Challenge #310 - week of 5th November 2018

Welcome to November - my favourite month. 

There is so much to love about November and I'm determined to enjoy it all. So far, we've already had a birthday celebration, a city light festival and an amazing firework display - and it's only the 5th!

And, it's Bonfire Night in the UK today so having fireworks last night here in Germany was a fabulous substitute!

But we've been challenged by this British celebration before so I can't have that. But don't forget that if you haven't made a firework page, check out prompt WM#144 - be inspired by fireworks and maybe this is the week for that too.

However, recently I was walking through town and noticed some pretty gorgeous window decoration in a men's wear shop. As soon as I saw them, I knew I wanted to use them for a WM prompt at some point. As autumn has arrived at last, today is the day.

This week I'd like you to be inspired by geometric animals.

Aren't they gorgeous? I just couldn't resist. There's something about each of the faces that just has me melting - especially the wolf.

I think you could easily find a link between one of these and a story to tell. Take the animals as themselves - hiking, zoos, trekking, a trip through the wilderness, something on your wishlist to see or go. There are the colours in the designs - gorgeous combinations for this time of year. There are the geometric designs which have been so cleverly used to create these 3D faces staring out at us. Use one or all three to inspire your own page and/or story.


If you're inspired then I really hope you'll share and of course, here's a reminder that you can connect with us in our Facebook group here. Tag your entry with #WMXX so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken. 

Challenge #302 - week of 10th September 2018

Yep, life gets in the way. But that's ok, right? Let's just pretend I didn't miss a week and move on!

Whimsical Musings friend Leslie has been scrapping up a storm recently and has worked her way through many prompts which makes me bow my head in shame AND feel motivated to get going - both at the same time! If you haven't caught her wonderful layouts you can see them over at our Facebook group - Whimsical Musings here - or over on her own blog - Out of the Mire here. You'll be inspired to pick up paper and scissors and get going for sure!

But onwards and upwards.

This week I'd like you to be inspired by the hashtag #watchmesmile

At this time of year, I find myself smiling - it's MY time! My favourite time of the year and everything just makes me smile. The cooler temperatures, the misty mornings, the dull, rainy days, the scattering of conkers on the ground, that autumn smell, the leaves turning colour and falling, the arrival of pumpkin decorations, the shorter days and darker nights, the low lying sun, the anticipation of winter in the air. Yes, you know that autumn is my favourite time of year but honestly, I smile every day! I started using the hashtag #watchmesmile and just using it made me happy. I've looked online and it would appear that I'm absolutely not unique and now it's rather full of posts from a West End show which definitely do NOT make me smile but I don't mind - I feel that it's my hashtag to use for what makes me happy at this time of year - I just ignore all the others!

Both of these layouts were made about "my" hashtag. The first a bit more obviously! I am going to have to come up with a new way to interpret the prompt this time around. Well, let's see.

Both layouts were made using Story Starter prompts and sketches from the Simple Scrapper premium membership community. Fabulous prompts and great sketches :-)

You might take the hashtag as it is and base your layout around it. You might have a hashtag that you use for specific situations. You might have come up with a unique hashtag that no-one else has yet caught on to (I just discovered that two of those I sometimes use are unique to me... so far!) You might hate hashtags and scrap a project about that. You might have a list of them that you use and want to record this modern part of life. You could follow my lead and just find stuff that makes you smile and make a happy page. Perhaps autumn is also your time and you could use that as your jumping off point. Or maybe you have social media themed products that need dusting off and using this week!

A few different directions that I hope inspire you this week!

And if you are inspired, I hope that you'll share. You can do that in our Facebook group here. 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... :-)

WM#234 - be inspired by leaves

I made this layout at the beginning of the month, during the first few days of LOAD1016 (the Scrap Happy family only LOAD).

You all know that this is my favourite time of year and when I took my first few autumnal photos I realised that I needed to create a hashtag to represent how I feel at this time of year. #watchmesmile seemed so obvious.

Actually, this layout uses two WM prompts. In addition to WM#234 - be inspired by leaves, the LOAD prompt the day I made it was to use the Whimsical Musings recipe in prompt WM#214 - Musings À La Whimsy which was great as I hadn't got around to that one yet! 

So I grabbed my Counterfeit Kit Challenge October kit, Lucid and pulled together this layout. I added in the Crate Paper striped design to my kit as that was in my box (I was scrapping away from home and had limited supplies). 

In fact, this single sheet of paper has proved to be a fabulous addition to the kit and has really lifted every layout I've used it on. A little goes a long way. I picked up two sheets of it from Scrapabilly but think I'll need another one or two - there's just something about the mix of colours which is just sooooo good.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge October kit, Lucid lo#1

The Pinkfresh Studio pocket page cards are proving a little tricky to use as most of them have a full design and are not suitable for journalling as such. But this one seemed perfect with the "ongoing story" text which is certainly what my love for all things autumnal is.

I particularly enjoyed making a page without necessarily using the browns, yellows and oranges associated with this time of year. The contrast of the papers and embellishments to the photos proved interesting and fresh to me.

So, two Whimsical Musings prompts on one page. I really ought to print out the list and see what's left for me to work through (there are a lot!). Would you like to join me in catching up with past inspiration from time to time?

Just have a look at the list here and when you've created, make sure you share.

You can do that at either of our Whimsical Musings groups which can be found at Flickr (here) or over at Facebook (here). Whichever is better for you is great for us. We will find you! Tag your layouts with WM#XXX so that we know which prompt you followed.

Challenge #234 - week of 24th October 2016

There are some prompts that just need repeating. But of course, I don't want to literally repeat them. More the timing of the prompt means that a similar type subject is needed, such as Christmas, New Year, birthdays and yes, autumn.

Looking back at the list, I can see that we've had autumnal colours schemes and mood boards (WM#1, WM#60,  WM#138), there's been Oktoberfest (WM#188) or even turning the clocks back (WM#189) but what about that most typical symbol of this time of year? Leaves.

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

I took these photos just last week and they literally make me smile - hence my recent use of the hashtag #watchmesmile. Every. Single. Day.

Now, as you can imagine, I've recorded my love of autumn very often. Perhaps too often you might say. But I just can't resist those leaves!

Here are just a few.

As always, I think there are a few ways to interpret this prompt. You can go literal and talk about how you love this time of year with all the beautiful coloured leaves - I'm sure many of you will have stories to tell of kids or dogs playing in leaf piles or how about the work it takes to clear your garden of all those beautiful leaves. You could use some leaf designed paper, or leaf elements. You could take a symbolic photo of one particular fallen leaf such as in my first layout here and talk about it. I've already got a layout to share with you on this prompt and i can feel a layout using the leaf photos I've shared at the top of the post...

Where will the falling leaves take you this week?

We'd love you use this prompt and hope you will share your creations - there are now two ways to do this!

You can either upload your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#234 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#234 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #227 - week of 29th August 2016

There's just a hint of autumn in the air today which is enough to get me smiling as I do through the whole season. There's the rustle of dry leaves on the trees and some already on the floor, you can see plenty of late summer fruit around, it was dark at 6 o'clock this morning and it's a bit showery. I love it!

And of course, I just can't resist a colour scheme that makes me think of autumn.

This week, I'd like you to be inspired by this pinned colour scheme of teal, aqua, pale green, orange and coral with a hint of metallic.

Originally pinned from Etsy shop Marolsha by Maddy here.
This design is no longer available but her shop is full of simply gorgeous jewellery. 

Of course, you might just be inspired by the hair jewellery itself but either way, we'd love you to be inspired by this prompt and hope you will share your creations - there are now two ways to do this!

You can either upload your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#227 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#227 in the write up text so that we can find it.

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Challenge #138 week of 22nd September 2014

Don't forget that my comeback giveaway is open throughout the whole of September so this prompt or in fact any of the previous 137, can be used for inspiration and the possibility to win! Just upload your creations over at our Flickr gallery (here) to be in with a chance. I'll be drawing a name in the first week of October and the more layouts you upload, the more chances you have. :-)

Earlier this year, I started recording my 100 days of happy over at Instagram (check me out here). It's taken me a while (currently at day 81) but honestly, if I'd started recording my happy on September 1st, I could have done a happy day every day because this is my favourite time of year. Without a doubt, autumn is just the best and makes me smile and smile and smile.

So, it only seems appropriate to let that drive our inspiration this week with this gorgeous moodboard I found over at Pinterest (here).

This wonderful moodboard was discovered on Pinterest (source here)

Neutral shades, texture, beautiful photos, rainy days, symbols of harvest as well as not to forget the cute animals gives you a lot of possible directions to take for this.

I hope you will as inspired by this stunning collection of images as I am.

Once again, please share your creations over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#138. This, and ANY of our prompts (check out the full list on the "Whimsical Musings Past Promtps" page), can be used as inspiration for a layout to be in the drawing. So, let's get creating!

#60 Inspired by Autumnal colors

oopsie daisy - i forgot to post my layout. Oh well, here it is a day late.

as I mentioned before, I am participating in LOAD and it has been quite fun to follow the prompts this time around. One of the prompts pushed me to re-visit a technique-gone-wrong and I remembered wanting to scraplift this lovely layout by Shannon Tidwell {here}.

So I did and the photo I chose to showcase went wonderfully with the beautiful color combo Lisa picked out for us. Although she probably had in mind some autumn pages when she chose it, I think it is funny how both of us chose to scrap non-autumn pages altogether.

what I love most about this page is the message of hope and the breezy feeling of the butterflies mixed with the calming nature of the colors helps convey that.

this page means a lot to me emotionally. I want to thank Lisa for the inspiration.

And thank you all for being with us week after week.

xo,

Pamage

#10 Inspired by Fall

Lisa's challenge was to be inspired by fall... except right up until this year I wasn't really crazy about fall. So I decided to take her prompt seriously and ponder on the things I do like about fall and came up with this layout.

I just made a list of all the things I love, of course an off-numbered list. I also challenged myself beyond the theme to  honor Lisa - and include a "cluster" or my version of one. I was inspired by the look of leaves collecting almost everywhere around here.

I hand-cut some leaves from fabric scraps and felt. Then I added a few buttons and presto.

But you know me, I need my white space. I chose this Amy Tangerine paper for the background because it reminded me of fall, but every time I use a patterned paper background I feel overwhelmed. So I misted some white to try and recover some of the balance. The final result, with the leaves peeking through actually worked out quite well.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you guys can find ways to be inspired by fall.

xo,
Pamage

#10 Inspiration from right outside your window

Challenge #10 was inspired by the fact that Autumn is here and I LOVE it. There's so much there to be seen, felt, smelt. There were so many ways to approach this prompt and I'm really excited to see what Pam has to share today ;-)


I left it really late to get to grips with my own prompt and also took my chances with the weather but luckily for me, it was as wonderful today as it was last Sunday. I went outside with my camera and just took it all in. All those colours, the blue skies, the sun shining through the trees. What a shame I couldn't capture the sound of the rustling leaves with my camera too.


I just brought some images together and made a collage of those superb colours. I decided to take the challenge one step further and make the surrounding layout with non-autumnal colours, using my Counterfeit Kit, Balmy August. I just layered it up and am quite happy with the result. No oranges or browns necessary. 

Thanks for looking!


Lisa
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Challenge #10 Week of 17th October 2011

Another week, another challenge. And this week, it's my turn to provide the inspiration.

At first, I was unsure as to what to do but then when I stepped out onto my balcony this morning it was clear...

Step outside and use what you see as inspiration for your layout this week.

This is my favourite time of year and there is so much to love at the moment where I live:

• blue skies
• autumn sunshine
• colourful leaves
• misty morning
• late flowers
• dew on spider webs
• early sunsets
• cold, fresh air
• that "winter is on its way" feeling
• the rustle of wind in the trees
• that autumn "light"
• tractors and farm vehicles trundling past day and night harvesting the last of the crops
• the low sun in the sky
• the feeling of time moving on

What do you see where you are? What will you use as your inspiration? Take it whichever direction you like: subject matter, autumn quotes, colour schemes, choice of papers, nature photos, your perspective at this time of year... I see a myriad of possibilities and am excited to see how this takes you.

Make sure you say Hi in the comments and leave us your link if you join in the challenge. :-)

Lisa

x