Mix and Match! There’s no catch!

Have you checked out the great paper packs in the MMS Design Shop? Some of our designers feature beautiful paper packs that don’t have any embellishments. Let this be an opportunity for your creativity to shine by mixing and matching embellishments from other kits There are so many great designers of scrapbooking kits that it is often hard to pick your favorite. Don’t feel obligated to feature just one designer for your layouts – Mix and match embellishments and papers from your favorite designers to make the perfect page. Also consider embellishing a template page with embellishments in your stash to make it uniquely yours. Below is a Template page from the Family Defined Template pack by StoryRock. I swapped the background for one from Dana Zarling’s Champagne Wishes Paper Pack. Then I added a few embellishments from Barbara Ryan’s Sweet Girl kit. I think the final product is adorable. Switch up some of your kits, templates and embellishments today. You might be able to make some “suite” pages with them.

Happy Scrappin’!

Sarah ~

… and don’t forget to check out my blog for more great ideas!

ScrapHappySarah

Don’t know where to start???

Maybe you are new to the world of Digital Scrapbooking…  maybe you are wondering,  “What do I do first?”  “What does it take to create a really GREAT photo album?”  “How do I get my albums to look like those in the pictures?” “What if I get stuck”!!!???  First of all, remember that even the best designers and scrapbook artists ALL started at square one.  They all had to learn.  They all made mistakes!  So, don’t give up before you get going!  YOU CAN DO THIS!  There are some great tools in My Memories Suite to make sure that your photos are preserved and your family’s story is told and that you create something very special that YOU can be very proud of!

First, realize that the PERFECT album will look different for everyone.  Even with the same photos, and the same page kits and embellishments, each person will see the story a little differently and build their       pages in a little different way.  The wonderful thing about My Memories Suite (whether you have version 1 or 2) is that this program puts YOU in complete control!  You have the ability to decide what goes where, your page order, your background paper, and your embellishments – EVEN on the Designer Template pages.  It is easy to make sure your story comes together in just the right way!  So, decide what story or event your album will include.  This can be anything from a general collection of photos by theme, or a group of photos that commemorate a particular event or holiday, and some will just be for fun.  A great way to give your album a coherent feel is to select a theme or kit to serve as the backdrop or foundation to build a great showcase for all your photos.  This is SO easy in the My Memories Suite Design Shop because there are TONS of great collections to choose from that will instantly give your album that “put together” feel that we all want.  So, gather your photos, pick your theme and you are READY to get started!

Make sure to stop by and check out the My Memories Suite Design Shop and take a peek at all the wonderful Designer Template pages and paper packs and embellishments sets.  Start with one that really strikes your fancy or suits the “feel” of the album you are trying to create.  Even if you build your own album from scratch, choosing a coordinated set of papers instantly unifies your pages.  Pair the set of background papers with a few of the photo only templates already built into your My Memories Suite software and you are well on your way to your own wonderful work of art.  I have included a few pages here from the “Drama Queen” paper pack from Dana Zarling to show you how the background papers pull the pages together.  See how the coordinated background papers and mat pull the pages together?

Your friends and family will be amazed at the impressive, professional results you will achieve, from your very first project.  How easy it was… well, that can be our little secret!  And remember, if you get stuck, or ever need help, we are only an email away.  Remember, you can also check out the Facebook fan page or Flickr gallery for some great inspiration, too!!  We have some very talented friends and fans who have posted wonderful pages that they have created quickly and easily in their MMS program.

So, what are you waiting for???  Your photos are waiting to tell your story!  Let them OUT of your computer, and off your memory card and into the hands of those you want to share that story with!

Have a happy scrappy day!

… and don’t forget to make a memory today!

Lisa J.

lisaj@mymemoriessuite.com

All aboard!!! It’s time for another ride on the My Memories Suite Blog train!!

Hi to all our MMS friends and fans! We LOVE the season we can celebrate LOVE! And who doesn’t LOVE to win free stuff??? We are all gearing up for the next ride on the MMS BLOG TRAIN!! Make sure you check out the blogs for each member of the MMS Creative Team ~ each of our Team has created a blog post on their personal blogs to highlight one of their favorite features in MMS Version 2! There is some great new stuff and each Team member has chosen one to walk you through. It is not only a great way to learn something new, it is a GREAT way to enter to win some FREE STUFF! We are giving away a copy of The MMS Version 2 software/upgrade, 14 (the lucky number of love) FREE kits from the MMS Design Shop and 1 Quick Design Club CD! ALL you have to do to enter is follow the blog train through each stop, collect the key word on each blog, put them in order for a 5 word phrase, and email that phrase to me at lisaj@mymemoriessuite.com. That’s it, easy as pie! So, check out Sarah’s blog to get started, then follow the train from there! Here are the links to refer to in case you get lost on your trip:

Stop 1: Sarah’s blog

Stop 2: Mary & Jackie’s blog

Stop 3: Beth’s Blog

Stop 4: Brooke’s Blog

Last Stop: Lisa’s Blog!

Then email the 5 word key phrase in order to me! lisaj@mymemoriessuite.com

Good luck everyone…and don’t forget to make a memory today!

Lisa J.

Great idea for your 2010 Family Books!

We have been talking about year long projects and commitments on the Facebook page lately… they are a FANTASTIC way to chronicle your family’s year in pictures and journaling. Finding the TIME to do that type of project can be daunting though – especially when we have VERY busy families! Check out the blog post below from Sarah – a VERY smart member of our Creative Team here at MMS! Sarah shares a great idea for how to simplify this task and make it work for YOU!

Thanks for sharing Sarah! Check out Sarah’s blog for more great ideas! Scrapping Sarah’s Scribblings!

I love scrap booking, but when I see challenges to do 365 day projects, my blood pressure rises and the anxiety starts to build. I can’t take medication 365 days a year like I am supposed to, so I seriously doubt that doing a 365 day project will work for me. The 52 weeks projects look a little more inviting, but then I saw a blog that recommended a top ten memories project and knew I had found the perfect one for me.

I CAN make a top ten list for every month of memories for that month. Couple that with my goal to write more stories down and do a monthly round-up and I think that’s all I can handle. This should help make scrapping all the important events a little easier to scrap because it gives me a plan and it limits my entries. Here are the first pages of the year…

Have you started something new for the year? Share your great ideas.
Happy Scrapping,
Sarah

A *Great* Giveaway!

We made it to Amanda’s Blog! If you are a FONT FANATIC, like me, you will recognize many of the fonts from posted pages that come from Amanda’s collection! At kevinandamanda.com you can find some great fonts and inspiration and ideas (and even some yummy recipes) and it’s ALL FREE! And this week WE are Amanda’s spotlight giveaway! Amanda is giving away a free copy of MMS software to one lucky entry post on her blog! Make sure you check it out and post a response, and GOOD LUCK! So, check out Amanda’s blog and post your comment to win!

… and don’t forget to make a memory today!

Lisa J.

Making a Designer template yours! :-)

Here are some great tips that you can use to help you make the most of the Designer Templates available with your MMS program! There are tons of great templates that can really help speed up the process of creating family keepsakes for you. Let’s face it ~ we creative people have a big struggle when we approach a project. We want to get it done, we want to enjoy the process, we want to enjoy the results, and we want it to look like it’s ours! The flip side of that however is, most of us have INCREDIBLY busy lives! We have children and families, we work inside the home and out, we volunteer, we are there for those around us – and we TRY to squeeze out a little time for ourselves in there somewhere! Well, I have found that using Designer Templates really help me to get through a project quickly. Now, sure, there are still some times and some projects that I start from scratch, because there isn’t a template that quite matches the look I want or I really do want every element added to be of my choosing. That’s one of the things I truly LOVE about MMS. I have the flexibility to choose either option every time I add a page to a project I am creating. But for today’s post, I really wanted to show you some quick tips you can use to start with a Designer Template and truly jazz it up and make it yours! A couple quick steps and you will be DONE before you know it!

So, first I will show you the template page, completely as is. All I did was drag in the photos from one of my folders. In this example, I am using some photos from a project I did for my aunt for Christmas. We live in Florida, so we don’t see much snow – but there is a wonderful exhibit called “Ice!” at the beautiful Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando every year and I have some cute pictures of her family that I am going to use in these two pages.

As I was saying in the first page, the “before” page – I simply chose the page I was going to work on, and dragged each picture into one of the photo boxes that were placed on the page. This is so quick and easy the page literally creates itself in less than a minute or two. Drag, drag, drag, DONE! Looks great, sure! I could move on, sure! BUT… I want to “snazz up” the page just a bit so it better suits my taste. So, I choose a few simple options from all of those available in my MMS software. Now, most of these additions are available whether you have Version 1 of MMS or the newly released V2. They are SIMPLE to do and whether this is your first page or your 1,000th – YOU can do it!

As you can see, I used the ZOOM tool, to really get the pictures more “close up” so you can tell who’s in them! Click on the picture you wish to zoom, then click the ZOOM IN button until you get close enough in. You can also adjust the visible portion of the picture with the CROP tool, which allows you to move the part of the picture that is shown. This is one of my favorite things to do to really get more of the subject in each picture on the page. Okay, so now that I have done all three photos, I move on to the next little change. I choose to add a MAT to my photos. Again, all under my control, for these photos I choose a thin white mat to frame them up a little, and click the “APPLY TO ALL PHOTOS ON THIS PAGE” so they all match exactly. You can choose the color of the mats to suit your taste – you can also color match them so they are a perfect fit for your page! Then, I move on to my FAVORITE little change – SHADOWS. I can’t say enough how much I just LOVE shadows and what they can do for your page. They literally POP your pages to life. I pretty much use shadows on just about everything on the page! What I love about the shadow option in MMS is that it is COMPLETELY under your control. It’s more than just “do I want a shadow or not?”. It’s how much shadow do I want, where do I want the shadow to be placed, how dark do I want it, how much of a drop do I want? Everything is under my control! So, I first click on one of my photos and click on the SHADOW box in my Control Panel. That brings up the SHADOW PROPERTIES box. This is where you control the appearance of the drop shadow of your selected item (the shadows for embellishments work much the same way). So, you choose how opaque you want your shadow, how much blur (which affects how “soft” or “hard” the shadow appears). Then, my favorite part is to decide the offset. You can use either your mouse, by clicking on the actual shadow in the preview box and dragging it around until you like the way it looks, or by using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Either option gives you the flexibility to show a little or a lot, drag it more to the side or the bottom, etc. I just LOVE that option! You can even choose the COLOR of the shadow! Then, I click the little box that says “APPLY TO ALL PHOTOS ON THIS PAGE” so that all the pictures look the same. You can do each photo individually, but this will save time.

Then I moved on to a little more personalization – but not too much, just to keep this short and sweet! I change out the text that says “Dec 2010” for a little “Ice!” so it fits more with the page. Remember EVERYTHING that is included in a Designer Template is completely under your control. You can move it, resize it, reshape it, duplicate it, eliminate it, whatever you like. I chose to just leave the little shape and embellishment and change out the little words. So, I created a new text box (you can create this in “WORDART” in V2). Used one word to help define what is going on in the pictures on the page. Of course, I add shadows to each of the three parts of this little set. The white circle SHAPE on the bottom, the little blue MAT embellishment, and the text. When I am adding the shadow to the little blue MAT embellishment, I click “APPLY TO ALL EMBELLISHMENTS ON THIS PAGE” so it also adds the shadow to the snowflake embellishment along the left side of the pre-designed page, as well as the shaped strip at the top of the page (that you almost don’t even notice until the shadows makes it pop!)

Then, finally, I add one line of text at the top of the page, and the year at the bottom, to really just define it better and fill in some of the empty space at the top and bottom of my page. I add the “Gaylord Palms Orlando” and the “2008” text. I choose a cute font (this one is called “Tingle Institute” – cute!) and add the text in black, of course add my shadow also. Then another one of my favorite little tricks is to create the text like I just described, then I click the COPY button up top and paste and exact duplicate of my text line, so now I have two. Then I click the WHITE button (or you can choose ANY color) to change the color of the duplicated text to white (or whatever color you selected). Then I just “layer” it over the previous black text and it really POPS your text off the page. Some of this can be done in fewer steps with the word art options in V2, but I still like the double layer look!

To finish up, I enlarged each of the pictures, just a bit, to fully utilize the space on the page and maximize how much of the picture I could show.

NOW, I can say, “I’m done!”. I am happy with the layout of the page, and a few simple, QUICK little changes that really just bring it to life for me. Now, you can spend a ton of time working on each little detail, and many of us love to do that – I love to do that too, but sometimes you just WANT TO GET IT DONE! And this is a great way to combine your own personal flair and the ease of the Designer Template options.
Please let me know if you have any questions, or need a little more help with the instructions for anything I talked about here, just ask away! You can always reach me at lisaj@mymemoriessuite.com or find me on the Facebook page at “Polaroid My Memories Suites”!

Good luck with your New Year’s projects and Happy Scrappin’!!

Lisa J.

New Features Video Tutorial from Lesley @ The Pink Toque

Happy Sunday, and have I got a treat for you… introducing My Memories Suite VERSION 2! That’s right, you heard me correctly. Not only is there a new version to My Memories Suite with all new features, I created a video tutorial to explain it all and show those new features off!

Last month, StoryRock unveiled an all new version 2 of its famous and very popular digital scrapbooking software, My Memories Suite. Version 2 is packed with all new goodies and awesome new features that we were dying for in Version 1. It’s like StoryRock read all of the feedback of features and ideas that its users over the years have been wanting out of the software and put it in one neat little package that will make digital scrapbookers the world over very happy.

If you’ve been to the Pink Toque Craft Blog before, you know I am an avid user of My Memories Suite. I got the software over 3 years ago when it first came out, and I have been in love ever since. I don’t want to babble on forever (because the new Version 2 goodies are exciting!) but if this is your first visit to my blog and you’re wondering what all of the excitement is about and why I love this software so much, be sure to go and read my review. My Memories Suite has been the best digital scrapbooking program to ever come along and with Version 2, it just got better.

Version 2 includes 1500 new background papers, 1300 new embellishments and 20 new layouts that come built into the software for your use right out of the box. On top of that, new features such as the zoom ability, Resource Gallery, and WordArt Designer make creating beautiful digital scrapbooking pages even easier. My favorite new feature is that your text can now be curved and follow shapes. This was not something you could do in Version 1, and I love that I can create text in beautiful circular shapes or to follow the edges of a photograph right on the page. It was probably the most requested feature and question I got from readers of my blog. Before I had to tell people they could only do something like that in Photoshop, but now My Memories Suite allows you to edit curved and rounded text on the fly right in the program instead. Hooray!

Another highly-sought-after feature that a lot of people asked me about was how to view pages side-by-side so they could build double page spread layouts. Unfortunately, this was not something you could do in Version 1, but now in Version 2 it’s easy. You can also now share your digital scrapbook in a wider variety of ways, including trading cards or calendars. They’ve also streamlined the Photobook process to make it easier to create beautiful photobooks of your finished albums.

I received Version 2 last month and have been trying hard to squeeze in some digital scrapping time with it so that I could show off the new features here on my blog. I finally got around to it today, and created a new video tutorial that highlights all of the major new features available to you in Version 2. I walk you through the new things and how to use them, and it makes it easy for Version 1 users to pick right up where they left off in the old version, or for new users to My Memories Suite to see just how awesome the software really is so they can get it for themselves.

Version 1 users will love that all of the photo albums and pages they’ve created in Version 1 will be converted for them into Version 2 compatibility and that the transition will be seamless. You won’t lose anything and all of your old albums will be right there for you in Version 2, ready to go and waiting for you to use the new tools and features to enhance them even further. When you’re adding embellishments or papers, you’ll be able to easily see what items are new to Version 2, and all of the old embellishments and papers from Version 1 are collected together in a folder labeled as Version 1, so you can quickly find all of your old favorites or check out the new stuff.

Speaking of Favorites, another new feature that I just love is that I can “bookmark” the embellishments and papers that I use most often and mark it as a favorite. This means that it’s added to a special “favorites” folder so I can access those favorite items quickly anytime I want to without having to search for them every time I want to use them on my digital scrapbook page designs. I show how this works in the video tutorial.

The WordArt Designer allows you to create fun and professional looking word art for your pages easily, and is built right in to the side tab of My Memories Suite now. Type in the text you want to create into word art, select the font and sizing, line spacing, colors, fill, stroke, etc. You can add shadows or a bevel and design the perfect word art accompaniment to any page you’re working on. I also demonstrate this in the video tutorial!

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but I’m really excited about the new features in My Memories Suite Version 2! I just recently finished up Family Life 2009 digital scrapbook and am eagerly looking forward to working with all new designs, layouts, and features with Version 2 in 2010. If you want more details about what Version 2 has to offer, check out the info on mymemoriessuite.com. Original users of Version 1 will be able to upgrade for a nominal fee to get all of the new features, papers, embellishments, and layouts that come packaged with Version 2 and brand new My Memories Suite users can get on board and pick up Version 2 for themselves!

I’ve spent most of the afternoon recording the latest tutorial and getting it uploaded for viewing. It ended up being 18 minutes long! Since YouTube only allows videos up to 10 minutes each, I split the tutorial into 2 parts:

Link to YouTube Video Tutorial Part 1

Link to YouTube Video Tutorial Part 2

Enjoy! Be sure to let me know if you have any questions or comments on the new video tutorials or you need help with My Memories Suite Version 2. Hope you’ve had a great weekend Happy scrapping!

Lesley  thepinktoque.com

Working on a “Two-Page” spread!

The best way to do this right now, is to click on VIEW from your top menu, then from the drop down menu click on PAGE WINDOWS. This will allow you to click on more than one page at a time and then show them both on your screen at once. You can zoom and minimize each page individually so you can enlarge the one you are working on, but… See More still keep the other visible. Depending on the size of your computer screen, you can probably get a pretty good idea of how your pages will look side by side. I will post a screen shot above to show you what it looks like on mine. Also, closing your RESOURCE GALLERY panel gives you a little more screen space! Hope that helps!

My Memories Suite Version 2.0 offers an exciting new interface, intuitive features and a variety of unique designs. And for the first time is now being offered via download so users can start scrapbooking immediately!

My Memories Suite Scrapbooking 2.0 is a fun and creative way to keep and share memories. The software’s intuitive design tools and varied sharing output, help users to build entire albums effortlessly by using one of the many installed templates, or design their very own pages from scratch. Users looking to share or search for even more templates are encouraged to visit My Memories Suite’s online Design Shop offering a growing library of templates, papers, and packs to infuse the creativity of its users.
New Core Features

* “Resource Gallery”: Drag & drop embellishments, backgrounds, shapes, layouts
* feature_resources
* Find and replace text
* Identify objects that are off the canvas
* Allow setting (and showing) a mat and/or shadow on photo template objects
* Text that follows a shape (circle or rectangle)

* Add background as photo object (from backgrounds dialog)
* Import different QuickMix shapes into current album (i.e. Import landscape QuickMix pages into a   square album)
* Add different shaped album pages into current album (i.e. Import landscape pages into a square album)
* Set default shadow from shadow dialog
* Set default text options from text panel
* Better user interface design for Mat and Shadow dialog
* New Line shape
* Search for embellishments (search field on bottom of embellishments dialog)

* Edit object from right click menu
* Right click edit
* Hold shift key while dragging an object constrains it to horizontal or vertical axis
* Locate Albums (File–>Locate Albums) will ask for a directory and then search for albums)
* Warn if there are missing fonts when doing a hi-res output
* On canvas text editing

Additional Features

* Searchable Embellishments
* Add own embellishments
* Favorite embellishments
* New photo shapes palette
* Unsaved changes recovery option on next open�if shutdown improperly
* Added blue and red filters to effects palette
* New effects pallet

* Preview effect before committing
* Effects Pallet

* Created solution for the Windows Movie/DVD audio issue
* Print to contact sheet
* Fill text with background or photo
* Effects controls
* Allow for multiple backgrounds on a page (not as photo objects)

Other

* Text Art tool w/ bevel, emboss, gradient, drop shadow, image, warping or shape
* Text art tool

* Spell checking (including check-as-you-go technology)
* Duplicate & mirror pages
* Free rotate objects
* Zoom canvas for more precesion control
* Multiple Preview Views
* Enhanced (more streamlined) photobook, calendar, and card sharing wizards
* User should have ability to search provided images by tags: category, type, keyword
* Tiling for backgrounds
* Texture fills

* New look, updated interface
* Auto Fill at any time
* Gradient fills (add/edit color points, radial and linear)
* Gradient fills
* Better CD/DVD burning capabilities
* Better optical device support
* Space evenly

Code Enhancements

* Updated to install4j 4.1

* Adopted use of java 1.6 (speed, rendering, sharpness, general enhancements) Vista compatibility

Check out the website and order now!!

Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day!! Woooo woooo… get on the BLOG TRAIN!

Hi all!  Well – it is ALMOST Digital Scrapbooking Day!  Okay – just noticed it is midnight… it IS Digital Scrapbooking Day!  The Creative Team here at My Memories Suite are really excited to be bringing you the first trip on the MMS Blog Train!  We would LOVE for you to join us for a trip around Goody Town!  We have some fun things hiding on each of our blogs!  Simply visit each blog and collect the KEYWORD that is on each blog!  When you get to the end of the line, you will have a 5 word phrase!  There will be some fun little goodies to collect along the way, but when you collect ALL the words to the phase and EMAIL them IN ORDER to Lisa you will be entered in the drawing for some GREAT prizes!  We are giving away 5 copies of My Memories Suite software AND some great discount coupons on great kits in the Design Shop!

On your trip you will visit the blogs of each of the girls on the Creative Team… from here you will visit Brooke’s Blog – Brooke is a very talented page designer and has posted some great layouts on the Facebook page!  If you haven’t visited us on FB – make sure you check it out!  We have lots of fun, give a way prizes and offer help and inspiration!

So…. ALL ABOARD!  Get on over to Brooke’s blog and collect the FIRST word in the 5 word phrase!  When you get to the end of the train at Lisa’s blog, she will tell you what to do with the phrase to get entered in the drawings!  IF you get to someone’s blog tonight and they aren’t updated yet, please check back in the am (we sleep sometimes too!)

Have a great time on the train! See all our smiling faces above (Jackie’s not there, but we will add her picture this weekend!)  We are SO happy you are here!

FIRST STOP:

http://lovingthefreelife.blogspot.com/

So, thanks for hangin’ out… and don’t forget to make a memory today!

Lisa J.