Challenge #327 - week of 13th May 2019

A little late but not too late I hope.

I was out and about on Saturday in a city I've not been to before. And it was wet! Really wet. It rained so heavily that I can't say that Stuttgart showed itself in its best colours! But we'd already been around a rather lovely palace with a water feature or two, and dived in and out of the rain to take in a few sights in town before heading to the arena to see Elton John on his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" final world tour. By the time we drove back, I was relieved that it was dry again. When I got home, the first task I needed to do was water the plants on the balcony as one or two of them were looking rather droopy and sorry for themselves! And even though it's dry and sunny at the moment, there's a lot of talk of weather round here. People are aching for summer but it's been way too dry over the last 12 months or so and there's concern that there's not nearly enough ground water for the time of year, and farmers are worried.

That's a whole lot of the wet stuff and so this week, I'd like you to be inspired by water!

I think you could take this prompt in almost any direction you like but here's a few ideas if you are truly stuck:

• rainy days; shower-filled springtime; long, hot, dry summers with no rain at all; ice-covered plants, gardens or streets; snow days; sleet, snow or hail  - weather has all sorts water themes whether it's in its native form or frozen!
• your garden is often filled with water with ponds, bird baths, water features, paddling pools or even swimming pools not to mention the daily task of watering the garden when it's dry to keep your plants happy
• water is an important part of housework, personal cleanliness or cooking
• water often features in an impressive way on holidays be it tropical oceans, sparkling swimming pools or natural waterfalls
• our scrappy supplies can be found in shades of blue while photo realistic patterns feature beach views or sky views
• beads and sequins can represent raindrops or mists can be used to create splashes across your page.

Here are a few pages I've made related to water 

The white cliffs of Dover spotted across the English Channel from the ferry - an iconic view

A volcanic lake in the Philippines

A swimming pool themed layout featuring water photo-realistic paper 

A rainy day in London - this photo was gifted to me for this page and I love the rain drops and the misty view across the river

I think that these ideas could be some good jumping off points this week and I'm interested to see where you go!

Wherever that is, 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.

#31 Inspired by Spring

I was worried that this week I would experience the same creative block I seemed to be under last week. Even though I supply the prompts, sometimes I struggle finding the direction I want to go in and often I struggle to be inspired!

So it is extra-refreshing when it happens. And this week it happened. I started off easy on myself by finding a layout I loved and scrap-lifting it. I feel that picking up a starting off point like that allows me to focus on adding the little elements that make a page my own, while taking the guess work out of the design elements.

Since I knew all the elements I needed I just focused on finding papers and patterns that reminded me of spring. I also added some butterflies and buttons in those shades. Overall, this page helped me feel inspired to create more. So I did!

 For this page I used a color combination provided by Lain for the Scrap Happy inspiration for March. It was the perfect color combo for this Julie FFB crayon-watercolor resist technique {here}.

 I also wanted to show you the drawbacks of journaling right on top of your carefully painted background - you can mess it up! But luckily I am the type of girl that embraces imperfection. {see those almost invisible little strips of paper that allow me to re-write the words i fudged. yeah, I spelled girls as GILRS.)

And since my first two pages weren't really Spring related, I felt I had one more story left in me. This time I used a pretty simple sketch, provided by Lain for Scrap Happy. The simple sketch allowed me to use creative license on the items I use in filling up the designated spots.

 One of the new techniques I tried this week was this gesso+stencil+paint technique. I rather like how it turned out even with all it's imperfections.

I hope you had some time to be outdoors this week and enjoy the simple pleasures of spring. If you had some time to play, we would love to see what you came up with, just add the tag WM#31. Lisa will be back tomorrow with surely a fun challenge for the upcoming week. And just remember we will be at the discussion boards all week to help you along with finding inspiration. So we will see you there!

xo,
Pamage

#31 Inspired by Spring

Longer, warmer days with blue skies, chirping birds and an abundance of flowers are guaranteed to brighten up those winter blues so it was lovely for Pam to give us this prompt this week. 

I thought I was going to go deeper into the meaning of the prompt and had all sorts of ideas about rebirth or birth or new life (I have four siblings after all as well as two adorable nieces and a gorgeous nephew) but in the end I realised I just wanted to take some pretty pictures of my work on the balcony and go for something a bit more traditional.

Somehow, last year I missed spring altogether and our balcony never got the uplift it needed after one of the longest coldest winters ever, and it was very sad and drab all year long. I was determined to put in the effort this year and brighten up our outside living room.

Hard work and back ache was worth it and now we can be very German and spend the next months outside, relaxing and barbecuing!

Another great prompt Pam! I love my pretty layout and an excuse to use up half a dozen of my pretty photos :-)

As ever, I have several ideas from this prompt, stored for a rainy day. You never know, I might actually get around to making one or two of them :-)

Have a great Sunday everyone. The new prompt will be up tomorrow morning and I'll be back in a few days due to house guests!


Happy Spring!

Challenge #31 - Week of March 19th 2012

Well, in celebration of the upcoming Equinox {March 21st - read more about it here} and the wonderful little surprises that have been sprouting and blooming around here, I couldn't resist.

I have recently been inspired to take more pictures of nature and in doing so I have gained a new appreciation for it.

pictures I took around my neighborhood

Who could resist being inspired by this? Weather (get it?) Spring has arrived in your part of the world (and how I hope it has) or even if it is a few weeks away, I hope you will indulge me in celebrating this season.

Now, I have always been a Summer girl. And living in South Florida for a long time I never really noticed much of a change in the seasons. Living in a place with four seasons has given me a renewed appreciation for change, and re-birth and newness.

So choose to take Spring literally and pepper your layout with pretty blooms or choose to take it in a more metaphorical sense and talk about the abstract concept of Spring - your challenge this week is to be Inspired by Spring.


I so look forward to seeing how you interpret this and what Spring means in your life. I know Lisa will have a great take on this as her layouts often remind me of Spring. Happy Vernal Equinox to all.


If you are so inspired, I would love to see your creation in our ever-growing little gallery with the tag WM#31.

xo,
Pamage