Challenge #343 - week of 27th January 2020

Over the last few years, I've been inspired by the Pantone Colour of the Year for one of our prompts and this week is no different.

Be inspired by the Pantone Colour of the Year 2020, Classic Blue

Ranger Inks take on Classic Blue!

A colour prompt is easy to interpret of course if you just look for products in this shade or maybe a photo featuring this colour but you could also think about:

• a favourite item of clothing in blue
• how this colour can be found in fashion this season and if this is something for you
• you could talk about your own Colour of the Year if Classic Blue isn't something for you
• you might have something around your home in this shade such as porcelain or  a painting
• how about classic blue ocean, lakes or rivers not to mention skies?
• maybe you feel a little blue and want to record this

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 #WMXXX (with the number of the prompt instead of the XXX) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

Challenge #342 - week of 20th January 2020

This post was started before Christmas and then edited and continued two weeks ago, so let's try to get it finished now shall we?

All my Christmas decorations were put away several weeks ago now but I did keep out a few winter items that I think look good and give me a little hygge feel at this dull, grey time of year. I have some stars, some reindeer and a couple of cute little wrapped tea-lights.

They were a hand-made gift from my mum some time ago and I love how cosy and cute they are. The colours don't go with our tree or living room decorations so I always keep them right here in my craft room and love the soft glow they provide. So when my eye fell on them, I thought it would be a fun prompt - one that fits into this time of year with all the cold weather around.

And this is where my inspiration comes from today.

I'd like you to be inspired by knitted items.

Let's think about a few different ways to take this prompt.

• do you have a favourite knitted garment that you just love to wear?
• do you get excited when it's cold enough to justify getting those winter woolies out of the back of the wardrobe?
• perhaps you or someone close to you knit and that could be your main focus today
• how about a knitted gift (I can see two right here in my room!)
• how about a funny story about learning to knit or even teaching someone to knit
• there are a lot of knitted designs in our scrapbooking products - papers, stickers, embellishments that you could use - both drawn or photorealistic
• how about using a real piece of knitting in some way on your page?
• I can imagine being inspired by the word itself "knit" which of course means to join together which could be the drive for your story

Whichever way you decide to take my prompt, 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 #WMXXX (with the number of the prompt instead of the XXX) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

Challenge #341 - week of 6th January 2020

Image from rawpixel.com

Happy New Year to you all and welcome to Whimsical Musings in 2020. 

Did anyone notice I was missing these last weeks? 

I'm guessing not at this busy time of year ;-)

Anyway, back here this Monday with a new prompt for you. I have another prompt that I actually started writing back in November but seems to have got lost in the hectic of the season, so I'll hold onto that for next week. 

But I like to mark the beginning of a new year with a prompt that doesn't directly refer to resolutions themselves but looks at the topic of a new year from a slightly different perspective. I had a look around on Pinterest which I still love so much and from time to time, forget to go there for inspiration. This time though, I came across such beautiful motivational quotes that I thought would be good for today that I went down a rabbit hole and came up with this beautiful image below.

Source here

This week, be inspired by intentions.

How could you take this prompt for your page?

• intentions for this new year or any period in the future
• intentions you had in the past and how successful they were
• are there any scrapbook products with the title of "intention"? I'm not sure but I know there was a Photo Play Paper collection called "No Pun Intended" so there could be!
• talk about the why behind intentions for the future, giving the back story rather than just the plan
• compare and contrast how your intentions have changed over the years
• do you have a story where you had the best intentions but it didn't quite work out as planned?
• perhaps you intended to say something but something totally different came out instead?!?
• make a list, a plan, a record of goals, targets or objectives

Just for interest, here are our previous new year prompts incase you'd like to go back and try a different perspective:

• WM#20 - turning points
• WM#71 - goodbye
• WM#116 - goals
• WM#151 - possibilities 
• WM#194 - countdowns
• WM#195 - things that have never been
• WM#244 - fresh starts
• WM#274 - when one door closes...
• WM#313 - plans

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 #WMXXX (with the number of the prompt instead of the XXX) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

Challenge #340 - week of 25th November 2019

I've talked before about changing my attitude to November a few years ago and now I see things far more positively. We have many blue sky days and the sun shines more often than it did in the past. My feeling is that autumn comes later than it used to and the rainbow of beautiful falling leaves has shifted into November. When I was a child, November was definitely winter but these days I feel as if autumn is somewhat at its best.

So I decided to find us a happy, bright, autumnal colour scheme for this week to show you what I feel when I think about this special month.

Be inspired by the "November Rain" colour palette which I found over at colour-hex.com

November Rain colour palette here at www-color-hex.com

It's less easy to come up with a list of ways to interpret a colour prompt but you can definitely think about different amounts of each shade, turn the volume up or down on the tones of each colour or focus on just one or two. Think about all the ways you can bring these colours together - paper, embellishments, alphabet, even the colours in a photo.

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 #WMXXX (with the number of the prompt instead of the XXX) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

Challenge #339 - week of 18th November 2019

Oh no! It's another calendar based prompt today - can you forgive me?

It's my birthday week and while I've done a couple of birthday focussed challenges in the past (WM#16 - be inspired by your birthday and WM#111 - be inspired by a "special" birthday), let's take it in a broader way this morning.

Be inspired by a wish list

Now, I really think that you can interpret this in different ways and many of them have nothing to do with birthdays

• Wish lists could be for birthdays, Christmas, weddings or special occasions
• You could have a travel wish list that you'd like to record
• Did you receive or achieve something on your wish list that could be captured
• Use a list on your page
• Use list products 
• Children often have long lists for these times of years and that could be a story to put on your layout
• And of course, there's always the "wish" part of the prompt that could be the focus. What wishes do you have, what do you wish for those you love, what would you do if you were given three wishes by a fairy godmother?

I knew exactly which layout I wanted to feature in this post today but of course, I can't find a photo of it so this one featuring a list will have to do. But then it IS Bowie so that's better than anything ;-) 

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 #WMXXX (with the number of the prompt instead of the XXX) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

Challenge #338 - week of 11th November 2019

Another calendar inspired prompt for this November Monday morning - I'm hoping to get off the calendar in the next weeks!

As many countries around the world stop to take a moment to remember those fallen in conflict as part of Remembrance Day commemorations, my thoughts turned to the famously sad and evocative poem that is often read aloud after the two minutes of silence.

Be inspired by "In Flanders Fields"

In Flanders Fields

By John McCrea

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Which ways could we interpret this today?

• The words of the poem
• A visit to Flanders or the Allied beaches northern Europe
• Recording details of a family member who served in times of conflict or perhaps a current member of the military
• Finding a moment or two of silence in our busy days and what that means for you
• How you mark this day in your own way, country, culture
• Your love of poetry or a school memory related to poems of some sort
• Products that feature poppies or pops of bright red or photo realistic fields

I hope this gives you some ideas of ways to take this prompt - we don't need to make a sad page but a little nostalgia from time to time gives us time to reflect and this may be the week to bring that to our projects.

Our previous prompts based around Remembrance Day can be found here

• WM#109 - be inspired by Remembrance Day
• WM#236 - be inspired by the Remembrance Day poppy
• WM#311 - be inspired by Lest We Forget

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 #WMXXX (with the number of the prompt instead of the XXX) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

Challenge #337 - week of 4th November 2019

It seems as if I'm constantly looking at the calendar for prompt ideas - especially at this time of year. But there really is so much inspiration right there that it's hard to resist and so I find myself turning to my calendar again this week.

I've talked about Guy Fawkes Night before, which is celebrated on the 5th November in the UK - you can find my original prompt here WM#144 - be inspired by fireworks - so I just want to take an element of that for this week.

Be inspired by fire.

With the darker nights and colder weather, I think this is a good challenge for this season.

I made this layout about our daily evening activity in Canada of sitting round the campfire at the end of the day and to be honest, I could probably make a whole bunch of these about the trip!

But you could think about the following ways to take the prompt:

• for winter layouts you could think about cosy evenings in front of the fire at home or trendy winter BBQs as well as bonfires for Bonfire Night 
• for summer layouts, fire could cover everything BBQ or fire-pit related 
• traditional medieval markets might be lit by fire
• you might have seen a circus act featuring a fire eater who you'd like to feature
• maybe something motivates you so much that you feel you have fire in your belly?
• sitting round the campfire in the same way I've documented above
• maybe you want to think about fire colours - the reds, oranges and yellows - for your colour scheme or product selection
• I'm sure there are lots of die cut files featuring fires which could be a fun way to take the challenge 

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 #WMXXX (with the number of the prompt instead of the XXX) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!

#312 - be inspired by friends

I had a bunch of layout share blog posts half written up which I seem to have forgotten so here I am again in an attempt to catch up. Story of my life!

This layout, very surprisingly, hasn't been made with a Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit! I think I had some new product and just decided to use it right away. However, it has been made for my Simple Scrapper Creative Team using a new Story Starter™ as well as a recent sketch.

It's another layout recording details of our Scrapabilly Advent Present Swap which has now been extended to include Easter and summer (as well as autumn which we are currently in the middle of). The main focus is really the pretty packaging with fun content and with a group of crafty types, you can guarantee that the presents looks as pretty as can be. Yes, we really get each other - I'm so lucky to have been taken into this fabulous group of women. They make me happy every week.

These scrummy letters are actually a fabulous shade of rose gold.

With the gorgeous background paper and the sprinkle of mist, I really didn't think it needed much embellishment.

And I picked up these letters too in the summer from the UK and I love that the foam is a shade of aqua.

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 (replacing the XXX with the prompt number) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken. 

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

** This post includes promotion for Simple Scrapper's premium subscription membership for which I am on the Creative Team.

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... :-)

Challenge WM#336 - week of 28th October 2019

A short week for me here in Germany with Friday being a Bank Holiday for All Saints' Day and of course, who isn't happy with a four-day work week? That seems a good way to start the week. How are you today?

This week, I'm once again looking at the calendar with Thursday evening being Halloween. It's not such a big event here in Germany although the shops certainly seem pretty full of themed items this year. But I wanted to at least decorate a little and got my box out of the cellar to see what I had - a bit of a sort out of things that I really don't need any more and I'm left with a small selection of pretties, most of which were created using scrappy product. Good to get some Halloween products used up!

In the past, I've marked this point on the calendar in a variety of ways -

• WM#12 - be inspired by "scary"
• WM#190 - be inspired by pumpkins
• WM#309 - be inspired by a candy colour scheme 

So how to mark it in 2019? Well, how about quite traditionally but in a way that I know can be taken in a million different directions.

Let's be inspired by "Trick or Treat"

Now, I'm not going to actually give you a "million" different directions to take this prompt but you could try:

• a traditional Halloween page about costumes, decorations, a particular year, the traditions you have, the sweets your kids collect, what you did as a child, favourite memories from this time of year
• what about your favourite sweet treats that you hoped to collect from the neighbourhood when you went trick or treating
• or maybe you played a Halloween trick on someone - or worse, were the victim of a trick from the local kiddies!
• how about your favourite sweet treats at any time of the year
• or how you were tricked in a good, or maybe less good, way
• the story of a practical joker in your family
• cakes, desserts, confectionary or even drinks could be the subject this week
• you could make a "trick" on your page with something interactive or hidden or with a double meaning
• use up your sweet themed products
• record how you treat yourself when you're in need of a pick up

Not quite a million, but a few to get you thinking!

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 #WMXXX (with the number of the prompt instead of the XXX) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken.

Have a great day everyone!