Challenge #263 - week of 26th June 2017

Midsummer's Day has come and gone here in the northern hemisphere and hard as it might seem, the days are already getting shorter! But we've already had a prompt for that (WM#174) so maybe you'd like to head back to that one if you are inspired by the long, heady evenings at this time of year.

But it meant that I needed to come up with something different for our prompt this week.

I headed over to my Pinterest board and noticed several trends in my own pins that got my brain working and this one won out.

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

Pinterest source here

Pinterest source here

These are just two stunning carts have caught my eye and I'm simply determined that I'm going to get one of my own for our home. I want to introduce a weekend cocktail hour round here and bring back a little glamour with something as inspiring and pretty as these. I just need to track down a bar cart first to get me going.

How can you interpret this prompt this week? Go the straight cocktail route or maybe some routine you would like to introduce in your own home. Take either of these photos as a sketch or inspiration in itself, or a single element they highlight. Both of these photos have beautiful colour schemes and provide stunning elements such as roses, gold pineapples, pink champagne or cut-glass crystal glasses. You could even make a layout about how you use Pinterest to inspire you. There's a lot of paths you could take this week. 

Whichever way you see the inspiration this week, I'd love you to tell us where it took you. If you'd like you can share your layout with us over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#263 or you can post it in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group again with the tag WM#263.

Challenge #262 - week of 19th June 2017

Back from another short trip - this time to the wonderful North Sea coast in the Netherlands.

Fresh, salty air; soft sand between my toes; the sound of the waves lapping on the shore. It was perfect and reminded me of this.

Pinterest source here

And if that wasn't enough, I was there with two scrappy friends Sylvia and Silvia and so creativity was also very much on the cards. So much fun.

We went walking along the beach, splashing in the water and of course, collecting a few seaside treasures. And I did a lot of creating - all very good for the soul.

Anyway after all this seaside therapy, I'd like you to be inspired by seashells.

One of my favourite layouts of the last 12 months was actually about a single shell I collected when I was at the Dutch coast last February so you might decide to follow that lead.

Tell a story about collecting shells as a child. Talk about a favourite seaside holiday. Perhaps the most exotic shell you ever found. You love of the beach. Take it any way you like.

Whichever way you see the inspiration this week, I'd love you to tell us where it took you. If you'd like you can share your layout with us over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#262 or you can post it in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group again with the tag WM#262.

Challenge #261 - week of 12th June 2017

I'm afraid I'm in a sad mood and therefore, this is a sad prompt. Of course, I'm sure there's a way to interpret this in a way that makes sense for you - and that may not be sad at all - so please feel free to take this in any direction you feel right.

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

On Friday, we lost someone in the family who was and always will be, someone very important to us and I will no doubt take this prompt as an opportunity to make a tribute page to them for our album. Of course, I feel very sad but know that this will be therapeutic for me.

However, you may find that you don't like to include the sad or difficult parts of life in your scrapbook pages, and that's fine. There are even ways to take this prompt in a more positive direction. Perhaps talking about things from your childhood that you miss, a favourite teddy that went astray many years ago, even the loss of things that have affected you positively such as weight for your health for example. But if you feel that sad these events also have a place in your albums, you might want to think about someone who you've lost and make a tribute page. You don't need to share if it doesn't feel right but think about just letting us know that you have.

I made these pages a long time ago about my grandfather who remains one of the most important male figures in my life - and he died 27 years ago. He is still missed every day. But I can look back on our time together and smile in a way that was difficult for me for many years. I still miss him every day but it's not such an aching pain. Even if I'm not such a fan of the style of these pages today, layouts I've made about him have proved good for me and have a special place in my albums.

Whichever way you see the inspiration this week, I'd love you to tell us where it took you. If you'd like you can share your layout with us over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#261 or you can post it in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group again with the tag WM#261.

Challenge #260 - week of 5th June 2017

Happy Monday and Happy June! Here's to another month full of sunshine, inspiration and hopefully, some creating too.

Last week I had the pleasure of spending some time in Spain and while I was there, I had a little time in Barcelona. Now I promise you that the trip to Barcelona was planned and booked first but imagine my overwhelming joy when I heard that a certain exhibition about a certain musical hero of mine that I'm still obsessing about was going to open on the day we arrived. Of course, I had to go online on the first morning of ticket sales to secure a ticket for myself for the first opportunity I could get there - early on the very next morning!

As you can imagine, it was fabulous and I'm still overcome with joy and sadness and hero worshipness - again.

So this week, I'd like you to be inspired by the poster for the exhibition.

The poster features just one of the many iconic images of this incredible man as his alter ego Aladin Sane, by Bowie photographer Duffy.

There are several ways you could take this inspiration and maybe I need to make a layout for each one! There's the lightening flash which could be incorporated into your design, or maybe just the colours. There's the layout design or the font - several to choose from. The exhibition originated from the V&A Museum in London and the current one is is Barcelona so a travel layout could make an appearance. The music direction is an obvious one as is the subject of the great man himself. Or perhaps, you'd like to take the "David Bowie is... " idea and adapt it to a subject of your own. The exhibition is a retrospective which gives a further option. See, I told you there were several!

Whichever way you see the inspiration this week, I'd love you to share and as always you can either upload your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#260 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#260 in the write up text so that we can find it.