What joy music brings to our lives! Whether it is a wedding dance, band recital, piano practice, the car radio, or Dad just humming a tune under his breath, music brightens our lives. Music evokes a sense of time and place and belonging. Music can also add dimension to our scrapbook pages! Even if you can't carry a tune, you can have music in your albums!
Here are a few life events that connect music to our lives. Let's document them for our albums:
- Lullabies
- Parade marches
- High school band concerts
- Rock concerts
- Karaoke microphones at the local bar or party
- Christmas caroling
- Hymns in church
- Squeaky youth music practice sessions
- Birds singing
- 50's/60's day at school
- Piano recitals
- Campfire songs
- A sweetheart who makes your heart sing
- Choir in school or church
- Teens and their headphones and CDs
- Summer sidewalk parades with little musicians
- Wedding songs
Record Your Own Voice:
As you can see, music is all around us and plays a large role in our lives. Add music to your photo books. You can do this literally with a small electronic button that will record and play back vocal tones. Or you can record a cassette or CD and place it in your album. It may not last forever but it will be nice to have for a few decades. Don't you wish you had your grandmother's voice recorded as she sang you lullabies?
The electronic approach may not appeal to all of us. Most of us will likely add music to our pages by simply using it as a page theme. I have created a few examples. The styles and techniques vary but each one sets the tone for a wonderful page! Let's take a closer look....
Use Ready-Made Patterned Papers for a Quick Start:
Figure 1 shows us that you can use music-themed papers to get your page off to a quick start. I used a wavy ruler to continue the curvy lines on the paper when cutting the edge of the border. The headline or title can be placed on this border if you like.
Add Something Unusual:
The microphone in Figure 1 is made with silver metallic paper and has a style that mirrors the real object. I punched tiny holes in the black speaking piece with my 1/16 inch punch. Use an embossing tool to mark lines where ridges would be in the metal. Add a cord to complete the look! Cut around a die cut when it meets a mat instead of just laying it on top of the mat for an unusual accent.
Document The Ordinary Musical Events Too!
This could be a practice session in the living room after school or a jam session for the teen band in the garage. Use paper printed with musical notes to cut out your letters. This brings the musical theme to my "Practice Time" page (Figure 2). Coordinating stickers can also be used to good effect if you don't go overboard!
Bold can be Great!
Every kid has pretended to be a rock star or Elvis at some point! On my "Rock Star" page (Figure 3), I decided that this was one time when color and flare are welcome! Give your page a little extra pep and zip. Break out the neon paper and the zig-zag scissors. Layer letters and outline them for a snappy title! Sprinkle a few punched musical notes in the same bright colors. Musical notes don't always have to be black!
Remember Records??
What fun to give a nostalgic feeling to a musical event with a paper-pieced record or two. If your event occurred before 1985, chances are the music was playing from records not CDs. Our "50's Party" page ( Figure 4) is a prime example. Cut a large black circle and then make the label circle about 1/3 smaller. The photo is then 1/3 smaller again. The record acts as a photo mat. You can do this layering effect with punched pieces as well. Journal on a black note with a white gel pen. Poodle-skirted paper dolls and musical notes continue the theme onto the border. Again make the notes of mixed colors to tie in with the page. Be sure to give your 50's paper dolls a few motion marks with a pen near feet and arms...They are doing the Twist after all!
Heritage Pages can Include Music:
Our parents and grandparents may have been in formal school choirs in their youths. Back then; they could have worn choir robes and somber expressions. The photos are probably in black and white. To give them a little pep, double or triple mat them with the school's colors! My "Choir" page (Figure 5) also has the school colors added into the title letters. Need space to journal? Use a treble clef and bar along the top for the details!
Make a special effort to identify your subject in these group shots. Perhaps they were fifty years younger, wearing a choir robe, 40 pounds lighter, and a sporting somber face. All this may make identifying Grandpa in the photo harder than you think! Be sure to state in your journaling that he is the second from the right in the top row!
Sweethearts Make our Hearts Sing:
Let's pay tribute to all the darlings who make our hearts do a drum roll! You can use generic photos of your sweetie for this one! Titles like "You Make my Heart Sing" (Figure 6) done with bird art or "We Make Beautiful Music!" (Figure 7) document the love of our lives. This is a great kind of page to use "your" song as a headline.
Extend a Commercial Page Topper in a Musical Theme.
Find a page topper that suits your theme. Then make that topper do double duty! Use the design elements that are already within it to unify the page. "Recital" (Figure 8) border extends the wavy bars and notes of the background behind the topper. Presto! You have a compatible border. All I added were music note stickers and a die cut piano. So simple! So Elegant! Let the recital begin!
Note Letters--Make it Personal!
Coming back to my work desk, I saw a large note die cut upside down. That die cut looked like a "J" to me! Well you know what happened next! I just had to make a whole name in note die cuts! It worked well for me in "John" (Figure 9) Depending on the die cuts you have and the word or name you create, you may have to cut and shape some notes into the appropriate letters. Draw red lines for the bar to set the notes on. This page only took about 20 minutes from start to finish!
Are you getting in the swing of adding music to your layouts? Here are some page toppers or titles to go along with your work:
Page Toppers and Titles:
- Do a Little Dance
- Can I have this dance... for the rest of my life?
- Our Hearts and Feet Dance today
- In music there is harmony... In harmony there is peace.
- Happy Birthday to You!
- Dance the Night Away
- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!
- Practice makes Perfect!
- You are MOOSE-ic to my ears!
- Whistle and I'll come Running!
- Song of Solomon is a Song of Love
- My Heart Beats like a Drum
- Singing like an Angel
- Music to my ears
- Dance cheek to cheek
- The older the violin, the sweeter the music
- Face the music
- Stop the music
- Strike up the Band!
- Let's go to the Hop!
Great Sites with Lyrics to Music
Write the words to your favorite song around the edges of your page for a wonderful border! This simple technique is wonderful for dance photos. Word to your favorite song can be found through these great links:
http://www.lyricsworld.com/
http://lyrics.astraweb.com/
http://www.clinton.net/~sammy/lyric.htm
http://islandlyrics.batcave.net/
And don't forget the kid's favorites!
http://kididdles.com/mouseum/allsongs.html
http://home.nc.rr.com/muppetsongs/
http://judyanddavid.com/
Turn on the music! Pick out a song (or even just a verse!) to add to your journaling. Songs bring back fond memories. Let your album resonate with the sweet melodies of memory! Add some musical pages to your album this week
