gingerbread house

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Can you believe the week is halfway over?  And even crazier than that, can you believe this is my third day of blogging in a row?  ;)  Today I am sharing the last of the layouts I created with the December kit from The Story Matters.  This was a really fun layout to create because I used only one piece of patterned paper on the entire layout (well okay I used a few scraps of green patterned paper here and there but that's it! LOL) AND it's a double pager!  The colors of the Pink Paislee paper reminded me so much of these photos I took of my boys last winter.  It was the first time they really took part in the gingerbread house tradition and they had so much fun placing each piece of candy.  The yellow paper that holds my journaling is actually the reverse of the striped paper and the decorative kraft cardstock borders are included in the kit as well.  Feel free to click on the image for a closer look!

The scallop borders reminded me of the gingerbread wood trim you see on a lot of older Victorian homes so I decided to create my own little "roof" to lay on top of my title work.  I finished it all off with a little baker's twine tied through one of the handmade buttons included in the kit. 

Well that's it for me!  Thank you so much to everyone who has stopped by these last few days and left comments.  Each and every one of them put a smile on my face so thank you!  :)

holiday best

I'm back with another layout to share from my guest DT gig over at The Story Matters kit club.  As I mentioned yesterday I loved this kit - loved, loved, loved it!  One of my favorite things about the kit had to be the Basic Grey Jovial collection goodies that were included because, well, because let's face it I'm a huge Basic Grey fan. This next layout uses mostly Basic Grey with a piece here and there from some of the other patterned papers.

My boys in their holiday best - could anything be cuter?  (obviously the answer is no! LOL).  I love to mix up the size of my layouts and I thought an 8.5 x 11 canvas was the perfect fit for this one.  My favorite paper hands down is the lumberjack plaid.  It just sings of all things holiday and winter to me.  I thought the colors went perfectly with my boys' clothing so I used a large piece of it on the base of my layout.  The journaling breaks things up a bit, but the plaid is still a major player here and I love it!  Another love of mine is the micro and mini mono stickers from Basic Grey.  I buy them in multiples each time new ones are released.  They are the perfect size for longer titles and look great layered one slightly on top of the other.  Here's a detail image of my title work ...

And finally here's a detail image of some of my embellishments.  I used some punched stars here and there and layered a few of the bigger ones with the "small details" embellies from Basic Grey.

I've got one more layout to share tomorrow (and if you like double pagers you'll definitely want to come back and check it out! wink wink).  See you then!

The Story Matters December Kit

Hey all!  Happy Monday!  I hope you had a fabulous weekend.  Mine was super busy and I am slightly (okay majorly) panicking that Christmas is less than 3 weeks away.  I mean, how did that happen?  In any case I have some fun news to share that I've been keeping secret for the past few weeks.  I was asked to be the Guest Designer for The Story Matters kit club for the month of December.  I was super excited when Penny asked me to Guest DT and even more thrilled when I received the kit - loved loved loved it!  Thanks so much Penny for asking me!  :)

I created 3 layouts with the kit and will share one each day for the next 3 days (and I promise to actually post this time not like my last ... cough cough ... post ... cough cough LOL).  The very first layout I made with the kit was this one below ...

 
There were so many great patterned papers included in the kit and I really wanted to use them all somehow on a layout.  A simple grid design lends itself to using several patterns without feeling overwhelming.  Also using a neutral kraft cardstock background like I did here helps keep things from looking too hectic.  These are some of my favorite pictures of Brandon from our first major snowstorm last winter.  He loved sticking his tongue out and catching the snowflakes.  I used a bit of Studio Calico Mr. Huey's Color Mist in Calico White around my page to continue my theme and lots of punched snowflakes here and there as well.  And here's a detail image of my title work.

I will have another layout to share with you tomorrow.  In the meantime if you are interested in purchasing the kit I believe that it is still available - check out The Story Matters website for more information!