WM#334 - be inspired by found nature treasures

I do scrap sometimes - honestly! Just not as often as I used to. But this last 10 days, I made a layout and feel quite the sense of achievement. But one layout in a whole month seems a little lame at the same time so I need to schedule some creative time just for me.

When I think back to my trip to Scotland, I have many happy memories. It was a really wonderful trip full of good food, lovely people, delicious whisky (I'm NOT a whisky drinker!), stunning landscape, comfy and cosy accommodation, and a great selection of photos which I want to use to record this special trip.

But the first one that caught my eye was the staged, flat-lay that I took of my found treasures for this exact prompt and I knew that this would be my first layout about my experience.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - September kit - Wanderlust - lo#5

I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge September kit, Wanderlust, and just picked out the bits and pieces I liked to offer a subtle background to my simple photo. This is a pretty standard design that I tend to use - block at the bottom, layers along the top edge and then clusters of embellies. I worry that all my layouts look the same - ha ha.

I picked out a few red items from my kit to just give the layout a little pop of something and the circles are repeated around a visual triangle.

Unfortunately I don't have a clip in silver which would have been a little better but I live with that.

The design gave me space to write a few lines of introductory text to my Scotland story. I'm interested to see how I progress with this.

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 (changing out the XXX with the challenge number you've completed) so we know exactly which inspiration you've taken. 

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

Challenge #335 - week of 21st October 2019

Trying to mix things up and keeping it short and sweet today seeing as though this is a day late (need to get back to the prescheduling!), I'm taking my inspiration from something I posted over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge FB community last week. I asked everyone how much paper they had in their stash collection.

It would appear that we all have "more than enough" - whatever that means!

Therefore, this week I'd like you to be inspired by paper.

By this I'm thinking more along the lines of just paper in general. In the past we've had other paper based prompts - WM#74 - bold paper; WM#157 - photo realistic papers; WM#215 - tissue paper; WM#283 - oriental paper - but let's just try to pick some paper that we love and use it!

• layer, distress, sew, weave, die-cut, ink, tear, block, fussy cut, 
• use your favourite and showcase it as much as you can
• try to find a way to use and love a paper that's not such a favourite
• use more - or less - than you usually would
• go to a beloved sheet of hoarded treasured paper that's sitting, collecting dust
• cut into a sheet that you just bought a short time ago
• challenge yourself to using more layers than you normally would
• challenge yourself to using a single sheet with a large design
• 
  

Layered

Fussy cut

Distressed

Inked and stitched

Cut to form a background

Backed

Punched

I am a paper lover and even though I know that I have more that I need and could really do with more embellishments and alphas, a beautiful sheet of paper can win my heart every time 💗.

But I do use a lot. I like to cut up a whole bunch of pieces and then layer them up to get the full range of texture and pattern. This is good for using up my supplies and makes me happy. So I might need to go a different direction this week - let's see!

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 #316 - week of 28th January 2018

Another Monday, another early morning appointment. This time at the local transport registration office. Anyone who knows anything about Germany knows that it's a bureaucratic system and this will be my third visit to the office in an attempt register our new car. Not easy for a non-native but all part of the fun of living in a foreign country. :-)

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

A layout from a previous WM#79 prompt to just show you that I love Germany despite the rolling eyes at all the red tape sometimes!

And another one to show you that I love my adopted home country but can still get frustrated!  Sometimes it all just makes me smile!

There are some ways to take this so shall we have a look and see where we can find inspiration?

• local government - we all have our stories of "fighting" the local government system to get something done. I'm not thinking negative stories here, although of course, feel free to tell those too! But the Catch 22 type of scenarios that I'm sure we've all experienced at least once! I have one that springs to mind about receiving my British passport with my new married name here in Germany with an eventful trip to the post office so that might be my story this week! Local government has a reputation for having a lot of red tape no matter what country so this could be a direction for you.
• national government - perhaps you've been affected by something bureaucratic at a higher level that you could write about this week. Again, Catch 22 situations spring to mind where you just seem to go round in circles! 
• business - jobs and business is full of red tape. Maybe you made a recommendation that would have reduced red tape in your company that you'd like to write about or something that was introduced that just seemed so crazy that it was funny! This might be the week to put that down on a project.
• Project Life - if you are recording your daily/weekly/monthly life in a Project Life or pocket page system, then you're bound to be recording snippets of life that include aspects of procedures or processes that could be linked to bureaucracy. Get it written down for this week's prompt!
• red tape - of course, bureaucracy is also known as "red tape" as I've mentioned above so how about using red tape on your project. Washi or strips of red paper or even twine could match this idea. 
• the origins of red tape - in the past, the files that lawyers needed to refer to in court were wrapped with red (or pink) tape. So you could write a story about a lawyer you know, studying the law, official files, or a legal story.

Enough? I hope so. I really think that that post office story might be the one for me. It's hilarious and familiar to anyone and everyone I've told, no matter what country they come from. Let's see if I can get creative this week.

However you interpret it, 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 #315 - week of 21st January 2019

Morning! I hope you're having a great start to the new week and I'm happy to report that we've had some simply wonderful winter weather round here - blue skies with a warming, bright sun and thick frost that stays all day! I think the ducks outside where we live are a little confused, as always, as to why the water is totally frozen over suddenly!

But I'm up and out early this week because I have a check up at the doctor's which gave me the idea for this week.

I'd like you to be inspired by checks.

Checking off items from a to-do list 

Checking progress on health and fitness goals

I can hear you scratching your head from here but let's think about how you could interpret this:

• doctor's check - this could include an update in a baby book through to a regular yearly routine that you'd like to record. It could be a funny anecdote, something that you'd been dreading that turned out fine or if you are recording a difficult story or journey, something from that timeline. 
• a check list - this might include any kind of list making such as Christmas lists, present lists, Monday to do lists, yearly goals and everything in between.
• quirks - we all have them and sometimes they include regular checks that you do at certain times or at regular intervals or before you do something else. Maybe you check that you turned off the iron five times before you leave the house, or like me, check that you have your passport with you every five minutes on the way to the airport.
• travel - travelling is full of checks. Packing lists, places to go, planning the trip with a guidebook, airport security checks, checking off the things you've done throughout the trip.
• household - part of running a household is having checks - mental or written down. Regular checks of equipments, supplies, things to do. Winter checks, summer checks. Clothing, cleaning, gardening, storage.
• paper supplies - I've seen many supplies which include check lists which could be interesting to  include on your project this week - paper, journalling cards and embellishments. Sometimes there are even full collections based on this style - Daily Grind from Simple Stories back in 2013 for example! Or how about a checked paper design - gingham, plaid, grid, geometric.
• general checks - I'm sure you can think of stories where something needed to be checked. Maybe even checked twice!

I hope you've got ideas churning and maybe that will turn into a page which I'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.

Happy Monday everyone, let the games begin!

#292 - be inspired by ferris wheels

I made this layout a couple of weeks ago when I had the luck to spend time with my scrappy bestie and Whimsical Musings friend, Pam, on a visit to see her in NYC. It's such a thrill to actually sit at the same table and create alongside her. I'm always in awe of her process and how easy she makes it look! A really wonderful experience for me. I took a small set of supplies and picked up a few bits and pieces while I was there with her at Paper Source.

I have to say that I returned to a tried and trusted design that I think I use far too often - either a horizontal block or a vertical one, usually along one of the 1/3 lines - but with five photos that I wanted to use, it seemed the ideal choice!

It's rare that I don't use a kit these days but in effect, the fact that I had a small amount of limited supplies with me constituted a kit, didn't it! 

Anyway, another layout made and a prompt followed! I call that a result. I'm almost done with layouts from this super short trip to Vienna with my brother but there might be one or two more small stories to tell. Watch this space.

As always, I love it when you share too and if you're inspired to create this week, 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... :-)

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Challenge #258 - week of 22nd May 2017

Yeah! I managed to get last week's prompt done within the week. I'm amazed at myself.

I haven't found time to get good daytime photos so I haven't posted it here yet, but you can find it over at the Whimsical Musings Facebook Community if you're interested!

Let's see if we can come up with something new for this week now...

We haven't had a sketch in ages so off I go to Pinterest to see what I can find. Ah yes, this is a good one.

This week, I'd like you to be inspired by this October Afternoon sketch.

Original Pinterest source here / October Afternoon sketches here

What I really like about this one is the large area reserved for journalling which is always something I struggle with combining in the design of my own layouts, the strip of uneven elements across the middle and the open to interpretation off the page areas. I think you can do a lot with this one!

Will you use 5 photos across the middle or replace some of these elements for journalling cards, paper, embellishments or pocket page cards? Will you have a multi-word title or just keep it simple? Will you use the space for journalling or use that area for more embellishments? Will you keep the design simple or really fill up the areas? I love sketches that offer all these different takes. However you change up the sketch or stay faithful to it, I'd love to see what you do.

Remember that you can either upload your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#258 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#258 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #257 - week of 15th May 2017

Ok, better late than never! Somehow the beginning of the week slipped away from me but here I am and I've got a hot prompt for you :-)

Here in the west of Germany, we had a scorching hot day yesterday - it felt like the middle of summer. Everyone was out soaking up the rays and enjoying life outdoors. Just for one day! Today, it's overcast and wet, but yesterday gave everyone hope of better days to come.

Now I found it almost too hot - after just a few hours - but it reminded me of the Palm Beach by My Mind's Eye collection I just picked up from Scrapabilly and a prompt was born.

Now, we've had pineapples (WM#167) and even flamingos (WM#231) but this week, I'd like you to be inspired by palm trees!

Isn't this paper gorgeous with the gold leaf palm trees and look at that gold sticker! I love it and hope that you will join in on the tropical feeling this week.

I might well be using this paper line as my response to the kit and if you had something similar, you could head that way. Or maybe you've had a holiday somewhere tropical at some point? What about your dream tropical beach holiday where you'd be heading the moment you won the lottery? Or perhaps you've had a themed party that needs recording. I'm sure you can think of other ways to take this hot and steamy prompt this week and whichever way that is, don't forget to share!

You can either upload your layout into the Whimsical Musings Flickr gallery with the tag WM#257 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#257 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #253 week of 3rd April 2017

And another week somehow slipped away from me.

But I really don't want to let the blog go and so I'm going to try better. Perhaps I could manage to get a set of posts written ahead of time. Making the pages would even go one better!

Let's see.

Yesterday evening I had the joy of going to a Nigel Kennedy concert. If you don't know who he is, he's an unbelievably talented British violin player who has earned the reputation of being a bit of a rebel. He's a bit older now but has always been the bad boy of violin, thought of as a punk or a rebellious unconventional and yet has true classical credentials, studying as a child under Yehudi Menuhin for example. He doesn't play conventionally, nor does he look like a classical violin player. Last night was no different. Mixing a traditional instrument, with an eViolin he made incredible music ranging from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, for which he is most famous, to a truly psychedelic Jimmi Hendrix Crosstown traffic. It's not for the faint-hearted nor the purist. I loved every. single. second.

Which got me thinking about this week's prompt - better late than never. I'd like you to be inspired by genius.

As always, I think there are many ways and directions to take this prompt -

• a genuine genius you admire - yes, Kennedy might be making a reappearance in my album again
• a skill that you or someone you know are especially good at - genius skills!
• someone you know who is classified as a MENSA genius
• something you find amazing, incredible, wonderful
• copy the style of a scrapbooking genius you admire
• something you wish you were a genius about

I made this page about meeting up with Kennedy after the last concert I saw him at back in 2013. A life dream come true.

We'd love you to 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#253 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#253 in the write up text so that we can find it.

WM#231 - inspired by flamingos

It may seem a little random but there are a lot of flamingos out there if you haven't already noticed. Scrapbooking products and for around the home - flamingos are on trend!

So when I challenged you to use flamingos on your layout, I was also challenging myself.

And I did it. 

The layout isn't a serious one - really just for fun - but I used several flamingo items on the page and recorded a little story about my love for flamingos and the fact that I have lots more product so I'm going to need to find more reasons to use it up!

Sorry the photos aren't stellar - just wanted to get a shot and upload it as soon as I got home!

I added my journalling to the back of this little journaling card.
It's not private but I liked the card and thought it was an ideal place to write a few words

Just a light-hearted page to show you that your page doesn't really need to be fixated on the flamingos themselves - just incorporate a few items, use flamingo pink or even just use a single element (such as the cute paperclip) I used all three of these ideas on one page and it was fun to just cut into those papers and get them onto a page.

Again, that's what it's all about, right?

I've got a photo and an idea for last week's prompt that I haven't yet managed to pull together. Hopefully in the next few days...

When's the last time you made a page - just because???

We love it when you share too and 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 #231 - week of 26th September 2016

I've been saving this prompt for some time. But if I leave it too long, the trend will be gone and it will be too late!

But sometimes, I don't want to use up all my "good" prompts at once! Or rather, maybe I should say, my own favourite prompts...

I'd like to challenge you to use a very on-trend motif. It's pink and can be found in home decor as well as scrapbook products these days! Can you guess?

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

I've been collecting some flamingo items over the last few months from Scrapabilly but either I've been reluctant to use it up because it's all so adorable, or I don't really know how to incorporate flamingos into my everyday layouts! I've never been anywhere with flamingos for example, nor do I have any particular affinity with them - outside the scrapbook stash I'm hoarding keeping for that special layout. So I'll be stretching my creative muscles with this prompt alongside all of you!

It would appear that I have far more flamingo supplies than any single scrapper should have!

I did manage to use a few foam flamingos and she small elements last year on two Scrapabilly layouts but I had to stretch why I was using them in my mind!

So, how will you find a way to bring flamingos to your scrapping this week? I can't wait to be inspired by you!

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#231 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#231 in the write up text so that we can find it.

Challenge #230 - week of 19th September 2016

Last week I celebrated 10 years of blogging over at Recklinghausen Musings with a layout I shared here too (see post here). But it made me realised that 10 years ago was the day we travelled to Nova Scotia for our "beach holiday" and it's got the best memories. It's encouraged me to look back at the blog posts and the album I made.

Being new at scrapping and enthusiastic beyond my talents (!!) I made a full 12x12 album of that holiday and used my blog for the journalling. So looking back, I can see that 10 years ago today would appear to be the day that we had a minor emergency scare that gave us an insight into what lovely people the Canadians can be. We were helped out in our hour of need by complete strangers. My blog post title says it all "NEVER underestimate the kindness of strangers"

For prompt WM#230 I'd like you to be inspired by just that. Be inspired by the kindness of strangers.

This might be a difficult one to scrap because it's unlikely that you have photos of strangers or maybe you've never needed the help of one in particular. But think about getting lost in a town, being a helpless tourist on holiday, even someone giving up their seat for you on the train or bus. Your reaction to the situation might be an interesting direction or maybe you were the stranger helping someone else out. Even though you might have to get creative with the photographs, using something symbolic perhaps, I really think there are a few directions you could take this.

I don't have a photo of the people that helped us that day and to be honest, the event can be found in that huge album...

 just one page of three from this eventful day and look at that beginner style! *sigh* for Chatterbox papers though!

... but I have an inkling of an idea of where to take this prompt. *wink*

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#230 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#230 in the write up text so that we can find it.

#229 - inspired by using products by a manufacturer no longer in the scrap industry

I've just blogged over at Recklinghausen Musings about this layout if you'd like to see the back story to my little blog anniversary creation.

But, for now, you knew that I'd used BasicGrey, didn't you? Urban Couture is so 2006 (or it might even have been 2005, before I started) and I think these were some of the first papers I ever got myself. I loved them so much that I used them in a year review album and then I bought myself the whole collection pack - maybe even twice!

I tried to bring it up to date with some modern techniques - splatting, distressing, layering - and matching them up with some newer products - washi, mist, Thickers, mini alphas. I also tried really hard to convince myself to use some of the fibres I'd bought to match the minimal collection pack. But I just couldn't. I think those fibres might have to go into the recycle bag...

I'm not sure about that tag on the right there but overall, the layout pleases me. If nothing else, it gets a small amount of my hoard stash of BG onto a page where it belongs!

We love it when you share too and 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.

#228 - be inspired by growing things

Prompt WM#228 asked you to be inspired by growing things and I have to admit that that bright red tomato I featured in the post had already been made up into a layout for the Scrapabilly August Kit des Monats. It would have been cheating to use it as my layout for this prompt but just in case you missed it over at my personal blog, here it is for you:

So, having made this one about my wonderfully successful tomatoes, I knew I had to come up with something else. We've got a lot growing round here so it didn't take long to find another story, matching photos and a suitable layout:

I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge September kit, Sundance and while it's a little tongue in cheek, I'm rather pleased with my ironic title. Fun stuff. And even though it was a bit of a squash, I managed to fit three photos onto the page with one of my favourite designs - the off centre band, which can be horizontal or vertical. It seems to work every time.

Do you have a go-to design for certain numbers of photos or topics?

We love it when you share too and 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.

#226 - be inspired by where you come from & #227 - be inspired by a pinned colour scheme

What?!? Two posts in one day. Could this be the start of something new? Lisa managing her own prompts within the week? Maybe. Let's take it one prompt at a time :-)

But as soon as my August Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit, Sundance had been made up - late as always - I could see that several of the colours from WM#227's colour scheme were included. So I used the Adobe Capture app to create this palette.

The orange and pink tone came out a little darker than I had planned but when I looked at my kit, I had almost everything I needed to match. I tracked down some deeper aqua alphas and made up this mini page kit to inspire me.

The top design is the b-side of the teal balloon paper from my kit and in the end, I used both sides. I also changed out the pocket page card and the doily while I was making the page but all in all, the kit seemed to give me everything I wanted.

So then I decided to tie up the colour scheme with WM#226 from the week before which was to be inspired by where you come from. I've made several pages about being British, or my home town, or my adopted home country and town so I decided to go for a different interpretation. About me.

Following on from my Forgeries on the Fourth post over on my blog (here) I decided to dip the main word of my title to soften the colour of the woodgrain letters. I like how they came out even if the paint dried a little textured.

A little gold and aqua ink tied in with the other colours on the page.

I also added in a small amount of twine at the last minute to add a little more texture and detail.

The journalling is personal and therefore hidden. I don't normally journal in blue but I forgot and just used the pen in my hand. And I really messed up some of the writing itself so I may change out that card for another attempt at better journalling! The photo is one of the selfies I took in my 30 Days of Selfies challenge back in April. It was good to get another one used up.

So there you have it: two prompts on one page and right up to date. I am in love with this page and am so happy that I pushed myself to get it done while I had a quiet afternoon.

We love it when you share too and 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.