Challenge #341 - week of 6th January 2020

Image from rawpixel.com

Happy New Year to you all and welcome to Whimsical Musings in 2020. 

Did anyone notice I was missing these last weeks? 

I'm guessing not at this busy time of year ;-)

Anyway, back here this Monday with a new prompt for you. I have another prompt that I actually started writing back in November but seems to have got lost in the hectic of the season, so I'll hold onto that for next week. 

But I like to mark the beginning of a new year with a prompt that doesn't directly refer to resolutions themselves but looks at the topic of a new year from a slightly different perspective. I had a look around on Pinterest which I still love so much and from time to time, forget to go there for inspiration. This time though, I came across such beautiful motivational quotes that I thought would be good for today that I went down a rabbit hole and came up with this beautiful image below.

Source here

This week, be inspired by intentions.

How could you take this prompt for your page?

• intentions for this new year or any period in the future
• intentions you had in the past and how successful they were
• are there any scrapbook products with the title of "intention"? I'm not sure but I know there was a Photo Play Paper collection called "No Pun Intended" so there could be!
• talk about the why behind intentions for the future, giving the back story rather than just the plan
• compare and contrast how your intentions have changed over the years
• do you have a story where you had the best intentions but it didn't quite work out as planned?
• perhaps you intended to say something but something totally different came out instead?!?
• make a list, a plan, a record of goals, targets or objectives

Just for interest, here are our previous new year prompts incase you'd like to go back and try a different perspective:

• WM#20 - turning points
• WM#71 - goodbye
• WM#116 - goals
• WM#151 - possibilities 
• WM#194 - countdowns
• WM#195 - things that have never been
• WM#244 - fresh starts
• WM#274 - when one door closes...
• WM#313 - plans

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 #WMXXX (with the number of the prompt instead of the XXX) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

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.

#79 Inspired by "Born to be ----"

Hey there!

I can (and want to) do a page like this for every member of my family... but since I've been so introspective lately, I decided to focus on myself. 

I searched pinterest for the right quote and came across the cutest print by Rachel {here}. That was my inspiration piece. I also tried a new technique I saw on 2peas - stamping with mists using a mask. It added the right flair of whimsy to my page and I adore it.

i wanted the focus to be on the words and I didn't want the page to feel overwhelmed, so I treated the photo to have a washed out faded look and printed the same photo twice. The second and smaller one then pulls your eye to the edge of the page, but the focal point stays on the quote. I love that.

I kept the embellishings really simple - just a few wood veneer accents. And presto!

What story did you tell this week? Did you dig deep or keep it light?

Can't wait to see.

xo,

Pamage

#77 inspired by a lovey dovey mood board

Pam delighted us with her mood board this week. I loved it - every bit of it and wanted to get to it all week but as always left it to the last minute and then struggled with the creativity of picking up the bits of inspiration.

But I battled through as best I could and have come up with a layout that I like, but don't love. I will have to see how I feel about it in daylight. I might need to rework it.

But I gave it as good as I could and lifted several of the elements of the board:

• I had a go at the artsy title, using different letter stickers as masks under a whole load of misting (which is not normally my way and I'm distressed at how warped the page is :-)  )
• the colours of the flowers in my little grouping of flowers
• the ombre heart is something I tried to create with my heart punches on a heart background. I've wanted to do something like this for ages, but it was definitely not as successful as the picture I had in my head! 
• sequins for the sparkle picture
• aqua tape to pick up that aqua green in the bottom photo as well as a butterfly as the items hanging on the wall looked like wings to me
• the hearts all punched out
• for the blackboard art, I used the white on black which is an idea I lifted from Lynette - she had used a paper polaroid as a base for a title so I changed it up to make it as a journalling block. (By the way, this is also my take on prompt #76 for instant photos as inspiration. I really wanted to get that prompt done but with my trip, didn't manage it so here it is.)

Tick, tick, tick. Maybe it was all a bit too much for me to try on one page - ha ha! Anyway, my layout is about love. Not just the moonlight and roses Valentine's day type (I make plenty of those as you know). LOL. No, this is another layout for the collection about my love for Chanel. Well, a girl can dream about owning shoes like this, can't she? Maybe I need an album just for this series!

But the mood board idea is most definitely something I will be coming back to. This was a lot of fun to see where the inspiration would take me.

Thanks Pam for making me get messy! I had a great time even if I was a bit disappointed by the results. Let's see how tomorrow feels.

Don't forget to share over at the Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#77.

#77 Inspired by a lovely-dovey mood board

Well, well.

This week I surprised myself.

First, I said how I wouldn't be making a valentine's day page since I am 100% single. Well, I had a date after all!

Second, I have been making pages and feeling 'eh' about them right after I finish. This one, even as it was coming together was making me giddy and the results make me want to hang it up in my room.

Here's a look at the mood board again...

and here's the resulting layout.

 not only did I lift the color scheme exactly (these are my favorite colors anyway) but I found ways to include many of the elements too.

 a blank tag with punched hearts to replicate the crayon art

 white embossed stamps painted over with mists to reveal the title in the fashion of the quote.

 a piece of black cardstock with some stamping with white ink and lots of doodling to hold my journaling and mimic the black board art. I also painted on a few prima flowers since the mood board had a pretty bouquet.

I also sprinkled some sequins since I didn't have glitter. The ombre heart didn't make it to the finished piece but I am so happy with everything else that I was ok leaving it out.

Did you play along this week? Do you have present/past valentine dates to document?

I hope you will share with us. Lisa will be by tomorrow with a new prompt.

xo,

Pamage

Challenge # 77 week of February 11th, 2013

Hello ladies.

This week's challenge was inspired by a free new class at two peas in a bucket: In the Mood to Scrap. It is a weekly series where several artists create a mood board for inspiration and then draw from that to create a layout. I have been super into the idea ... so I thought, why not give it a try myself?

In honor of Valentine's day this week, I decided to come up with a super lovey dovey board. But of course, you can make your layout about whatever you like. In fact, I probably won't be making it about a romantic subject since I am 100% single and don't really celebrate the holiday. But hearts and bright happy colors make me swoon so I love this time of year.

1. // 2. // 3. // 4. // 5. // 6. // 7. 

You can access each image by clicking the links above. I decided to go for a mix of happy colors, hand drawn typography, ombre hearts, glitter, lots of hearts and a touch of trendy blackboard elements... not to mention a few flowers for good measure. I don't know about you but that image just makes me want to scrap. So that is your challenge. Draw inspiration from that collage - from one element or a few or all. 

You may have noticed this week fell out of sequence in our weekly switch-off. But ever since I missed my week in January I have felt off. The truth is I dislike even numbers so I wanted to get back to the odd ones and begged Lisa to let me catch up. Next week we will be back to our regular schedule.

Enjoy and see you on the message boards.

xo,

Pamage

Challenge #44 week of 18th June 2012

As we approach the longest day of the year (for those of us in the northern hemisphere anyway!), does anyone else feel like the year is rushing by at a pace that's a bit scary?!? After 21st June, it's downhill to Christmas as far as daylight goes which is a bit freaky!

But the weather here in Germany is not really playing very fair right now and everyone is yearning for some real summer weather so maybe when/if that happens those days will feel a bit longer and slower. We can hope anyway.

Here we are again with prompt #44 which means that Pam and I have been creating these weekly challenges for almost a year! Wow. We started off completing a month of daily prompts in July and then just kept going. I love having this gentle nudge each week to get happy with paper and it's been so wonderful to see our group growing and joining in. That makes us really happy ;-)

But onto this week's challenge.

And once again, Pinterest made me slap my head and shout "Doh!" out loud as it suddenly became clear what this week's prompt should be about.

Pinterest source here

There's a little girl expected in my family towards the end of the year and this week, Pam created a layout or two about her own little girl experiences, not to mention some of the memories LOAD stirred up for me about my own little girl childhood. And there it was. The perfect idea for this week's challenge.

Be inspired by little girls!

It would be lovely to see where this prompt takes you, so be sure to link up to our Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#44

Challenge #35 - Week of April 16, 2012

here's something I believe in full-heartedly.

However, sometimes when are wrapped up in the hard moments of our lives it is hard to see how things will turn out... 

It is hard to see the good in every situation. 

But often, hindsight is 20/20. And as we learn to look back at past lessons learned and positive outcomes, we can gain confidence that our current problems will turn out ok. 

Your challenge this week, if you choose to accept it is to find the silver linings in your life, either current or past. To examine those storms to find out how things really turned out better than your expected.

I look forward to seeing and reading your stories. 

Remember to share on our flick'r group with the tage WM#35. Lisa and I will be posting our layout next weekend.

xo,

Pamage

Challenge #23 Week of 23 January, 2012

Hello all! We meet again. My intention for last week's challenge was to document my new room. I am working on re-decorating my space, which is part bedroom, part workspace. Of course, as the week went on, I realized I wouldn't finish in time for this challenge.

But after two weeks of working with these patterns and colors, I am ready to scrap with them too. It is not a stretch from my usual color scheme. I am thrilled at the prospect of all of you scrapping along with me [and possibly inspiring me in my interior design endeavors].

Here are some pins that served for my inspiration [here, here and here].

And for a sneak peak into my new and improved space...

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to be inspired by this combination of colors: Chartreuse, Citron, Coral and Pink with a hint of Teal as an accent color. I find it to be refreshing and reminiscent of Spring or Easter and also vintage in the patterns - which you can tie into Grandmas or childhood stories. It is playful, fresh and fun. I hope these ideas bring a story to mind. If not, what does this color scheme remind you of?

As always, I hope you play along [this time with an agenda of gathering additional inspiration for the finishing touches - hope you don't mind]. If you do play along, please share with us in our flick'r gallery and remember to tag it WM#23.

See you next Sunday! Have a great scrappin week ya'll.

xo,
Pamage

#22 Inspired by "new"

Sometimes I read a prompt and my mind decides instantly on a project/page. This happens to me 90% of the time. And sometimes I am even lucky enough to get that idea down on paper. Other times I am not so lucky. This prompt from Lisa instantly had me thinking about the makeover my room is getting this new year... I had a sketch, a color pallete and certain elements I wanted to highlight in the journaling.

Of course, as the week went on, I realized my makeover project was more of an undertaking than I originally anticipated so I had to change gears.

I settled on my new camera, which is also part of my 2012 and a story I wanted to tell. With no printed photos of said camera, no color ink and no time to run to the photo lab, I had to improvise. I snapped a few [bad] shots of my shiny new camera with my [also new] instax 7s. Although the pictures turned out crappy, I decided to embrace imperfection and go with the flow.

The layout was a close lift from [this] Amy Tangerine layout I loved. For the purpose of this blog I try to stick to original designs whenever I can, but this week I was just out of my mojo and needed a jump start.

I hope you were inspired by all things "new". From new languages to new things, new beginnings are all around us. I do wish we take more time to ponder about these and visit this lovely prompt over and over again.

The prompt will be up soon. Will you play along?

xo,
Pamage

#13 Inspired by Triadic Color Combinations

Eeee! I love me some color combinations. This challenge wasn't really a challenge at all, but more like a good excuse to have some fun.

I again made two layouts for this prompt and both were inspired by pins {I can't seem to get enough of pinterest}.


The first is an ode to Thanksgiving, and thought this pin was perfect for it.

It is about how Thankful I am to be a sponsor to these two special little kids. {I am a sponsor through Children International and Save the Children - in case you are interested}. I went with the basic colors for this one, going for the pink instead of the red. I think it makes the page happy and childlike.

For the next layout, I took a cue for this pin.

My friend April made the perfect subject for this quote because she is the quirkiest, weirdest, most individual girl I know. Plus, I have tons of personality shots like this and this allows me to combine pictures from different events and times that have been left over from other pages. For this page I went for the blue-green, yellow-orange, red-violet triad and used mostly the yellow for a happy feeling with accents of the other colors.

I hope you were inspired by the prompt. If you played along, please remember to add your creation to our flick'r group with the tag WM#13.

Curious about what Lisa has in store for us this week? Don't forget to stop by Monday.

xo,
Pamage

#4 Inspired by Pinterest, Color and Texture

For some reason these muted tones remind me Victorian Romance so I struggled with infusing my playful, whimsical and bold nature into the layouts, but I feel I succeeded in my, not one, but two attempts. That's right, I ended up loving the combo so much I made two layouts. And as an added bonus, I used up product that has been sitting in their respective color boxes for a while overlooked. Yay!

xo,

Pamage

#4 Inspired by Pinterest, colour & texture

Week #4 was inspired by this gorgeous photo I'd found on Pinterest. I immediately knew I wanted to use it one week for my challenge - the colours are just so gorgeous and I loved all the texture and items that could also be used for inspiration.

The challenge proved more difficult than I had anticipated as when I looked through my supplies, I realised that I had very few papers in these tones. I didn't want to go too obvious and just go for BG Ambrosia and was determined to find a few items from different collections. After a lot of rummaging, I did manage to come up with a dozen or so papers in grey and coral tones and figured that when I got to it, I'd manage to rustle up some bits for embellies. In the end I found papers from BG Ambrosia, Marrakech, Oliver and Curio, and Making Memories Paper Reverie Sienne. The embellishments ended up from just about all over my room including some vintage Bellaboo sewing thread, buttons, seam binding that I Glimmer Misted, pins and a flower brad that caught my eye.

Even though I usually shy away from sewing because of the time it takes, I decided to go for it this time around and was happy with the added texture and dimension it added.

Looking at the layout now, I think I will probably change out the journalling for a single strip across the page, but that can wait for now. I also struggle with journalling for these types of pages - what to write when the subject of the page is just a building with not all that much story around it?

Thanks for looking!
Lisa
x

Challenge #4 week of 22nd August 2011

Week #4 of the weekly Whimsical Musings challenge

I found this gorgeous photo on Pinterest and immediately knew I wanted to use it one week for my challenge - the colours are just so gorgeous and I loved all the texture and items that could also be used for inspiration.

Grey is a colour I am totally loving right now so this jumped right out at me and I love the combination of the grey with the coral. However, there’s more here than just the colour. There’s texture, haberdashery, ribbons, buttons, flowers. I can see all sorts of ways our inspiration might take us with this one.

The Pinterest link is here ( http://pinterest.com/pin/106063437/)

#1 Inspired by colour

Pam kicked off week #1 with this gorgeous colour scheme:

I immediately thought of Canda when I saw this wonderful nature-toned palette so Engineer Creek seemed to be a perfect fit with all those shades of sunshine yellow. I fell back on my favourite Cosmo Mr Campy (might have to get even more of this!) and created another little snippet of my Yukon story.

Thanks for looking!

Lisa

x

Challenge #1 Week of 08/01/11

I hope you are ready to embark on our weekly challenges. The challenge for this week is a color combo. It is a definite challenge because it is a combination not used too often, but I thought it was a good place to start and we have a week to ponder it. I hope you can find some inspiration in it.

The link from Design Blooms is here.

Anyway, you have till Sunday to post your creation. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.