Challenge #332 - week of 30th September 2019

I think you all know how much I love the dates in my diary driving my inspiration. It all rather reminds me of a Big Picture Scrapbooking class I did with Elizabeth Dillow - the Scrapbooker's Almanac - did any of you do that class? I still have the book on my shelf and it was a great class.

Anyway, 30th September marks the anniversary of meeting my now husband and this year is a full 21 years since the day fate turned my life around. 

When I was younger, even though in the UK we were already officially an adult at 18, the move from 21 to 18 was still fresh and I got to have a smaller celebration at the age of 21 too. And that got me thinking.

This week, I'd like you to be inspired by becoming an adult.

• What does that mean to you? 
• Did you have a party? 
• Did you mark it in some specific way? 
• Had you been waiting a long time to be "legal" for something or other? 
• How about friends or family? 
• Perhaps this is the time to talk about your first time to vote, have an alcoholic drink or go to a horror movie rated for adults? 
• Or maybe it's time to talk to that younger you who couldn't wait to become an adult and give them some advice. 
• Or can you remember how you felt at that time.
• It might even have been a bit of a disappointment!

As always, I like to have something visual so I fished out two rather old pages now (from 2011 and 2012!) looking back at a much, much younger me at the tender age of 18 - with journaling from a present perspective. Is that really me?

I think there's a lot of different directions you could go this week with an adult inspired page and I'd love to see how you've been inspired.

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!

#62 - be inspired by home

Another catch up layout post today and a layout about a trip over the summer "home" to the UK. It's funny, Germany is most definitely "home" for me but of course, the UK will always be "home" too. It can be complicated for people to understand where I'm talking about when I use the word because it could be either and could refer to the location I'm currently in or the "other"!

This is another layout that was also made for my Simple Scrapper Creative Team assignments using a new sketch as well as a recent Story Starter™. Simple Scrapper offers a premium subscription membership where you can find hundreds of sketches and Story Starters™ as well as many further resources inspiring you to create beautiful pages and tell meaningful stories in a supportive, communicative community environment. You can find out more information here.

The sketch appealed to me as it featured five photos with space to write out a good chunk of journalling. As usual, I tweaked it a little to squeeze in that top right photo into a title space which allowed me to fit in my top 6 photos from the weekend - three portrait and three landscape. Of course I took quite a few other photos this trip but it's a good overview of this short three-day trip from start (flying over the pretty fields of England) to finish (back at the airport and a quote that rang true for me) with all the bits in the middle including a family party, brunch on the High Street with my mum and a stroll across a typical English park complete with bandstand!

The sketch was interesting in that it included a whole bunch of circular embellishments and I decided to get happy with the Big Shot and cut out a whole lot of different sized circles from the papers that I found in my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit (July 2019 - Mingle).

I was very brave and decided to stamp directly onto the background paper. I'm a terrible stamper and am terrified of really messing things up so I rarely attempt such a brave step. But I went for it and used a fun hashtag stamp from SC or Kelly Purkey I think and then a cheap no-name set for the days of the week. It turned out so well and I was thrilled. Maybe this will encourage me to do it more often!

A mixed-font title was needed because I wanted such a long one and it would have taken up too much space and definitely would have left me very short of various letters if I'd only used Thickers.

And there you have it. A layout for my Creative Team assignment which used up a Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit and fulfilled a Whimsical Musings prompt at the same time. That's a success in my book.

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 #WMXX 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.

Challenge #331 - week of 23rd September 2019

Another Monday and I'm happy to say that autumn is definitely in the air here in my corner of the world. That makes me happy. What's making you happy today?

This week, the calendar tells me that its 23rd September which reminds me that it's the birthday of an ex-boyfriend! Even though I can't even remember my own name half the time, I seem to be able to retain birthdays for a very long time. This person left my life 30 years ago which makes it even stranger to remember - but there you have it.

Which made me think about our prompt for this week.

I'd like you to be inspired by "on this day in history".

I often look things up online for specific dates in the year and have used these special days as prompt for us in the past such as WM#119 - be inspired by civil rights but this week, let's just be general and look back on today or any of the other 364 days in the year.

There are a gazillion websites that offer a view to the past and here's a link for you to get you started. 

https://www.onthisday.com/day/september/23

To give you a few examples, if we look at just some of today's (many, many) special anniversaries....

• 1122 - Concordat of Worms agreed between Pope Calixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V
• 1459 - Battle of Blore Heath in Staffordshire, 1st major battle of the English Wars of the Roses
• 1949 - Bruce Springsteen's birthday
• 2018 - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches "Modicare", free heathcare for 500 million, the world's biggest healthcare program

... I could interpret them in a variety of ways on my pages.

• Worms happens to be the town in Germany where I spent many weekends over the past few years because my husband was based there for work. I've scrapped several pages about the town but this could be the week to pick another weekend memory for my album.
• I studied a lot of history at school and in particular, we covered the Tudor/Elizabethan era in great detail which began as a result of the War of the Roses. Another school page perhaps?
• My favourite Springsteen single is The River and it brings back so many memories of 1981 (when it was released in the UK) that I know I could make a page (or an album!) about my teenage music loves at that time.
•  Last year, I had a minor medical procedure which was the first time I've needed to spend any time in a hospital - not bad at my age I think - and it reminded me of how grateful I am for our healthcare system. Perhaps worthy of a page?

So, take today's date and have a look to see if you can find inspiration from the past for a page today.

And because I hate to leave you without some sort of a photo, let's have a look at my photo library to see what I did on this day in the past and how that could inspire me to create this week!

I made this page on this day in 2015 which could inspire me to make another page about hanging out with my scrappy friend, Kathy!

Tea appeared in the UK on this day 361 years ago which was marked by Google on this day three years ago - so I'm told by Timehop which is another great way of seeing what you were up to on this day in your own history! But my tea drinking habit could be a good capture this week.

I was home in the UK five years ago for my sister's special birthday and as always, got to hang out with my cool nephew and nieces. Who doesn't like a great reminder like this one that family is special. Definitely worthy of a page! 

And two years ago today, we were invited to dinner at friends. We are always thrilled to be invited because these evenings are always so much fun, they are such lovely people and the food is so innovative and delicious. A friendship not yet captured - this might be the week.

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 #330 - week of 16th September 2019

Happy Monday - again!

Today, I'm heading back to a product in my stash that I use very often but usually in the same way - this might be the week for me to break out of the splats and try something different.

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

I've got a whole bunch of mists and rarely make it to the end of a bottle. And I'm on the permanent look out for the perfect gold! The HS was a good one but not 100% and now that it's discontinued, I'm in need of a new one. I need try out a few I have my eye on. And I recently had a new super glimmer spray by Nuvo in my hands that was really impressive - I'll need to get one so that I can put it through its paces on my pages. But I'm open to suggestions if you have any. ;-) 

You will know that there's rarely a layout that I make without a little "dusting" of mists in one or two corners. A visual triangle is so easily made with a little sprinkle but I think I mostly follow through on my diagonal design when I add a few splashes. How about you?

Let's see if I can find evidence of more ways to use this product.

Here I used gold mist to highlight some of the words on the paper

Misting through a die cut background gave a whimsical and far from perfect polka dot background 

A swipe of gold to highlight the title 

Diagonal splats

Quite intensive spraying

A central diagonal 

Splats in a cluster

Monochromatic spraying and droplets using a background die cut as a template again.

Let's just have a think about the different ways you could use mists:

• spray them across your background page to make your own design
• splat or drop them in a cluster, a diagonal, visual triangle or randomly
• use them as you would a paint - on the background, to highlight parts of a patterned paper or even as a title
• spray or splat them across a template such as a mask or a bought/self-cut die cut
• spray them onto plastic packaging of some sort and then layer your background or paper over the top of it and "squish" it down - I have no idea what this technique is called but I did try it once, only to cover 90% of it up with my papers and photos - doh!

I'm sure if you looked around online, there's a dozen other techniques you could try. So, try something new or go back to a trusty method that you know works for you. If you're nervous about making a "mess" on your page, have a go on a journalling card or pocket page card which you can then use on your page. This is the week to experiment or just remember to use this versatile item in your stash. I know that I go through phases where I reach for three or four colours every layout and then completely forget for a while before I remember to grab them again. These are such an easy fun product to add a little "something" so let's showcase them this week.

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!

#166 - be inspired by Paris

Inspired by my wonderful online friend Clair, I set up a spreadsheet to monitor which prompts I've completed here at Whimsical Musings - it shows that I need to do better! However, I was shocked to see that I hadn't actually made a layout specifically for my WM#166 - be inspired by Paris. How is that possible? It's one of my favourite cities in the world and I have a gazillion photos from many, many trips. Time to fix that.

This is another layout that was also made for my Simple Scrapper Creative Team assignments using a new sketch as well as a recent Story Starter™. Simple Scrapper offers a premium subscription membership where you can find hundreds of sketches and Story Starters™ as well as many further resources inspiring you to create beautiful pages and tell meaningful stories in a supportive, communicative community environment. You can find out more information here.

My sweet friend Kathy told me she was headed across the ocean to visit Paris for the first time and should we meet up? I don't have to be asked twice to go to Paris so I headed over by train and we had a fun four days together. As she'd done a lot of the big ticket sights before I met up with her, I tried to come up with a good mix of some "not to be missed" places such as the Musée de L'Orangerie where we sat in awe of the Monet water lily pond paintings, my favourite place to eat whenever I'm in Paris (Bofinger) and wandering around, just taking in the atmosphere!

On our last morning together, we decided to head inside the Opéra and I was thrilled to find that she was more than impressed with this incredible building. I have a bunch of beautiful photos from this short trip but I knew that these deserved immediate attention.

This time around, I needed to use a current sketch with an older Story Starter™ so I went with the sketch that had multiple photos and tracked down a topic that spoke to me - in this case it was a time that I was speechless. I interpreted that as being speechless from the beauty of a place and the Opéra was the first place that came to mind!

Again, I sat and wrote out the story I wanted to tell before I looked for photos. The original sketch was 8 1/2 x 11 so I stretched it out to 12x12 which gave me a lot more spaces on my grid for both photos and journalling. Using a very recent Carta Bella travel themed purchase made this page come together so quickly and the design needed just a hint of embellishing - I was delighted to find a space to use the 3x4 Eiffel Tower card.

I loved the strip down the left hand side on the sketch which I adapted into a pastel sequin filled pocket underneath one of my favourite pieces of paper of all time - the star printed vellum from Studio Calico. I bought all the sheets I could get my hands on at the time and my supply is slowly reducing :-(. I use every single scrap of it and wish so much that I had a whole pack of them - it's a perfect design for so many pages.

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 #WMXX 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.

Challenge #329 - week of 9th September 2019

Welcome back to this week at Whimsical Musings. How is your September going so far? 

This week, I'm going in a direction that some of you might find a little strange and you may not really know how to take it but bear with me!

I'd like you to be inspired by kitsch.

Now, there are different ways to understand this word and when I use it, I tend to mean fun or nonsense, something that isn't serious, a little over-colourful perhaps or on the edge of good taste. It's something that I love to have but that is maybe not really considered "stylish". It can also be used in all sorts of negative ways but I don't want to go in that direction. I want you to take it as meaning a little over the top, somewhat silly or childish, something that you love even though you know it doesn't belong in the pages of Vogue, something from the past that's a little dated perhaps with clashing colours, somewhat 1970s maybe, something that might be a bit "cheap" but that you love all the same! I think you know what I mean!

At this time of the year, I find myself thinking of how autumn is on its way, full of beautiful jewel colours that don't really feature in my life normally. Reds, oranges and deep chestnuts. Gold starts making an appearance in my home or table decoration - too much and I think it all looks a bit kitsch but that is sometimes the look I'm going for! Kitsch doesn't have to be a negative, even if that word has that connection for you. Pretty kitsch might be the Oktoberfest decorations that start appearing now - lots of alpine gingham colours and pretzels! Or the reds and golds that can take you from autumn to the beginning of Advent. Then comes the beginning of the festive season and that's when the "kitsch" might really kick in. You might have Christmas decorations that fall under the "kitsch" category but a little kitsch here and there never hurt anyone, no matter how modern and stylish your home decor style might be!

To give you an example in my own life, this ornament was brought back for me from Singapore. It's the God of Prosperity and is 100% plastic and 150% kitschy (in my definition). It nods away all day run by a little solar panel and I totally adore it! It's here in my room where I can see it whenever I'm blogging, working or creating and it makes me smile every time. It deserves a place in my albums as you can see!

Or how about my love of the Christmas cracker paper hat - total kitsch in my book and another little corner of my album!

Now I'm sure there is some example in your own life where there's a hint of kitsch that you could record this week. And what about the fact that our scrapping is sometimes a little more colourful than you might have in your real life or covered with bits and pieces, stickers, flowers or decorations that could be considered a little on the kitsch side - time to play perhaps!

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!

#238 - be inspired by back to school

I'm inspired right now, and motivated too. A good combination to put some creative time to good use.

WM#238 - be inspired by back to school 

I knew that I had many stories to tell about school and it was just a matter of which one to pick for what happens to be the second school-themed page this month so far. The other will be shared later in the month.

My trusty Counterfeit Kit Challenge September kit, Wanderlust, is proving useful as it happens to have a good mix of greens and blues in there as well as a bunch of interesting embellishments that I've decided match my school journey concept. Travel and stars and little elements which can be extended to fulfil the idea of school and schedules and the passage of time.

CKC September kit Wanderlust, lo#2

As mentioned, I picked out all the greens and blues I could find in this kit which matches the colours of my old school uniform - it's a subtle technique but one that I notice each time I look at a school page. Do you like to use hidden symbolism too? It's a technique I use all the time.

I've mentioned before how few photos I have from my time at school, so I'm being very careful to use just one or two photos per story so that I can stretch out those I have. This was taken recently (2011) when I attended a school open day. But the memories of the cupboard back in the day are very fresh!

I made up this page while I was at my weekly crop, pulling it together without an idea of which photo or even story I wanted to tell. I like this approach as it doesn't feel restricting and allows me to just create in a way which I feel showcases all the products and embellishments I decide to use. When I come home and finish off the page, I often tweak the placement of the smaller pieces or rework the title. In this case, I had a completely different title in fact, lined up underneath the paper block but when I decided on a topic and a single portrait photo, this position didn't work and I decided to change out the whole thing - words and all. I prefer this much more.

And there you have it. Another snippet of my life ready to be filed away. 

Will you be inspired to tell a school themed story this week? I've offered some other ideas for directions to take this prompt in the original post here if you need some more options - check it out!

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

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

#327 - be inspired by water

Alongside the restart of new prompts and inspiration here on Whimsical Musings, I've realised I have a bunch of layouts to share that I've made to fit multiple prompts and design teams. So as well as trying to make up pages from the current prompts, I'd like to share those on a regular basis. I've scheduled them here on Wednesdays for the next few weeks so I hope you'll also feel free to share any layouts you make for any of the WM prompts. Sometimes an older prompt speaks to you directly and I say, go for it! There's no such thing as being behind on challenges here - any prompt and layout is good to go.

Here is my first to share today.

It's a layout for WM#327 - be inspired by water.

I made this page for my Creative Team over at the wonderful Simple Scrapper using a sketch from a few months ago as well as a Story Starter™ for the current month. Simple Scrapper offers a premium subscription membership where you can find hundreds of sketches and Story Starters™ as well as many further resources inspiring you to create beautiful pages and tell meaningful stories in a supportive, communicative community environment. You can find out more information here.

My story was inspired by a water based prompt and as I was thinking of what story to tell, my eye fell on this classic 1986 photo from my time living in the South of France. I can almost feel the wind in my hair and the memories came flooding back. A great water-based story.

The sketch I used was simple with just a few tags sticking out from behind the photo. I know you know me well enough now that I needed a couple of layers at least, so I headed to my scrap box and grabbed a couple of pieces that provided good contrast between the photo and the wonderful October Afternoon sunburst paper that I've been saving for that "special" page.

The sketch called for journalling along the sunburst lines which was perfect as I knew that I had quite a lot of story to tell. In fact, this time around, once I'd identified the photo I wanted, I spent about 30 minutes recalling the details of this day/weekend and wrote it all down. I then knew that I needed a sketch with a bunch of space for a lot of journaling but that I only wanted to use a single photo. This helped me narrow down the sketch to select. The sunburst paper was integral to the sketch and it all fell in place. I keep a section in my paper storage just for sunburst papers so it was easy to find a suitable pattern. Unfortunately, I only have one of this design - I'm sure I could use it a dozen times for different pages!

Minimal embellishments were needed so I added stitching detail to give it a little more dimension. interest and texture.

And there you have it. Simple and easy to pull together. This took me very little time and makes me happy. When I looked through my albums for this part of my life, I realised that I've only told one or two stories so far which makes this all the better. What stories have you been holding off telling? Just imagine all those pool, lake or ocean-based memories needing a place in your albums. Is this the week to tell one of those?

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 #WMXX 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.

Challenge #328 - week of 2nd September 2019

I promised you I'd be back today and courtesy of prescheduling, I'm happy to be able to keep that promise!

I'm actually sitting here in the middle of August writing up a bunch of posts so that I can get ahead of the game and hopefully keep up. Wish me luck and feel free to give me any time management tips you might have - ha ha!

Therefore, yet another reboot of Whimsical Musings and I am raring to go with some new inspiration and I hope you'll join me!

So, shall we start?

It's the beginning of the school year in the UK around now and it takes me very much back in time. I remember that nervousness of getting ready for going back - new supplies, new timetables, fresh uniforms, new subjects, the beginning of autumn. Only that last item on the list made me happy - I didn't enjoy school very much but that's another story!

Which gives me the prompt for this week - be inspired by back to school.

I've made several layouts about school over the years so here are just a couple of examples of different approaches for topics and photo choices. The first one features a photo taken just a few years ago but which tells the story of a teacher I had over 30 years ago. And the second uses an original school photo and one of just a couple featuring the uniform I decided to journal about.

Let's have a think about some other ways you could take this prompt:

• you could take a literal approach for the start of the school year for yourself, your children or any child whose story you're recording
• you could recall the memories around the preparations for school - how about your love for school stationery supplies?
• what about scrapbooking supplies that feature school motifs 
• perhaps you've gone back to further education later in life - this might be the time to record that story
• I'm also thinking about any type of learning - a new skill, a class, something just for fun - could also be included here
• there's even the idea that you could go back to a scrapbook class that you've left unfinished and continue with the lessons, making a page with your new design/technique skills

I feel like getting back to Whimsical Musings and blogging on a more regular schedule is some sort of "back to school" so this feels so appropriate for us this week. I hope you feel this is a good way to kickstart our reboot and will join in!

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!