Happy New Year from The Story Matters Team!

The Story Matters would like to wish you a Happy New Years and thank you for all your support over the last year! Cheers to our subscribers now and in the future! We look forward to another year of creative sharing, inspiration, friendship, and fun. Thanks for making The Story Matters a part of your story.

Author's choice

Today is Author's choice and this is the layout I chose!

This layout was done by Karen Williams and was posted in our Member Gallery! First off I love the color combo she chose. Very soft and subtle. I really love how she used the punch on the top of the page......very clever! The photo, the chair, the journal spot, they all work for me! This a simple yet striking layout and that is why it is my choice for Author's choice!

Our favorite layouts of 2010..............

Here at the Story Matters we are getting ready for a New Year and new beginnings. Part of celebrating a new beginning is reminiscing about where we have been.The design team thought it would be fun to submit and share with you are favorite layouts from 2010! One thing is for sure....this team is so very talented but most of all they are very good people and I am so blessed to be a part of something so positive! Here are a few flashbacks to some of our favorite layouts!

Michelle:


Tania:


Megan:


Mandy:


Shelley:
Penny:
Most of all we would like to thank you for being a part of The Story Matters kit club! We are so happy to have you with us and we encourage you to keep posting and sharing with us! We look forward to the New Year and to seeing all the wonderful creations you are making with our kit!

Be sure to post your favorite TSM layout in our gallery!

Leftovers...

No not the Turkey Sandwich kind...

even better.

The Story Matters Kit Leftovers!

I keep all my bits and bobbles from my TSM kits in a bag,

and I pulled it out to make a few projects for some last minute Christmas projects.

Here are some of the Gift Tags I made using just the scraps from the kits with and added piece here and there...

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

O CHRISTMAS TREE

SNOW

SNOW (MASKED)

SEASONS GREETINGS

SNOWMAN BY INDIA (My 9 YR old)

And i also through together this card.

which Im thrilled at how it turned out!

I hope you got lots of great shopping deals today.

and Ill see you in 2011!

Bree

Merry Christmas

{digi kit by echo park}

Making an easy "scraps banner"....a how to:

I posted this on my blog about a week ago, but I thought I'd share here too.
I made mine for Christmas, but it could easily be done for New Years or birthday parties too!

They are super easy:

Start with a bunch of circles punched from your fav papers or scraps.


Run them through your sewing machine...


Just keep sewing and adding circles until you've got the length you want!






Try different shapes!


Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Enjoy a wonderful...magical weekend!

Snowflake gift tag

Okay, so I'll admit it! I'm completely in LOVE with my new snowflake punch! I can't get enough of it right now, but then {hello!} I probaly won't use it much come summer right? So why not get my $$$ out of it now. Hee! Hee!

I was so inspired by the tags that Mandy shared last week that I decided I needed to make a few quick tags for the kids' teacher gifts. Something simple using some scraps from the December kit:


{From my stash: American Crafts pink thicker}

Snowflakes & sneaks...

We've got more sneaks of the January kit for you!

{Amy}










{penny}


{michelle}

Author's Choice

It's Tuesday and that mean's it Author's Choice!

I want to highlight this amazing layout

by mojodawn :

I love the artsy feel, the layers and how the layout is completely made of tags!

Thank you for sharing Dawn!

Check out her blog for some great inspiration!

http://www.mojomayhem.blogspot.com/

Peace, Love, & Stress

It's that time of year.
With the joy comes the stress of the holidays.
I always try to tell myself not to stress out and just enjoy those special moments.

So here's our challenge for you:
What are your holiday stresses & joys?

Here's are a couple layouts I created using the December kit.

The Stresses:

{I forgot to take a picture of my layout before taking it over to Scrapaganza, so Penny was nice enough to get one for me with her phone. Thank you!}

And the joys:



Take the challenge with us and be sure to add your layout to our gallery!

Inspiration is everywhere!

While out shopping the other day, I came across a really cute gift box with a snowman on it. It just so happened to be the perfect size for a gift I was giving, so I took him home with me. After wrapping the gift, I realized I needed to make a card. And what's better than a matching set?

So here is a glimpse of the box...


He is a funny shaped fellow, so I started searching my die cut images for something similar and settled on a set of pumpkins(yep, you read that right) from the Spooky Slice Design Card. I decided on a size and cut them out and added them to the card base that I pre-misted.


I then added some of my BasicGrey stickers from the December TSM kit. "O"s for the eyes and buttons, "periods" for the mouth, and the orange border sticker by Crate Paper made the carrot nose. THEN I used some letters to create the little stick arms. Here are a couple close ups...


A strip and a rectangle of black cardstock, wrapped with some baker's twine makes the hat. And then I cut tiny slits in the card to thread the ribbon through for the scarf.

I used a tiny flower to make the whimiscal snowflakes, stamped a sentiment on a strip of paper and folded it like a banner... Voila!

Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial!

Quick tags

It's FRIDAY!! And I have some quick gift tags to share with you!


With the help of my handy dandy heat gun, these tags were done in no time!
I started with plain white tags and misted them(the Glimmer Mist colors I used were: Peppermint Stick, Olive Vine, and Lemongrass). The one on the left, I punched some snowflakes and laid them out on the tag before I sprayed, when I lifted them up, I had some cute white snowflakes. Then I took some paper scraps, my Slice, and some punches to create the embellishments (you can use stickers or chipboard, too!) I topped them off with some BasicGrey alphas, a holiday stamp from my stash, and a little bit of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Mist to give them an extra bit of shine.
Don't you think they would look great on a Kraft paper gift bag? or a gift wrapped in Kraft paper?
Thanks for stopping by The Story Matters blog!

Donate for a chance to win Decembers TSM kit (and help save a life!)

I came across this post when I was blog hopping. I was visiting Stephanie Howell's blog-can't help it! Not only is she a talented designer, I love to see those lil babes! :)

ANYWAY, she linked her blog to this plea.

The Story Matters could NOT help but donate a kit.

I (Penny) myself have adopted from Ukraine, and I have seen the conditions these orphans live in-and how hard it is for them to heal if they do escape.
(that is our little Ukrainian Princess in the middle... with her crooked smile (she had a cleft palate) she is a wonderful, wild, exhausting blessing! )
Olga is special needs (she has Downs Syndrome)... and if she does not come home to a forever family, she will go to an institution. This woman is trying to raise the money to pay for her adoption by a willing family...
That is what stops many people from adopting. Cost.

Helping Olga helps save her life.

And you just might win a ipod, or a TSM kit, or one of many other prizes!

Give a little. Save a life.

HURRY, prizes drawn tonight at midnight!

Soon...a new month...a new year...

...and a new kit!
Yep, it's that time again!

Sneak day!
Check out what's in store for you in January!

And now some goodness from a few of the dt gals...

{shelley}

{megan}

{mandy}

{penny}