#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.

#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 #317 - week of 4th February 2019

Ah! February already.

Last Saturday was Groundhog Day which got me thinking about this week's challenge so... yes, you guessed it...

I'd like you to be inspired by Groundhog Day.

Let's have a look at a few ways you might take this prompt:

• Groundhog Day is when Phil tells us if there's going to be 6 more weeks of winter weather - if he sees his shadow - or if spring is on its way - if it's cloudy and there's no shadow to be seen. So you could talk about your own weather predictions or feelings about winter and spring at this time of year. 
• Maybe you've even visited a Groundhog Day event - of course, one of the most famous of which is Punxsatawny Phil in Pennsylvania. This might be the time to write about that trip.
• You can find out more about this day over on Wikipedia and I was interested to find that it seems to have its weather lore origins in Germany where badgers would predict the end of winter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day
• And what about the famous movie? I'm sure you've seen it and also had that feeling of living the same day over and over and over again! This could be the way to take the challenge this week.
• Weather stash and products would also work for this prompt as well as any product featuring groundhogs, squirrels (they come from the rodent/squirrel family), badgers or any such creatures.
• Or maybe you just want to celebrate something that happens on that day! The choice is yours.

Last year, I spent Groundhog Day in this gorgeous French hotel as it happens to be the same day as my bestie's birthday - love the layout I made of this sweet French village on that day.

Do you have somewhere to go with this? I hope so. However you interpret Groundhog Day this week, we'd love to see! 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 #312 - week of 19th November 2018

We were invited to friends for dinner at the weekend. What a great evening it was! I don't think I've laughed so much for a long time. Who said that we get more serious as we get older? Not round our way.

It's taken us a long time to develop a good circle of friends here and that's what I'd like to think about today.

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

I know that we've been inspired by relationships and connections over the years but it surprised me that friends has never been explicitly selected.

Here are just a couple of pages I've made about friends recently...

This prompt is wide open for any interpretation you'd like to make. New friends, old friends, school friends, school friends, how easy it is for you to make friends, what type of friend you are, what type of friend you look for, different categories of friends, funny stories, sad stories and everything in between! Literally, a thousand ways to talk about friends this week. You might even have a scrapbook supply from a friendship line or a word element to use. Take this prompt and run with it! I'm sure you could come up with a list of a dozen pages or more to create with just the single word "friends" to inspire you.


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. 

#259 - be inspired by fussy cutting

Another make that happened a while ago but I just haven't made the time to share here on the WM blog.

And another layout that combines three separate challenges on one page. First up, I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit, (CKC August kit, Heatwave #4), then I used that for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge prompt to create a page with a mixed up title (find out more on the CKC blog here or my Recklinghausen Musings blog here). Finally, it includes lots of fussy cutting to complete the Whimsical Musings prompt WM#259 - fussy cutting.

I cut out the hexagon pattern from the My Mind's Eye paper, the clipboard elements from the Pink Paislee paper and also the "weekend" word from a Crate Paper sheet.

I love fussy cutting bits and pieces from my stash and finding new ways of using it so this combination makes me happy.

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... :-)

Challenge #305 - week of 1st October 2018

Wow, it's October and the year is flying by. Of course, you know that I'm smiling every day because it's autumn and simply the best time of the year. I seem to be more organised, more energetic and get more done - (well, within reason ha ha!) - with the longer evenings and the full feeling of autumn in the air that seems to feed me.

But it's at this time of year that our social calendar fills up even more than in the summer as dinner arrangements are made and squeezed in before crazy season starts with birthdays and Christmas in November and December.

Which got me thinking about this week's prompt. I'd like you to be inspired by dinner parties.

Now, we call them dinner parties round here but you might have a more relaxed name for them - I'm talking about simply getting together with friends around the dinner table. You might cook together with friends and then sit around the kitchen island nibbling and chatting together. Or it might be a more formal occasion where the cooking is done behind closed doors and presented on your best wedding dinner service with fancy napkins and crystal glasses. The latter is more me because a) I'm chaotic and untidy in the kitchen which means I don't want anyone to see it! b) we are foodies and c) I'm more old-fashioned and still get a huge kick from getting out our porcelain and crystal and using it. :-)

You might want to talk about dinner with friends or with family. For special times on the calendar such as Easter, birthdays or Christmas. Or relaxed events where it just sort of happened unexpectedly. You might have silverware, dinner service or glasses with a story to capture this week. Or you might want to recall a particular dinner with a special meaning or story behind it.

For example, once we invited friends for an English Bonfire Night dinner for them complete with a menu and theme! We even had flower arrangements on the table created in English Wellington boots which were quite the eye catcher! It was a lot of fun, and explaining the whole story to them, with the history of Bonfire Night and what English elements we had included, was all part of the evening. I wonder if I've made a layout about this? Perhaps this week is the week!

I really feel that food, drink, eating together and spending time with friends and family are at the core of a happy life and recording these times in my albums is very important. I hope you agree and find a way to take this inspiration for yourself 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. 

#295 - be inspired by skylines

Of course when I created this prompt, I knew exactly which city skyline which was likely to feature on my page. And I'm sure it won't surprise you either.

It had to be New York from my most recently trip and it was wonderful to pick out two of my favourite views from this time around and bring them together on a page for the Simple Scrapper Creative Team. I used a sketch from the Simple Scrapper premium membership (find out more here) as well as a Story Starter from Simple Scrapper - Favourites.

I have a selection of supplies that I use for all my NYC layouts and I find myself adding bits and pieces to that kit as time goes on but the layouts all have a similar look to them which makes me happy - when I finally get around to filing away the hundreds of layouts I have sitting on my Kallax, that New York album will really have quite a few layouts in there. I've realised though that I need to get more organised with recording the stories I want to really capture rather than just doing random moments!

Anyway, here's my layout.

I got happy with the floral paper and spent half an hour or so fussy cutting a bunch of pretty florals and leaves to layer up. I love how all the elements look good together even though they are different collections.

Do you have a skyline to feature? It doesn't even have to be a city view - I have several ideas from my trips around Germany so I may revisit this prompt again when I have time and inspiration.

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... :-)

#300 - be inspired by the power of three

Well, look at me! I made my layout as soon as I'd finished writing up the blog post which is definitely something that rarely happens. But it's a special prompt and that deserves some special treatment.

It helps that I'm also playing along for a few days in the LOAD mini: Out of this World challenge (the mini challenge is just a week) and so I was fired up and inspired to get going straight away.

The LOAD prompt was to include white space or use space as the theme of the page so of course, I managed to do both!

It seemed a perfect combination to make a page about our Whimsical Musings bestie Pam, my trip to New York to see her, a LOAD prompt and a WM prompt all on one page.

I used my New York kit of supplies which was inspired by Pam herself and which features some products bought there (the gold leaves and the gold and green paper that is matting the photos) and all in all, I think this ticks all the boxes I wanted it to.

Of course, those of you who've been around some time will remember that it was a little challenge that Pam and I gave ourselves that gave birth to Whimsical Musings and over the years, we attended many LOADs together. I feel like she really is my scrapbooking twin.

Even though I was unable to reduce the photos to three, there are plenty of other threes to discover.

Three journaling cards, three little paper heart embellies, three stars at the bottom, visual triangles, three gold leaves, three dots of gold elements and three stamped phrases. And even though you can't see the third person on the photo, I can just about spot a certain young man (on the bridge waving!) who I had the pleasure of getting to know while I was there, and the three of us had such a fun weekend together. So, threes all over the place!

I'd especially love it if you shared this week! 

Help us celebrate this major milestone with a layout of your own. 

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... :-)

Challenge #266 - week of 17th July 2017

Did you see?!!?

I not only posted an older prompt layout last week (WM#261 - inspired by loss) but I also managed to get the most recent prompt page done too! (WM#265 - inspired by bees). I'm feeling pretty good about that.

One of the main reasons that I managed it last week is that our wonderful Whimsical Musings friend, Pam, challenged me to play along with the Shimelle 25 days of scrapbooking words which runs from 7th through to the end of July. The timing is pretty good for me and so far, I'm on track with a layout for each of the word based challenges. If you're not already playing along, why not join in. It's really low pressure and I'm loving it. And it's always better to play along with friends, isn't it?

I'll be sharing a few more of my layouts soon as many of them have been made with my trusty Counterfeit Kit Challenge kits. Great to see them getting used up. Double win.

I was tidying up my desk yesterday when my eye fell on a wonderfully pretty pocket page that I received out of the blue from my sweet fellow CKC Master Forger and long time internet friend, Clair (find her glorious makes over on her blog here).

I don't think I managed to share it yet and so I took it into some better light to take a few photos. One of the "things" with pocket letters is that you should include some mini goodies for the recipient and sure enough, tucked in and behind the pockets are a handful of typical Clair items!

Sprinkles and sparkles...

a hand-beaded element...

some tiny banners...

a cute clip...

and some stamped and fussy-cut labels and tickets.

I emptied them out and realised that this would be perfect for today's prompt.

I'd like you to be inspired by labels.

Of course, the obvious route to go this week is to get happy with labels on your project.  I have a sheet of paper from the Memorandum collection which I am using purely for cutting out the pre-printed labels - love how they are turning out. There are a myriad of label supplies and printables that you could use on your pages - use them for journalling, use them for the title, use them for the date, use them just for decoration! Or maybe you have a labelling story that you'd like to capture? Cute home-made labels for jars of jam or how you reorganised your space and had fun labelling everything. Perhaps you have a story about being labelled as something or other and how true/untrue that is.

As ever, I think there's different ways to take this prompt and I'm excited to see what you make.

If you'd like you can share your layout with us over at the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#266 or you can post it in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group again with the tag WM#266.
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Let's Celebrate - WM#200 a week of inspiration!

What a fantastic week we had celebrating Whimsical Musings' 200th prompt. 

Before we get back into the regular routine of new challenges, I thought we'd just take a second week to recap on the inspiration offered to us by our Guest Designers and remind you of the giveaways!

What I thought was particularly fantastic was that I didn't check with any of our guests about which prompt they would be using and yet, they each took a different favourite to work with. Serendipity at its best :-)

So, here's the week in review.

I kicked things off here in Germany on Monday with a layout inspired by the Midas Touch WM#105

See the blog post here

Then we travelled to Alberta, Canada (we travelled all over this week!) for Sherrie's page inspired by the trend of ombré WM#84

See the blog post here

On Wednesday we headed across the border to the US for Leslie's creation inspired by meeting someone for the first time WM#158

See the blog post here

Day four was back to Canada but the east coast this time to see Ali's layout inspired by connections WM#3 and also inspired by life's turning points WM#20

See the blog post here

Friday took us back to the US (all this back and forth and east to west was purely coincidental!) to bring Kathy into the Whimsical Musings fold with her layout inspired by maps WM#14

See the blog post here

Day 6 was headed up by Lynnette back east in New Jersey where she was inspired by reunions WM#135

See the blog post here

Last and definitely not least, we came full circle back to Germany where I was delighted to include Sylvia whose layout was inspired by a relationship not yet scrapped WM#32

See the blog post here

There are two giveaways just for commenting on Monday to Saturday's blog posts or creating layouts using previous prompts and uploading to either the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery OR the new Whimsical Musings Facebook group. Open until 21st February.

Find out about the giveaway here

Find out about this giveaway here

And for commenting on Sunday's post (Sylvia's layout here) with your favourite previous Whimsical Musings prompt, you could win this limited edition Schnick Schnack Sack from Scrapabilly! Also open until 21st February

Find out about this giveaway here

Come and join in the fun either at the Whimsical Musings Flickr group or the brand new Whimsical Musings Facebook group. Let's keep the flurry of activity from the last week going!

And here's to the next 200 prompts. See you back here next Monday.

Let's Celebrate - WM #200 Guest Designer Sylvia

Yippee! Day 7 of our Whimsical Musings 200 prompt celebrations 

We are going international today - well at least international for most of you! Not for me because I live here - ha ha!

I'm excited to have Sylvia from Scrapabilly (my LSS) to be our Guest Designer today.

This is one cool chick! She has the Rockabilly vibe down to a fine art and when you go to her shop, you'll be singing along with Elvis just like the rest of us! Her shop is awesome and I'm lucky enough to be on her Design Team for her monthly kit. She has become such a good friend and has welcomed me in to her inner circle who have also become good friends - and I get to go a real, live crop every week. Sylvia is thoughtful, kind, witty and savvy. And she makes gorgeous pages! We are complete opposites in how we scrap and I love her pages because I know I could never make a page like hers. We have a good mutual appreciation society.

(Just a note, she kindly wrote this for me in English so that I didn't have to translate it for you all - isn't that wonderful!)

Let's see what she has to tell us.

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WM#32 - inspired by a relationship not yet scrapped

This layout is inspired by Whimsical Musings prompt #32: a relationship not yet scrapped. After the death of our 17-year-old cat „Jerry Lee“ our house was so empty and cold. So we decided to adopt two little kitties some weeks later. And this was the best decision we could have made J. The cats are called „Holly“ & „Cash“ and they seem to enjoy living with us. And we do so, too. Especially our daughter Saskia is cuddling the cats whenever she can. This layout shows her kissing „Cash“ and I am sure you can see the love between those two. It is my first layout about our new cats which are growing quickly – they are 6 months now.

My layout is based on a sketch by Elle´s Studio and I used Crate Paper´s „Little You“ collection for it. The soft colours fit perfectly, I guess.

Who Am I?

My name is Sylvia (38) and Scrapbooking makes me happy since 2006. In 2007 I decided to start an online shop called "Scrapabilly" – that´s a word combination of scrapbooking and Rockabilly – my favourite music and lifestyle. Since 2010 I additionally own a retail store near to the "Ruhrgebiet" (the Ruhr Area) in Germany. A lot of work – but a lot of happy people, too :-)

Find Sylvia at Scrapabilly here!

Scrapabilly.de

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I am so happy that Sylvia agreed to be on the blog. I couldn't be more lucky to have her as a friend and to have her shop as MY LSS! 

Now, Scrapabilly had a major kit redesign this month and now there's not just one awesome kit to collect, there are now three to choose from. A scrapbooking kit - the Kit des Monats, an embellishment kit - the Schnick Schnack Sack, and a planner kit - the Pretty Planner Pack.

I happen to have a Schnick Schnack Sack as one last giveaway this week. Look at those goodies. This is a super kit and I'm tempted to keep it - ha ha! So, if you'd like to be in with a chance to win this bag of schnick and schnack then leave a comment on TODAY's blog post and tell us YOUR favourite previous prompt. I'll give you until the 21st February to comment for your chance.  You can find details of the other two giveaways in the blog posts earlier in the week.

Just to remind you that if you are inspired to make this week, don't forget that we love it when you share. You can upload your layout to the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery here with the tags WM#XX as well as WM#200 for a chance to win.

We now also have a Whimsical Musings Facebook group (come along here to join in) and I've set up an album there for any layouts that you'd like to share for our 200 celebrations. There's a whole load of friends over there already and you will be given a warm welcome - don't be shy!