Challenge #321 - week of 4th March 2019

Those of you who've followed here for some time will know that as far as celebrities go, my love of David Bowie goes a little beyond the "normal" from time to time. It's been three years and I'm still sad and I still miss him. In fact, I've realised that I've made so many layouts about my love for him and his music that he needs his own album! Yes, I'm that crazy.

Anyway, at the time of his death, I clearly remember telling people that I had three heroes in life - David Bowie, Karl Lagerfeld and the Queen. And you may or may not be aware of the fact that we lost the genius that is Kaiser Karl two weeks ago. And yes, that made me very sad. He was an incredible artist, an eccentric and someone I've been fascinated with almost all my life - since before he took over Chanel in 1983 in fact.

So, for this week, I thought about different ways of using our prompt to honour him in some way - a roundabout way perhaps. But then I thought that he is surely inspiration enough.

This week, I'd like you to be inspired by Karl Lagerfeld.

I was lucky enough to get to an exhibition of some of his work back in 2015 here in Bonn and was in heaven, creating this layout as a result.

I guess it's an inevitable part of getting older but it still hurts.

How could you take this prompt if you're not such a crazy fan as I am?

• Again, life heroes, fascinating famous people who you've followed in your life, celebrity crushes - all are fair game for this.
• He was known for only wearing black and white so maybe a B&W photo or a monochromatic layout could be perfect.
• He was a workaholic - I'm sure we all know stories about workaholics (both in a good and a negative way) that could feature on our pages.
• He lost a huge amount of weight some years ago so that he could fit into the slim fitting suits by designer Hedi Slimane - perhaps you have a weight or fitness story that fits into this category.
• He was eccentric - personalities, family members, outrageous actions could all fit into this idea.
• He designed incredible clothes for Chloe, his own label Karl Lagerfeld, Fendi and of course, Chanel all of which could drive your design this week through patterns, lines, colours or textures. 
• He sketched incessantly - include drawings on your layout, your own or maybe one of those school drawings that are sitting in your children's memorabilia box.
• He was infamous for his white ponytail which could inspire a hair story of your own - style or colour.

Wow, I think that's quite a list and I could have gone on and on.

I know that it's unlikely you are as much as a fan as I am and are probably sitting there wondering who this crazy woman is but I'm sure you can find some inspiration in my prompt this week if you take it as an open interpretation!

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 #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

Challenge #282 - week of 2nd April 2018

Spring appears to have sprung round here and we had a lovely Easter weekend full of balcony planting and pretty flowers. How about you? We are officially ready for spring and summer now and life on Balconia is calling.

Now on that note, this week I'd like you to be inspired by new life.

We've had one or two prompts over the years that are on a similar vein (WM#22 - new beginnings, WM#31 - spring, WM#64 babies, WM#165 - spring mood board), and I really think there are multiple angles to think about with regard to spring, Easter and the full restart that this time seems to bring.

These two layouts were made for the prompts listed above. These could both fit this week's prompt so think wider than the idea of the phrase itself.

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 #209 - week of 18th April 2019

I listen to a lot of podcasts and read a lot of associated articles. Recently, I've noticed that there's been quite a lot of talk about how we are all so busy. And not in a good way :-)

It got me thinking. I do a lot of busy talk myself and I see what they mean. When someone asks me how I am, I often reply "Busy!" How about you?

I found a whole load of articles online about busyness:

• Forbes
• Lifehack.org
• Onbeing.org
• Tinybuddha.com
• TheMuse.com
• Unreasonable.is
• BBC

So, this week I'm going a little retrospective and asking you to be inspired by being busy.

Take it in the way I talk about above or about modern trends of being. Maybe you are genuinely busy working on something that deserves a spot in your albums or what about a time when you were anything but busy? You could make a busy page with lots of product or colours or reflect on a time when you were younger and didn't even consider the concept of busy! Or you could compare and contrast now with the past - because life really IS more, wait for it, BUSY!

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#209 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#209 in the write up text so that we can find it.

#83 inspired by big cities

I promised to try and catch up with some of the prompts I've missed recently and LOAD combined with Counterfeit Kit Challenge is perfect for that.

I loved the prompt WM#83 - to be inspired by Big Cities. Right up my street (excuse the pun!)

We have lots of big city experiences even if we don't live in one any more. I could have made a dozen pages with all different aspects of our big city adventures but I chose to concentrate on our 48 hours in Singapore last December.

I knew I wanted to use my February Urban kit and the papers and colours were perfect for a little contrast between time in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of everything!

February Counterfeit Kit, Urban #7

And then I piled up a whole lot of product from my May Excursion kit to try out a new style that I've been seeing around recently. I was unsure what the layout would be until I realised how busy it had become and the few additions I added from my stash happened to be some travel based items. And then the simple, single photo of Singapore came to mind.

May Excursion kit #8

I'm so enjoying going back in time and finishing off some older prompts.

There is so much inspiration on our site that I hope you enjoy checking what challenges we've posted over the last (nearly) two years. Make sure you share your creations over at our Flickr gallery - we can't wait to see. :-)