Authors Choice....

Here is a layout by mom2four that I just love! I really like the way she used the felt from the August Kit for the brackets. The layout design with the center picture tilted also caught my eye immediately. I also like the simpleness of the layout, but how it tells a story just from the quote.

Great job mom2four!

You have won a $5 gift certificate to The Story Matters website; so you will receive $5 off your next kit ordered!

Sing Out Loud Challenge

This week's challenge is to use a song title or lyrics for inspiration. Here are a few from our design team.
Kim:

Song inspiration: 'You Belong With Me' by Taylor Swift.

Megan:

Song Inspiration: 'Stuck Like Glue' by Sugarland

Show us your creations!
Post it in our gallery!

Can't wait to see what you create....

Felt flowers...a tutorial!

This month's kit has some wonderful felt pieces to work with and I thought I would share how to make these really pretty felt flowers with you. They make great embellishments, you can stack them, make them any size you want, and they are super easy. You will need your felt, some thread or floss, and a scissors!

First cut your felt into a strip. The wider the strip the larger the flower. The longer the strip the "fuller" the flower!

Hand stitch the felt along one side.

When done....just pull and the flower will appear!

Now just sew the two ends together on the wrong side of the flower and that's it! You can leave them single and add a button or you could stack them and add a fun center to your flower!

I hope that inspires you to make your own fabric flowers with your kit!!

Like our logo??

Well the artist Jessica (Vol 25) that created it, has the same typewriter (in yellow) available as a print!
AND it is featured on the front page of etsy.com!
(If it is not still there, you can see it here!)
Go take a look, and check out all her FABULOUS creations!

Authors Choice......

Here is a layout by Michele using the August kit that I just love!! Great photos and great use of the kit! I love how she incorporated the felt and other little elements onto her page!! What I really loved is how she used a number for a letter. I hate it when I go to use my alphabet and I don't have the needed letters!! Kudos to Michele for making it work!!

Great page Michele and thanks for sharing it with us in the gallery!!

Vacation or Staycation?

It's unbelievable to think that Summer is almost gone! It's time to send the kids off to school and now you can gather your Summer memories and create! Did you stay home this Summer? Spend time at the pool? Take the kids to camp? Or did you go on a vacation with the family? We want to know. Show us your creations featuring what you did this Summer! Post it in our gallery!

Here's a layout I made using the August kit and some photos from our Summer vacation!

Gotta a clue???

Here are this months clues for our fabulous guest designer...

*If she were to hop on her Harley & head east, she would arrive at our headquarters in Davenport, Iowa in about 3 hours.

*She's got a wonderful display of her work right here in our gallery.

* And a few bits & pieces from her work with the September kit to tempt you...

Do you have a guess as to who our lucky gal is this month?

Some journaling faves...

from our wonderful design team!  First up, is Michelle...

I love how she included a letter her son wrote.  Great idea when you can't decide what you want to journal.

Then we have this one from Penny:

She included some serious heartfelt journaling on this one.

Here's one from Kim:

I am always a fan of hidden journaling, and love how Kim included it on a tag behind the pic.

I love how Tania journaled around the patterned paper:

This makes for added interest, and incorporates the journaling into the design.

This one by Bree is just so touching:

She included her journaling in a letter.  Love that idea.

And finally there's Megan:

She journaled by just adding a short phrase that totally sums up the picture.  Amazing!!

Hope these will inspire your journaling!!  Happy Thursday!

August Mid-week inspiration...

I actually got some time to sit down and scrap, and I (Penny) naturally {wink} grabbed my August kit again! It was calling to me! That FELT! There is so much of it, so I just kinda went nuts a little...
and I still have lots left.

First, in this layout, I used the felt to make flowers. All these are is I cut the felt into a spiral, like you have seen so many of the paper flowers. Starting from the outside of the spiral, I started to "roll". I would add a fold here and there, especially in the middle. The inside of the spiral is a circle, and I used that to glue the whole business together. If this is as clear as mud, I would be glad to take more pictures, just let me know.
Here is a link to the PAPER tutorial I first used when making spiral flowers.
I just hand cut the leaves and hand-stitched them.
This one... in addition to hand stitching, I also wanted to use the illustration of the papers theme... these October Afternoon papers are so cute, rarely do I care if the "theme" matches my layout! Having them work together is a rarity! :)

And 'tis the season for back to school! This is a older picture, but one that was waiting patiently to be scrapped! Do I used pink for boys! YES I DO! :) I just don't care! Try it, it isn't as gender specific as you would think, with the right papers and embellishment, right? :)
We are VERY close to selling out... actually, we were out, and decided to make more!
(The Story Matters is owned by a store and they are flying out the door!)
So get yours while you can!
Remember, buying a kit is a subscription, but you can cancel ANY month! You have 10 days after the sneak peek to decide if that months kit is for you! And having a kit subscription promises you the next months kit! Since we have been selling out lately, bonus to you!

Author's Choice...

For my author's choice this week, I went in search of some great journaling...and found this in our gallery:

I am a sucker for journaling tags, and love how Michele tucked her's in under her pp.  Congrats, Michele, and enjoy your $5 GC towards your next kit!!

Want to win???  Then you have to post your work in our gallery.  It's as easy as that!

Don't forget the journaling challenge on the post below!  Have a great, great Tuesday!

Telling Your Story

Hey everyone, it's Amy.  This week we are going to really get down to what "THE STORY MATTERS" is all about--telling your story.  In August's kit, we were so happy to have the fabulous tags from Shabby Chic Crafts, and as you can see in this layout,  I used 2 of them:

I used the small, turquoise tag at the top of my layout.  I actually cut it in half so I could use the other half on another layout.  When I saw the yellow tag that had "my story matters" on it, I knew exactly how I wanted to use it.  I used the small "My Yellow Bicycle" letter stickers to cover up the word my, and change it to our, and the layout was born.  I love that I was able to record the reason I scrapbook, and with the TSM fab kits, it made it so easy. 

Show us how you're telling your story by using the Shabby Chic Crafts tags in your kit on a project.  You can post it right into our gallery, link it in the comments of this post, and you may just win a $5 gift certificate towards one of our kits!

Now, go tell your story.

Sneaky...sneaky....

Can you believe it's sneak time already? I am so excited about this next months kit!
Feast your eyes on these little sneaks...

Shelley:

Tania:

Michelle:


Megan:

Product feature with Shabby Chic Crafts

It's my hopes to do a fun feature each month on at least one of our kit products.

This month we're featuring the amazing tags that Shabby Chic Crafts

custom created for our August kit!

Aren't they awesome? How have you've been using your tags from this month's kit? Share your work with us in the gallery!

Don't forget to head on over to check out all the new tags now available at Shabby Chic Crafts!

Guest Designer Spotlight-Charity Hassel

Time to showcase out Fab guest designer this month, Charity Hassel!

We are honored to have Charity Guest Design for us this month!
Charity, who designs for October Afternoon (a regular in TSM kits)
had this to share about herself:I am 35 years old. I have been married to my honey, Brian, for 7 years. We have a 5 year old named Alexander and Audrey Marie who is 3yr old. I work one shift a week as a RN in the Surgical ICU at Mayo. The rest of my days are spent making sippy cups, playing playdough and trying to scrap during naptimes! One of my favorite things on the planet is chocolate covered popcorn (I/m a chocoholic)! I have been scrapbooking for nearly 8 years now, but became "serious" about it around 6 years ago. My style varies, but I love trying to use product in unique ways.

Charity is KNOWN for your cards!


Thank you Charity, for sharing your creative inspiration with us here at
The Story Matters!!

More Sketch Inspiration

Shelley created this gorgeous layout using the sketch posted on Monday.

I love how she stitched on the felt! And those adorable hearts! And how she journaled on the photo! Isn't this layout just amazing?!

Looking forward to seeing your takes on this week's sketch!

This week's author's choice

This weeks authors choice...

We've had some great new layouts added to the gallery lately and this one by jleija really caught my eye! These super cute photos reminded me of when my boys were little...heck my 8 year old is still almost this messy. The misting is perfect!

Great design!

Add your creations today & maybe you will be next weeks feature!


Penny here! New feature to TSM! If your creation is the week's "Author's Pick" you will receive a $5 TSM GIft Certificate! Buy a kit and you will be refunded $5! That means your FABULOUS kit will only be $19.99!! (+ s/h)If you don't have a subscription, what a GREAT way to try a month! At a discount!

And hurry, August kit is SO fabulous! They are going FAST! Get yours TODAY!

Sketch Week!

Good Monday morning. I hope you had a great weekend....

I hope you are loving the August kit as much as I have......Megan put together such a fabulous fun funky awesome kit.

This week is sketch week...create a layout based on this sketch and share with us....post in the gallery and/or link us up here.

Here is a layout I created with the sketch...I played a little with the felt from the kit for this one...

Love how Megan used 3 photos instead of one large photo for her take on this sketch!

Stay tuned for more sketch inspiration this week!