Sahlin Studio | Digital Scrapbooking Designs

Hi there! Amy Kingsford here and I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day a few weeks ago. In honor of mother’s day I thought it would be nice to talk a little bit about celebrating moms in our scrapbook pages!

But not just any moms- YOU of course!

While I started scrapbooking at age 17, the hobby took on a completely new meaning for me when I found out I was pregnant. Now scrapbooking is a way for me to record my family’s life together and revel in the growth and achievements of my children. If you are at all like me, you may look through your scrapbook albums and see page after page of of your children’s lives recorded and smile. But then you might wonder where all of those photos and stories of you?

Today I’m going to share some ideas for:
– capturing motherly moments in your photos,
– recording your favorite stories and thoughts on being a mom
– bringing those two things together to make treasured scrapbook pages that celebrate your motherhood.

Capturing Moments of Motherhood on Camera

One of the reasons our albums may not be filled with examples of our motherhood is because often in our efforts to capture memories, many of us forget to step out from behind the camera and be seen in photos as the wonderful mothers we truly are. You may be a camera control freak, or never really happy with the way you look when a camera is pointed at you or maybe it simply doesn’t occur to you to make yourself a part of the memories–whatever the reason somehow those “moments of motherhood” quite often get missed by our camera’s lens.

In an effort to help reclaim my own glory as a mother in my photos I like to take the time a few times a month and hand over control of the camera to my husband and let him capture me with our boys throughout the day. I usually give him a few pointers before I relinquish my lens, but am always so delighted with the moments he chooses to capture!

These were a few photos that my husband took of my son and I reading in our front yard.

Here are a few ideas you can use to help capture great photos of you and your children interacting:

• Hand over the camera to your able-bodied spouse, family member or friend.
• Visit a photo booth and capture great photos of you and your children goofing off together.
• Use a webcam to take fun self portraits of you and your children.
• Try out your tripod and timer feature on your camera.
• The next time you go for portraits consider having a few candid shots taken of the things you and your children enjoy doing together (i.e. reading, singing, dancing, etc).

Recording Your Personal Stories and Reflections on Being A Mother

When I take a second and think about my adventurers as a mother, there are so many stories that come rushing into my memory. Some stressful, some funny and some sweet, but so many of them remain untold. And for the most part I think that is because for the longest time I wasn’t sure how to get my stories from my mind to paper.

But over the last six months I started keeping a journal which has helped me to become much more comfortable with telling my stories and includes some of my own reflections on being a mom. I share funny videos and quotes from my children on facebook and I often tell stories to accompany the photographs that I share on my blog. I’m sure many of you do the same and let’s not forget that these are great reference points for our scrapbook page stories.

These shots were from this year’s Week In The Life that I participated in on my blog from which I was able to piece together the photos and show what this mom’s mornings look like.

Here are ideas for sharing your motherhood stories and reflections in your scrapbook pages:

• Write your own Mother’s Manifesto–a mission statement or list of intentions you have as a mother.
• Highlight things from your own childhood that you’ve shared with your children.
• Capture your morning routine or day–sure to be the most eventful part of any mother’s day!
• Share your own secrets to motherhood.
• Record you and your child’s favorite things to do together.
• Tell your children exactly how you feel in a simple statement or a thoughtful letter.

Putting It All Together in Your Pages

Once you have photos and stories that exemplify your motherhood, the challenge of scrapbooking this part of your life becomes infinitely easier–there are only a few things left to remember:

• It’s OK to use your favorite pictures more than once if they inspire you to tell new stories about you and your children.
• If you are inspired to tell a story about your motherhood in your scrapbook pages but have no photo– GO PHOTOLESS.
• Don’t be afraid to scrapbook the not-so-great-moments of motherhood as well — they are just as much a part of your life as the bright and shining moments.

I challenge you to use the the ideas and prompts above to help you start celebrating your motherhood in your scrapbook pages. And to get you started here are a few great inspirational layouts on motherhood:
RebeccaH
sahlink

amberr

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britt

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britt

askings

charmedeebob