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!

Newest Member of the Creative Team!

It is with great pleasure that we announce the addition of a new member to our Memories Suite Creative Team!  We are adding Sarah Barton to the team!  Sarah will join our current team of myself (Lisa J.) Beth and Brooke!  Sarah has been posting some great ideas, layouts and resources on the Facebook page and we are delighted to add her to the team!  Read more about Sarah in her bio below!

Welcome Sarah!

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.

scraphappysarah.blogspot.com

Great Gift Ideas for the Holidays!

I know that it is only the beginning of September but I’ve already started to work on my projects for the holidays!  Photobooks make GREAT gifts and are easy, fun and affordable!  I have found that they are great gifts for those people who “have everything” or for the perfect thank you gift for just about anyone!  What’s even nicer is that My Memories Suite makes putting these books together as easy as pie!  You can create all your pages from scratch from any of the wonderful packs in the Design Shop or you can use some of the great designer templates and make them your own!  I usually make my books from one of the great templates in the shop.  I find that it makes it easier to get them done – especially when I am working on multiple books.  Here is a project I did this summer for my husband’s Grandparents as a special thank you for some trips they  had taken us on.  I created these two pages with “Vacation Brag Book” template by StoryRock.

And now, as I look forward to Christmas, I am creating family gifts using the “Family Blessings on Black” designer template from StoryRock.  This wonderful kit makes you special family memories look better than ever!  This designer template is FREE this week in the Design Shop with any purchase of $5.00 or more!  Simply enter the code:  “FAMILYBLESSINGS” when you check out to receive this kit automatically!

** Please note:  DO NOT add this kit to your shopping cart, it will be added automatically when you enter the promo code!**

It is easy to create your photobook once you’ve completed all your pages, simply click on “Share Album”, then “Photobook” and it will walk you through the steps to create a professionally printed and bound book – all ready for gift giving!  (shhhh, we won’t tell your family how easy it was!!)

Photobook Pricing

All prices include:

• Choice of photo, leather, or linen book covers. Linen and leather are available as hardbound covers only
• 26 internal pages (1 sheet printed front and back = 2 pages)
• Photobooks require at least 7 days processing

There are literally ENDLESS possibilities with your MMS software and YOUR family memories!  You can even import pages you have created with other programs into MMS and create great books!  So, get your creative juices flowing and start creating a wonderful keepsake TODAY!  The holidays will be here before you know it!

PROMO CODE:  FAMILYBLESSINGS

Happy Scrapping!
Brooke

Senior Class Spirit - A StoryRock kit by Sandy McDougal

School Memories - A StoryRock kit by Sandy McDougal

Whether you have a graduating senior this year, or a kindergarener just starting out (or a child somewhere in between) this is an exciting and BUSY time for your and your student!  Don’t forget to set aside some time to collect these memories in photographs!  If you are nearing the end of your child’s school career, start planning (and gathering pictures) NOW for that end-of-the year project.  A wonderful gift for any graduating senior (or college grad for that matter) is a photobook that you created with pictures and memories created over their school years!  A book that you have put together to take them forward into the next chapeter of their lives.  We all know the TIME between the beginning and the end goes far too quickly – and it is a great chance to relive those precious moments in time with a book full of memories ~ just be sure you stock up on the tissues first!

So, whether you are planning for the first day of kindergarten or college, there are some wonderful kits by StoryRock – designed by Sandy McDougal that make putting these books together quick and easy.  As you know, one of the great things about MMS is that ANY page can be edited and personalized in a way that makes it truly your own.  You can add embellishments or change colors to create a book that belongs only to you!  So, check out a couple pages I have done with these kits and GET INSPIRED  to get busy now and start putting yours together!  Believe me, the end of the school year gets CRAZY and you can get a jump on the chaos with some planning now…

And remember, when you have the book done, print an extra for yourself too, you will want to enjoy this keepsake as much as they do – and you won’t want to share!

To help get you motivated to get going now, we are offering a wonderful opportunity for you to pick up “SCHOOL MEMORIES’  from StoryRock for FREE! Simply spend $5.00 or more in the Design Shop and then enter the code: “BACKTOSCHOOL” to recieve this kit for free!  So, go – shop – enter your code – and get this kit free!

*PLEASE NOTE: Do NOT add this kit to your cart,

it will be added automatically for free when you enter the code*

So, have fun shopping and enjoy your free gift!  Hurry though, we will be planning summer fun pages again before you know it!

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

The CREATIVE TEAM is ready to ROLL!

Hi all ~ and Happy Friday!  Just a short note today to let you know that the newly formed Creative Team is anxious to get going and ready to share some wonderful tips, tricks and ideas for bringing your wonderful photos and memories to life. We all use MMS to create photobooks, projects and pages to turn our memories into family treasures!   So, like we say… MMS can bring your photos from shoebox to showcase!   This program will help you look like a pro from your VERY first project!  It is easy to get started and we want to help!

There are 4 of us on the CT (me (Lisa), Brooke, Beth and Amy) and we are very excited about the possibilities that are ahead! Please be sure to check back often as one of us will be posting a new idea, or layout or highlighting a new product or project each week. So, come back soon! In the meantime, please take a moment to leave a comment so we know what you are interested in learning or what tutorials or help you might be looking for! We all just *LOVE* this software and want to help you learn to use it successfully too!

So, check out our blogs and let us know what you wanna know! We are looking forward to getting started and can’t wait to hear from you!

Have an amazing weekend… and don’t forget to make a memory today!!!

Lisa J.

Always Be Prepared

New in the Design Shop this week are two great Templates, Blue & Gold Cubs and Roughin It. We received many requests from our customers for some designs that they could scrapbook their cubs and older scouts. We loved that we could dig out the many years worth of Pinewood Derby pictures and quickly drop them onto a darling layout. We even thought the Blue & Gold template would be a great thing to use to create some cute invitations for pack meetings. 

The Roughin It template has awesome “camping”, “dutch oven” and “scout camp” word art and fun embellishments that can be used to create many more layouts in addition to these great template layouts. You will love working with these and I can’t wait to finally get all our cub and scout pictures into an album!!

Welcome to My Memories Suite

My Memories Suite is the easiest way to publish and share your digital memories. Create a slideshow, a DVD, a printed page or a professionally bound book. The best digital scrapbooking software available!

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