WM#334 - be inspired by found nature treasures

I do scrap sometimes - honestly! Just not as often as I used to. But this last 10 days, I made a layout and feel quite the sense of achievement. But one layout in a whole month seems a little lame at the same time so I need to schedule some creative time just for me.

When I think back to my trip to Scotland, I have many happy memories. It was a really wonderful trip full of good food, lovely people, delicious whisky (I'm NOT a whisky drinker!), stunning landscape, comfy and cosy accommodation, and a great selection of photos which I want to use to record this special trip.

But the first one that caught my eye was the staged, flat-lay that I took of my found treasures for this exact prompt and I knew that this would be my first layout about my experience.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - September kit - Wanderlust - lo#5

I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge September kit, Wanderlust, and just picked out the bits and pieces I liked to offer a subtle background to my simple photo. This is a pretty standard design that I tend to use - block at the bottom, layers along the top edge and then clusters of embellies. I worry that all my layouts look the same - ha ha.

I picked out a few red items from my kit to just give the layout a little pop of something and the circles are repeated around a visual triangle.

Unfortunately I don't have a clip in silver which would have been a little better but I live with that.

The design gave me space to write a few lines of introductory text to my Scotland story. I'm interested to see how I progress with this.

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 #WMXXX (changing out the XXX with the challenge number you've completed) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken. 

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

#238 - be inspired by back to school

I'm inspired right now, and motivated too. A good combination to put some creative time to good use.

WM#238 - be inspired by back to school 

I knew that I had many stories to tell about school and it was just a matter of which one to pick for what happens to be the second school-themed page this month so far. The other will be shared later in the month.

My trusty Counterfeit Kit Challenge September kit, Wanderlust, is proving useful as it happens to have a good mix of greens and blues in there as well as a bunch of interesting embellishments that I've decided match my school journey concept. Travel and stars and little elements which can be extended to fulfil the idea of school and schedules and the passage of time.

CKC September kit Wanderlust, lo#2

As mentioned, I picked out all the greens and blues I could find in this kit which matches the colours of my old school uniform - it's a subtle technique but one that I notice each time I look at a school page. Do you like to use hidden symbolism too? It's a technique I use all the time.

I've mentioned before how few photos I have from my time at school, so I'm being very careful to use just one or two photos per story so that I can stretch out those I have. This was taken recently (2011) when I attended a school open day. But the memories of the cupboard back in the day are very fresh!

I made up this page while I was at my weekly crop, pulling it together without an idea of which photo or even story I wanted to tell. I like this approach as it doesn't feel restricting and allows me to just create in a way which I feel showcases all the products and embellishments I decide to use. When I come home and finish off the page, I often tweak the placement of the smaller pieces or rework the title. In this case, I had a completely different title in fact, lined up underneath the paper block but when I decided on a topic and a single portrait photo, this position didn't work and I decided to change out the whole thing - words and all. I prefer this much more.

And there you have it. Another snippet of my life ready to be filed away. 

Will you be inspired to tell a school themed story this week? I've offered some other ideas for directions to take this prompt in the original post here if you need some more options - check it out!

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... :-)

#278 - be inspired by romance

This layout came together by rummaging through my Counterfeit Kit Challenge August kit, Heatwave (l/o #3) and using up everything that spoke to me and matched that gorgeous Pinkfresh Studio background paper.

I started off by identifying that I wanted to use the gorgeous 6x4 "choose joy" card, and then I just piled everything else up along that one third line.

I knew I wanted to make a page about romantic gestures but was not exactly sure of what that would look like until I had finished the base of the page. In the end, I had to tweak some of the items to make a suitable place for the photo and I made sure to leave a little space at the bottom for my words.

Then I went off to find a story and photo. Yes, that's how it works sometimes! Or rather, quite often. It might not work for most of you, but I scrap at a crop quite often and I'm not organised enough to get photos and stories ready before I go. So I just create with a rough idea of where I might want to take the story.

Anyway, this is a page about romance of course, and how it's sometimes not reflected in moonlight and roses but might be found in a message scrawled on the bathroom mirror. So, WM#278- be inspired by romance it turned out to be.

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... :-)

#259 - be inspired by fussy cutting

Another make that happened a while ago but I just haven't made the time to share here on the WM blog.

And another layout that combines three separate challenges on one page. First up, I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit, (CKC August kit, Heatwave #4), then I used that for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge prompt to create a page with a mixed up title (find out more on the CKC blog here or my Recklinghausen Musings blog here). Finally, it includes lots of fussy cutting to complete the Whimsical Musings prompt WM#259 - fussy cutting.

I cut out the hexagon pattern from the My Mind's Eye paper, the clipboard elements from the Pink Paislee paper and also the "weekend" word from a Crate Paper sheet.

I love fussy cutting bits and pieces from my stash and finding new ways of using it so this combination makes me happy.

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... :-)

#137 - be inspired by favourite flavours & #259 - be inspired by fussy cutting

I made this layout some weeks ago but just haven't got around to sharing which is crazy but unfortunately true. I'm trying to catch up with a whole load of shares! I think I have ten or so so watch this space for more. And don't forget that there are more than 300 prompts for your inspiration so why not have a look through our "back catalogue" to see if something jumps out at you!

You can find the full list here on the blog on the "Whimsical Musings past prompts" page and I've just uploaded the list in three files over on our FB group. Go to the Whimsical Musings group here and then check out the pinned "announcements" - each prompt links through to the original post on the blog.

This layout was made during the Scrap Happy mini-LOAD818 and used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit from August, Heatwave (l/o #2) AND fulfils TWO WM prompts WM#137 - be inspired by favourite flavours and WM#259 - be inspired by fussy cutting. Phew. That's a whole lot of challenges right there in one page!

I couldn't believe that I hadn't actually made a fussy cutting layout specifically with Whimsical Musings in mind (even though I do fussy cutting all the time) and let's face it, strawberries are probably on the list of favourite flavours for the majority of people.

I kept it really simple by cutting out the large florals from a Crate Paper sheet and then just layered them up to frame the beautiful photos of my summer loving nieces! I included a small piece of red paper as a nod to the strawberries and kept the remaining embellies to a scatter of enamel dots and a few additional die cut leaves.

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... :-)

#167 - inspired by pineapples

This was a prompt long, long ago!

And I knew directly exactly what I was going to do for the page - I wanted to record the incredible pure pineapple Pina Coladas I get from the best barman in the world right here at home. I organised fresh pineapple and ordered the aforementioned Pinas. We even decorated them and took photos. And then the photos sat on my computer. I kept seeing them as a reminder to myself to get the page done but somehow it never happened.

So imagine my joy when I received the July Scrapabilly kit which features Beach Day by Carta Bella. All sorts of lovely with tropical themed items and yes, you guessed it, pineapples! There's even a cute matching pineapple washi tape which I decided that I had to have as an add on for the kit as well as the collection enamel dots.

Last summer, I'd even downloaded a batch of pineapples at the Silhouette store and knew that I wanted to use one of them somehow here on my page.

I brought all these ideas together for this page.

These two papers were perfect to back the pineapple elements - love how that turned out.

So happy to have finally made this layout that had been in my head for so long, and to finally be able to share it here with you.

Challenge #204 - inspired by Tiffany Blue

As promised, I'd like to share a layout I made on the last day of LOAD216 which has been a long time in the making.

I think my problem is often in the execution of my prompts - I often immediately have a story or an idea, even think about which of my kits to use that might have the ideal colours etc but then, I come to a standstill. I have to find photos. Or take photos. Or think about where the memorabilia is. Or make something that isn't for an assignment so that it can be shared.

All excuses but this really is often the case.

For the Tiffany Blue prompt - WM#204 - I had so many stories that it sort of inhibited me to actually pick out a photo and product and get going with it. In the end, I decided to just take a photo to match where it all began. And take it from there.

The result is this page.

A few things to note here. First up, this is the first page I've made just for me, not using a kit for a LONG time! Usually, when I scrap, I use my Scrapabilly kits or my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kits and am "limited" to using what's included in those kits. Sometimes, the stories I want to tell don't match the feel the papers or products have and I get hung up on not telling the story until I have those "right" colours or patterns. To be honest, this is one of those stories. But then I spotted the brand new Pinkfresh Studio papers that I'd just picked up at Scrapabilly and decided that I had to find a way to use them to tell this story. Just because I wanted to. They are new and pretty and were calling my name.

Then there was the photo itself. Not particularly stellar but made better by using a filter and a bokeh effect but which adjusted that Tiffany Blue to much more of a blue! I don't know if you have the same discussions with the men in your life, but mine swears this particular blue is more of a green and as you know, Tiffany certainly doesn't call it Tiffany Green! But he would definitely approve of the blue in the photo.

I matched up the photo with some of the simpler patterns found in this collection and then realised just how green that paper was in the background. Funny - I have a photo that's too blue and a paper that's too green but I really wanted to give a nod to the original tone of that infamous packaging.

The tissue paper confetti which I punched from the Scrapabilly wrapping came to the rescue and matched up with the box and pouch perfectly. I guess I could say that this fulfils with the current Whimsical Musings prompt WM#215 to use tissue paper too!

I had treated myself to several of the items in the collection including the puffy elements and this half-gold frame is so gorgeous that I just had to use it straight away. I kept the journalling in subtle gold so that it didn't distract too much from the design and the pretty photo.

That little heart embellishment was also a perfect match to the Tiffany Blue and the messy gold thread softened up the more linear feel to the papers I'd used.

I'm sure I have more to share so I'll see what I can find and post again soon.

Thanks for dropping by.

Challenge #213 - inspired by the selfie

Happy 1st June. I have scrappy plans this month due to the increased mojo I have after a month of LOAD! What about you?

Now back to the prompt: to be honest, I use a lot of selfies in my scrapping about myself - I'm usually the only one taking any photos of me - so this challenge wasn't so difficult for me.

And during LOAD516, I usually have the chance to make a few layouts that covered more than one prompt, challenge or commitment all at the same time and I'm pleased that I can share one or two of those here on the Whimsical Musings blog over the next few days.

First up is WM#213 - be inspired by the selfie.

At the beginning of April, I realised that I hadn't been taking and sharing many photos and that I was a little short of photos to use on my pages. I then decided that I would try to challenge myself to 30 days of selfies. I managed 25 out of 30 days and got very creative in interpreting the selfie on bad hair/face days!

This layout uses the Scrapabilly June kit which features Pink Paislee/Paige Evans Fancy Free collection. I knew that I wanted a whole spread of all the photos I'd taken for this self-imposed challenge but fitting 25 photos onto one layout meant that either the page would be completely filled up or I'd need to extend.

I decided to go for the 12x18 which I love so much which gave me space for some minimal embellishing and my Cameo cut title which seemed perfect.

There were several other pages featuring selfies during my LOAD516 month but let me just share these last two with you which both use my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kits.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge April 2016 kit, Bisou #2

Counterfeit Kit Challenge May 2016 kit, Sprinkle #7

I'll sort out some more pages to share soon. But I just wanted to prove that I really do make pages for my own challenges sometimes!

Don't forget that we love it when you share your own pages that have been inspired by a Whimsical Musings prompt. There's the Whimsical Musings Flickr group here or our own Whimsical Musings Facebook group here. Use the tag WM#XX so that we know which prompt inspired you!

#183 - inspired by teddy bears

I knew I wanted to do a layout about "My Rosie" when I put up the prompt some weeks ago and even moved her into my room and took some photos. But it took me some time to get around to putting my plan into action! 

So when the February Scrapabilly Kit des Monats (find out all about this and the other two kits over on my personal blog here along with the remaining four layouts I made using the kit) landed at my door, I just knew that the gorgeously pretty papers would be perfect to document my pretty cow!

The journalling says it all but in case you can't read it - we went on holiday to Austria and stayed in a beautiful, traditional alpine hotel which was friendly and welcoming and just like staying with friends. They had a sweet souvenir shop which I checked out and promptly fell in love with Rosie (I named her there and then!) but I didn't buy her, merely dropping huge hints to my husband that I loved her. Imagine my disappointment the next morning when I realised that she wasn't there in the shop any more :-( I was truly sad but there'd been a family in the shop at the same time and I assumed that they'd bought her. Of course, I should have known better! On the last day of our trip, Rosie was presented to me as a parting gift! He'd gone down to get her that very evening and she'd been hidden in his brother's room the whole week. 

Now that's what I call a happy ending!

For this layout, I got very creative and actually also met the prompt WM#84 - be inspired by the trend for ombré with my misting.

I had a spotty background cut by the cameo that I used as a mask and selected three different pinks and a reddish mist for the custom background. I don't get messy and wet very often on my pages these days - apart from a little splatting - and am really happy with the effect this gave it. And the paper didn't warp so much either which is a double win in my book.

You can get a better look at the missing here - I did add some gold splats on top too just for good measure! I added in the glitter washi tape to the kit to give it some extra bling. You can find the washi in the Scrapabilly shop here.

Don't forget to check in every day this week to see how Whimsical Musings is celebrating its 200th prompt. There's going to be WM friends sharing layouts and there's a chance to win some goodies too.

As always, if you are inspired by one of our prompts to create, then please share over at our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery here with the relevant tag WM#XX. We love to see what you make!

#75 inspired by decorated bags

LOAD is in full swing and I don't know about you, but I'm missing our Pam over there :-(

But it does mean that I got my layout for today finished early and in a more relaxed way than usual.

I wanted to use my new Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit, Urban, and the original kit had a small chevron printed bag which I loved. I didn't have anything like it but wanted something similar so this challenge gave me the push to have a go.

I used some coloured vellum and then happened upon a small chevron stamp in a Christmas set which seemed ideal to use on the bag. Rather than going for a colour, I thought the white embossing would stand out against the softer shade of the vellum. I was right - I love how it turned out.

I stamped and embossed three more little chevron designs across the page and adore the white on white effect it created.

I love creating my own little bags and envelopes and this was just the nudge I needed to do it again. I'm often too lazy to take the time. I decorated it up a little with a doily and a few little items from the kit and called it finished. I filled it with my journalling - a perfect mix of visible but private.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge February kit, Urban #1

It may not have turned out as elaborate as the original and I might come back to it again to have another go at the layering that Christine Middlecamp achieved on her bags, but I'm still happy with the result.

I'm sure you've got bags or envelopes in bottom of your stash so why not drag them out and make them have pride of place on your project!

Don't forget to share over at out Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#75 and tune in tomorrow to see what Pam has in store for us ;-)

#57 inspired by song lyrics

Trust Pam to get our brains working this week - in a good way!

This week's prompt to be inspired to use song lyrics as part of our layout made me think all week. I had so many songs going through my head that were all possible ways to go and I had several layouts in my mind to create. I even knew the song and photo to use.

Then I sat down at my table today and I just knew which layout I had to make.

The song was the same but the subject and photo totally different. And while the design felt a little rushed and isn't perfect, I still love this layout about a very special friend of mine :-)

A perfect song telling her that I will always be there for her if she needs me.

This is one of my favourite songs of all time - mostly the Carole King version, although the James Taylor original certainly also gives me goosebumps! In fact, Tapestry is one of my favourites too and there are half a dozen songs on there which could have worked for this prompt. And the words to this song are just so classic. The perfect friendship song in fact.

Pam, thanks for giving me this opportunity this week to return my thanks to you for the friendship we have.

Which song spoke to you this week? Hope you share with us over at Flickr with the tag WM#57.

Have a great week everyone!

#53 inspired by grids

Happy end of the week everyone!

I'm keeping this really short and sweet today. I'm being a bad scrapper and a bad blogger right now but there just doesn't seem any time to do anything. :-(

Pam asked us to look at grids for our creations and she knows just how much I love them so this was great for me.

I turn to grids when I have a lot of photos to use and if I want to keep things simple and easy. They are so effective whether you make them symmetrical and structured or more fluid and abstract.

I've been doing the 12 on 12 project since way back in 2007 and I love to look back over those layouts to see how my months have changed. But I'm pretty way behind on creating the layouts even if I have all the photos taken. So this was the ideal opportunity for me to get one done. I'm a bit all over the place with them and will have to collate them all together to see which months are missing or I'll end up doing what I did recently and making two for the same month! he he!

But I went with this month's 12th to keep it simple and turned to my CKC June kit, Subtlety to make things even easier.

I actually love how this has turned out. Now if I could just get around to filling the gaps in this album.... ;-)