If you know me, you wouldn't think I'd be one for scrapbooking. Truth is, I'm not. Not because it's not something that's never interested me, because it really has. In fact, a couple months ago, my mom gave me a basket full of scrapbooking supplies. But I haven't even touched it yet. I've wanted to get into scrapbooking for years, but have never been able to. It can be an expensive hobby to start, can take quite a while to start if you don't have the money, and it can eat a lot of space in your home. And if I know my kids, they are fascinated by it and can't keep their hands out of it... I've seen it happen with my knitting supplies. Knitting needles turned into swords are MIA and several balls of yarn horribly knotted. I didn't want my scrapbooking supplies to suffer the same fate. I even tried to sell them in our garage sale the other weekend, hoping they'd go to a good home.
Which is why I was super excited when I was contacted by
My Memories to review their digital scrapbooking software. I could finally do something with all my old photos stashed away on our external hard drive. I can finally have a hobby that I don't have to worry about my kids destroying!
And I could finally do something with that basket I attempted to sell.
It is
soo easy to use My Memories Suite. Even someone who's never touched digital scrapbooking software (like me) can use this. I found it very easy to access my embellishments, papers, and media since there are a few ways to get to them. You can even add music and video to your albums. And with the pre-installed album kits, I was able to create a nice looking album of my eldest within just a few hours. There's
tutorials on their blog, making it even easier to understand and use all the features of their software. It even has some photo editing tools, so you can add effects, crop, and mat your images.
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| My very fist scrapbook! |
It would have taken me less time, but I selected each photo of my eldest individually and customize it, so I added some extra embellishments from different kits. It didn't help any that my pictures are stored in several different areas of my computer... It's also a very fast program. The menus were very fast to load, as were each individual page, even with a ton of elements added to it. I was a bit worried about it freezing up my computer, but it never did; even when I used the Fast Fill feature to automatically add several photos of my son into one of the albums I made.
It doesn't stop once you've created your digital scrapbook album, either. You can create calendars, photobooks, cards, and gifts like DVDs, interactive discs, and/or put it on your iPod. Alternatively, you can send it somewhere like Shutterfly and make mugs, tote bags, notebooks, and more. Or you can simply print your digital scrapbook pages and add any embellishments you already have at home. I can't wait to send something to my family who live out of state. We are lucky if we get to see them once every few years, sometimes longer. I think this will be a nice way to keep them in each others' lives.
My Memories Suite is affordable. At only $39.97 for the program, you can go from having a scattering of unorganized photos, to something worth treasuring. They even offer
free kits on their website, as well as the option to join their
Design Club. At $5.99 a month, you get five new, exclusive kits along with several other perks. The digital scrapbook kits in their webstore are fairly priced with frequent sales.
I know there's other kinds of digital scrapbooking software out there, but My Memories is the most comprehensive, in my opinion. With some of the best features, most importing and sharing choices, and great support, it really helps MyMemories stand out above the rest. And their website and
Facebook page only boosts the user experience since it's highly interactive with weekly challenges on each page (as well as the tutorials I mentioned above), adding to the fun. I haven't participated yet, but it seems like a really great way to improve your scrapbooking skills!
Overall, I highly recommend My Memories Suite. Even if you've
only ever had an interest in scrapbooking, you would love it. There really is a lot you can do with this program. And it's really fun looking through your old photos and creatively putting them together.
Buy it!
If you use this code: STMMMS7185 for $10 off My Memories Suite v2.0 and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store
Win it!
The people of My Memories have been kind enough to offer one of my readers their own copy of My Memories Suite.
To enter, simply click "Read More" below. This giveaway is open worldwide. Please be aware that My Memories only ships to the U.S. and Canada and is only in English.
