Sian Fair Makes Scrapbook Layouts with Charming Details | Motivated to Scrapbook Series

Sian Fair has been making scrapbook layouts with charming details as far back as she can remember, perhaps without even thinking about it, but today she’ll share more about why and how she incorporates charm on her pages. 

Sians’s cool thing right now is adding charming details to her scrapbook pages.  

Sian says, “I have always genuinely loved to cut up and play with paper–and that usually results in a pile of leftover little bits and pieces and hand-cut details. So I guess this started as a way for me to use up these bits and pieces on my pages.  And then I read something Debbie Hodge wrote about scrapbooking, about making sure each page had charm–‘one special detail  to catch the eye’–and I realized she had put into words what I had been trying to achieve all along.”

“I want each page to have an ‘Ooh, look at that’  feature.”

“‘They’ve Always Been Our Friends’ is about a bee sting I remember a friend suffering when we were children. The story has ended up on the back of the layout because I got carried away with the details. There are hand-cut flowers and die-cut insects. Hand stitching adds texture and movement. Many of my pages about childhood end up with ruffled edges: I think this conveys the passage of time.”

Adding charming details gives viewers a reason to really study your pages. 

“When anyone says ‘scrapbook’ to me,” Sian says “I still think of an old-style album, left on a shelf for someone to pull down and pore through on a wet afternoon. That’s why I like to add lots of my own original touches, so  it takes time to absorb and enjoy each page.  I like to make you think! I try to engage you by connecting the colors and themes and materials in a way that gradually reveals itself as you move your eye round the page.  Of course, that means I can get into trouble if I try to add too much and don’t leave enough room for my journaling–which sometimes ends up on the back, but I think I’m getting better at keeping it where you can see it!”

“Every time I visit my Mum, it seems, she has a “find” or three – things from my childhood-  for me. If she doesn’t give it to me, she’ll throw it away, so of course I bring my treasure home. On this page, the four photos show one random haul and I have surrounded the cluster with a junk shop feel: lots of little bits and pieces left over from other projects and some ‘jewels’ in the form of sequins to bring us back to the idea of treasure.”

Chances are you have what you need to start adding charming details to your pages in your very own stash.

Sian says “I’m a huge collector of printed ephemera, as well as an unstoppable haberdashery hoarder, and I already had a stash of ribbons and buttons from my sewing days. As a result, I’m never lost for an extra something to add to my pages.”

“I’m just about to start a big reorganization project – grouping all my embellishments by color – because I’ve realized that’s how I usually choose. I’m more likely to look for something blue, than to look specifically for a button. Although I love Pinterest I’m an even bigger fan of magazines. I like that with magazines, I can actually tear out a page and pin it on my noticeboard  or put it in my album. Yes, I have a scrapbook..for scrapbooking inspiration!”

“I made ‘Our Turf’ after my daughter came back from camp. She had lots of questions about my own time in the Girl Guides. I showed her I still had my uniform, and she slipped it on, and we took photos.”

“I told her a story about how we practiced making campfires, and I made a page about it. I started thinking about the details for this one when I found a sheet of October Afternoon Campfire chipboard in my stash. But I was also interested by playing with the deep blues and greens in the photos. I chose embellishments to enhance those colors, and I held back on using too many themed products–apart from the campfire, of course, I couldn’t resist that!”