On A Roll...

Every year I wait eagerly for Scrapbook Expo to come to New Jersey for several reasons. 1. Duh, it's a scrapbook expo...wall to wall paper and embellishments, need I say more 2. There are lots of people who share my passion rummaging about 3. I always happen to come across something amazing, that I just can't leave the expo without!! This particular time, that "thing" happened to be papers from Simple Stories. Oh.my.goodness!! I wanted to buy every single paper, but I was down to the last few dollars that I had budgeted for the expo (yes, I stuck very closely to my budget this year...yup, shocked myself). I had enough to buy one of most of the papers from the Elementary and 100 Days of Summer lines.

These papers have my name written all over them!! They are full of different patterns and colors but have that distressed/vintage look. You're probably going to see lots of layouts featuring this company here. Here are 2 layouts that I created this week using the Elementary line.

This one features my "Sad Grad", Donovan on the day of his Kindergarten graduation. I love that I was able to incorporate a lot of different patterns, but still keep the focus on the photos and the journaling.

journaling: I have no one but myself to blame for that sad look on your face. After we arrived home from your kindergarten graduation, I asked you to come outside so I could take your picture. I instructed you to bring your balloons, a star and a diamond in your school colors. You didn’t want to, but I made you. As you were about to take your position by the tree in front of our house, a big gust of wind blew in and nearly took your cap off. You reached up to grab your cap to stop it from blowing off and at the same time let go of your balloons. They blew away so quickly and you were devastated!! You cried so hard that it made my eyes well up. All I could do was hug and kiss you and promise to take you to the store where I purchased those balloons and buy you more. You stopped crying, but you were still really upset. Of course, as luck would have it, the store was completely sold out of those same exact balloons. I bought you 2 more balloons, but it just wasn’t the same. Photo: 6/2009 Journalled: 9/2011

I also created this layout using the Elementary line. It features my precocious little 3 year old, Xander. The same with the previous layout, I was able to use lots of different patterns, but keep the focus on the journaling.

Xander, it tickles me to hear you, a 3 year old, ask this question on a nearly daily basis. The even funnier part is that it’s not the question you really want to know. You want to know whether or not it’s Friday so you can take a toy to preschool for Show and Tell. Friday has become the day you look forward to the most! I can’t blame you; I mean who doesn’t love Show and Tell?

Whenever I tell you the day of the week, I am always sure to let you know how many more days you have until Friday, otherwise a really sad look will creep up on your face.
You don’t know this now, but you’re going to be counting down to Friday for many, many years!
Photo taken Summer 2010 age 2
Journalled: September 7, 2011


Thanks so much for taking time out to visit my blog! Have a scrappy day!