I have one project that sits on my book shelf just staring
at me, always filling me with guilt because I haven’t started on it yet. It’s a collection of tons of photos,
documents, letters, legal papers, and memorabilia, most of which my mother
saved, waiting for me to put into some sort of order and into an album. About
two years ago my older sister and I filled out our family tree with whatever
information we had or gathered from our relatives. And now it’s up to me to somehow pull all of
this together in some coherent order for the family.
So when Liz Gardner contacted me recently to ask if I were
interested in doing a review and giveaway of
My Memories Suite scrapbooking software -
I was all ears! I quickly agreed and I
have been working with the program and getting familiar with what it has to
offer.
To call it
scrapbooking
software just doesn’t do it justice.
I’m blown away not only with what you can do with the software, but also
with all the extras
My Memories Suite
provides. But let’s start with
scrapbooking. The software comes with a number of design templates to work
with. Each template comes with several
page designs, embellishments, ribbons, words, word art – all of which are
completely customizable to your taste.
You can add, subtract, change color, change backgrounds – there’s no
limit to what you can do. The software even has some basic photo editing
tools such as resize, crop, reduce red eye, or adding some imaging effects.
If you don’t find what you’re looking for in the design
templates provided with the software, the
My
Memories website contains more FREE templates, quick pages, page packs, extra
embellishments – there’s 181 freebies listed.
Still not satisfied? There’s over
2000 kits available for purchase at very reasonable prices. They have a number of designers creating beautiful
designs for them, each with their own distinct style. I could see where I could get “hooked” on a
few designers because their styles appeal to me.
Once you have created your masterpiece you can of course
print your pages, but you can also create photo books, cards, calendars, CDs,
DVDS, slide shows. You can add music and
narration if you like. Yikes – I want to
do it all!
I thought I would start, though, with some of the photos I
have from my parents. Mom and Dad have
been gone for a long time now; they both would have been 100 years old this
year. My Mom saved a lot of photos from when
they were in their twenties and thirties, during the time when they met, dated,
became engaged and married. I’m totally
fascinated with their photos from that time. Here’s what I created with
My Memories. The template I used was “Smells Like Spring
Flowers.” It has six different page elements and you can use whichever ones you
like and you can repeat pages, changing colors or embellishments if you like. I thought it would be interesting to show you
the pages as they appear in the program, then as I changed them for my album.
Here's the pages provided (I used just four of the six):
And here's what I did with those pages:
Mom and Dad's nicknames for each other: Brown Eyes and Hon.
Red Sails in the Sunset was their song.
This page was a little bit of an "oops" - I lost some parts of the image by accident, but then decided I liked this simple look with one of my favorite photos.
Love Mom's dress and bouquet!
All in all, even with my "oops" I really
enjoyed working with the program.
So what’s my verdict? Two thumbs up. Here’s why:
·
Fun to work with. Compatible with either PC or Mac.
·
Allows for your own creativity. Use the templates as is, or modify them as
much as you like.
·
Choose your final output – print, CD, DVD, photobook, etc.
(I’m still checking out all the options.) You can also export your images as JPEGS. That’s what I did to include the images here.
·
An almost unlimited number of design options are
available.
·
Their web site is full of information, freebies,
and the shop where you can purchase additional designs.
·
I was very happy to see that the web site also
has video tutorials (I viewed one to answer a question I had) and a forum where
you can ask questions and share information.
The one piece of advice I would offer is allow yourself some
time to get familiar with the program, the user guide, and the web site before
you start in on a large project. If you
have worked before with other photo or design programs much of this will be familiar
to you. If you have not, the learning
curve may be a little steeper.
Best of all, can you believe that this software costs only $39.97?
Here’s the code for you to use when you order (please enter
the code carefully and correctly):
STMMMS19097
I’m working on a few other projects with
My
Memories designs and I’ll be posting as I finish them over the next few
weeks. Stay tuned!
UPDATE!
How to Enter
You have several chances to be entered into the random drawing. PLEASE read carefully;
the entry requirements have been changed. I’m going to allow two weeks for you to enter
for the drawing.
First entry: Visit
My Memories website,
come back here, and enter a comment about your favorite digital paper pack or
layout.
Second entry: Enter a comment if you have signed up to follow
My Memories blog.
Third entry: Enter a comment if you have signed up to follow
My Memories on
Facebook.
Fourth entry: Enter a comment that you signed up to follow
My Memories on Twitter.
Fifth entry: Enter a comment that you signed up to follow my
blog, my
Facebook page AND/OR my
Pinterest page (or comment
that you already follow).
That's five chances to enter for the random drawing! Please be sure
that your correct email address is in your profile; if it is not, include your
email address in your comment. I will use random number generator to pick
a winner after
12 noon EDT on
Tuesday, May 29
Good luck!!
