Challenge #281 - week of 26th March 2018

I recently filled a pizza box up with a scrappy care package of goodies and sent it back across the ocean to our Whimsical Musings Bestie over there in NYC! I know that sounds a little strange but I knew that an injection of new goodies was exactly what she needed to keep her motivation going after a full month of scrapping together across the miles. I had seen some product that I knew would suit her perfectly and picked out a selection of papers, die cuts, washi, sequins, confetti and any other little bits and pieces that would go with the items I'd chosen from Crate Paper's Oasis and Shimelle's Starshine collections.

Now to cut a long story short, the items arrived as hoped and were very, very much appreciated which made me really happy. It seems that I'd picked out the right mix patterns, colours and elements. So why am I describing this long, convoluted story to you? Well, one of the papers was a particular hit...

And so... this week, I'd like you to be inspired by tags!

Think luggage tags, clothing tags, security tags, name tags. Travel products, stories or memories. Name tags that you sew into children's school uniforms or badges on scout/girl guide uniforms. Brown luggage tags or colourful ones such as this vellum paper. I think there are so many different tags or ways to use tags on your products that you are sure to find a way to be inspired this week!

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 #280 - week of 19th March 2018

I'm always thinking about my little corner of the web. And my scrapbooking. And the commitments I have on teams or blogs. And how hectic I feel all the time. This is something I'm working on this year - linked to my OLW of mindful.

What I think it all comes down to is priorities. And this is where I'm taking the prompt this week.

Be inspired by priorities.

Is that scrapbooking? Joining in on challenges like this? Just creating where and when you want rather than feeling any sort of obligation. Perhaps you'd just like to record some thoughts of your own about the priorities in your life now. Compare it with those of the past. Or those of your children. Or maybe even a story from the past about different generations. You could talk about your own time management, or you "problems" with procrastination (or is that just me!). Lots of ways to take the prompt this week.

Something that is definitely NOT a priority for me - being the perfect housewife!

Capturing progress along the way of health improvement and weight loss in the last two months which I focussed on as a personal priority. 

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 #279 - week of 12th March 2018

Ok, so I had the flu! Is that a good enough excuse? Probably not ;-) but it's true and nearly two weeks down the line, I have to say that I feel a little more human today which is good even if it's been a long time coming.

So I thought I'd get inspired by the fact that I was ill.

This week, I'd like you to be inspired by catching something.

You might really want to record some illness in the family, something that hit your family like dominoes one after the other until you were all snuggled up on the sofa feeling sorry for yourself. I don't think you need to take this prompt in a negative direction if you don't want to. How about catching the fever for scrapbooking or any other activity? Playing catch as a child or catching an opportunity that whizzed past you? I can definitely see more than one direction to take this prompt - what do you think?

I'm not sure I've ever made a page that I can relate to this prompt - I'd have to have a think! So how about an image of some of my accoutrements of the last two weeks! You never know, this might be the photo for me to use on my own page. I'll have to see what comes to mind.

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... :-)

#275 - be inspired by Hygge

It's February and that means one thing... LOAD (layout a day). I'm not as good as I used to be but I try to use LOAD months to really get my motivation and inspiration moving on the scrapbooking front.

This month is no exception and as I write this, I have 13 layouts completed and hope to be able to complete the full 28 layouts in 28 days even if I haven't managed one every day! But a side benefit of this is always the chance to catch up on some of my own challenges.

So here is my "be inspired by Hygge" layout. 

I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge February kit, Amour which was full of the perfect soft, pastel tones and small designs which helped to convey the feeling of calm I wanted to have. At this point I was already thinking that the kit was more than "killed" and had stated that I was finished with it. But stacking up pretty strips of paper to give my photo a base - and adding in a few scraps of Crate Paper patterns too, showed me that the kit had more to offer.

I used the photo I'd taken for the original challenge blog post here at Whimsical Musings (WM#275 here) to form a base for my thoughts and title. I want this to be more than just something I talk about. I need to feel some more "hygge" in my life. I hope this layout can inspire me to continue working on it.

Lovely, scrummy layers!

This was a great layout to think about and make. The journalling is meaningful and that combination is always my favourite type of scrapbooking. 

Now let's see if I can manage any other of my missing prompts...

Don't forget that if you're inspired to create this week, that you can add your 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 #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 #277 - week of 29th January 2017

It's like I blink and it's Monday again. And Mondays seem so busy and I'm behind on my prompts! But I'm getting there. I have a couple of layouts from the last prompts in the making and LOAD is starting at the end of the week so that's a good thing. I'll be joining in from 5th but that is still lots of potential pages!

Anyway, this week marks my granny's 96th birthday (! wow !) and I feel like we should link that in to this week's prompt.

So, this week I'd like you to be inspired by the older generation.

Whenever I go home to the UK, I make sure that no matter how busy my schedule is, there's always half an hour free to go and visit my granny. She's in good health even though she's so tiny and frail these days. We sit together, have a cup of tea, take a photo together and just chat. She likes to hear all my news about life in Germany and particularly loves to hear about my DH who she simply adores. It's a special connection that we haven't always had and I'm making the most of it while I can.

I'm sure that you have an older person in your life, your family or maybe even your past who needs to be captured on your pages. Maybe one of those "just because" layouts with no particular story to tell - just a treasured photo. If there is a story, all the better. Interview them and capture some details that you haven't before or recall a story that they always used to tell you when you were young. Perhaps there's a list of stories you'd like to know that you could record on a page. A vintage photo that you've found about which you know nothing except who it is.

The first of my two example pages features the birthday girl herself and is a page I made to record our most recent time together. The second layout features a very special vase given to us by my German Oma who is no longer with us. Even though she's not directly featured on the page, it gives some insight into the type of person she was.

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... :-)

SaveSave

Challenge #276 - week of 22nd January 2018

Almost on time! Ha ha.

Creativation 2018 has come and gone (that'll be CHA for those of us who've been scrapping for a bit longer and I'm sure it had another name even before that!), and there's been a lot of chatter online about the new collections and offers. Considering there's been a bit of a negative feeling that the industry is contracting - and let's face it, it is - there was a LOT of new on offer.

If you're still in need of some visuals from the show, Alice Boll (from Scrap Happy and Scrapbook Wonderland) has a whole LOAD of video from Creativation 2018 - you can find it all on her YouTube challenge here.

This week I'd like you to be inspired by the new releases at Creativation 2018.

Simple Stories Mama Llama mini collection - paper "Oh Llama"

Maybe you actually have something new to use on a page. Or you might feel that some of the motifs or colours are the same as product you already have - now's the time to use it up! It seems to me that there were an awful lot of llamas around so maybe you have a llama themed page that's just waiting to be scrapped - well, it's possible! Perhaps you were at Creativation yourself or were lucky enough to attend a CHA back in the day when it was such a mega-show and you'd like to record your memories on a page. I think there's a few directions to go - whether it's product or story-based.

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... :-)

#274 - be inspired by "when one door closes, another one opens"

I was really impressed that fellow Counterfeit Kit Challenge Master Forger Kelly got stuck right in with this prompt and produced a layout by midweek! And a gorgeous one at that.

So, I felt that I really just had to get on with my own take on the prompt and then decided to be, in turn, inspired by Kelly herself and make my own page about the turn from 2017 to 2018. It was the first idea I had when I'd originally thought up the prompt but thought I might go in a different direction. But Kelly's layout was so great that I decided to just follow her lead!

I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge November kit, Celebrate for this and just finished off all the scraps of paper left in there to form the background for the photos. This may not be one of my all time favourite layouts but I'm happy that I captured our NYE "celebrations". I then broke the rest of the kit up back into my stash and while I was at it, broke up the other kit I had sitting there. 6 layouts from each kit seemed a good result and a new kit is needed for February so it's good to have a fresh start.

With all the dozens of prompts that I've yet to tackle, I think there's quite some scrapping in my future. How about you?

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 #275 - week of 15th January 2018

Have you noticed that the days are getting ever so slightly longer here in the northern hemisphere? Every day we get a few minutes extra daylight. I bet most of you love that! Personally I love the short days and the long nights. It makes me feel like I have much more time in the evenings to potter around and even scrapbook because they start so early! I truly love this time of year (well, not January per se but you know what I mean!)

Which got me thinking about our next prompt.

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

You have no doubt heard of this Danish way of life that has found its way into the hearts of millions as a way of getting more comfort and contentment out of life. The Danish are the happiest people in the world according to survey after survey and many consider that hygge is the secret to their success.

A quick search online will bring up thousands of hits but this blog (Hygge House) caught my eye with a beautiful aesthetic, gorgeous photography and a reminder that hygge is a feeling not a thing!

Photo from Hygge House - http://hyggehouse.com/hygge

Maybe you're interested in bringing the concept of hygge into your own life and a page about that would be perfect. You could create a page talking about all your favourite winter traditions that help to keep you warm and cosy. You could be inspired by the typical colours and materials that seem to appear in any photo tagged #hygge - neutral and natural tones, chunky wool, wood, copper and bronze, candlelight, warm drinks, cosy socks and an open fire. You could go back in time and talk about the dark winter days of your childhood or a time when you were snowed in and had to make your own entertainment in the light of a room full of candles. You could write about your winter dreams and hopes. Or how you are counting the minutes until it's all over and the long days of summer are finally here!

You can add your photos 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 #274 week of 8th January 2018

Happy new year and welcome to 2018!

It's been a while. Times were busy and other priorities took over. Let's see what the new year brings for us all.

Shall we jump right in and see if we can get a bit of inspiration going?

2017 was not the best year. I mean, I've had worse. But it wasn't one I'll look back on with a lot of joy. But in an effort to try and keep moving forward, I'd like us to look ahead.

I'd like you to be inspired by "when one door closes, another one opens". That seems to sum up the changing of the years, seasons and even each small problem that is overcome.

So where will you take this prompt? You could go literal in thinking about changing situations. Opportunities taken. Successfully overcoming difficulties. Unexpected turns in life. Adjusting life's course to take in new situations. Or how about thinking about doors - I seem to take a lot of photos of funky doors when I'm out exploring! This could be a time to capture some thoughts about the changing of one year into the next. Or goals for 2018. Or think about a quote or a slogan that keeps you going?

You can add your photos to our Facebook group here - we love it when you share so please don't be shy! Or tell us in the comments where to find you... :-)