090619 Whimsical Musings #328

Be inspired by back to school

First I feel compelled to express my heartfelt gratitude that my favorite inspiration site, Whimsical Musings, has returned from summer vacation! Just in time for me to scrap my grand boys return to school, plus my Counterfeit Kit Challenge September "Boys Rule" kit had tons of back to school goodies in it.

My background & the paper airplane cut-out is one of my CKC forgeries.

I fussy-cut one of my kit cards to create my title along with foam letters.

The little green caped super hero came from the same card as the title sentiment.

There's another super hero embellishment from that same card!

A forged card revamped for the sentiment.

 

Lisa has some great ideas that expand the prompt:

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

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

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

 

I just love that it took 24 hours from seeing the current Whimsical Musings #328 prompt to craft a page that I love. Now it's your turn!

Thanks for stopping by!

110718 Whimsical Musings #310

Be inspired by geometric animals - WM#310

Aren't these stunning? Lisa finds the most amazing inspiration at Whimsical Musings!

These reminded me so much of complex quilt patterns. An online search for images brought up a font that reminded me that I had a similar one - more on that later. It also turned up a tutorial on how to make one of these images yourself, known as polygonal vector images (link HERE.)

I've had these photos parked & waiting to be scrapped. I think perhaps the icy wolf reminded me of them. Then I recalled  that I had stumbled across a 2015 My Mind's Eye/Niche die set in my scrapcave the other day & decided to use it to embellish my page. 

I cut the white outlines out of glitter paper & used the off-cut pieces to fill in the spaces. It all got mounted on those white blanks with...

...my Xyron! It made such quick work of these embellishments.

I have discovered all sorts of buried treasure in my current revamp/purge of my studio!

Here is my page:

I print at home so added my title directly onto the photo.

Plexifont BV font

It is intended to appear transparent but I was able to drop color into various portions in PSE.

I think I achieved the challenge pretty well!

Now give it a go yourself. Lisa had some great suggestions:

 "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."

Thanks for stopping by!

 

082718 WM#293 White Nights

For this prompt, Lisa has challenged us to be inspired by the Summer Solstice, more particularly,

"...the phenomenon of 'white nights' is something that I find fascinating. 

Nights that don't turn dark - or just for a few hours only."

Background map paper is 2013 Echo Park/Reflections "Cherish the Moment"

I am blessed to live in a Northern location & experience this to a degree.

I searched for the specific data that goes with this photo & discovered 

that the Farmer's Almanac chronicles not just the official sunrise/sunset times

but also "dark descends" & "dawn breaks"! That is what I was searching for.

Whimsical Musings has been inspiring me for many years. 

I hope that you will take advantage of over 300 (!) challenge prompts that will 

help you tell your story more completely, more intimately, and more creatively.

Thanks for stopping by!

082318 WM#272 be inspired by national dress

Whimsical Musings #272 be inspired by national dress.

In June, 1984 our precious Aunie took us on a British Isles tour to celebrate Greg's college graduation. I scrapped the trip in its own album long ago but remembered this photo of all of us in our new Irish togs - Greg got an Aran black sheep wool cardigan, I got a traditional Aran pullover (knit by Mrs. Galvin, according to the tag!) and Aunie chose a beautiful plaid wool wraparound kilt skirt. The photo was snapped in front of the woolen mill.

I checked on my "Scrap Inspiration" Pinterest board & found this for a scraplift:

from Gossamer Blue designer Chantal Philippe

Here's my take: 

My background paper is 2017 Echo Park/Go. See. Explore. "Let's Fly Away".

All alphas are from my zealously guarded October Afternoon stash. 

The green stripe is 2015 OA/Summertime "Fresh Fruit" b-side.

The orange xoxo pattern is 2017 Pink Fresh Studio/Live More "Honest" b-side.
I included the stitching detail along the edges & punched a few tiny hearts for shamrocks.

I made the Xs & Os with colors from the flag of Ireland to reinforce the national theme.

Looking through this old album has inspired me to get out my "big" camera & have a play!

Hope you are inspired to pick one of the Whimsical Musings past prompts HERE.

To date I have close to 140 of the 300 prompts done & have loved every page I've made.

Thanks for stopping by!

082218 WM Challenge #221

WM Challenge #221 be inspired by water

This was definitely "in the moment" scrapping. We have just finished this backyard project and it was on my WM list. The design ended up being so much like my recent #227 NOLA page with the vertical division. 

This page includes something old & something new. The background paper on the left is from a single-sided paper pad of 2015 Maggie Holmes/Confetti collection. The "my happy place" cut apart card (and that adorable little lady) came from the 2018 Simple Stories/My Happy Place collection. The dreamy treed portal came from the ancient (at leazt 2010) DCWV/Once Upon A Time collection. The fussy-cut florals are from 2013 Kaisercraft/Tea Break collection. Mini-alphas are 2013 MME/Chalk Studio. 

A few details:

I left a pocket behind the top photo for the plant information.

Had a lot of fun dressing the card up with stitching (looks better irl) + oops! missed a spot on the "y"!

Definitely destined to become our happy place.

Thanks for stopping by!

071218 CKC July Challenge #1

CKC Challenge #1: Forget-me-not!

We all have them - those tools and embellishments that get pushed to the side and are collecting dust. Pull out those forgotten tools and embellishments and put them to use - punches, brads, buttons, ribbon, rub-ons, dies or die cutting machines, etc. Show those forgotten items some love again!

I took Lori's challenge & broke out a couple of lonely punches. 

I used the flower punch for the firefly derrieres!

Another double challenge for me - Whimsical Musings #279, be inspired by catching something!

I ran across the photo in my current hunting, gathering, and sorting of all of my photos. 

It triggered a cascade of vivid childhood memories of visits to our cousin's farm. 

I was immediately transported to their cornfield, chasing fireflies in the twilight.  

Being suburban kids climbing in haylofts, riding on tractors & harvesting 

vegetables right out of the ground was high adventure!

I chose the Pink Fresh Studio's Dream On/Reverie constellation paper for my twilight sky. 

I had to do a stash dive for the 2003 dark green Free Letters paper by Wordsworth Stamps.
My forged PL card was bumped by the PinkFresh Life Noted perfect color puffy alphas.
 Simple but striking design, I think! The hardest part was finding a place for the journaling.

Lots more memories rising up as I go through my photos! Stay tuned...

Thanks for stopping by!

020517 WM#237 a 5th season

Our Lisa has given a prompt that requires a little background from her Whimsical Musings #237 post:

"So, while the UK and many other countries were having two minutes silence in memory of Remembrance Day at 11am on 11th November (see last week's prompt), here in Germany 11.11am on 11th November marks the beginning of the "fifth" season of the year. Germany celebrates their own Remembrance Sunday at another time.

This fifth season is the beginning of German Carnival, something particularly strong around Düsseldorf and Köln as well as other cities around Germany.  If you'd like to find out more, Wikipedia has a lot of information about the traditions surrounding this "special" time of the year...

 What would that mean to you? Would you want more sun, more winter, more snow, less change? Would you like to create your own fifth season by heading out of town on a long trip at the same time every year to escape weather in your own area that makes you unhappy? ... How about making it a little more philosophical and thinking about the seasons of life - Jennifer Wilson over at Simple Scrapper uses this analogy...  This might be a little more abstract than usual, but I do think that there are ways to take this and make it your own!" 

This was an unusual prompt, however I was actually going through

an unusual time in my life that would suit this to a "T".

 

Last fall we began a house move that is still underway. (I have commented on multiple occasions that it’s been eerily like the movie Groundhog Day!)  I knew immediately that I would scrap a series of moments in the countryside at dawn & other photos taken on the back-and-forth journeys we continue to make between houses.

Because of the location of each home, we almost can’t get there from here - at least not at highway speeds – which makes the whole process that much more painful.

More often than not, on the return trip we look just like the Beverly Hillbillies!
 

Photo credit

My page:

 

 

I placed my title on the overlapping circles in the center 

to convey the feeling of endless trips back & forth. 

 

 

My journaling was done with my vintage typewriter on a tag.

 

 

 I hope you will give this one a try! 

If it leaves you stumped just try another from the Past Prompts link HERE.

 

Thanks for stopping by!