Challenge #202 week of 29th February 2016

Well, it's a special day today. It's not often we get extra time given to us but of course 29th February is just that. An extra day once every four years. So any of you out there with a 29th February birthday who only gets to celebrate it on the correct day every four years - today is YOUR day! Enjoy it.

In honour of 2016 as Leap Year, I'd like you to be inspired by extra.

You might think this one a bit tricky to come up with a good layout topic but as usual, I think there are many routes to take this week.

Maybe you could take it literally and talk about that magic extra day, or how you received something extra sometime - a scoop of ice-cream perhaps or something more "important". You could make a page about going the extra mile, that extra gesture of kindness you gave or received. A job where you had to work a lot of overtime or maybe one where you got a great bonus. How about doing without the extra portion of something unhealthy during a diet or a new health and fitness regime. That extra ounce of strength that came out of nowhere one day when you least expected it. Or how someone particular makes you feel extra special.

I found these layouts which could fit the challenge and offer some visual inspiration.

An extra special friendship.

A layout that made me go that extra mile with all the detail involved!

And a gift that was truly extraordinary.

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#202 or you can post it in our Whimsical Musings Facebook group. There should be an album in the photos section of our group WM#202 for you to use.

And wait, there's more....

I promised details of the winners of the giveaways and here they are!

We had a total of 72 comments on our Monday to Saturday posts during our celebratory week and 23 layouts uploaded to the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery or the new Whimsical Musings Facebook group in the period 8th to 21st Feb. Wow - that was a lot of activity!

So the first two prizes were pulled from all those names. Once again, I just cut up and folded the papers and my DH pulled two lucky winners.

First up is Jemma who wins this scrummy set of Heidi Swapp goodies. Congrats to you Jemma!

Second to be drawn was Kathy and she'll be receiving this swoon worthy set of My Mind's Eye On Trend 2 items. Way to go Kathy!

And then the third draw was for those who left a comment on Sunday's post telling me which previous Whimsical Musings prompt was their favourite.

Susan - your addiction to chocolate WM#170 wins the exclusive Scrapabilly Schnick Schnack Sack. Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

Ladies - please send me your snail mail addresses and I will get these items into the post as soon as I can!

Thanks to everyone for joining in with comments and layouts and commiserations to those of you whose name didnt get pulled :-( You know I'd send you all something if I could :-)

Don't forget that just because the celebratory week is over, there's still plenty of inspiration to be found in the previous prompts and the new one posted each Monday. There's quite a lot of activity over in the Whimsical Musings Facebook group too which is a lot of fun to see. So come on over and join in. We'd love to see you there - or the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery of course if that's better for you.

And the giveaway goes to....

...... drum roll please!

We had a handful of comments here on the blog and a couple of layouts uploaded to the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery.....

... And in the purely random pulling-a-name-out-of-a-tin method carried out by my husband.....

..... Leslie!

Congratulations, you are our winner. Watch the post for a small prize which will be making it's way across the ocean to you. :-)

And for everyone else - heads up that there will be a whole week of celebrations here at Whimsical Musings in February with more chances to win some goodies. But you have to be here to win so put the week of 8th February in your diary and make sure you are ready to participate!

Again, who doesn't love a giveaway!?!

Challenge #194 - week of 28th December 2015

The week between Christmas and New Year is always a bit of an odd one. Christmas is over, and the New Year is still on its way. Most of the time here in Germany, we are off work and are happy the shops have reopened after several days of country shut down and a little glimmer of normality is on the horizon.

I find myself wishing time would go a little more slowly and at the same time, finding myself willing the New Year to begin. I'm not a big fan of New Year's Eve (and I miss the Big Ben chimes at midnight now that I'm no longer in the UK) but I always have the highest hopes for a good start and fresh chances.

Over the years, we've had prompts about goodbyes, new beginnings, turning points, goals and possibilities. And I love the idea of having a prompt that is linked in some way to the turn of the year.

So, this week, I'd like you to be inspired by... countdowns.

You might be inspired by the NYE TV countdown to the Big Ben chimes

or the ball drop in Times Square

or maybe the various countdown apps that can now help you remember every event you are looking forward to...

Screen shot from 14th December - I'm not that far off on my Christmas countdown!!!

Maybe your country or family have a specific way of counting down to some special event or maybe you are just a cross-off-the-days-on-a-calender type of girl (remembering some stories here for me!).

Record your special countdown stories and link up over at our Flickr Whimsical Musings gallery here with the tag WM#194.

And not to forget - there is an open giveaway that I mentioned on the blog post for WM#193 (see post here). Blog comments here or on that blog post will qualify for an entry and a layout in the gallery anytime up to January 11th will qualify for an extra entry - the more the merrier. 

Challenge #193 week of 14th December 2015

Well, the Christmas build up is in its most intensive phase for the next 10 days and I'm late with everything - of course!

There are certain things that I like to do every Christmas and so far, I'm not sure I've managed more than one or two small things. But we've started one or two new traditions this year which is nice.

What is definitely missing is the time I need to watch my nice pile of Christmas movies which I like to work through in the run up to the big day.

Therefore, in the absence of me actually watching any of them so far, I think we need to make them this week's prompt.

So, be inspired by Christmas movies.

Everyone has a favourite. Mine is Holiday Inn for sure. Classic black and white Fred Astair and Bing Crosby with the original version of White Christmas. Who could ask for more? But there are also plenty of modern films in my collection, how about you?

As always, I think there are many ways to take this inspiration - whether it's just about your favourite, or your collection. Childhood memories, or traditions. Identifying with the characters  - I have a good memory that's very similar to Clark Griswold's tree that I might retell - or how they reflect your thoughts on the festivities at this time of year. Take it in any direction you like!

I'm late uploading a few into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery but if you create, it would be lovely to see you there too. Don't forget to tag your creation with WM#193 so we can find you.

I'm in the mood for a little giveaway in celebration of this special time of year, so I'll put your name into the hat for any comments on this post and double points for a layout in the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery - who doesn't love a giveaway?!?

Giveaway prize!

When I posted at the beginning of the week, I promised that I would draw the name for our relaunch giveaway and here it is! Better late than never.

Because I was a little late, I included any layout uploaded to the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery since the beginning of September - right up to today. I also included Julene's layout which is on Flickr but she doesn't seem to have been able to get it into the gallery. (If you are reading this Julene, get that layout in the gallery so everyone can enjoy it!)

There were a total of nine layouts...

All the names were folded up and put into a little basket so I could pull a name fairly.....

Tadaaaaa! Leslie - your R+R layout is the winner! So please expect a little prize to be heading your way as soon as I can get something in the post for you :-)

Because Leslie is also helping out around here and because I'm feeling generous this morning, I decided to pull a second name too to spread around the giveaway love.....

... Congrats to Julene! Julene, contact me with your snail mail address and I'll get a little something in the post to you as well. It's even more important now that you get your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery too!!!

I'm off to my weekly crop this evening at my wonderful LSS, Scrapabilly, so I'll be picking up some bits and pieces for these giveaways which is always a lot of fun.

Come back soon for more inspiration!

Challenge #139 Week of 29th September 2014

Hello and welcome!  It's Lynnette here and I'm ready to share some inspiration with you this week.  

I'm hardly up on the latest and greatest trends as my head is usually filled with hockey and skating schedules, but lately I've actually noticed one that seems to be popping up a lot in my world (even beyond scrapbooking).  Perhaps you have noticed it, too.

Geometric designs, turquoise, triangles, feathers, leather...even arrowheads!  What comes to mind here is a Southwest, Navajo, Aztec, Native American vibe.  Now, for our Whimsical Musings friends who are outside of the US,  I tried to name this style in a variety of ways.  Hopefully, one of those terms makes sense.  If not, take a look at some of my examples to get the gist.

First, it started with the purchase of this paper collection pack at Scrapbook Expo earlier in the month.

Now, I won't lie.  This collection is from last fall (See how on top of the trends I AM?!), but it caught my eye last year and I never bought it.  When I saw it again this year at Expo and it was the only one left, I knew I couldn't let it pass by.  While not my usual "go-to" pattern and design, the warm tones and natural elements really appeal to me.  I spy feathers, arrows and a zig zag design that is reminiscent of a Navajo blanket.

Even though that paper collection was from last year, I'm still spying this look.  I received this beautiful bracelet with turquoise and silver from my sister for my birthday.

There's that trend again.

And still, while shopping the other day...

this sweater with geometric designs and earth tone colors.

Are you feeling the vibe?  If you're not or want to delve deeper, I've also created a pinterest board that you can visit here to get some other examples.  Isn't it funny how when you start to notice something, it seems to then just pop up all over the place?

Your challenge this week is to be inspired by Native American design. 

You still have a few more days to enter the "Welcome Back" giveaway for September.  Any and all entries from our September prompts are eligible.  Be sure to tag this week's layout WM#139 over on our flickr group.

I'll be back later this week to show you my layout.  You can be sure I'm going to dip into that
 new-to-me Carta Bella paper pack - FINALLY!

Happy Scrapping! 

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!

Challenge #137 week of 15th September 2014

I recently bought a pack of an old childhood favorite candy. 

So much fun to eat! Each color is a different flavor. They are a great little treat as you can savor each wafer as they come out of the pack, giving your mouth a change-up with every serving. I had a little giggle as I sorted them out, saving my favorite flavors for last. There was also a discard pile for my husband of my least favorite flavors (wink-wink.) Occasionally I can find a roll of only chocolate - swoon...

I was inspired to scrap this story about my strawberry apron which I recently passed on to my granddaughter Chloe. I haven't decided yet what I want to say about it.

How will starting with a favorite flavor help you create this week? Will the spicy heat of Thai food inspire you to scrap with a hot color scheme? Will the creamy coolness of your favorite flavor of ice cream make you reach for snow-covered photos to scrap? What memory is stirred up by the taste of your favorite beverage?

Also, don't forget that there's a giveaway running all September...! Any and all entries for any prompts during September will go into the pot for a little prize! We'd love to see your creations over in the Flickr gallery (here) with the tag WM#137.

LCSmithSAVED

 

Challenge #135 week of 1st September 2014

Well, that was a long break wasn't it?

I'm so sorry for leaving you all hanging! But I thought that this week was perfect to come back to the fold with Monday being the first of a brand new month. And the beginning of my favourite time of year to boot! So we're back and I'm hoping we can get organised enough to be here regularly week by week for you to find a little inspiration and some close-knit community.

It's been a chaotic few months and it's not yet over but I spoke to Leslie and Lynnette and we'd all like this little corner of the internet to keep going and get back to our friendly exchanges and shares over at our Flickr gallery (here). In fact, Leslie and Lynnette will be helping me out so I know that we all look forward to seeing what prompts they create for us! It's SO good to have friends and these two are most definitely that. I think I'd have given up on WM if it hadn't been for their friendship and support. I cherish each of them and also those of you out there reading this.

Of course, we still all miss my beloved Pam but life in the Big Apple is taking up all her time and unfortunately we will just have to wait for her to come back to us! We miss you Pam. :-) But I know that you are out there thinking of us!

I know that the blog is looking a little uninspired right now which certainly isn't how I'd like it to stay. So please bear with me while I find the time to tweak and adjust things round here until things look as pretty as they should!

I've just popped over to our Flickr gallery and am thrilled to see some recent activity! Hi there to Leslie and Ali! Tickled pink to see your uploads. :-) Thanks for keeping the spirit alive.

Now, with the promise of being here more often I'd like to offer you a fresh new prompt...

Coming back after all this time, it's only appropriate that this week I ask you to be inspired by reunions! Whether it be a school, college, university or work reunion, a reunion with a long-lost love or perhaps a friend, or even a reunion with something long neglected (à la Whimsical Musings), I'm sure we can all come up with at least one memorable event to put down on paper!

This layout I shared for our 100 celebration last year was in fact a reunion of sorts. Although it was an open day to celebrate 100 years of the school building, I met up with a couple of girls I hadn't seen for more years than I care to mention!

And how about this layout which was created for a different prompt (a relationship not yet captured) but featuring what can only be called a reunion with my wonderful Filipino friend after almost 15 years!

Let's make this little comeback a great reunion of creative minds and in case you need a little incentive, I'll put up a small giveaway! Any and all entries for any prompts during September will go into the pot for a little prize!

So come on and join in! Let's celebrate a new month and a return to whimsical inspiration!

We have winners!

Well, our centenary celebration is well and truly over!

I enticed you to join in on the fun and create a layout based on any of the previous 99 Whimsical Musings prompts for a chance to win this little collection:

And you had another chance to win this selection (if I don't nab the bows before they make it into the envelope!) if you created a project based on any of the 6 prompts for the 100 prompt celebrations:

I was thrilled to find that we had 16 layouts in the gallery based on one of the first 99 prompts we've posted here on the blog...

And the name pulled out of the basket is.....

Huge Congratulations to Tara who has been faithfully working through old prompts since she joined our group and we love to see these older challenges popping up. "Toothless" is a great layout and made me smile as soon as I saw it in the gallery. Tara wins the My Mind's Eye Collectable goodies.

And then I was even MORE thrilled to find 17 project in the gallery inspired by our six 100 prompts

I made sure I gave it a good shake

And the name pulled out of the basket is.....

Even HUGER congratulations to Lynette for her Polish tradition layout. This is the second prize Lynette has won for this super fun, happy, bright, fabulous layout as it was the first uploaded into the gallery after our celebration and for that she won a spot prize! Lynette, I hope your postman has a strong back! Ha ha. The Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper goodies will be on its way to you soon.

And just because it was so much fun pulling names out of the hat, I decided to throw all the entries into the basket one last time and pull a surprise name out of the pot...

And our last lucky, surprise winner is....

Waves and congrats to Ali! She contributed so many layouts to the gallery these last few weeks that it thrilled me to pull her name out and look, she won with a layout based on our FIRST prompt - destiny or what?!? Ali, I will pick something up from the shop for you when I'm there at the weekend :-)

To all three winners, please email or Flickr mail me with your snail mail address and as soon as I have a moment to breathe, I will be getting goodies in the post to you!

I want to thank ALL you loyal readers and contributors to our gallery for all your inspiring creations. You are the reason I continue with this creative endeavour and our little corner of the internet means more to me that you can know. Thank you for all 33 links - they were all perfect and made me happy with each and every upload.

Remember that just because the prizes have been distributed doesn't mean that it's the end of the fun. You can check out all the previous prompts up at the top of the blog on the "Previous Prompts" page and join our happy group over at Flickr (here) to browse our incredible gallery (here). We intend to keep on going to the next 100 celebration and I hope you will all be there to join in.

#100-6 Inspired by 100%

I am lucky enough to get a lot of presents from my husband who is travelling a lot right now for business and who likes to brings goodies back for me. It's fun to see what's caught his eye and maybe even to see what trends there are on the other side of the world.

Take the neon trend for example. He told me he'd seen a lot of it. I told him it was kind of trendy right now but I thought I might be too old to carry it off. But it did appeal.

So, I wasn't too surprised when last time he came back and he proudly presented me with not one but four neon coloured handbags! With matching make-up bags and coin purses. Ha ha. Very typical. And so very, very me. He knows me very, very well.

Now, not all four colourways are my absolute favouites but I have been carrying them every day since I got them so I guess that says it all. And I'm fully aware that many people think I'm crazy and wouldn't be seen carrying one. But who cares what others think. These beauties belong to me :-)

I Instagrammed this photo recently, captioning it "and everyone thinks I'm so black and white" which wasn't supposed to be dramatic. I really think it's kind of true. As soon as I printed it off, I knew I wanted to follow that sort of idea to turn it into a layout.

Using my August Solitude Counterfeit kit, I sorted out all those neutrals and greys to make up a seriously colour-free layout so that this photo really jumps out. It's a bit like the tone-on-tone prompt we had a few weeks ago (check it out here).

I knew this was the layout for the 100% Whimsical Musings WM#100 prompt (here), I just wasn't quite sure of how that would fit into the story. While I sorted out the product and started layering things up, the title and journalling started forming in my mind.

Yes, I might give the impression of being rather monochrome, a bit conservative and somewhat unfashionable, but there is a colourful side of me that many either don't know about, or don't notice.

Where did the 100% prompt take you?

Don't forget that you have just two days left to load up your layouts in our Flickr Gallery to be in for a chance to win one of two great prizes. We have one prize for those of who who have created a layout based on one of the WM#100 prompts and another for anyone tackling any of the previous 99 layouts.

Check out my post here to see details of the prizes. Go on! You know you want to! Who doesn't like a giveaway?!?

... And we have a winner!

As mentioned once or twice before (wink) we were having a giveaway to celebrate our one year anniversary.

We asked you {here} to load your creations based on previous prompts to the flick'r group and tag it WM#52 for the chance to win a small prize.

We had some wonderful submissions from you.

Leslie was inspired by Heroes

Tara was inspired by living colorfully (among a few other layouts she posted!)

Connie was inspired by names

Michelle was inspired by maps

We wish we could send you all a prize for all your support and love over this past year, but unfortunately we could only choose one. The prize was chosen at random. It was a joint effort between Lisa and I. 

Lynette was inspired by Ice Cream. And she is our winner!!!

 Please send me a private message in flick'r with your address where we can send your goodies. We think you're going to like it.

Thanks again for playing along and here's to many more pages.

xo,

Pamage (and Lisa)