Challenge #272 - week of 16th October 2017

It's been a bit of a whirlwind few weeks round here with at least one first for me!

We were invited to an Oktoberfest party a few weeks ago (yes, we've had a prompt for Oktoberfest before WM#188 so that's not our inspiration today - not directly at least) and then we had a themed dinner here at home - "A trip to Edinburgh".

I was reluctant at first to get into the spirit of these events as I thought it might be a bit silly for me, as an English girl, to get dressed up in traditional Bavarian dress - as you might know, it's typical for women to wear Dirndl in Bavaria. But then I came across some Lederhosen for women and decided to go for it. I've captured this on a couple of pages already.... Anyway, for our Scottish evening, I didn't really want to get a new outfit and then we discovered that Edinburgh's partner city is ... Munich! An idea was born and once again, my Lederhosen were worn for a quirky touch to the evening. My DH got himself a kilt and we completed the full switching of stereotypes - a German man wearing a Scottish skirt and a British woman wearing German trousers. There was much laughter and a lot of fun was had.

So, what's that got to do with us here at Whimsical Musings? Well, this week I'd like you to be inspired by national dress.

Maybe you've got a story to tell about where you come from, the pride in national dress that exists there or in your family. How about school projects where children have to dress up as different nationalities. The colours can be pretty inspiring too - that could be the place to start. Or a particular design feature - those Dirndl for example can be pretty gorgeous for sure with the embroidery, details, colours and fabrics. Perhaps there's a family story to tell about a particular item of national dress. I hope you find a way to get inspired this week.

You can add your photos to our Facebook group here and I'm still promising to try to keep up with the prompts but a week's gone by and I haven't managed my concert inspired layout from last week so let's see how that works out this week!

Challenge #240 - week of 5th December 2016

And suddenly December is upon us.

It's St Nicolaus in Germany tomorrow, 6th December, which is a chance for kids round here to get some pre-Christmas chocolate and goodies to keep them going until the big day. St Nicolaus fills boots left outside the door and in some parts of Europe, this is the main day of the season.

Taking the boot motif as inspiration, along with my passion for pretty footwear, I'd like you to be inspired by shoes.

I made a layout about a particular pair of much loved, and still longed for shoes I spied in the window of the Chanel shop in Singapore a few years ago. The layout itself needs a rework as I really don't like how it turned out and those shoes are still in my dreams so this might be the way I go this week.

Do you have a favourite pair of shoes to include on your project this week. Or maybe like me, a pair you'd like to own - no matter how unlikely that is. Maybe you have a passion for shoes or even the opposite. How about your baby's first pair of shoes or memories of the new school shoes at the start of the school year. This one is really a prompt to take in any direction you like.

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#240 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#240 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge # 51 - Week of August 6th, 2012

Hello! Welcome back to our little blog {who is almost celebrating it's one year anniversary}


the prompt for this week was born Sunday morning as I was in the car playing co-pilot, DJ and toll funds administrator. I looked down at my lap and noticed this message on the inside of my phone cover pictured below. Then I simultaneously noticed my nails, wallet and pants - and chuckled to myself. I kid you not, this photo was not staged in any way. I was wearing bright yellow pants, "Who the Shrek Are You" nail polish and had my purple wallet and pink Kate Spade phone cover out. Coincidence? Totally. Surprising? Not at all.


 


So you may have guessed it, your prompt this week is to be inspired by the phrase "Live Colorfully". In compiling my monthly collage of photos on my personal blog {here} I came to the realization that I lead quite a colorful life. The colors and patterns I use on my pages surround my everyday life. Polka dots, stripes and whimsical flower prints in all my happy colors cover everything I own. Clearly this prompt will not be hard for me. 


But if you are intimidated by color and your personal style or house decor is more muted beiges and classic whites, then I challenge you to consider these additional ways in which you can indeed live colorfully. Both prints below, as well as the slogan, belong to Kate Spade and her line. 

Live Colorfully

... and this one

Live Colorfully

I love all the ideas in the second print. So you don't have to limit yourself to just dressing or decorating with bright colors. The concept of "colorfully" is much bigger than that and I truly live to embody it. Let's take a little time this week to examine how we or those around us put this into practice.


I cannot wait to see what you all come up with this week while we celebrate our more colorful sides. And in the spirit of celebration, wear something colorful this week and share with us! Remember to tag this as WM#51 and check this space next Sunday for our interpretation.


xo,
Pamage

#40 Inspired by clothes

Confession: I love clothes... and shopping... and my closet... and dressing up.

My personal style is much like my scrapbook style - lots of bold colors and whimsy and mismatched patterns, so as soon as I read the challenge I knew I would turn up with layouts I loved.

I ended up completing two layouts about two different aspects of "clothes" which I wanted to document.

Sister Style

 this first layout was born to document my sister and I's unique style and the fact that every time we go out, we don't just put on clothes... we put together outfits! Even a trip to the supermarket requires accessories and picture-worthy ensembles.

 Luckily, right before I sat down to do this, I received a knock on the door - UPS with a package from Amy Tan full of goodies from her latest American Crafts line. The line so fits in with my style and so it was perfect for this. I personalized it by adding some doodling and ink to the embellishments.

The long skinny alphas were difficult to line up but I like the look of the same alphas in different colors.

another way I personalized the Amy Tan line was by coloring in some areas of the b-side of that paper with a pink marker. And one of my favorite things to use, is the strip at the bottom of papers, and the one from that green/stars paper was perfect for this page.

outfit deconstruction

 this is one of my favorite layouts in a while. I struggled with how I wanted to portray this story... until it came to me this morning with LOAD's Sketchy Sunday sketch. Then I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I searched for the perfect pictures to deconstruct my outfits and I couldn't find the right ones. I wanted to crop them to focus on each elements but they were mostly too small to notice the details. So I did something I seldom do - take photos for a prompt. Whenever I do, I end up loving those pages the most, so maybe I should give in more often.

I used some more of the Amy products, with the confetti tag and colorful paper for my circles. Also, because the subject was clothes I felt the fabric paper was perfect for this. 

And I also created pleats (something inspired by Lisa's use of washi tape seen on a recent layout) with fabric scraps. I loved adding these textures to this otherwise flat layout.

I hope you enjoyed this extended look into my layouts for this week. Each week I am glad I belong to this community that inspires me so much. I love sharing with you and learning from you. And each week Lisa pushes me to create something I wouldn't have otherwise had in my albums.

If you were as inspired as I was, please share with us. I know I'll love it. (The tag is WM#40).

I will be back tomorrow morning with a new challenge, and it's a funky one. ;)

xo,
Pamage

#40 inspired by clothes

Pam and I were exchanging sms earlier this evening and discovered we shared a strange phenomenon. When it's our time to set the challenge, we both think how easy this one will be and how many ideas we have for the prompt. But then when we sit down to create our layout, it seems really hard suddenly, and all those ideas have vanished and the blank page is staring back at us.

Well, maybe it's not so dramatic for Pam but she seemed to agree with me! :-)

This week was no different. I thought about it all week. I had all sorts of ideas. I could have gone in all sorts of different directions but with LOAD and everything, I just didn't get around to getting the right photos for my contrast of the casual versus business clothes layout which was my main idea. And my photos are in a mess right now as far as organisation is concerned so I didn't stand much chance of being able to find the exact photos I'd have needed for any of the other ideas I'd had.

But then I remembered a random photo I had printed out some time ago - I have no idea why I decided to print it but it worked for me today.

And then I realised that this photo is a really good example of another of the Lisa contradictions. (I could make a series of those!)

I love to wear jeans and t-shirts but given the chance to dress up for a special occasion, I'm there! I have a whole section of clothes in my wardrobe for such times - long, short, party, cocktail, you name it, I have an outfit suitable. And of course, matching shoes and handbags. And this from the girl who hates clothes shopping :-)

I used my May Counterfeit kit but added in a couple of items (hexagons, the chipboard and the brads) to keep it pretty. The paper did most of the work for me here. I think I'm going to need more of this MME paper. So gorgeous.

Pam has already shared a layout with us already but she'll be putting up a post here later on and a new challenge will be ready for you tomorrow.

Don't forget to share your creations with us over at Flickr with the tag WM#40. We love to see your interpretations of our prompts and each of you makes us very happy.

Challenge #40 week of 21st May 2012

Welcome again and another week begins.

I've been going through a lot of changes recently, most of which I've been sharing with you. And it got me thinking again this week.

And then this evening, I spent an inordinate amount of time ironing 17, YES 17 work shirts, 11 t-shirts and four pairs of trousers for my DH as he will be on a business trip for some days.

So these two things came together for me and made me decide on today's challenge.

Today is one of the last days I will be able to go to work in something casual like this:

Source here

Once I finish the last of my lessons outside my new job, it will be this type of business dress every day:

Source here

It's not that I don't enjoy wearing business suits. I'm actually kind of enjoying it but I have a strange attitude to clothes that I might need to document this week :-) Now I have a work wardrobe of two grey (one dark, one light) trouser suits, one skirt and jacket and about 15 blouses/shirts to mix and match. That's it. (well there are a couple more suits if I could just drop a few pounds!) I treat my work clothes like a uniform and I think that says a lot about me and might be related to the fact that I wore a school uniform (British you know *wink*) until I was 16! There's another potential topic in fact!

But the clothes you wear are such a sign of you, your environment and your situation that I'd like you to give it some thought this week.

Be inspired by your clothes - whatever that means for you ;-)

It would be great to see your interpretations of this prompt over at our Flickr group (here) with the tag WM#40.

Have a great week everyone!