Paperdolls Photography

Paperdolls Photography Founded by Stephanie Mullowney Donahoe. Photographer. Author. Speaker. Advocate. Jesus. Faith. Redemption. Romans 8:28 Each picture tells a story.

Each story touches a heart. The question is...How do you want yours told?

This isn’t my usual 'client' per se, BUT I have to share because this is too precious not to. SO, I was never a cat pers...
06/04/2026

This isn’t my usual 'client' per se, BUT I have to share because this is too precious not to. SO, I was never a cat person until this lil’ girl showed up 3 Junes ago trying to get in my car as I was packing to go to Maryland for a doll tour. She literally jumped in my car, and I had to get her out and even tried to 'shoo' her away. But she persisted and I kept rejecting because my last experience with a feline ended with scratch marks on Hannah’s face when she was about 5 years old, so I didn’t trust them. Plus, HG had been diagnosed as being very allergic to cat dander along with all her other allergies, so I was a hard NO WAY. NO CATS. EVER.

This kitty just wouldn’t leave no matter how much I tried to tell her, ‘You’re not welcome here’ she just meowed and kept hopping in my car and on my porch trying to get in my house. She literally attached herself to the door screen with real life ‘puss and boots’ eyes (you know the one from Shrek). So, I left for my trip thinking she’d be gone when I got back 5 days later. Boy was I wrong. She was on my porch right in front of my door as I pulled up. I was so confused. Didn’t this cat know I’m not a ‘cat person’? So, after a couple days of her ‘please love me’ eyes, I took her to a vet to get her check out before I let her near HG.

Turns out she was super healthy and only maybe a year old. The vet said, “cats choose people not the other way around”. So, I named her ‘Mercy’ because after all that’s what she came here looking for and she bugged me til she got it, so it was quite fitting. I agreed to temporarily foster her and here we are 3 years later and I think I like her more than dogs lol!

She’s literally the sweetest animal in the universe (unless you’re squirrel or bunny here in which case they call her ‘No Mercy’). She follows us around when we pick blackberries like a puppy and just wants to be wherever we are. Hannah literally holds this cat like a baby and Mercy just lets her. She’s the mildest tempered cat I’ve ever known. She’s so patient with HG and never once put out one little claw. She just lets her play with her like a babydoll.

I just grabbed this image really quick with my iPhone because she was literally smelling those flowers just before I took this shot and enjoying sunrise with me. She wants to come outside when I pray and read the Bible, almost as if she’s worshiping too in her own little way. After all the Bible says, “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord” so why now meow towards the heavens? I suppose even kitty’s can be grateful, but I’m not entirely convinced she’s a cat yet. Maybe she a lil fur baby angel in disguise.

In any case, I’m for sure cat lady now. Mercy won me over.

Stephanie Mullowney Donahoe

Actual footage of how I feel while on my way to tell anyone who will listen about what Jesus has done for me.❤️I have so...
06/02/2026

Actual footage of how I feel while on my way to tell anyone who will listen about what Jesus has done for me.❤️

I have so much to share with you very soon...

Here I come. ❤️

Stephanie Mullowney Donahoe Stephanie Mullowney Donahoe

NEWS FEATURE ALERT ❤ I was recently asked to be interviewed for an upcoming media feature, and I'm honored to share tha...
06/01/2026

NEWS FEATURE ALERT ❤ I was recently asked to be interviewed for an upcoming media feature, and I'm honored to share that we'll soon be featured discussing the next chapter of this journey.

The article will highlight the evolution of Paperdolls Photography into something much bigger than I ever imagined... including my gift of writing for Paper Heirlooms and my upcoming Memoir Trilogy, and our new podcast LIFTED, and the ministry God has been building through all of it.

One of the things the journalist requested was photographs that represent the heart of what we've created together over the years.

So I'd love your help.

If you're comfortable with me potentially submitting one of your images for consideration, please post your favorite Paperdolls portrait in the comments below. I'd especially love to see the images that mean the most to YOU and hear why they are special.

Looking back over the past decade, I'm overwhelmed by how many extraordinary families I've had the privilege of photographing. Many of you have become far more than families wanting beautiful portraiture...you've become family and part of our miracle story.

Thank you for trusting me with your memories, your children, your journeys, and your hearts.

I'll be sure to share the feature here as soon as it's published. ❤

Stephanie Mullowney Donahoe Tom Donahoe

"IS THIS YOUR BED?": This gem. Hannah still hates having her hair done and gives me that same expression of how displeas...
05/31/2026

"IS THIS YOUR BED?": This gem. Hannah still hates having her hair done and gives me that same expression of how displeased she is when I try. The only difference? This memory disappeared into a decade of thousands of precious memories until I came across the tangible print of it. It was like stepping into a Time Machine and reliving this moment with her.

It's not just about this single sweet moment. It's about the events leading up to it that come flooding back to my mind’s eye too. The location alone is profound. This address was the first one we had that we could call our 'own' after the tragedy that happened post birth. It was a rental but at least it wasn't someone's couch to burden.

We didn't even have furniture when we moved there. Not even a bed, just an old, stained mattress given to us by someone at church they found at an auction house.

So, the memory attached to that reminds me of the kindness of my [then] boss. They came to Hannah's birthday party and walked through our empty home and saw our mattress propped up against the wall and asked, "Is this your bed?" I ashamedly looked away and said, "yes ma'am, a friend gave it to us, I will try to get a better one soon". She gently smiled and didn't say another word about it until the following Monday when I came into work.

"I spoke to my husband about your bed situation" she said. "Oh no. I thought. "This doesn't sound good." I felt embarrassed and dropped my eyes to the floor because I thought maybe she thought we were 'trashy' because we were pretty poor and I was living on WIC. I was also new to this family I was working for, and they had VERY NICE things and I felt unworthy in their presence to say the least. But...

The next words out of her mouth were NOT, 'We don't think we are a good fit for you'. Because that's exactly what I assumed she would say. Because who'd look at my empty rental and think I was capable of running their household successfully? After all, me and my baby were sleeping on an old worn-out grungy mattress on the floor and I owed nothing of value. But no, instead she said, "My husband and I agreed to get a bed for you". The look on my face turned from shame to tears of gratitude. Certainly not the words I was expecting.

Not just any old bed though. I figured she'd just order an IKEA, or something used off marketplace or a Walmart brand all of which I would've been just as grateful for. But NO. She takes me to Sleep Number DURING WORK HOURS at the Franklin Cool Springs Galleria Mall and I was floored.

"Pick one" she said. "What?' I asked in disbelief. "Are you serious? I can't let you do that; these are too much money." I said. I had never seen a bed that expensive before and certainly didn't feel deserving of it. She insisted and so I chose the 'cheapest' one at $5000 out the door with delivery and set up included.

She could've gotten me the cheapest little metal bed frame on the market to put my stained mattress on, but she told me to pick from the exact brand she had herself and start with brand new things. That's grace. And that's one of the core memories I have when I see this picture.

So yes, I'm so grateful I grabbed my camera in the 2 seconds it took to capture this toddler sass so all the precious memories and lessons associated with it doesn't fade away with the passing of time. This image just isn't about my sassy sweetie not liking her curlers. It's about the journey that led us to an empty home where God just didn't provide the bare necessities through others, but gave us what we didn't deserve or earn. And that's the very definition of grace.

This is one of my favorite Heirlooms because it represents the beginning of our journey to why I even have this platform to share on today.

Speaking of Heirlooms, today is the last day to get your memories, testimonies, and stories in to me for our Founding Heirloom Collection. I've been in tears reading them all. You can share your story here>>> https://bit.ly/4fc2AAq and I will reach out as soon as I've read your hearts.

Stephanie Mullowney Donahoe Tom Donahoe

My heart is overwhelmed this morning as I sit with your story submissions.Your testimonies of faith, hope, marriage rede...
05/30/2026

My heart is overwhelmed this morning as I sit with your story submissions.

Your testimonies of faith, hope, marriage redemption, healing, loss, and impossible journeys have emotionally devastated me in the most beautiful of ways.

I already knew how amazing so many of you are, but reading about the roads that shaped you into who you are today... I deeply see YOU.

Thank you for trusting me with your stories.

And to those of you mourning lost loved ones... it's not just the way your mind remembers them that is so precious. It's that you want their memory to live on long after you're gone. You want your children's children to know who they were, what they loved, and why they mattered.

The things you've overcome—and the battles you're still fighting—have moved me beyond words.

It's already incredibly difficult to choose for this first Founding Collection because every single story is worthy of being preserved.

Because each heirloom is prayerfully written and handcrafted with great emotional care and attention to detail, I'm only able to select 10 stories for this Founders Edition in order to complete them by the deadline I've set.

This Sunday is the final day for submissions.

If you haven't shared your story yet, you still have a few days before the cutoff.

SHARE YOUR STORY HERE >>> https://bit.ly/4fc2AAq

The heirloom you're seeing above is 16 years old and still displayed beautifully in Sam's sister's home, preserved just as lovingly as the day I handed it to her.

I've been creating keepsakes like these for many years.

God wanted me to share this gift all along, but for a long time I hid it away.

That's why you've been seeing more of my writing lately woven into my existing ministry. I'm no longer hiding the gifts the Lord gave me.

I want to steward them well.

I want to make my Heavenly Father proud and not waste what He placed in my heart before the foundations of the world.

I can't wait to read more of your miracles.

Thank you for entrusting me with the words you carry, and allowing me to help transform them into something tangible your family can cherish for generations.

The words are always borrowed from Him to give to you.

P.S. Sam loved hunting. This is heirloom number two of the three created for his sisters. If you missed his motorcycle heirloom a few days ago, I'll be sharing his fishing heirloom soon.

Stephanie Mullowney Donahoe Tom Donahoe

05/28/2026

WHAT GOD'S BEEN UP TO: For years, I’ve quietly preserved sacred fragments of people’s lives within the keepsake box of my heart. The Lord entrusted me with the spiritual gift of deeply seeing others and translating the contents of their hearts into the words He places gently upon my own to transcribe.

Sometimes it looks like handwritten words tucked inside old Bibles or memorial pieces created through tears after unimaginable loss. Sometimes it was poetry written for strangers the Lord placed heavily on my heart and those words changed lives in ways only God could orchestrate. Other times it looked like shadowboxes filled with artifacts from someone deeply loved and relentlessly missed.

That’s what it looked like. But what it felt like was something entirely different. It felt like placing tangible hope into someone’s hands. But most of all, it felt like delivering a package from God that I just happened to be the delivery person for. As though, it wasn’t me creating anything at all. The words are always borrowed from Him to give to others.

What I didn’t realize as a child was that God was slowly teaching me how to see others the way He does. All I knew back then after giving my heart to Jesus at 11 years old is that He filled me with the desire to truly feel experiences...not just WITH others, but FOR them to give language to the emotions others struggled to express. Not with my eyes, but with His. Not just the pain, but the purpose behind it. Not just the celebration, but the journey it took to get there. To preserve not just memories…but the people in them.

The way they laughed.
The way they loved.
The way they made others feel.

Those treasures must be shielded from forgetfulness.

These are the moments that change everything and the stories that deserve to outlive us.

I’ve been asked countless times over the years if I would “write something” for loved ones needing encouragement spoken over them, or as a deeply personal gift for a special occasion. Sometimes it was people asking…other times, it was the Lord placing someone heavily on my heart, and so I obeyed.

But then there was a long season where I stopped writing altogether.

Life happened.
Heartbreak happened.
Loss happened.
And there were moments where I was the one struggling to find hope.

Even still, the gift remained.

It simply found another way to speak through my photography because as many of you already know, I’ve always written stories with my images too.

The Lord has been whispering to me, “Start again my child, use your words to love and serve others”.

So today I will obey my Saviour. By God’s grace and with trembling hands I’m finally opening the keepsake box of my heart and officially introducing something the Lord has been building in me since I was just a child…

Paper Heirlooms.

These deeply personal bespoke keepsake pieces are prayerfully handcrafted with great emotional care to preserve your stories, your moments, and your legacy for generations to come. These heirlooms can also incorporate treasured photographs from past or future sessions, allowing your memories to live both visually and emotionally across generations.

From memorial heirlooms…
to redemption stories…
to legacy shadowboxes…
to handwritten keepsakes…
to deeply personal story preservation…

This is one of the gifts God gave me to serve others.

It’s ministry.
It’s remembrance.
It’s love preserved on paper.

Today, I’m prayerfully opening applications for The Founding Heirloom Collection. I will be selecting only 10 stories for this inaugural collection.

Thank you for entrusting me with the sacred honor of expressing your heart through words…

Submit your story for consideration here: https://bit.ly/4fc2AAq

Your stories.
Your moments.
Cherished for a lifetime.

WHAT GOD'S BEEN UP TO: For years, I’ve quietly preserved sacred fragments of people’s lives within the keepsake box of m...
05/28/2026

WHAT GOD'S BEEN UP TO: For years, I’ve quietly preserved sacred fragments of people’s lives within the keepsake box of my heart. The Lord entrusted me with the spiritual gift of deeply seeing others and translating the contents of their hearts into the words He places gently upon my own to transcribe.

Sometimes it looks like handwritten words tucked inside old Bibles or memorial pieces created through tears after unimaginable loss. Sometimes it was poetry written for strangers the Lord placed heavily on my heart and those words changed lives in ways only God could orchestrate. Other times it looked like shadowboxes filled with artifacts from someone deeply loved and relentlessly missed.

That’s what it looked like. But what it felt like was something entirely different. It felt like placing tangible hope into someone’s hands. But most of all, it felt like delivering a package from God that I just happened to be the delivery person for. As though, it wasn’t me creating anything at all. The words are always borrowed from Him to give to others.

What I didn’t realize as a child was that God was slowly teaching me how to see others the way He does. All I knew back then after giving my heart to Jesus at 11 years old is that He filled me with the desire to truly feel experiences...not just WITH others, but FOR them to give language to the emotions others struggled to express. Not with my eyes, but with His. Not just the pain, but the purpose behind it. Not just the celebration, but the journey it took to get there. To preserve not just memories…but the people in them.

The way they laughed.
The way they loved.
The way they made others feel.

Those treasures must be shielded from forgetfulness.

These are the moments that change everything and the stories that deserve to outlive us.

I’ve been asked countless times over the years if I would “write something” for loved ones needing encouragement spoken over them, or as a deeply personal gift for a special occasion. Sometimes it was people asking…other times, it was the Lord placing someone heavily on my heart, and so I obeyed.

But then there was a long season where I stopped writing altogether.

Life happened.
Heartbreak happened.
Loss happened.
And there were moments where I was the one struggling to find hope.

Even still, the gift remained.

It simply found another way to speak through my photography because as many of you already know, I’ve always written stories with my images too.

The Lord has been whispering to me, “Start again my child, use your words to love and serve others”.

So today I will obey my Saviour. By God’s grace and with trembling hands I’m finally opening the keepsake box of my heart and officially introducing something the Lord has been building in me since I was just a child…

Paper Heirlooms.

These deeply personal bespoke keepsake pieces are prayerfully handcrafted with great emotional care to preserve your stories, your moments, and your legacy for generations to come. These heirlooms can also incorporate treasured photographs from past or future sessions, allowing your memories to live both visually and emotionally across generations.

From memorial heirlooms…
to redemption stories…
to legacy shadowboxes…
to handwritten keepsakes…
to deeply personal story preservation…

This is one of the gifts God gave me to serve others.

It’s ministry.
It’s remembrance.
It’s love preserved on paper.

Today, I’m prayerfully opening applications for The Founding Heirloom Collection. I will be selecting only 10 stories for this inaugural collection.

Thank you for entrusting me with the sacred honor of expressing your heart through words…

Submit your story for consideration here: https://bit.ly/4fc2AAq

Your stories.
Your moments.
Cherished for a lifetime.

Stephanie Mullowney Donahoe

WHAT GOD'S BEEN UP TO: For years, I’ve quietly preserved sacred fragments of people’s lives within the keepsake box of m...
05/28/2026

WHAT GOD'S BEEN UP TO: For years, I’ve quietly preserved sacred fragments of people’s lives within the keepsake box of my heart. The Lord entrusted me with the spiritual gift of deeply seeing others and translating the contents of their hearts into the words He places gently upon my own to transcribe.

Sometimes it looks like handwritten words tucked inside old Bibles or memorial pieces created through tears after unimaginable loss. Sometimes it was poetry written for strangers the Lord placed heavily on my heart and those words changed lives in ways only God could orchestrate. Other times it looked like shadowboxes filled with artifacts from someone deeply loved and relentlessly missed.

That’s what it looked like. But what it felt like was something entirely different. It felt like placing tangible hope into someone’s hands. But most of all, it felt like delivering a package from God that I just happened to be the delivery person for. As though, it wasn’t me creating anything at all. The words are always borrowed from Him to give to others.

What I didn’t realize as a child was that God was slowly teaching me how to see others the way He does. All I knew back then after giving my heart to Jesus at 11 years old is that He filled me with the desire to truly feel experiences...not just WITH others, but FOR them to give language to the emotions others struggled to express. Not with my eyes, but with His. Not just the pain, but the purpose behind it. Not just the celebration, but the journey it took to get there. To preserve not just memories…but the people in them.

The way they laughed.
The way they loved.
The way they made others feel.

Those treasures must be shielded from forgetfulness.

These are the moments that change everything and the stories that deserve to outlive us.

I’ve been asked countless times over the years if I would “write something” for loved ones needing encouragement spoken over them, or as a deeply personal gift for a special occasion. Sometimes it was people asking…other times, it was the Lord placing someone heavily on my heart, and so I obeyed.

But then there was a long season where I stopped writing altogether.

Life happened.
Heartbreak happened.
Loss happened.
And there were moments where I was the one struggling to find hope.

Even still, the gift remained.

It simply found another way to speak through my photography because as many of you already know, I’ve always written stories with my images too.

The Lord has been whispering to me, “Start again my child, use your words to love and serve others”.

So today I will obey my Savior. By God’s grace and with trembling hands I’m finally opening the keepsake box of my heart and officially introducing something the Lord has been building in me since I was just a child…

Paper Heirlooms.

These deeply personal bespoke keepsake pieces are prayerfully handcrafted with great emotional care to preserve your stories, your moments, and your legacy for generations to come. These heirlooms can also incorporate treasured photographs from past or future sessions, allowing your memories to live both visually and emotionally across generations.

From memorial heirlooms…
to redemption stories…
to legacy shadowboxes…
to handwritten keepsakes…
to deeply personal story preservation…

This is one of the gifts God gave me to serve others.

It’s ministry.
It’s remembrance.
It’s love preserved on paper.

Today, I’m prayerfully opening applications for The Founding Heirloom Collection. I will be selecting only 10 stories for this inaugural collection.

Thank you for entrusting me with the sacred honor of expressing your heart through words…

Submit your story for consideration here: https://bit.ly/4fc2AAq

Your stories.
Your moments.
Cherished for a lifetime.

Stephanie Mullowney Donahoe

STANDING ROOM ONLY: A precious friend of mine passed away suddenly on a boating trip several years ago. It was incompreh...
05/27/2026

STANDING ROOM ONLY: A precious friend of mine passed away suddenly on a boating trip several years ago. It was incomprehensibly tragic. A barge drove right over his fishing boat leaving him unrecognizable. But even so, Sam was the kind of person who you would know even if he was invisible. His personality and heart were so big that you could feel his presence long before he entered the room. And his love lingered indefinitely upon his exit leaving you wanting more time with him.

I wanted to keep his beautiful spirit alive by writing the memorial you see above to honor him (blurred because it’s so personal). The Lord prompted my heart to do it, so I obeyed though it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. This memorial was read aloud at his funeral where there was standing room only all the way out the door. Each hand that gently held a copy of the above heirloom also held tear-soaked tissues in the other. His memorial piece was passed out to everyone who came to mourn his loss that day. And what a significant loss he was.

Sam was so special that just the writing part wasn’t enough, so I also created three shadow box memorial displays. After all, these wouldn’t fade away like the funeral flowers eventually would. Each represented one of his favorite hobbies and was distributed to the three older sisters he left behind. The one you see here represents his love for motorcycles all the way down to the colors. His casket was escorted by a motorcycle entourage and was the most beautiful procession I’d ever witnessed.

The moments we had…they weren’t enough. Not by a long shot. He was so very young and full of life that it leaves your shattered heart asking God, “Why?” because how could a heartbeat that loud be silenced so soon. That devastation eats at your spirit.

He was one of those people you just wanted to be near, and you found yourself a little jealous of his joy and wanted it to rub off on you. You coveted what he had…whatever that ‘thing’ was that made him, well…him. But no one can be Sam. God broke the mold after He created him. And that’s both the beauty and the tragedy of it all.

To live a life where the first time you make someone cry is at your funeral, you my dear friend literally lived out loud, “love your neighbors…”, and he certainly did. What a blessing to have known a soul like his. I bet he was right there with us the day of his funeral, listening to every word being read and nodding and grinning because he knew we’d remember not just what his life ‘meant’, but how his life forever changed ours.

What an honor to preserve Sam’s legacy.

There’s a reason I felt led to share Sam’s memorial heirloom with you all tonight.

Since I was a little girl, I quietly created deeply personal pieces like this behind the scenes for both loved ones and even strangers the Lord put on my heart. I never realized the Lord was slowly building something much bigger through those moments as He spoke to my heart, urging me to write what someone else needed to hear. It’s been God’s way of saying, “I see you” as He lends me His eyes to express the hearts of others with words on paper.

Tomorrow morning at 9AM, I’ll finally be sharing something that’s been on my heart for a very long time…

I alluded to this part of my ministry several weeks ago, and its finally time to open the keepsake box of my heart and share it with you.

Stephanie Mullowney Donahoe Tom Donahoe

05/26/2026

WRINKLED MEMORIES: When your youthful laughter fades into silent wrinkled smiles, this is the kind of nostalgia you know your heart will long for. It’s where you miss both where you have been but are so grateful for how far you’ve come to see the miracle of it all.

I like to reflect on moments like these in slow motion. I know that doesn’t make it last longer, but it certainly preserves the memory in my mind’s eye. Then add the sepia tone on top of that and it becomes something dreams are made of.

Life is full of hardships and pain and certainly not always ‘dreamy’, but even the worst of tragedies have a way of shrinking behind the treasure of gifts like this.

The older we get, the more souvenirs we’ll collect over the years. I’ve found the intangible ones are much more valuable than the replaceable ‘things’ that come and go.

So, choose to cherish what you can’t put a price tag on and even if you could, you’d never accept any amount of money for it. Then, lock it away in the heirloom keepsake box of your heart and throw away the key.

Stephanie Mullowney Donahoe Tom Donahoe

Address

Nashville, TN

Telephone

+19312152937

Website

https://www.brandofhuman.com/, https://mailchi.mp/7e53bf597b31/memoir

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