Archive for the 'Creative Team' Category
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!
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.
Capture the Moment… The Rule of Thirds
I am thrilled to be writing a monthly article, Capture the Moment…, for My Memories Suite. The article will focus on one photography tip each month and will be posted on the My Memories Suite Blog on the 1st of each month. Without photos, scrapbooking would be nonexistent. As the core element of our layouts, photographs inspire us and influence our design choices. Great photos will make even greater scrapbook pages. So, let’s dig in…
Do you consistently try to center your subject when taking photographs? This topic has been coming up a lot lately. It’s also my pet peeve! WHY does everyone think the subject needs to be centered? I often have to shake my head (and not scream!) when friends/family look at images and say “I would like it better if he/she/it was in the middle” or “why isn’t he/she/it centered”. C’mon, seriously? NOT centering images is done for a REASON! Here’s a little “design” lesson. Let’s see if it will change your mind about always centering your images.
The “Rule of Thirds” is a basic design principle that is the basis for well-balanced and interesting shots. The basic principle behind this rule is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have a 9 part grid as follows:
With this grid in mind, the Rule of Thirds now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image. The four points where these lines intersect are strongest focal points. The lines themselves are the second strongest focal points. In theory, if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines, then your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images, people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points more naturally than to the center of the shot. Using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.
In learning how to use the rule of thirds the most important questions to be asking of yourself are:
What are the points of interest in this shot?
Where am I intentionally placing them?
The auto-focus mode on your camera may cause problems when shooting in Rule of Thirds style because it assumes the subject is in the center of the frame. That’s when auto-focus lock comes in handy. Simply aim your camera so that the auto-focus frame is positioned over your subject and push the shutter release button halfway. By keeping your finger in place on the button, you lock in focus. You can then re-compose your shot and shoot the image.
Don’t forget to keep the Rule of Thirds in mind as you edit your photos – cropping and reframing images so that they fit within the rules. Experiment with some of your old shots to see what impact it might have. You may be surprised.
(by using the rule-of-thirds principle, I was able to crop out the distracting girl in the background which brings the focus on the boy trying to hide his smile from me)
Rules, as we all know, are meant to be broken. Ignoring the Rule of Thirds doesn’t mean your images are unbalanced or uninteresting. In certain situations, breaking the rule can actually result in some striking shots. A very talented commercial photographer recently told me that if you intend to break a rule you should always learn it first to make sure your breaking of it is all the more effective.
(filling your frame with an image is the ideal time to break the rule)
So go ahead… I DARE you. Do NOT center your images! Apply the rule-of-thirds design principle and you may surprise yourself. In the end, we love our favorite shots not for technical qualities (ok, maybe just a little), but because they’re meaningful and spark within us a certain feeling or memory. Capture those moments… centered or NOT!
~ Mary M.
Make your Valentine’s Day extra SUITE!
Make sure you take advantage of some of the GREAT new deals and goodies in the Design Shop! They are guaranteed to make your Valentine’s Day pages extra SUITE! Get them before they are gone! Make sure you savor every little bite!
…and remember to make a memory today!
Lisa J.
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
Winter Magic kit FREE with purchase!
Here are a couple cute pages from the great kit by Sandy McDougal for StoryRock. This wonderful kit is perfect for scrapping all your wonderful winter memories or ski trip pages! Check out the entire kit here: Winter Magic. For a VERY limited time, you can have this great kit, perfect for your winter pages for FREE. Just make a minimum purchase of $5.00 from the Design Shop and add the promo code: wintermagic at checkout!
IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT ADD THE WINTER MAGIC KIT to your cart, it will be added automatically to your cart when you add the promo code! Enjoy this great kit for FREE – for a limited time only!
and remember 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.
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!
To Introduce (and re-introduce) our Creative Team!
Hi! I am Lisa J.! I live in Jacksonville, Florida and I have been scrapbooking – in some form or another for probably 20+ years. Although raising three children (for a while as a single parent) often put the scrapbooking on the back burner. I found it extremely difficult to keep up with the pages, since it required pulling out all of my supplies – or I would get to a page and run out of ‘just the right thing’ to complete that page.
I bought MMS last spring (2008) to do a book for my oldest daughter as graduation gift. Then, just before Mother’s Day this year, I got the idea to create a ‘Memory Book’ for my Mom for a gift. I literally sat for an entire weekend and scanned almost 20 years worth of pictures for this book. I strolled down memory lane and the early childhoods of my three children for the book. My children are now 19, 15, and 13 and there were a TON of photographs from our pre-digital days. I put probably 150 pictures into that book. Both those that I scanned and the ones that started digital came out BEAUTIFULLY in the printed book that came from MMS.
I joke that mostly my role as parent right now is driving my children places and writing checks for their activities! But, when I have time at home, I love to sew (I had a website for a while for the handbags I have made ~ but I am creating a Facebook page for them now!) I have always enjoyed creative activities and have always been involved in some sort of “artsy-fartsy” stuff! I love traveling with my darling hubby, and we have enjoyed visiting wonderful B&B’s in several states! Visit my other blog where I post my MMS creations.
Hi, I’m Beth C. I’m a happily married mother of four from the heart of Oklahoma. When I’m not busy being the chef, maid, chauffeur, or teacher, I LOVE to do all kinds of crafts—quilting, crocheting, knitting, painting, and especially scrapbooking! I have been scrapbooking for several years and have made many scrapbooks and other paper crafts. I was introduced to digital scrapbooking and My Memories Suite when I received the program for Christmas of 2008. And I just have to say that I have loved every minute of scrapbooking since I started using MMS because it is so easy and produces such beautiful results (and you don’t have to clean up the scrapping mess when you’re done)! I’m excited to be part of the Creative Team and get to support a product that I so greatly enjoy. You can check out my work on my blog.
Hi! I am Brooke F. I am very excited to work with MMS. This software is how I discovered digi-scrapping and now I’m obsessed. I have been a traditional scrapper for almost 10 years and found digi scrapping about a year ago. I love the creativity and freedom that digital layouts give you and the mess free environment. I have a wonderful husband who is very supportive of everything that I do and is always inspiring me to try knew things. I am a stay-at-home mom and I love chasing my two kids around, Sam 3 years old and Ellie 18 months. I’m looking forward to this new adventure with MMS.
Hi! I’m Sarah! I am happily married to my hubby of seven years, Mitchell and we have three children. My daily responsibilities include working full time outside of my home, running the house, and trying to keep up with my kiddos! With all of these tasks being required of me daily, I thought I would never be able to scrapbook our memories for my children. All of that changed when I discovered My Memories Suite. I started using MMS after making several digital scrapbooks with Smilebox. Smilebox provided simple templates that I could create scrapbooks with, but it didn’t give me the ability to change the page elements or use my creative skills. My Memories Suite not only provides some pre-made templates for those times I want to make a quick gift or scrapbook, but it also allows me to scrap pages from scratch in just a matter of minutes! There was NO learning curve – I created my first pages the day it arrived in the mail. I am so excited to be able to share this software with others, especially with those working Moms who think they don’t have time… I am living proof it is possible!
Sarah B.
Hi I am Mary M.! I graduated from Grand Valley State University with a B.S. Degree in Legal Studies and worked as a Trust & Estate Settlement & Tax paralegal at Warner Norcross & Judd (www.wnj.com) in Grand Rapids, MI until our first child was born. I then took several years off to stay home, have two more babies and be a mom. I decided that I would not have the flexibility that our family needs if I chose to go back to work as paralegal. So, I took my photography passion to the next level by taking photography and graphic design courses at Kendall College of Arts in Grand Rapids and also attended several photography seminars taught by world famous photographers including Cliff Mautner,and we are enjoying what we are doing tremendously.
Jackie L.bringing photos to life. Jackie has embraced digital technology and the art of turning photos into a story.
