#295 - be inspired by skylines

Of course when I created this prompt, I knew exactly which city skyline which was likely to feature on my page. And I'm sure it won't surprise you either.

It had to be New York from my most recently trip and it was wonderful to pick out two of my favourite views from this time around and bring them together on a page for the Simple Scrapper Creative Team. I used a sketch from the Simple Scrapper premium membership (find out more here) as well as a Story Starter from Simple Scrapper - Favourites.

I have a selection of supplies that I use for all my NYC layouts and I find myself adding bits and pieces to that kit as time goes on but the layouts all have a similar look to them which makes me happy - when I finally get around to filing away the hundreds of layouts I have sitting on my Kallax, that New York album will really have quite a few layouts in there. I've realised though that I need to get more organised with recording the stories I want to really capture rather than just doing random moments!

Anyway, here's my layout.

I got happy with the floral paper and spent half an hour or so fussy cutting a bunch of pretty florals and leaves to layer up. I love how all the elements look good together even though they are different collections.

Do you have a skyline to feature? It doesn't even have to be a city view - I have several ideas from my trips around Germany so I may revisit this prompt again when I have time and inspiration.

As always, I love it when you share too and if you've been inspired to create, don't forget that you can add your own creations to our Facebook group here. Please don't be shy! Tag your entry with #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken. 

Or simply tell us in the comments where to find you... :-)

#300 - be inspired by the power of three

Well, look at me! I made my layout as soon as I'd finished writing up the blog post which is definitely something that rarely happens. But it's a special prompt and that deserves some special treatment.

It helps that I'm also playing along for a few days in the LOAD mini: Out of this World challenge (the mini challenge is just a week) and so I was fired up and inspired to get going straight away.

The LOAD prompt was to include white space or use space as the theme of the page so of course, I managed to do both!

It seemed a perfect combination to make a page about our Whimsical Musings bestie Pam, my trip to New York to see her, a LOAD prompt and a WM prompt all on one page.

I used my New York kit of supplies which was inspired by Pam herself and which features some products bought there (the gold leaves and the gold and green paper that is matting the photos) and all in all, I think this ticks all the boxes I wanted it to.

Of course, those of you who've been around some time will remember that it was a little challenge that Pam and I gave ourselves that gave birth to Whimsical Musings and over the years, we attended many LOADs together. I feel like she really is my scrapbooking twin.

Even though I was unable to reduce the photos to three, there are plenty of other threes to discover.

Three journaling cards, three little paper heart embellies, three stars at the bottom, visual triangles, three gold leaves, three dots of gold elements and three stamped phrases. And even though you can't see the third person on the photo, I can just about spot a certain young man (on the bridge waving!) who I had the pleasure of getting to know while I was there, and the three of us had such a fun weekend together. So, threes all over the place!

I'd especially love it if you shared this week! 

Help us celebrate this major milestone with a layout of your own. 

Don't forget that you can add your own creations to our Facebook group here. 

Please don't be shy! Tag your entry with #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken. 

Or simply tell us in the comments where to find you... :-)

#292 - be inspired by ferris wheels

I made this layout a couple of weeks ago when I had the luck to spend time with my scrappy bestie and Whimsical Musings friend, Pam, on a visit to see her in NYC. It's such a thrill to actually sit at the same table and create alongside her. I'm always in awe of her process and how easy she makes it look! A really wonderful experience for me. I took a small set of supplies and picked up a few bits and pieces while I was there with her at Paper Source.

I have to say that I returned to a tried and trusted design that I think I use far too often - either a horizontal block or a vertical one, usually along one of the 1/3 lines - but with five photos that I wanted to use, it seemed the ideal choice!

It's rare that I don't use a kit these days but in effect, the fact that I had a small amount of limited supplies with me constituted a kit, didn't it! 

Anyway, another layout made and a prompt followed! I call that a result. I'm almost done with layouts from this super short trip to Vienna with my brother but there might be one or two more small stories to tell. Watch this space.

As always, I love it when you share too and if you're inspired to create this week, don't forget that you can add your own creations to our Facebook group here. Please don't be shy! Tag your entry with #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken. 

Or simply tell us in the comments where to find you... :-)

SaveSaveSaveSave

Challenge #295 - week of 9th July 2018

I've been on my travels. I love travelling and when I'm visiting somewhere I love and spending time with someone I love too, all the better, don't you think?

I had the luck and pleasure of getting to travel to New York to visit our beloved Whimsical Musings friend Pam and I enjoyed every single minute. Of course.

One of the things I love the most about New York is the fantastic skyline which I got to enjoy from the ground, from up high and from the water. All fantastic in their own way.

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

You could have your own big city photos that need scrapping or a story about visiting a city that you're itching to tell. How about contrasting big and small cities or a trip you took on the water where you had the chance to take a look at the city in a new way. You might have experiences high above the city or down on the ground. Maybe you even have some skyline paper that needs using - one of my favourites of all time is the Kelly Purkey for BasicGrey - love that! While this is a somewhat more limited prompt than some, I think there's room for interpretation here with travel season hitting a peak at this time of year!

I hope you can find somewhere to take this this week and that you'll share! You can do that in our Facebook group here. Tag your entry with #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken. 

Or simply tell us in the comments where to find you... :-)

Challenge #281 - week of 26th March 2018

I recently filled a pizza box up with a scrappy care package of goodies and sent it back across the ocean to our Whimsical Musings Bestie over there in NYC! I know that sounds a little strange but I knew that an injection of new goodies was exactly what she needed to keep her motivation going after a full month of scrapping together across the miles. I had seen some product that I knew would suit her perfectly and picked out a selection of papers, die cuts, washi, sequins, confetti and any other little bits and pieces that would go with the items I'd chosen from Crate Paper's Oasis and Shimelle's Starshine collections.

Now to cut a long story short, the items arrived as hoped and were very, very much appreciated which made me really happy. It seems that I'd picked out the right mix patterns, colours and elements. So why am I describing this long, convoluted story to you? Well, one of the papers was a particular hit...

And so... this week, I'd like you to be inspired by tags!

Think luggage tags, clothing tags, security tags, name tags. Travel products, stories or memories. Name tags that you sew into children's school uniforms or badges on scout/girl guide uniforms. Brown luggage tags or colourful ones such as this vellum paper. I think there are so many different tags or ways to use tags on your products that you are sure to find a way to be inspired this week!

If you're inspired to create this week, don't forget that you can add your own creations to our Facebook group here - we love it when you share so please don't be shy! Tag your entry with #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken. 

Or simply tell us in the comments where to find you... :-)

WM#265 - be inspired by bees

I've been thinking about this layout all week - mulling it over, thinking about how to tell my story, considering which photos to use.

Today I made it happen. Go me!

I was challenged by our wonderful Whimsical Musings bestie, Pam, to play along with Shimelle's 25 days of scrapbooking words so this layout also features "so much colour" - a colourful title. We are both on track with at least one layout each day since July 7th and are scrapping up a storm. It's simply glorious to be scrapping "with" her again after so long.

Along with the Shimelle challenge, I've been using up some much older Counterfeit Kit Challenge kits and today I killed my September 2016 kit, Sundance with this layout. That also feels good and that now means that I "only" have 5 kits left to finish off - yes, still too many.

Here's my layout for WM#265 - be inspired by bees.

Using my Counterfeit Kit Challenge September 2016 kit, Sundance, lo#10

I wanted to tie the story of our balcony to the observation of the increasing bee traffic which makes me happy and is something that's been increasingly on my mind over the last few years.

I created the design of the page before deciding on which photos to use on the centre panel. I then went to town with the journalling, printing it out to save space, and finally embellishments. It took my longer than it should have because I was faffing a bit but finishing off the kit brought this together more quickly than others in the last week.

Overall, I'm really happy with this and the story captured. Win, win.

I'd love to know if you've recorded something inspired by this - or in fact any other - prompt. Don't forget you can share in the following ways!

Use the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#XXX 
or post in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group with the tag WM#XXX

Challenge #204 - week of 14th March 2016

I've been sorting photos this evening, ready for some Design Team kit work. And I came across this photo...

which went on to feature on this layout.

This in turn reminded me of going there in person - both times I visited Pam.

And while I was there, Pam and I were talking about possible Whimsical Musings prompts and we realised that I hadn't yet featured that famous blue as a prompt.

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

To really overload this prompt with the world-famous blue - I'm sure they have it protected - here are just a few images.

I follow them on Facebook and back around Valentine's Day, they featured these images

And just this week, for International Women's Day, they posted this which seemed rather sweet.

And this advertising from last year's Valentine's Day was a paper crafter's dream with fluttering paper hearts and airplanes and whole scenes made from paper. Just beautiful. With that famous blue in every shot.

Now, you may or may not be as obsessed with Tiffany's as I am but there are several ways you could take this prompt. Yes, there's the shop itself! With the widespread blue that is found everywhere in one of the most famous shops of the world which you might want to feature. Or you might just love this particular shade of blue (or green as most men seem to see it). You could talk about a particular colour that you've given a specific name to (for example we have "Dad's teacup green" which my sister and I know exactly the green we mean!). You could talk about jewellery you wear with an associated colour - birthstone etc. And for those of you who are the proud owners of a piece of Tiffany magic, maybe the sight of that first blue bag given to you as a gift - it's always a gift, isn't it? - could be the feature of your page.

We'd love you to be inspired by 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#204 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 it up to the group with the tag WM#204 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #178 - week of Monday 20th July 2015

This morning, our sweet Whimsical Musings friend and inspiration, Pam, sent me some wonderful photos taken over the weekend at her family reunion. They made me smile because they were full of happy smiles and lots of fun and it reminded me that I tend to spend time with my people individually rather than in a whole group!

And that got me thinking that my UK family is now spread out all over the place - with me and my brother living outside the UK at the moment and other siblings no longer living in my home town. My mum definitely misses us all! I consider my reunions when all five siblings and partners and the children in the next generation come together in one place with my mum - obviously, for many of you it will be a wider mix of people including aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins etc. Living abroad, the likelihood of my German and British family coming together is now only for our "round" birthdays and I don't want the next one of those to happen too quickly, I can assure you!

This photo was the last time we were all together, celebrating a special birthday for my sister. I tried scrapping this photo once before and then took the layout apart as it didn't work for me - maybe this is the week to try it again.

Not the best photo in the world but wonderful happy memories for me!

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

You don't need me to tell you that there are many different ways to take this prompt!

As always, we love it when you share your creations over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery and don't forget to tag it WM#178.

You can find past prompts in the page tab at the top of the page incase you want to get inspired by one of the other 177 prompts you can find there!

#160 Inspired by a Fifth Avenue window display

This week, I asked you to be inspired by this beautiful window display that Pam brought to my attention while we were strolling along Fifth Avene!

I loved the rows of circular embroidery frames with all that beautiful bright colour blocked fabrics.

For my take, I decided to get my Cameo working and use one of the full 12x12 backgrounds I love so much but have yet to use! I have dozens and dozens of these files in my Silhouette library and love seeing them used online, but haven't got around to putting one to use myself. Seemed the ideal time to give it a go.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge March kit, Drift, layout #1

I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge March kit, Drift, and selected some bright, contrasting colours which reminded me of the original, even if they don't really match the original. But I wanted to leave quite a few of the circles empty to create a white-on-white effect. Filling the spaces with my bright papers, I wanted to get a random effect across the page - random is really hard to do when you are thinking about it, but I'm still pleased with the result.

Once I'd filled the background die-cut with my filler papers, I then looked around for a suitable photo and topic, realising that the bottle of champagne would be ideal for all these floating bubbles!

I kept the rest of the layout very simple, backing the photo with a few layered papers and using a cork Polaroid frame I'd cut out with my Big Shot.

A few sequins and a sprinkle of cork dots continue the bubble theme and tie the photo mat into the background design.

The empty circles provided ideal spots for a little journalling and then my layout was done.

It's not my usual style but I'm happy to have tried out something new and to have found a way to interpret the original inspiration photo in a way that means something to me.

What will you do with all those circles this week? Or have you taken the prompt in another direction?

Don't forget to share over at our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#160 or any of the previous week's prompts (see the full list under the Whimsical Musings Past Prompts page tag at the top of the blog)

Challenge #160 week of 2nd March 2015

Welcome back this week and welcome to March. Time is flying along and I'm trying to get back on track after a somewhat chaotic month full of travels, new work and plenty of scrapping through LOAD.

But anyway, you're not here to read about all my chaos, I'm hoping you are really here for a little dollop of inspiration.

Of course, I'm still flying high after my time in the big city with our friend Pam and today's prompt comes direct to you from Fifth Avenue!

It was a very cold day but we'd been strolling up and down the avenue a few times when we both mentioned how eye-catching and inspirational this shop window was...

... and how perfect it would be for a Whimsical Musings prompt. On the second passing, I decided it was time to snap a quick piccie to share with you sometime down the line. This is that time :-)

You can also consider this a Pam prompt as I probably wouldn't have actually captured the wonderful design if I hadn't been inspired by her vision all day! I'd seen it but she was the one who mentioned it and made us stop to take a look! She's fabulous like that. So attentive, so inspirational.

So, be inspired by the colours, the circles, the patterns within the rings, the fur-pieced jacket, the light and dark, or just being on Fifth Avenue!

I think there's plenty of scope for us all, and who knows, maybe I can lure Pam out to play sometime soon!

So, take a stroll with me along that famous street and let's get creative.

We love it when you share your creations with us over at theWhimsical Musings Flickr gallery along with the tag WM#160.

(PS. did anyone notice that we missed out prompt #156? I just realised that we jumped from #155 to #157 - my brain must have been asleep that day!)

#159 Inspired by what's making me happy

Thanks to Leslie for last week's challenge and for prompting me to make the following layout right away while I was thinking of it. I'm generally what I call a delayed scrapper! I have a lot of ideas but it takes me a long time to get those photos printed out and then the layout made. I think it's a bit like when I have new product and don't want to cut into it right away. Strange but true...

I made this layout last night as part of LOAD and using up the last pieces of the Scrapabilly February kit. I adore the colours of this collection and they are so sweet and pretty that they just felt right to use for a layout about my gorgeous gift that our WM friend and inspiration, Lynnette gave me when I met her.

I actually decided to make a few changes since I made it last night which entailed reprinting the photo and replacing it. But I realised that I'd been trying to fit in another challenge for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge on the layout but that the kit wasn't my Counterfeit one so it couldn't really count for that too! I get confused sometimes with all the prompts I'm trying to match at the same time. Anyway, I'm much happier with this page now that I've made changed out the title as well as adding a few extra die cuts from the Dear Lizzy Serendipity line.

So, after all that waffle, here's the layout for WM#159 - Inspired by what's making me happy.

You can find a couple more detail shots over in the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery

And just to continue, I love the fact that Leslie sneaked in that happy photo of Pam and me on my first night over in NYC - I've already scrapped that as part of LOAD as well, and let's face it, that makes me VERY happy so I'm going to add that here too. My whole trip made me happy but this first evening was very special as we found our groove again after our time apart.

You can find a couple more detail shots over in the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery

And one last one for now, this is the first page I made while I was staying with Pam. She had bought us both the same Studio Calico kits to work with and then we just sat down and got crafty. I couldn't resist this happy photo of her surrounded by her bits and pieces as she prepared to get immensely creative! It was such a thrill to have this chance to share scrapping time together.

You can find a couple more detail shots over in the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery

Yes, there's a lot to make me happy right now.

How about you? We'd love to see your creations for this prompt over at our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#159.

Challenge #151 week of 29th December 2014

Welcome to what is the last prompt of 2014 and the first of 2015. I'm looking ahead with positive feelings and hopefulness. I have big plans for the year.

Sprucing up our little corner of the web and actually trying to complete the prompts I create each week are definitely on the list of plans for 2015 and I hope so much that you will join me along the way. This community makes me happy, even if we've gone a bit quiet over the last months and I get much joy from seeing the creations that you share. So without much ado, let me just say....

Pinterest source here

I try to change up the challenges as much as I can and not to repeat anything directly so when I looked back at the last prompts of the year or the first of the new for 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 (can it be so many already?!?), I saw ideas such as goodbyes, goals, confetti or turning points. So I tried to think about what January can mean to many of us and came up with... possibilities.

This week, I'd love you to be inspired by the possibilities of your life or of your own corner of the world. This can come in many forms and it can be interpreted in many different ways. Words of advice to a child about the future to come, the different paths your life has taken or the roads you want to take. It could be the possibilities a new course of action might take or something you'd like to achieve. It could even mean the different ways to use up something in your scrap stash! Take it along any meandering path you like.

To help us along the way, I was particularly inspired by the following finds on Pinterest...

Pinterest source here

Pinterest source here

Pinterest source here

I do hope you will join us in this turn of the year prompt. And it would be wonderful to see your creations over at our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#151.

I am looking forward to the year to come and hope to be more present in our little community. I appreciate every one of you and promise to be more active and involved - helped by my very wonderful friends Leslie and Lynnette. Who knows? Pam might even make a come-back guest appearance one day!

Have a very wonderful New Year's Eve and to coin a rather quaint German expression, "Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!" (literally translated: a good slide into the new year!")

Challenge #147 week of 24th November 2014

This is a celebratory time of the year round here - lots of birthdays, anniversaries, celebrations and then Christmas! Last weekend, it was my turn to open up presents and our Whimsical friend, Pam, will take her turn next weekend!

So it only seems appropriate to find a way to bring that into this week's prompt.

I've set up a Pinterest board (here) which might help you to be inspired by gift wrap and gift wrapping.

Pinterest find here

Pinterest find here

Pinterest find here

There's a wealth of inspiration over there in Pinterest if you just use the search terms gift + wrap so I'm sure you can find something fun, colourful or pretty to bring party spirit to your layouts!

Don't forget to share your creations over at our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#147.