Extraordinary: TSM September Kit Reveal

time for another The Story Matters kit reveal! this month's kit: Extraordinary---and that it was! jammed packed full of summer color mixed with a hint of fall. i fell in love with it at first sight.


i'm not sure what it is, but lately, i've been finding myself scrapping more linear type layouts and dang if they aren't hard to photograph so they look straight, LOL.

anywho. i ended up with three layouts that i'm happy to have in my albums now--with gobs of supplies still leftover for more.

i promise, the layouts really are straight in real life. take a looksie...

click images to enlarge

{definitely not} journaling: There are many adjectives to describe my sweet Ashlyn like sensitive, introverted, creative, easily overwhlmed, mama's girl, anxious, loud, clingy, demanding, and stubborn. But there is one things she is most definitely not....and that would be...camera shy. In fact, in front of the camera is when every shy cell in her being falls away and she comes alive. Absolutely, most definitely NOT camera shy. Nope.


pit stop journaling: It's become our 'thing' to stop for lunch at Mark Pi before or after our trips to the pediatrician. She's hooked for life on Chicken & Baby Corn with brown sauce...fried rice on the side. Since we seem to have endless trips to the doctor for bouts of strep, bronchitis, and ear infectsion, the stafff at the Chinese place have come to know us quite well, even remembering that she loves her meal with chopsticks. She pretty much has them mastered. Funny thing is, Spidergirl is somehow convinced that fortunes typed in blue don't come true like the red ones do. She gets super frustrated and has a mini-meltdown when she opens hers and sees blue. I'm not gonna lie...she's kinda a big deal. Gosh, I love this kid.

the kit comes with a really cool journaling lines template, but i'm not a huge fan of my handwriting on my layouts---it's the perfectionist in me. instead i make typos, like on the pit stop layout, and then get too lazy to correct them. oooops.

anywho. instead, i used the template as a stitching guide to pierce the holes for the stitching you see on the layout below. such a versatile tool!

she can count journaling: Emma Grace is one easily annoyed kiddo. When it comes to taking family photos, this little one would rather do anything and everything to avoid being in front of the camera and smiling pretty for mommy. After running behind the hedge of buses, to hide, she discovered gobs of red berries. Picking them and counting them provided her with several minutes of pure childhood bliss. But one thing it didn't do was keep mama's camera out of her cute little face like she thought it would. So instead we made a big deal about how well she could count. While I clicked away. Ornery little stinker.


this kit included the coolest handmade clay numbered buttons from Charlene's Button Box. instead of stitching them on through the pre-made holes, i decided to stick some mini-brads through and glue-dot the buttons to the page. Charlene's buttons have become a monthly staple in The Story Matters kits and i look forward to seeing what she'll come up with next.

the round teal argyle stamped button on the far left of the first layout was one Charlene made exclusively for the kit too! so fabulous. :)

click yourself on over to The Story Matters and join in the fun, would ya!?

sidenote: mini-brads, needle, thread & tiny pearls not included in kit.