New YouTube Video: Downloading digital scrapbooking kits

New video: Josh from the My Memories Suite tech team shows you how easy it is to download digital scrapbooking templates and kits from the My Memories Suite Design Shop and use them with My Memories Suite or another digital scrapbooking software like Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Watch the video and post your comments on YouTube:
Digital scrapbooking templates download tutorial – YouTube Video

Don’t forget the the Design Shop includes free digital scrapbooking kits.

Sidebar Feature in MMS V2 adds Convenient Access to Elements!

A great new feature of MMS V2 is the great sidebar Resource Gallery.  Located on the left-hand side of the screen, you can quickly find photos, embellishments, shapes, photo layouts and papers.  You can also select a variety of predesigned wordarts to your layouts from this gallery.

The photos section of the resource gallery can link to any folder on your computer, which adds ease and speed to locating the perfect picture for your page. The Embellishment option of the resource gallery conveniently displays embellishments in folders.  Change from folder to folder without any delays.  Drag and drop your embellishments to your layout with ease to create the perfect layout.

The Shapes option lets you quickly select the perfect shape to compliment your layout.  Edit your shape and add a paper for pizzazz using the shape menu on the right hand side of the screen.  You can also add shapes made from your favorite papers using the paper option on the resource gallery.  Just click the box that says “Add a Shape Object” to choose the background and shape you want in one click.

The Photo Layout option lets you easily place photos on your page.  You can choose photo layouts with multiple photos and fill in the photo boxes with papers to create a different look when using the same photo layout on multiple pages in the same album.

The Background Papers option lets you easily select backgrounds for you page layouts and also lets you easily add shapes made with your favorite papers.  Consider using the square-rectangle shape to make ribbons from your favorite papers.

The WordArt option provides a variety of premade wordarts using features from the wordart menu.  This helps speed up the wordart feature by letting you select a format that will best fit your layout without having to go through each option of the wordart menu.

You can make your memories into a suite album in no time at all!!

So make every day a SUITE day!

Sarah B.

Have you ever wondered…?

Have you seen ads featuring My Memories Suite and wanted to know more? Do you have Version 1 and wanted to check out Version 2 before you buy it? Well, now you have the chance! We are hosting LIVE interactive ONLINE workshops nearly every week for those of you who want to see what MMS can do! These fun workshops are also great if you already own MMS and want to learn some of the “tips and tricks” to help you get going quickly and COMPLETE some of those projects that have been sitting on the shelf! This is also a great way to introduce your friends, who haven’t gotten in on MMS yet – to the most exciting digital scrapbooking software out there!

We invite you to join us at one of the upcoming workshops. The “Intro to MMS – Version1″ and “Intro to MMS – Version 2″ are both completely online, and completely FREE. Please send an email to me if you would like to be notified of the next round and we will get you signed up! You do NOT need to have My Memories Suite (either version) installed on your computer to attend. The workshop is held in a “GoToMeeting” format and you can see and hear everything on the host screen as they give an overview of some of the major features of each version.

Please check it out and see for yourself – we hope EVERYONE learns something new, or brings something new to share to each and every workshop!

Email me if you are interested – and we will get the link information to you for the next round which will be coming up soon!

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

Lisa J.
lisaj@mymemoriessuite.com

Great Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day!

Great Gifts for Mother’s Day!

I can’t believe that Mother’s Day has already snuck up on us!  For the mother’s in my life I have created a tradition of giving them an empty scrapbook and then for every holiday/birthday I give them new pages to fill it with.  With MMS it makes it so simple.  I’ll I have to do is create one page and I have 3 books filled (mine, my mother’s, and my mother-in-law’s).  There are tons of great designs and templates to choose from in the shop – make sure you check them out.  Here is a page I did last year for Mother’s day.  I used A Mother’s Life from the Ette’s and Company.

Another great gift idea that I think any mother would love is a brag book.  I created some brag books for Grandparents this last Christmas and they were a hit.  Simply take a template pack and you already have a starting point for a book.  Here are some sample pages from the books I created.  I used the Grandparent’s Brag Book from Miriam Lima.  Once your book is created simply use the book option to have them printed.  However, if you are like me and wait to the last moment to get things done, there is another option.  Simply create your pages in a landscape format and print them as 4×6’s at your local print shop.  Then go to your local store and find a cute 4×6 picture album and WHOLA!

Don’t make it complicated.  Keep it simple and focus on the pictures and you can create an amazing gift in a flash!

Happy Scrapping and Mother’s Day!

Brooke

Adding Music & Narration to your Slideshow! :-)

Congratulations!  You have some great pages digi-scrapped and you’re ready to create a DVD.  Before you burn it, consider adding music or narration to really add a special touch (and quite honestly make it that much more interesting!).  Adding music to your pages adds more depth and can create a mood that is like the bow on top of the package.  It makes the show fun to watch and listen to!  The hardest part?  Deciding WHAT song to use, of course!

Do you want light-hearted, fun songs, songs that tell a beautiful story or music that has a special meaning?  What genre?  Country?  Classical?  Rock?  Christian?  Pop? Jazz?  The possibilities are endless and can create whatever mood the pages are intended to portray. It’s all personal preference and limited only to your music library!

The best part is that it is quick and easy to do and can be added to ANY album matching any theme!  Christmas pages?  Carols of course!  Baby/kids’ pages?  Play your favorite lullaby or your child’s favorite song.  Wedding album?  Play classical music or the love song that you and your spouse danced to the very first time.  Remember, it’s not just pictures that create memories but sounds, too.  Music and voices can bring back memories the moment they’re heard.

Another way to add a special touch to your albums is to add narration.  Does your computer have a built-in microphone?  Use it!  I created a “movie” for a client’s surprise party for her husband’s retirement.  Many years ago, her husband composed a beautiful heart-felt poem for her and she wanted that included.  I scanned it and placed in the movie.  The writing was too small to have all the guests read from the projection screen so I recorded my husband reading it (obviously it would have been better to have HER husband read it but because it was a surprise, well, you see my point!).  It brought tears to every eye in the room.  Had we not added that narration, no one would have been able to read it and

Other narration could be the sweet sound of your child’s voice, a grandparent reading a favorite story for your child, you and your family sharing memories – ANY voice adding narration can create an unbelievably special memory, one that is worth preserving and sharing.

If you haven’t placed music or narration into your albums, first create your album (I LOVE Ettes Designs in the Design Shop at My Memories Suite) and consider the mood you would like your album to portray.  Songs will just pop into your head as you go along because you’ll tend to use songs that are your favorites!  Once you’re ready to add music, follow these easy steps:

1. At the top menu bar, select Insert > Add music.
2. Navigate to where your music is stored on the computer and select the song you wish to add to the album; select “open”.
3. That’s all you have to do!  You’ll see the name of the song at the bottom of the screen!

Want to add narration to a page?  Select the page you wish to narrate (make sure you’re open on that page) and follow these steps:

1. At the top menu bar, select Insert > Add page narration.
2. Select the “record” button to record the narration (you even have the option to re-record if need be!).  At this point, notice that there’s a box at the bottom of the page to have music that may be in the album playing softly in the background.  If you’d like this option, select the box “background music (faded)”.  If this box is not selected, the music will automatically stop when the narration begins and will begin playing once the narration is completed.  Once the narration is recorded satisfactorily, click “ok” and it will be added to that page.

Have fun adding these special touches to your DVD!

Jackie L. ~ Creative Team

Capture the Moment…

Last month we talked about the Rule of Thirds, the most well-known principle of photographic composition.  Now let’s talk about other aspects of composition…

Composition, the act of composing the image in the viewfinder, is the visual process of organizing the elements and individual details of a scene into a balanced and pleasing arrangement.  It is largely a matter of personal taste. What one person finds pleasing, someone else may not. A composition that clearly and interestingly conveys the photographer’s intended meaning is an effective one. A composition that doesn’t or that confuses the viewer is not effective and can make or break an image.  Below are some popular composition guidelines:

Change Your Angle. Not only does changing your shooting angle impact the feeling of size of your subject but it can also have a real effect upon the light and shade and patterns on it.

(In these 2 images, I climbed higher than the boys so I could get a better view of what they were looking. If I would have taken the shot at eye level you would not have been able to see the rocks under water that they were looking at through their goggles.)

Fill the Frame. A person’s facial features tend to disappear when you move more than a few meters away from them. While it can be appropriate to take shots that put a person in context with the environment that they are in – they often get lost in the scene.

(Almost all subjects will look more interesting close up. Just look at the detail in the flower that you don’t notice in the image where the flower doesn’t fill the frame.)

Watch your Background. You don’t always want to fill the frame with the subject. Sometimes you want a little space around the subject, or you want to show the environment around your subject. But make sure you keep distracting, or unappealing things out of your viewfinder. Be sure that you don’t miss the occasional tree (or other object) appearing to stick out of your subject’s head. Simply moving the camera angle slightly usually eliminates the unwanted object. Look around for a plain and unobtrusive background and compose your shot so that it doesn’t distract or detract from the subject.

(These images of the boy swinging were taken on the same rope swing. I walked a few yards around the pond to get the view without all the distractions. How easy is that?)

Simplify. Don’t try to include too much in the image. The viewer won’t know what to look at. Try to keep only those things that are essential to the subject in the frame. Remember that the outer edge of the frame is also part of the picture and don’t let something distracting on the fringes take your viewers’ eyes away from your intended subject.

(I didn’t include the little girls face in this image because my intent was to focus on those adorable little chunky legs and that gorgeous sunlight in the background. Simple!)

There IS more to good composition than the placement of elements. Lighting, shutter speed, depth of field and other considerations contribute to a picture’s mood and clarity of what the picture is saying, and therefore the effectiveness of its composition. We’ll cover those topics soon!

Once you start observing the principles of composition, employing them will become second nature to you. The best way to learn and to improve your composition is by practicing and experimenting. With the dawn of the digital age in photography we no longer have to worry about film processing costs. As a result, experimenting with our photos’ composition has become a real possibility; we can fire off tons of shots and delete the unwanted ones at absolutely no extra cost. Take advantage of this and experiment with your composition – you never know whether an idea will work until you try it. Your images will greatly improve and people will start commenting on how great they look! So go ahead and… capture the moment.

~ Mary M.

CONTEST!
If you have an image that you feel is well-composed, post it on the Facebook page for our fans to see and our FANS get to be the voters! The top 5 winners will receive the textured images below via download from Mary Moseley Photography. Your images will also be highlighted on Mary’s Blog. If you have any composition tips of your own feel free to post them too!

Easter is right around the corner! Save those precious memories!

Creating a Cohesive Look for your pages!

One thing that I love about My Memory Suite is the ability to create without thinking – let me explain.  Sometimes I just want to sit down and not worry about what will match or coordinate on my page.  For example, when I sat down to scrap part of my Easter from last year all I had to do was pick the kit I wanted.  Once I knew what kit I wanted I could easily look at all of the coordinating papers or embellishments for that kit and I knew they would all match and would look great together.  That is very important for me, especially when I’m making a lot of pages for big events or holidays.  Easter is coming so start looking for those kits that are a must have for your special day, like the Blue Skies Pack from the Ette’s and Company that I used for my layouts.  So whether you want to let your creativity shine and mix or match with multiple kits or stick with a single kit and keep a simple cohesive look you can do it all with My Memory Suite.  Most importantly – have fun and capture those memories.

So, take a look at all the wonderful kits that there are in the My Memories Suite Design Shop – you are sure to find something that is just right for your project.  Remember you can ALWAYS mix and match!  And if you get stuck you can always find someone to offer a creative helping hand either on our active Facebook page or follow us on Twitter – we’re “Tweets4Suites” !  We do a lot of fun giveaways and challenges!  Don’t miss out!

… and for a limited time you can save 10% by using the promo code: GMC10off at checkout!

Happy Scrapping!

Brooke

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

You won’t be needin’ the Luck o’ the Irish, to complete your very first successful album in My Memories Suite V2 software!  V2 (and V1) are both jam packed with all kinds of wonderful tools and accessories to give you a professional looking result from your very first project!  Whether you start with one of the FAB-U-LOUS Designer Templates, or strike out on your own and create an album from scratch, you are assured that you will be pleased with your results from the very first page.  This program is quick and easy to learn, but still feature-packed enough to keep up with the most seasoned scrapper!  To get through a project quickly, I usually start with a Designer Template.  Luck of the Irish is featured here from the recently released Quick Design Club CD.  If you haven’t signed up for the Quick Design Club yet, why not try it out?  Your first CD is free and it is only $14.99 every OTHER month, and you can cancel anytime!  The Club allows you access to the newest releases BEFORE you can buy them in the Design Shop and you get 5-6 kits for $14.99!

So, check it out and sign up today!  Ye won’t be needin’ a pot-o-gold from that sneaky little Leprechaun either, My Memories Suite, Version 2 is available for the low price of $39.97 (and is even cheaper if you already own V1)!  You can also check out a great new combo pack from Designer, Meredith Cardall called “Lucky In Love” for only $6.97!

What the heck is “Clustering”???

Layout – You can use a cluster to draw attention to a certain part of your layout. For example, if you have a layout of four photos, but one is more sentimental or has more meaning than the others, use the cluster around that photo to draw your eye there first. Just be careful to not cover up your special photo. A scrapbook is in essence all about the photos (the actual memory) and the rest, although very important, is not the main reason why we look at a scrapbook! It’s OK for embellishments to be under the photo, half hidden. Plus, embellishments don’t always have to be used the way they were intended to be used! Here, I clustered stars, a ribbon mat, bracket, and stitching to create this page. My attempt was to draw attention to the bottom left picture first as I love how my daughters expression shows complete and utter satisfaction.

Shadows - Not all your embellishments are going to have the same kind of shadow! One tip I read said to use “real life” shadows. Embellishments on top will have more of a shadow than those on the bottom. Play around with the shadows and use what looks most natural. Most find it best to add shadows after the cluster is assembled. I used My Memories Suite version 2 to do these pages. One really neat feature in My Memories Suite V2 is that you can move your shadow around on the x & y axis. This way you can create a shadow as if the light was coming from any direction! It’s hard to tell with shadows, and I’m still practicing using them, but below I added shadows to my cluster.

Angles – Again go with what looks best. Some people like to use different angles for their embellishment cluster to add character. You can create white space, which is pleasing to the eye, by spreading the cluster out. I have a harder time doing this as I seem to like things in a conformity. It’s something I’m trying to overcome! Photos - You can create a cluster out of your photos as well. You’re not limited to just embellishments for this technique! Choose a photo that will be your focal point for the page. Then add the other photos under and around yet keeping the one photo the focal point. I think we do this more often than we think about it. The above page is a good example of a cluster without realizing you are doing it. My intent was to make the bottom left picture the focal point of my cluster. My husband commented that the first picture he saw was the top left, mostly because it was a close up of our daughters eyes. To fix this, I added a shadow to the bottom left photo, decreased the size in the picture that drew my husbands eyes, and make all but my focal point picture black & white.

Kits- It’s easier to use embellishments that you find all in a kit, and this is a great way to practice the technique. This way you have a great idea on what is available and you don’t spend hours just picking out embellishments you might use. Then once you feel you have a feel for what “clustering” does for your page, use several kits to draw from.

Let’s practice!!

Start small. Just choose a few embellishments that you want to use. Put them all on your page. It’s easier to imagine the end product when it’s all sitting right in front of you. Look at what you have on your page and decide what looks bulky and what looks flat. Put flat embellishments on the bottom and bulkier on the top. Play around. The nice thing about digital scrapbooking is that if you don’t like it, delete it! If you decide you did like it, add it back!!

Here are the steps I used to create my first ever attempt to cluster thanks to Scrapping Sarah’s Scribblings.

1. Pick your photos. Sarah suggests getting your background first, but I have a hard time seeing a background without the pictures on the page first.
2. Add/move your picture to the bottom right.
3. Add a frame on top of the picture
4. On the bottom of the frame add a ribbon. A curly of wavy ribbon works well.
5. Next add an swirly embellishment on the lower right hand corner of the frame – This could be a stamp or a glittery swirl. Make sure it will overlay the frame corner on bottom and the right hand side.
6. Add greenery on top of the swirl. This will be the base for a flower or flowers.
7. Select a flower or flowers and layer it on top of the greenery.
8. Add a title, journaling and a date.

I didn’t follow these instructions exactly, but it gave my a guideline to follow.

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