Hello American Crafts Fans!
It’s Terhi here, sharing my thoughts and ideas about documenting Mother’s Day. Or Father’s Day, actually any day you can stop and write down your thoughts and feelings about parenthood.
It’s obvious you could document the Mother’s Day as a day and an event, but how about taking the documenting to the next level, and write about your parenthood? Or maybe about your relationship to your parents?
For the last five years, during the spring and close to Mother’s Day, I have had a moment for myself to have a mental discussion with myself about how the last year has been with my precious girls. It all started when I scrapbooked a photograph of me and my girls and wrote a long journaling about the things I was going through as a mother just at that point.
Later it was great to read and realize how much things had changed, how the issues with children changes when the children grow, and how amazing it is to see children becoming more independent each year.
Making this special scrapbook layout differs from my usual creative processes in at least one way. I usually write the journaling part as the last part of the process, but with this layout I knew the journaling would be so much longer that it might be easier to start with it. As I’m not a great fan of my hand writing (should start working on Kelly Creates’ books!) I always hide the journaling to the backside of the layout.
This time I took another piece of paper first and wrote couple of key points I would write to my actual journaling and then started the process. Of course, technology could make this easier, but hand writing just makes the words more live.
Starting the writing can feel difficult, so here’s some questions to help you start with, I like to answer to these each year.
Are my children happy? What has been the biggest challenge during the last twelve months? What have I learned as a parent? Have I reached the goals I have set for myself? Should I set another goal? And the key question: Am I happy, as a Mother?
Then the rest is easy. Just pick a photograph you’d like to use and let your imagination fly!
For this layout I used It’s All Good patterned papers, which I cut down to hexagon shaped pieces. I also took one sheet of paper from Sparkle City to have more purple to complete the rainbow colors.
I attached all the hexagon shaped pieces with foam tape to a wreath shaped design. To continue the hexagon theme, the photo is also cut to similar shape. And as the journaling is in the key part, embellishing the layout could be less dominating. That’s why there’s only some fussy cut flowers, and my favorite stickers from It’s All Good.
Hope this inspires you to document your life as a parent, or maybe as a daughter/son of someone. Writing down your feelings is like therapy and a journey into yourself, worth trying!
Have a great day!
Terhi xx
Products used: It’s All Good collection: Patterned Papers Grow Slow (348203), Embrace Now (348204), Lemon Drop (348195), Good Times (348191), Ta-Dah (348187) and You Bet (348185). Washi tape (352007), Vellum Blossom (348207), Layered Stickers (348178), Cardstock Stickers (348174), Paper Clips (348177), Ephemera (348175), Thickers (348172). Sparkle City collection: Patterned Paper Fresh (351339). American Crafts Cardstock White (71259), Sticky Thumb Dots (340272), Sticky Thumb Runner (342039).