I love a theme and the London Underground is one that lends itself to so many things. Today I thought I'd bring you the circle line of inspiration. Firstly, you've got to love circles :) The first thing you should do is go to your favourite online shop and search 'circles'. There is always a variety of circular goodies like these from Bubbly Funk.Challenge yourself to use something from the page that you've not used before.
Which ever country you're in right now you've probably heard of Notting Hill Gate. Perhaps it's because of the Hugh Grant film or because of the vivid, colourful photos that come out of the carnival each summer. Every now and then I put a title in Google images and use a photo that pops up for inspiration. Sometimes I might use the photo. Another time the colours from the photo or the shapes. Put in Notting Hill Carnival and see what you find today. (Photo from Reuters)
We're heading south from Notting Hill Gate to High Street Kensington. This is home to Harrods. I love to drive past Harrods at night, and especially at Christmas. There'd not be much point me actually going in but there is inspiration from the shop windows and whenever I see Harrods I think 'bling!'.
Just look at the blinging green lights all around the building. How can you not get in the mood for gems and jewels? How about trying to use rows of gems or pearls this week?
At South Kensington you'll find the Museums and the Royal Albert Hall. There are some seriously stunning buildings here and you could take inspiration from some of the patterns on them. Perhaps you fancy some brick work on your layout this week? But I'm betting that in your stash you have some old paper that you've not used with either a music theme or dinosaurs. Dig it out and use it why don't you?! I found this cute digi kit from Kim H and there are lots of them out there! And don't forget to pair it up with some chipboard shapes too.
Sloane Square is in a trendy part of town. It has a wonderful fountain in the square, the Venus fountain. Venus is of course the Roman goddess of love. We all enjoy scrapping about love. Love for family or friends. Love for a pet or a moment. Love of a cupcake or a stolen cup of coffee. But if it's been a while since you took a moment to record something that you love. Do it now! What about using the Maya Road Love ticket? One of my favourite designers is Audrey Yeager. She came up with a great way of remembering the things that she loves about Summer with this cute mini book. Why don't you warm yourself up by doing the same this week?
There's a story on every street corner in London it's so steeped in history but I love to think of St. James's Park and all that's happened there. Buckingham Palace at one end and Downing Street at the other, this park is the oldest in London. In James Is time he had the park drained so that he could bring in his crocodiles and camels, or so the story goes. Charles II opened it up to the public and met his mistresses there. And today it's along this park's edges that people line up to wave to dignitaries and become a part of history. So at this stop on the circle line, think about heritage and transformations. Our very own Julie Dandy is queen of heritage and vintage, capturing her family over the ages. Have a look at her lovely pages here. Why don't you get started on yours this week? Or what about capturing a transformation on paper? Have you recently redecorated, or lost some weight? Have your children suddenly become grown up with a start at a new school and you've not gotten around to capturing that on a page yet? This week's the week to challenge yourself then!
I'm conscious that I'm waffling on a bit here and I'm only a quarter of the way around the circle line ;) I told you though didn't I? You can use the underground to get you thinking about things to do this week. I'll speed up a bit now and stop going on, and I'll only do half the stops on the circle line for today. It's quite an undertaking after all :)
Temple: When I hear this word I always think of Shirley Temple and her curls. I'm seeing more and more curling on pages. Why not try some on your LO this week. Here are a few that I like Audrey's curled spagetti, Asil's curcled edges and Stacy's curled border.
Mansion House: Home to the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Mansion House has 11 holding cells one of which was home to Emmeline Pankhurst for a short time in the early 20th century. Emmeline Pankhurst should perhaps inspire a page about fighting for the right to do something, or achieving something but I'm taking it a little bit further and concentrating on that one word 'right'. Could you create something with lots of white space and most of the work on the right hand side this week? Love this one from Megan (although a bit of a cheat!), and this one from Kathleen.
Monument: What does the word monument mean to you? Is it a statue? Is it an obelisk? Is it perhaps a building? Well I'm going statues and my favourite statue has to be Alice in Wonderland in Central Park.
Alice is of course the girl who went through the looking glass and it's these looking glasses I'd like you to have at the ready this week when you get thinking about symmetry. We had a symmetry challenge on 'The Studio' way back and I found it really hard but look at how easy Stephanie and Danielle seem to have achieved it!
Well I hope that you've enjoyed traveling someway around the circle line today and can continue to visit each stop this week. And if all else fails- you can't go wrong with a little bit of yellow. I love what Tessa Buys does with yellow!
