Challenge #170 week of 18th May 2015

After a busy couple of weeks, I've been wondering where my self control has gone.

Self control for time management, for diet, for exercise, for housework - you know, the little things in life!

Which made me think of one rather big problem I have right now... that Cadbury's chocolate sitting in the fridge, mocking me every time I open the door. Alice isn't the only one to be tempted by the lure of "Eat me!".

Then there's the ongoing discussion with sweet Lynnette regarding the state of the international chocolate industry - she's on the US M&Ms side of the sweet stuff whereas I'm pure Cadbury's all the way. Which one is better? Both of us consider that WE have the best of course!

And last week, Counterfeit Kit Challenge fellow Master Forger, Stephanie, was all over the Belgian chocolates in Brussels, Gent and Bruges! Now, there's a reason to visit Brussels, if ever I needed one!

Which brings me to the point... this week, I'd like you to be inspired by chocolate.

Love it or hate it? Cant go through a day without it, or is it your Kryptonite? Do you have a children's story about it or maybe you just want to record a few favourites. Be inspired by the brand colours or the wrapper design. I still refer to a particularly gorgeous silk dress of mine as the Cadbury dress because it's the same royal purple. Perhaps you'd like to compare chocolate of today with that of yesteryear. A day out at a chocolate museum or other sweet location. So much chocolate, so little time!

Here are a few layouts I tracked down about chocolate of one sort or another.

This one is about when Ted and I tested out the child flavoured Lindt chocolate. I came across it yesterday when I was sorting layouts which made me think of it today. Not my best work - not sure if it'll make it into the album or if it'll be relegated to cold storage - but it's a fun memory nonetheless.

This is, of course, about my one and only chocolate love, Cadbury. Mmmmm. And with some of that difficult to use purple product!

And then there's this Easter's Percy Pig easter egg. The chocolate was awful - bleh - but the whole process was such a lot of fun.

I hope you'll share your chocolate creations with us over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#170.

Challenge #169 week of 4th May 2015

Well, (Inter)National Scrapbook Day has come and gone. What did you get up to? Was there much scrapping or creativity in your neck of the woods or were you caught up with regular weekend activities like me? To be fair, I managed to make two layouts yesterday which made up for it a bit but I never seem to really have the time to take the whole day just for scrappy fun. Maybe next year.

Anyway, today's challenge comes courtesy of Starbucks.

I was there a few weeks ago and spotted these pretty shelves full of lovely, spring inspired cups. I especially love the mix of colours but also, those diagonal lines and the hint of ombre. The stronger green is surprising but works so well against the pinks and yellows.

I even rearranged the cups for the second photo to highlight the pretty pink inside the diagonally designed ones.

So, it doesn't matter if you tell me a story about your love of Starbucks, your excessive collection of cups (oh, is that just me?) or your love of spring colours. Whether you use one or all of these colours of if you go for ombre, diagonal geometrics or colour blocks. Take the inspiration how you like and have fun creating this week.

Some of us are participating in LOAD515 which is a Scrap Happy member only one this time around, so I'm sure to be going over some previous prompts here at Whimsical Musings (find previous prompts up at the top of the page) to keep those creative juices flowing.

Don't forget to share your layouts and projects over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#169.

Challenge #168 week of 27th April 2015

Every now and again, I like to look at the calendar to see what days are being celebrated either where I am, or in fact, anywhere else around the world.

And ... apparently on Friday 30th April, it's National Honesty Day in the US.

According to what I found online, "on this day, anyone participating may ask any question they choose and the opposing person should give a truthful and straightforward answer." Simple, huh?

So, this week, let's be inspired by honesty.

How could you interpret this prompt?

You could take the definition of Honesty Day above and ask someone some questions and note down their answers on your page. 

You could think about the things you know to be true such as my layout below that was created as part of LOADs some years ago.

Maybe it's time to tackle one of those more "difficult" topics, being honest with yourself for example. And for this, there are many ways of keeping those thoughts private such as under vellum or in a pocket.

Or would you like to give your child or someone you know some specific advice or your honest point of view on a "tough" topic.

You could make a "truth" list like my 100 little things I love about my husband

Or how about dealing with a topic that was a little sensitive in the past but has turned into a bit of an in-joke over the years. Again, no need to have all those words out on view if you don't want them to be.

Where will National Honesty Day take you this week?

We love it when you share, so don't forget to link up at our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#168

#164 inspired by feathers

I'd started this layout some time ago when I was coming to the end of a kit but then left it to sit around incomplete. Something I don't normally do.

I'd had a bunch of die-cut feathers and just wanted to bunch them all up to form a messy banner. These types of banners are proving a bit of an addiction right now and I love making them as full and interesting as possible and including lots of loopy twine and thread as well as anything else that takes my fancy.

So I tracked down the layout which already had the matted papers and the banner and just finished it off.

The title came to me while I was driving and listening to a podcast (no idea which one any more) and that's what drove the photo selection and the journalling.

To comply the layout, all I needed was a photo, a tag for my journalling which is hidden, some splatted mists and a scatter of sequins.

I pride myself on not having any PhDs (Projects Half Done) and knowing that this layout was hanging around was niggling me! So happy to have completed it.

Were you inspired by feathers or in fact, any of the previous Whimsical Musings prompts (full list can be found in the page tab at the top)? Don't forget to link up your creations over at our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#164 or (whichever number challenge you have taken). We love to see your creations.

Challenge #167 week of 20th April 2015

This week, I'm getting all trendy on you. 

Inspired by a recent topic on the Paperclipping Roundtable - episode 243 - (catch the episode here if you haven't already) and then noticing the trend online in the last few weeks, I think we need to talk pineapples!

Yes, you read that correctly! This week, I want you to be inspired by pineapples.

Now, I'm not saying that this is something that I necessarily want to include on many of my layouts as a motif - although I can actually think of several Philippine layouts that could have a pineapple on them without looking out of place! - but I've seen many projects around that have a certain *something* about them. Fun, quirky, summery and über-trendy. And if they're talking fruit on PRT, then there must be something about it!

And then when I saw this layout on Pinterest this morning, I knew that Pineapples had to be the challenge for us this week!

Sherri Funk for Pink Paislee

This layout is so much fun on so many levels and that huge stitched pineapple right there in the middle is right up my street! Maybe this could be something I could try lifting and combining with one of those Philippine stories although I'm not sure I have a single fruity pic from my time there!

I've pinned a few pineapple themed items - stamps, dies, layouts, cards, prints - onto the Whimsical Musings Pinterest board if you need a little more inspiration and I'm now on a mission to track down another layout I saw last week before listening to PRT that had me scratching my head as to, "Why?" Now I know why!

Free printable available on the Oh So Lovely blog

As always, we love to see your creations based on our prompts. So link up over at our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery and don't forget to tag it WM#167. Hope to see your sweet creations over there this week!

Challenge #166 week of Monday 13th April 2015

I'm excited. Someone I know is going to be heading over the ocean next month to come to Europe and have a look around. That in itself is a cool adventure. But on their itinerary is the incredible city of Paris!

You all know how much I love Paris. It's just so beautiful, so romantic, so French. I'm not saying that it's the most beautiful place I've ever visited (it's close) but to quote Audrey Hepburn, "Paris is always a good idea."

I'm excited for my friend and a little bit envious too. I would love to be going to Paris for the first time. To see all of that beauty and Parisian flair through new eyes. To see that the reality very much matches the imagination.

So today, I'd like you to be inspired by Paris. 

Is it on your list of dream locations? Maybe you'll be inspired by the architecture? Have you always wanted to learn French? What about a film set there that's in your top ten? This week might be the week to create a page about a trip you made there XXX years ago! Or is standing on the top of the Eiffel Tower looking out across the city on your bucket list? Show us how Paris is inspiring you this week.

I've made a lot of layouts about Paris over the years and it's interesting to see how my style has changed so much since most of them! But here are just a few of the different aspects of this incredible city I've captured.

In fact, I just recently made a layout about my last trip to Paris, back in November 2009 but unfortunately, i can't share that yet because it's for a magazine but maybe this is my time to get out all those other photos and get them into pocket pages for example. I will continue to ponder my own direction with this prompt. 

Be sure to share your creations with us over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#166.

Challenge #165 week of 6th April 2015

Hope you all had a lovely Easter.

Can you believe it's already April? One quarter of the year is already over and no doubt the rest of the year will also fly by. But spring is definitely in the air round here so I wanted to give you some inspiration along those lines.

I came across this wonderful mood board on Pinterest created by Little a designs (blog / flickr board). and thought it would match that criteria nicely.

Little a Designs / Find this board on Flickr here

There is so much in this photo to inspire you and drive your creations - from the different textures of threads, ribbons, yarn and buttons through the different colours, the stitching, the shapes, the colouring pens! Take your pick.

But make sure that you share your spring inspired creations over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#165 so that we can come over and ooo and ahhh all over it! :-)

Challenge #164 - week of Monday 30th March 2015

It's the week coming up to Easter and we are lucky enough here across Europe to have a wonderfully relaxing 4 day weekend awaiting us! Yes, I know we are lucky :-)

So, I was thinking about how to incorporate Easter into the prompt this week without it being all about Easter itself and went to look at my list of possible inspiration ideas. I saw that I'd noted down feathers which is certainly an embellishment trend right now - and has been for some time - and also ties in there with Easter chicks quite nicely I think.

I've pinned a whole lot of gorgeous feather inspiration on our Whimsical Musings Pinterest board if you need some more ideas and here are a few internet finds to kick us off.

I love how the hand-made feathers have been used to frame the central photo. I'd like to try this idea and aren't the colours just gorgeous?

Cari Locken at Scrapbook.com

Who doesn't love gold dipped feathers? Or is it just me?

Pinterest source here

And here's a way to make your own out of washi tape which I thought looked quite interesting. On our Pinterest board, there are a few freebie printable and cut files too. And I know that the Silhouette store has loads of different feathers as I've bought most of them!

Pinterest source here

I also know that I've made several layouts featuring either hand or Silhouette cut feathers but this was the only one I found! And I know that I have a layout in a less than complete stage somewhere with a feather banner which might be perfect to sort out and finish for this prompt.

So whether you take this challenge literally and incorporate feathers directly on your layout, or maybe give your layout a bird theme of some sort or even go the Easter route, I hope you'll have fun with these wonderfully inspirational, pretty, natural items.

Again, don't forget to check out our Whimsical Musings Pinterest board and share your creation over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#164.

#162 - inspired by being pampered

For challenge WM#162, Lynnette asked us to be inspired by being pampered which was in turn prompted by hosting a spa party for her gorgeous 8 year old daughter and for pampering herself with a manicure. Sounds great, doesn't it? I think I need one of those parties for myself.

I thought about it for a few days and then realised that just being in my own room, pottering about at my scrap table, surrounded by all my gorgeous scrap stash and happy memories, while listening to music or podcasts relaxes me so much that it could be considered spa time! I used the Scrapabilly April kit featuring the Happy Day collection by Pebbles for a simple, feel-good layout.

I messed up the journalling a little and think the title might need a tiny bit more of a sub-title so those details might be tidied up but I wanted to post it while I had the photos at hand. If/when I change the layout, I'll just change out the photos here.

I've scrapped about my room and space before but this little aspect of my time standing there, creating has maybe not been so explicitly stated. That's what I love about the challenges here at Whimsical Musings. They get you thinking in all sorts of different directions and help fill in those little snippets of my life. Thanks Lynnette for a great challenge :-)

We love to see how you interpret these prompts and there are already a couple of pampering layouts in our Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery so why not join us and share what you make with the tag WM#162.

#163 - inspired by a Citrus Twist scrapbook sketch

It was great to have this sketch to work with on Thursday when I needed to produce three layouts in one evening. The sketch gave me a structure as well as a starting point, and actually stretched me to get a little messier than usual.

Here's the Citrus Twist sketch I gave you on Monday

And here's what I did with it.

I followed the sketch pretty closely with the circular element and the paper behind the photo strip. I misted through a stencil instead of the mesh and splatted some mist across the page too before adding some stars and a few enamel dots.

My circle is very messy using first a pen to make the base and then using the mist sprayer a bit like a paint brush to wipe the gold and green Heidi Swapp mist over the top. It's certainly not perfect and could be a little bigger in relation to the photos but I like the effect. You never know, I might actually have a second try with the sketch.

I used the Scrapabilly April kit featuring Pebbles Happy Day collection and embellishments, adding in a little mist and some small Mini Market letters.

I see a few layouts in the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery already for this prompt which makes me very happy so why not join in the fun over there and share your creation using this sketch? Don't forget to tag your layout WM#163 so that we can find it!