Thanks to a good behavior reward system designed by her second grade teacher, my daughter has accumulated a fairly impressive collection of decorative pins. Some feature ribbons and beads while others include fabric and gems. They are all beautifully constructed, and I’ve been wondering how I could help my daughter display them.
The scrapbook queen of northern Wisconsin suggested we design a layout using the pretty pins. So, this weekend we found some patterned paper and used the decorative pins to embellish a double page layout. We used the bulk of the pins as stand-alone decorations, and the rest were employed as fasteners for other page embellishments.
The layout turned out better than I had anticipated. I was worried that the pins would be too bulky for the book, but the gems and beads ended up sitting nicely on the page. What’s more, since the pins were made for children, they all had safety devices on the back. Having the metal fasteners helped prevent the sharp point of the pin from damaging the background paper.
While you can make your own decorative pins at home, if you don’t have the time or talent, I would suggest purchasing them online. My neighbor directed me to a number of sites that sell decorative pins made specifically to embellish scrapbook layouts. Two Peas in a Bucket (one of my favorite scrapbook resources) features an array of elaborately decorated pins that would be ideal to use on a wedding, bridal shower or other feminine-themed layout. The pins have lots of gemstones and beads, and are quite girly. If you are looking for more conservative and versatile pins, then visit Scrapbook.com. The site has a plethora of stick pins that feature ribbons, and animal-shaped charms.
Once you find a few pins to display, you can get to work adding them to your page designs. You could use a ladybug pin to hold a fabric flower in place on a garden-themed page. Another idea is to use pins with heart charms to attach a swatch of fabric to your layout. The fabric can be used as the background for a photo or a place to attach a journaling block.
Have you ever used pins to decorate your scrapbooks?