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 #278 - week of 19th February 2018

Hanging my head in shame... Yes, I missed a week or so. I'm sorry. But are you still there?

Last week was St Valentine's Day and there wasn't much going on round here to be honest. But that doesn't mean to say that we aren't romantic. Just didn't quite happen on the 14th!

However, this week I'd like you to be inspired by romance.

Red hearts and roses, breakfast in bed, a hot bath run for you, a cup of tea in the morning, cards and love notes, just a cuddle in front on the TV. Romance will mean something different for each of us and I have no doubt that you all have a romance inspired layout just waiting to be made - about yourself, about a loved one, about a child, about someone you know. It might even be about your dog, fur baby or a cuddly toy. Romantic films and novels, music or stories might be the way you go but as long as there's some romance in there, you're good to go!

I've made so many romantic layouts over the years and now my DH doesn't want to figure online so I have to be a little more careful about what I share. But in recent months - and please allow me to be boring and repetitive here as many of you will be sick of hearing the details! - the most romantic thing that happened to me was being sent to Paris to celebrate my special birthday with my mum only to find my husband there waiting for me at the hotel when I arrived! So I had a romantic 24 hours with copious amounts of love and champagne in Paris with my soulmate - and my mum! It's a wonderful story and one I'll never forget. There are several layouts about the day either already made or in the process of being made. But here's just one I made for Simple Scrapper, about one particular aspect of the day (and that square of paper was later replaced but a favourite one of the two of us after I took the photo!)

Layout uses a sketch and a Story Starter from the Simple Scrapper membership

So... pick out those heart covered supplies and get all romantic this week. After all, love is a very wonderful thing indeed. 

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... :-)

Challenge #248 - week of 13th February 2017

It's St Valentine's Day this week, and as always I've been thinking about a prompt which is related but not typical. No bright red hearts round here as prompts! And I think I've come up with an interesting take on the day of lurve.

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

Traditionally, St Valentine's Day is about receiving a token of love and affection from a secret admirer. I remember getting a card at the age of 13 or so and convincing myself it was from my (not so secret) crush. I held onto that card as a symbol of my teenage affection (someone much older and totally unsuitable - he he) and spent hours scouring it for signs to prove me right. I found that card recently and immediately recognised my dad's handwriting!!! So many years of self-deception evaporated at that moment but it made me laugh out loud all the same. I am so happy that I will never have to be a teenager ever again! Maybe that's the story I need to tell this week.... Unfortunately, I now realise that I threw the card directly in the bin or I could have taken a photo of it to illustrate my story!

What secret will you tell this week? Or maybe you will incorporate some secret element to your page or how about some secret symbolism into the things you use on your page that only means something to you. You could write about secrets you had as a child, the secrets you share with your partner or your bestie, the secrets related to surprises or presents. You might have had a secret love sometime or found out that someone was secretly in love with you. This might be the time to capture that moment in your albums!

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#248 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#248 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #122 week of 10th February 2014

Trying to stay topical once again but not wanting to go the standard "day on the calendar" route as I did last week, I'd like you to be inspired by the colours of love in honour of Valentine's Day.

Of course, red or pink are usually associated with all those romantic gestures we may or may not be expecting or receiving at the end of the week, but I was looking for something softer.

Design Seeds is my favourite colour inspiration place on the web and so off I went and came up with the image below which I instantly fell in love with. Look! There's a softer version of Radiant Orchid (Pantone's colour of the year) and mixing in the pastel blue, green and peach makes this a very versatile colour combination.

Source: Design Seeds (here)

I hope that if you like to celebrate St Valentine's, that you get the moonlight and roses you're hoping for and if you don't celebrate, then you can find something in this pretty colour scheme that works for you without all the moonlight and roses!

If you create a project with my inspiration palette, we'd love it if you shared over at our Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#122.