you make over in our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#187.

Challenge #185 week of 21st September 2015

I was looking through a very old album recently - the giant 12x12 set of pages I created for our Nova Scotia holiday back in 2006. The style is pretty dated and of course, I'd do it totally differently today but I love it all the same - there are beautiful photos, heartfelt journalling and so many memories locked in those pages.

It was interesting to see how I'd included some of the memorabilia of the holiday as design techniques and was reminded of this when I pinned this beautiful card below by Julia Stainton for MFT.

Looks to me like some things haven't gone out of style in all those years so this week, I'd like you to be inspired by shaker-box elements.

Here's that original home-made element! Basic but I was so proud of achieving this! Remember that I made this a long time ago!

While not strictly, shaker-boxes, these could also be interpreted as a shaker-style element. 

And I know that I have a little clear pocket element filled with shaker-bits and pieces on a layout but can I find it? Of course not! If I come across it, I'll add it in!

Anyway, if you are inspired to create this week, please don't forget to link up your project in our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#185. We'd love to see what you make!

Challenge #102 week of 9th September 2013

**Don't forget to join in on the 100th Prompt celebrations and link up your layouts based on either the first 99 prompts or one of the WM#100 prompts for a chance to win. We've had lots of great layouts appearing in the Flickr Gallery for our 100th prompt celebration and it would be wonderful to see more. So, check out the 6 WM#100 prompts to see if something appeals or even one of the previous 99 prompts. You have a chance to win one of the two prizes featured in this post (here) for each layout you upload. It keeps the party going so it would be wonderful for you to join in**

We've had a whole lot of prompts recently that have been more about the journalling, theme or direction of your layouts so today I thought we'd go down the product route.

Can I tell you a secret? I've got a new scrap crush. I can't believe I haven't come across her before but thanks to a link to her series over at "A Flair For Buttons" on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog, I was delighted to discover the very talented Ashli Oliver.

Have you seen her work? If you like layers, lots of embellishments and plenty of ink splats, then you might find her as appealing as I do.

But the blog series on using flairs is the direction I'd like to go. I want you to be inspired by using flairs/buttons/badges (whatever you like to call them) on your layouts this week.

I can't get enough of them personally and try to use them all the time, while at the same time, hoarding them as I love them so much. Ha ha - I know you understand. Let's see if I can find some examples of where I've used them recently (or not so recently):

You might want to go over to the "No More Floating Flair!" series to check out some very different ways to incorporate them into your project such as journalling, embellishment clusters using them in a border and many more. I especially adore her use of twine wrapped around the flairs (see the detail from her layout here) and used it recently on a smaller scale around enamel dots.

But I can't wait to use it in the same way as she has - around flairs. Maybe this is the week.

So, go create using flair and don't forget to share over at the Flickr Gallery with the tag WM#102. :-)

#89 Inspired by tone-on-tone

I got the idea for this layout early on in the week after revisiting the page with the paper waves from last week. I wanted a lot of orange on orange.

although my vision didn't become a reality, I do like the tones of orange on this page and all the small elements that add dimension to the orange. 

The black and white pictures (you know I can't resist a photobooth) made it an easy addition to the busy background which was my starting point. I added a little of the teal glitter tape to add another color to the layout. Orange and grey just seemed too sad for this happy page. 

 

the addition of that grey paper was a given once I chose a theme for this page. The graffiti-like messages on this gorgeous paper really reinforce my story - my hidden and visible journaling have the same feel. I love it when things like that fall into place.

I added some foam dots to a lot of the embellishments to create that separation of layers and the distressed edges also helped with this.

I hope you find a way to be inspired by this. I feel this is also a good way to use up stash of a certain color because you can add a lot of elements of that color into the layers. Can't wait to see what you all come up with.

xo,
Pamage

Challenge # 89 - Week of May 6th 2013

Whoa! Hey there. We are already in May. Crazy how fast this year is flying by... Happy National Scrapbooking day, y'all.

But you didn't come here to hear about my year. We are here for scrapbooking challenges with a whimsical twist. And because I know a lot of you are probably participating in LOAD or NSD challenges around the web I decided to keep the challenge simple so you can incorporate this into other projects you may be working on.

So - your challenge this week is to use tone on tone on your layouts. And I found some examples from my own arsenal to share with you and get you started on some ideas

* use tone-on-tone die cuts over paper strips of the same color family

* use tone-on-tone by stamping designs with same color ink as paper

* use tone-on-tone with lots of buttons over a painted strip on your paper - through in some tone-on-tone brads and embellishments for extra whimsy

*add tone-on-tone strips and scraps of the same cardstock over your background to create interest and texture without compromising white space

I hope this has given you a starting point for your layout. I can't wait to see what you come up with. Remember to add it to our gallery with the tag WM#89.

xo,

Pamage