Back to School With Mini Boden
This post was sponsored by Boden as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. I received complimentary products to facilitate my review
It’s back to school time! I can hardly believe how quickly this summer has gone by, but I am excited to get back to the routine that being in school gives to us. One thing that I always look forward to is taking the first day of school pics of my kids. I thought that I would share some tips to help you get the best first day of school picture.
When I shop for clothes for my girls to wear on the first day of school, I like to get them something that is casual, but nice. I think it is a good idea to show my kids that it is important to make a good first impression. The trickiest part for me is that Lillie is SO particular about her clothing. She wants comfort. There can’t be any tags, itchiness, tightness, etc. Plus, if it isn’t a pattern or style that she likes, she won’t wear it. Que Mini Boden. My life has been changed by being introduced to Boden and their amazing quality. They pride themselves on making their clothing with super comfortable fabrics, no tags, and with fun and unique patterns. I had Lillie look through their website with me and we ended up with so many cute outfits, shoes, and accessories in our cart. They had tons of our must get items to choose from like leggings, dresses, and t-shirts. I am sure you will find everything you need over on their website (and then some!!)
I love the idea of using a chalkboard for pics to document the grade that my girls are going into, but I have terrible handwriting. Ok, maybe terrible is harsh, but it is definitely not chalkboard art worthy. I figured out the best shortcut that I thought I would share. All you have to do is put a blank chalkboard somewhere in the photo. You can get one that is as big or small as you would like it to be, and have your kids either hold it or put it close by them. Take the pictures with the chalkboard completely empty. After you have the pics that you want, import the pic into Picmonkey (it’s a free photo editing website that I love) and add some words onto the chalkboard. I have two examples in this post of what you can put on the board. You can either focus on the grade and year they are going into, or you can put their name and things they are loving. I really like to use the pencil pete and the sketch block fonts on chalkboards. You can see in the picture below what the picture looked like before I added the text to the chalkboard.
My next tip is to keep things fun. As soon as you start getting after the kids for not smiling the way you would like them to, or not looking where they should—that is when you lose them. You will end up with forced smiles and crankiness. If you are getting a forced smile, have your kids give you their funniest face for a picture, and then keep your camera up and ready because a real smile is going to come right after. Kids always think they are the funniest. I like to make a lot of jokes and keep them laughing, and it seems to work well.
Lighting is everything. To get the look you want, you definitely want to take the time to make sure that you can get the best light possible for your pic. I have found that front porch pictures are awesome because being outside is a great idea. You don’t want them to be staring into the sun because then you will get squinty eyes, but you will want them to point their face towards the light source. Basically, I am saying that if you are on the porch, have them face away from the house and towards the yard. Don’t take the picture from the door or there will be shadows on their faces.
Another one of my favorite things to do is let my kids choose one accessory that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought to buy for them, but I know that they will love. I feel like allowing them to do that is a great way for them to share their personality and to really feel confident in the way that they look. Lillie chose glittery sneakers and bright colored bracelets. I’m definitely not complaining with either choice because I think they are adorable. She feels like a million bucks while wearing both the bracelets and sneakers! When the sneakers arrived from Boden, Lillie put them on immediately and didn’t want to take them off! She told me they are like wearing slippers and are so comfy. I was a little nervous about purchasing shoes online since I had never purchased from Boden before, but they had a free shipping and returns on purchases over $49 which put my mind at ease. I knew we could get just what we needed.
Now that I have shared some of my back to school picture taking secrets, I hope that you feel a little more confident in the pictures you’ll take of your own children. As an added bonus, I really love Boden so much and think that you will too so I have a coupon code for you to use to get 25% off of your next purchase!!! Just click here and answer a couple of questions to get the code! It is so simple and totally worth it. (ps, as a side note, isn’t this umbrella just the cutest thing you have ever seen?! I am obsessed with it, and so is Lillie.)
As an additional added bonus, Boden is offering to give 3 winners a $500 gift card to their site! WHAT?!?! I know! It’s so awesome. You can enter using the widget below. I-C will randomly select 3 winners from all program entries and will handle fulfillment of the winning prizes. Good luck!!
#BacktoSchoolwithBoden Giveaway
