Let It Rain!

Do you have a theme song? I mean, is there a song that has been playing throughout your life that seems to come on the radio at just the right time, the lyrics of which echo parts of your life experiences? You know, the one that no matter what, you will be singing out loud the words too... ya, you know you're thinking of it right now!

Sometime within the last year I was on Shimelle.com and either read a post or watched a video of her talking about visiting the David Bowie exhibit at her local museum. Apparently he had saved so much of his early scribbling and assorted paraphernalia over his (50 year?) career that it needs exhibition status. Shimelle challenged us to scrapbook based on a song, or an artist that we really felt a connection with.

First song to come to mind? Prince and the Revolution's, Purple Rain.

 Yup, I'm a tried and true fan of THE Prince. Raised to want to fling my panties on stage even before I knew why anyone would be interested in doing something like that! Side note- I often wondered which day of the week pair I'd have thrown...

So, did I want to scrapbook about "maybe I'm just like my mother?" or "maybe I'm just like my father?" "Why do doves cry?" NO! I wanted to fit this song to the fun pictures I'd taken of my family picking plums over at my moms house last summer.

Purple rain, get it? lol, 'cause if you've ever had plum trees, or just fruit trees for that matter, you know that the ground is apt to get messy once the blossoms turn into those natural fruit gems.

I gathered many different shades of purple, my favorite color naturally, and then I envisioned lots of frilly looking cream colored paper reminiscent of those popular flouncy blouses men wore in the eighties. Honestly, what was up with the pirate look?! And even more honestly, were any of the men in your life wearing blouses? lol I only had eyes for Prince. I mean, when he showed up at the concert I saw two years ago wearing a caftan (of all the headwear he could have chosen!) with what I'm guessing was a cape- now that is a real man, folks!

The page on the left hand side was actually a pre-made deal, complete with torn paper layers, paper pieced multi-colored border, and sewing. I wanted to mimic that look on the right hand side and it turned out I had just enough shades of paper to work with. I love the way they look side by side, and although I added it after these photos were taken, I also added some stitching with my sewing machine to the bottom of the right hand side page as well. Ended up moving my sewing machine into an even more prominent location in my craft area, so we'll see if that helps me to use it as much as I desire too.

My best friend had met me for some scrapbooking and catching up at Michael's Saturday, and brought me like, the entire October Afternoon Witch Hazel line, including two sticker sheets! What a pal, huh? I wanted to try and incorporate something from that mass of goodness, and found the music notes border sticker to fit my theme perfectly. Not sure what the song actually is, but who cares right? I also made a witch into a garden fairy by adding a crown sticker over her pointy hat :-) I used some of the tab stickers for a four-photo flip up so I could include even more photos, and added a lot of my friend's washi tape in layers around the layout too.

When I think of Prince, I also think of Diamonds and Pearls- as embellishments! but, while neither of those items was seeming to be the right accessory, I did include the quote, "More Precious Than Pearls"- perfect for describing the bounty that God provides us each harvest, as well as the joy of feel watching my beautiful daughters, spending time with my family and enjoying the same activities I grew up doing. Certainly a precious enough idea to capture.

One last thought on scrapbooking: what about scrapping those terribly unflattering photos... my thought is, include them anyway lol! These pictures of Ray certainly don't capture him at his most handsome-est, but they are funny and I love how much Sunday looks like him in the photos we took. I used that little witch sticker to write out, "Is this Organic?" and then wrote in, "Was that from Safeway?!" The plum he's eating is freshly picked from the tree, but the quotes are a little inside joke that goes back to my step dad trying to pass non-organic food off on us by saying, it came from Safeway!

So what's your theme song, friend? Leave a comment below, and come back this Friday, August 15th, for a birthday blog hop sponsored by DieCutCrazy! Eric from the Paper Wizard will be giving away an uber-fun layout kit to one lucky hopper!