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.

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.

Ready for Some Scary Savings???

Now that Halloween is over, you are sure to have all those cute little ghosties and goblin pictures to scrap!  Just think of all the wonderful Pumpkin Patch pictures that you have piled up!  There are some VERY fun packs in the Design Shop that are perfect for those pages in your book!

Check out the *brand new* PUMPKIN PAPERS that have just been added to the Design Shop!  These wonderful papers make a great back drop for the Halloween pages you have floating around in your head!  Get them scrapped before they fly away!  Spend a minimum of $5.00 in the Design Shop and get PUMPKIN PAPERS for FREE!  Enter the promo code: PUMPKIN at check out to get this super cute set of papers free!

You could also pick up HALLOWEEN SCREAM too!  It is being offered at the bargain price of $3.97 until November 7th!  You might also choose the very cute SCAREDY CAT kit that is also being offered at $3.97 too until November 7th.  To really stock up on all the Halloween goodies, get Halloween Scream, Scaredy Cat, enter the promo code at check out and get the Pumpkin Papers for free!  You can’t do better than that!

Make sure you check out our FACEBOOK page!  We are getting SUPER close to 1000 fans and as soon as we reach it, we are going to be giving away some REALLY great prizes!  You can also follow us on TWITTER, so you don’t miss anything!

Have a fabulous week – even the weather in Florida is finally starting to cool off!

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

Lisa J.

For the LOVE of the GAME!

For the Love of the Game

As summer has come to an end and Fall seems like it’s going to be shorter than ever (at least here in Utah) that means a lot of sports leagues are ending. I hope that everyone took plenty of pictures and captured some incredible memories. There are some great designs in the shop to help show off those wonderful moments – make sure you check them out. I used the Victory Road Sports Pack and Soccer Goal by StoryRock to capture my son‘s first season of soccer.

When you create your layouts don’t be scared to mix and match from other kits. In the ‘Soccer Is Life’ layout I used the Victory Road Sports Pack and Soccer Goal kit by StoryRock, elements from Magical Memories from the Ettes and Company, an overlay from Kitty Designs, and Remington Portable font from Lettering Delights.

Don’t forget to check out our Facebook page for inspiration. There are tons of great tips and tricks being shared and tons of layouts that can be lifted for quick and easy flair to any design!

**You can have VICTORY ROAD SPORTS PACK for FREE when you spend $5.00 or more in the Design Shop!  So, spend $5.00 or more in the Design Shop and add the promo code: VRTEAMBOOK at check out! **

Remember: Do NOT add “Victory Road Sports Pack” to your cart ~ it will be added automatically when you enter the promo code at checkout!

Happy Scrapping!
Brooke

Chic to Chic ~ Your Story…

As I have become immersed into the scrapping world over the past nine months, I have seen one recurring theme, over and over.  TELL YOUR STORY!  Scrapbooking is the art of telling your story to future generations; you children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren.  But a question that seems to arise just as often is, “Where do I start???”.

There are some great resources online to help you tell your story.  You can find tons of journaling prompts, and digidares that will help you tell stories in a creative manner, or blogs about telling your story like Baby Love Letters.  If you want to get OFF the computer and handwrite some of your story before you scrap it, you can also find books of all sizes about writing your memoirs.  Check out these books: Your Words, Your Story or That’s Life, Finding Your Scrapbook Inspiration in the Everyday.  Another great way to find inspiration is to find weekly challenges.  Here are two excellent challenge sites that will inspire you to tell your story, My Story Matters and The Book of Me Challenge.

I try to tell the story of my family in my scrapbooks, but I do have difficulty telling about myself.  Lately, I have been inspired to do this more from visiting with my Grandmother, who lost her Mother at the age of six.  If something were to happen to me, I would want my children to have something to remember me by, rather than making them rely on their young memories.  So, I was thrilled when I found StoryRock’s Chic to Chic template kit, which is perfect for helping me tell my story.  Here are a few pages from my book of me.  I just changed the backgrounds on the templates provided to match my color scheme and just filled in the journaling!

Can you think of someone who might like to have a book about YOU?  Consider grabbing Chic to Chic this week and whipping one up for them!  You may also consider creating one of these special books about someone else.  Helping them tell their story with your wonderful touch can be a wonderful gift – for them and for you!

Happy Scrapping!  Sarah

Receive the CHIC TO CHIC kit for FREE when you spend $5.00 in the Design Shop and enter the promo code: CHICTOCHIC at checkout!

**IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT ADD the CHIC TO CHIC KIT TO YOUR CART, IT WILL ADD AUTOMATICALLY WHEN YOU ENTER THE PROMO CODE AT CHECKOUT!**

Great Family Gift Idea!

Good evening friends!  As the weather starts to cool off and the we get ready to greet a new month, our thoughts start to turn to gift giving for the upcoming Holiday season.  There are SO many things you can create with My Memories Suite that make perfect gifts for special friends, family, teachers, neighbors, etc.  Brooke and Beth have shared some awesome ideas the past couple weeks and today I want to share one of my favorites!  For many years in the past, I have created a wonderful gift for my family at Christmas.  I have bought individual calendars for each extended family, grandparents, close friends, etc.  I made sure I took time at each holiday during the year to search out little stickers and goodies to mark each special date on the calendar.  A friend and I used to order Mrs. Grossman’s stickers by the roll to make sure we had enough to get through each “calendar” season.  We would hunt out birthday stickers, Easter stickers, Halloween stickers – and on and on and on!  We would lay out stacks of calendars across the dining room table, living room floor and try to keep the list straight that went with each family’s specialized list.  Well, needless to say it was a LOT of work!  But it was my Nana’s FAVORITE gift (and who can say NO to their Nana???)  Well, fast forward a few years and now we have My Memories Suite software, and out calendar project goes from cumbersome and time consuming to a TRUE treat!  I can still create each family’s special calendar with pictures to notate each special birthday and anniversary… I can still mark each special holiday with a great graphic or embellishment – I just NEVER run out of anything now!  No more ordering rolls of stickers or shopping for the entire year so I don’t miss a holiday for my sticker stash.  It is ALL accessible in MMS.  If I find a great birthday embellishment I can use it 2 times or 200 times!  I group my extended families together and complete their calendar, mark each of their birthdays, anniversaries, and special events – from the first day of school to a special graduation.  Then, I just upload the whole project using the CALENDAR option in SHARE ALBUM option in My Memories Suite software – and I am DONE!!!  No more stacks of sticker and backing paper scraps all over my living room!

It is a truly wonderful way to share a gift that KEEPS ON GIVING ALL YEAR with your family and then they have the calendar to keep for the memories!  It is truly a treasure!  Just wish my Nana was still here, she would LOVE this!  Here are a couple pages from the upcoming project I am working on!

To get you going on the project BEFORE the holiday rush, we are offering this great promotion this week… spend a minimum of $5.00 in the Design Shop and RECEIVE the OUR MEMORIES CALENDAR template set for FREE – Just use the PROMO CODE: “OURMEMORIESCAL”  at checkout!!

*DO NOT ADD THE OUR MEMORIES CALENDAR TO YOUR SHOPPING CART – IT WILL BE ADDED AUTOMATICALLY WHEN YOU ENTER THE PROMO CODE: “OURMEMORIESCAL” AT CHECKOUT*

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

<3 Lisa J.

Week 3 “Page of the Week” Facebook Winners!

Good morning!  I am very excited to share the winning entries from our Facebook fan page.  These three entries were chosen as our “Page of the Week” winners!  The winners get to choose a FREE StoryRock kit from the Design Shop as their prize!  We love these pages and hope to see more from the girls in the future.  If you haven’t joined us on Facebook, sign up today and become a FAN!  There is a FREEBIE kit available to our Facebook fans only.

Congratulations to Emily, Kathleen, and Jamie!  Keep up the good work!

Shopping for a Digital Bargain this week???

Hi all!  WOW!!! Big things are happening at MMS lately!  We have been growing by leaps and bounds on our Facebook page and YOU our fans have made My Memories Suite website one of the fastest growing digital scrapbooking download sites on the web!  Sometimes, however, such rapid growth creates few headaches and growing pains from time to time.  Last weekend, YOU, our valuable customers came to the Design Shop in such great numbers that we had a few people who had trouble accessing or downloading from the website.  We have resolved the problem and invite you back.  We are including a 10% discount on any TEMPLATE or PACK purchase from the Design Shop as our way to thank you for being the best customers around!

THIS WEEK ONLY ~ YOU CAN GET 10% OFF ANY PACK OR TEMPLATE PURCHASE FROM THE DESIGN SHOP!!  JUST ENTER THE PROMO CODE:  Sept10off when you check out to receive your discount!

Hurry this offer ends on FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18th, so get on over to the Design Shop and stock up!

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

Lisa J.

Harvest Blessings!

Last Christmas, when I first laid my hands on the My Memories Suite software, I immediately realized that with all the great designs and the easy-to-use program, I would be able to find a million uses for this program!  Sure, I love digital scrapbooking, but I also LOVE with ALL the other fabulous thigns I can do with the program!  The possibilities are really endless.

Like Brooke said in the previous post, the holidays are just around the corner.  If you are like me and like to make your own Christmas gifts, or if you just like to add a little bit of flair to your purchased gifts, the My Memories Suite software can really help with that!  And, I’d like to show you an idea that I am going to use this Christmas!

I enjoy canning foods – you know, things like pickles, jams, pumpkin pie mix, cider, pie fillings, etc.  This year, I am going to be giving homemade canned treats to all the friends, teachers, neighbors, co-workers, well… you get the picture.  We’ve all seen the jars of different mixes at Christmas that have the pretty fabric and the bow on top.  While those are pretty, I was trying to think of a way that I can package my goodies and express my personality as well.  Then I thought, “What about making fun labels??!”

I’ve made some jar labels to show you, and I’d have to say that making them was particularly fun and incredibly fast! To make a jar label, simply create your own design, print on regular paper, cut out, and glue to jar.  I used a glue stick, and that worked really well.  (Hint: if you have an inkjet printer, consider spraying the paper with a light coating of clear spray paint to keep the ink from smearing the glue – use caution and cover the lid area when spraying)  In no time at all, the jars were transformed into cute gifts!  And there’s no need to measure anything, because you can cut it down to size!  I printed my designs out as a 6×6 square, and they worked great for the quart size jars.

Here are some labels I made.  I used StoryRock’s “Twilight Fanpire” to create the pickle label, and I used Corina Nielson’s “Totally Eclectic” pack to create the marinade label!

I enjoyed my jar labels SO much, I realized that making labels for jars doesn’t have to be limited to Christmas only!  I got to thinking that a cute jar full of pumpkin pie mix or cider mix would make a great hostess gift at Thanksgiving or a fall party.  I personally love the Harvest Blessing pack by StoryRock, so I made a cute pumpkin pie jar label with that pack.

So, there you have it… an easy and simple way to give your Christmas gifts some “oomph” and personality!  It doesn’t have to end there either.  Think of all the other great things around your house that you can label with beautiful labels made with My Memories Suite!  You could label not only jars, but gift boxes, kids’ toy containers, buckets, etc!

Happy labeling!

Beth

To help you get ready for the fall holiday season we are giving away HARVEST BLESSINGS by StoryRock FREE when you spend a minimum of $5.00 in the Design Shop!  Simply add the promo code: HARVESTBLESSING (no “s) when you check out!

**PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT ADD HARVEST BLESSINGS TO YOUR SHOPPING CART, IT WILL BE ADDED AUTOMATICALLY WHEN YOU ENTER THE PROMO CODE UPON CHECKOUT!**