All I Want For Christmas

I made this page using the Lavender Snow Album by Becky’s Creations ,which is one of this week’s freebies from MyMemories.  It comes with six digital papers and eleven embellishments.  That’s plenty to make several pages.

I used the recolor feature to change the color of the ornaments, ribbon and packages.  I love that feature because it gives me so many more options.  I wanted each one of the bows on the ornaments to be different, so I used the search feature to find three suitable bows, then I recolored them to match the ornaments.  I could have also used the bows that come with MyMemories Suite 5 if I had wanted them to all be the same.

Importing Pages and Objects from Albums and Designer Templates in My Memories Suite 5

One of the really cool features in My Memories Suite is the ability to import individual pages from other albums and album templates.  With My Memories Suite 5, you can also import individual page objects.  The method for importing has changed a bit since version 4, and is a little hard to find, so I put together this quick tutorial to show you how to do it.

If you found this tutorial helpful and you’d like to see more like it, please leave a comment. 
Disclaimer: I’m not employed by StoryRock, Inc,, the makers of My Memories Suite, I just love playing with their software.

My Memories 5 Layer Feature

One of the new, cool features in My Memories 5 is the layers tool. With it you can easily access and manipulate any object in your layout, even if it is completely covered by other objects.  There’s no need to re-layer everything just to get to an embellishment that is in the background.  I put together this quick tutorial to explain how it works.

Chipmunk Cheeks

I created this layout using this week’s freebie from Touched By A Butterfly.

This kit will only be available for free until December 15, 2013 so be sure to grab it while it’s free.

Vintage Photo Frame

I made the frame for this picture in just a few minutes using the Old Secret designer pack by ButterflyDsign.  The little girl in the picture is my grandma Ila.  She was an incredible lady.

The Old Secret designer pack is free until November 3, 2013, so be sure to grab it while you can.  If you like vintage, be sure to check out the other designer packs from ButterflyDsign as well.

Pyramid Santa Made With MMS4

One of the things you can make very easily with MyMemories Suite 4 is pyramid cards.  A pyramid card is made by layering an image so that each successive layer is smaller.  Here’s one I made yesterday evening.

The Santa image I used is from an old PcCrafter set.  Here’s a video tutorial I made showing how to make pyramid cards using MyMemories Suite 4.

MyMemories, It’ Not Just For Scrapbooking!

So you say you’re not in to scrapbooking?  That’s OK. You can do a lot more than just scrapbooking with MyMemories Suite 4.  Here’s a card I made recently using the Soft Nostalgia digital paper pack, Bodacious Bloossoms cutting file and Fairy Wishes digital stamps from PaperWishes.  The rick-rack on the inside is one of many included embellishments in MyMemories Suite.

 

Some of the elements are printed on the background and others were printed separately and layered on top.  I really love that I can size everything to fit the card.  No more struggling to find a frame to fit a stamped sentiment or vise versa.

Forever In My Heart

Besides scrapbooks you can make lots of other things using MyMemories Suite 4.  Here’s a card I made with the HoneyChurch Layered Paper Hearts kit.

The quick page I chose makes a heart that gets thicker toward the center.  The patterns and quick pages, when printed full size (8.5” x 11”), make a fairly large heart.  Since I wanted something I could put on a card, I reduced my chosen quick page 1/4 size.  I designed the front of the card in MyMemories Suite 4.  It was very quick and easy to do.  First I added a 4.75” x 6.5” rectangle and filled it with the Aqua paper included in the kit, then I added the shapes I wanted and filled them with paper.  When I was done, printed it, cut it out and added it to the front of a card blank. 

The instructions for the heart, posted on the MyMemories site say to print two copies, but if you want the paper to show on both sides, you will need to print four copies.  After cutting the strips out, arrange them in pairs, back to back so the color will show on both sides. 

After making the heart, I glued it to the front of the card, then I added a layered heart dazzle to the center and border dazzles along the edges.

If you’d like to purchase MyMemories Suite 4, be sure to use coupon code STMMMS97442 to receive $10 off the purchase price plus a $10 gift certificate to use in the My Memories online store.

Pretty Painted Piggies

Here’s a layout I created in MyMemories Suite 4 using pictures of my sweet little granddaughter and the new Serendipity digital paper pack from Hot Off The Press. 

Isn’t she adorable?

I used the basic circle and scalloped circle shapes for the flowers and I used the photo shape tool to make round photos for the flower centers.   The font for the title is called Robot Teacher and the font for the journaling is CK Carefree from Creating Keepsakes.  Everything else except for the ribbons is from the Serendipity digital paper pack.

Attaching Text to a Shape in MyMemories Suite 4

The May challenge over at the MyMemories forum was to use the Attach to Shape feature on a layout.  I was almost too late to join in the fun, but I managed to find some time yesterday afternoon and put this page together:

I attached the journaling to a tree shape from the Treedle Dee svg collection from Lettering Delights.  The combo pack I used for the papers and embellishments is Outdoor Adventure by Albums2Remember.

After I posted the layout, someone asked a question about attaching text to shapes, so I wrote up this quick tutorial.  Of course, I wrote it in MyMemories Suite 4!

If you’d like to purchase MyMemories Suite 4, be sure to use coupon code STMMMS97442 to receive $10 off the purchase price plus a $10 gift certificate to use in the My Memories online store.

Another Page Done!

I was late joining in on the fun, but I did manage to win a $10 gift certificate for any of the packages by Jusme Digital, so of course, I had to spend it today while things were on sale.  I made this page with the Whenever You Remember kit.

The page layout is from another Speed Scrap challenge on the My Memories forum.

Cute as a Button

As a beginning digital scrapper, I find things like the speed scrap challenges very helpful.  I’m far from speedy, but having a recipe for a page is very useful.  Since yesterday was National Scrapbooking day, there were plenty of challenges to choose from.  I chose this one from the MyMemories forum, and here’s what I came up with.

The papers and embellishments all came stock with MyMemories Suite. The font for the page title is Accent Dot Writer.

Making Photo and Page Masks For My Memories

Today, I learned how to make masks to use in My Memories Suite.  It all started with a post on the Facebook group.  One of the members posted a page that had been created in another program using a page mask and wanted to know if she could do the same thing in My Memories and apply paper from a specific kit to the mask. I had been playing with creating .svg files to use in MM so, I thought I’d see if I could make a mask as well.

So, I broke out the crayons and scribbled a quick frame on a piece of white paper.

Then I scanned it and imported it into Make the Cut using the pixel trace tool.  I had to fiddle with the settings quite a bit, but I finally settled on using the luminescence setting with a threshold of about 225.  I then exported the mask as a .svg file and saved it into: C:\Program Files\My Memories Suite\Components\Shapes\Users.

I opened a new page in My Memories 4, added a photo, then used the shape tool to add the .svg mask over the top of the photo.  I filled the shape with blue paper and here’s the result:

Papers for this page and the next page are from My Kid bundle.

Next, I got to thinking about layering multiple masks, so I ran the frame through make the cut again, this time setting the threshold to about 190 (I can’t remember the exact number) and the resulting frame had a lot more transparency.  I layered that over the first frame, filled it in with a darker paper and ended up with this:

If you’re going to try a frame this complex, be aware that it takes a LOT of memory and your system will bog down.  So far, the only way I’ve been able to free up the memory again is to exit My Memories and start it back up.

Next, I thought I would try torn paper, so I tore The middle out of a piece of scrap paper and ran it through MTC’s pixel trace utility. Here’s how it turned out:

And another:

And finally, I decided to make a complete page mask.  One thing that’s really nice about using .svg files in My Memories is that you can shrink or stretch them to fit any page or picture and as long as you do the resizing before you add the digital paper, there’s no stretching or skewing of the paper.  Here’s a rectangular page I made from my square page mask.

The papers and embellishments on this page are from the Spring Fling designer pack.

I did not have the memory problems with this page that I had with the layered masks, which confirms my theory that the more nodes and vectors (jagged edges and holes) you have in a frame, the more memory it’s going to take up when you use it.

If you don’t want to shell out the money for Make the Cut, I found a free online svg conversion tool here:  http://image.online-convert.com/convert-to-svg.  It’s not as flexible as Make the Cut, but hey, it’s free and it worked very well on the images I tested.

If you’re interested in purchasing a copy of My Memories Suite 4, be sure to use coupon code STMMMS97442 to receive $10 off the purchase price plus a $10 gift certificate to use in the My Memories online store.

Easter Chick

MyMemories 4 isn’t just for scrapbooking.  You can make other things with it too.

This week, I decided to make an Easter card using the Easter pack that came with the MyMemories software.  Since there isn’t an egg in the provided shapes, I loaded a circle into the shape editor and made my own egg shape.  It was really pretty easy to do.

I created the apertures for the iris folding by layering two egg shapes for each egg, one slightly smaller than the other.  I colored the larger bottom layers pink and purple and left the top layers white.  After printing the card, I cut out the white egg apertures and added the iris folding.  The papers for the iris folding are also from the Easter paper pack.  After completing the iris folding, I added pink and purple glitter paper behind the openings.

I printed two copies of the chick and layered them using foam tape.  The bottom layer of the chick is the complete image and the top layer is just the top and bottom shell and the bow.

Come Run With Me Beside The Sea…

Here’s another page I made with MM4.  This one is for this week’s challenge on the MyMemories blog.  The challenge is to use papers and embellishments from the Hello February Add-on which is a free download.

Cute couple, don’t you think?

MyMemories Suite 4: Ripped Photos Feature

One of the new features in MyMemories Suite 4 is the ability to simulate a torn edge on photos and digital papers.  It’s super easy to do and I love the look!    There’s a great Tutorial on the MyMemories blog describing how to tear photos and pages.  After watching it, I was able to put together page 2 of my beach trip album in no time at all.

MyMemories Suite 4 Right Out of the (Virtual) Box

(originally posted 3/16/13 on Serendipitycards.blogspot.com)

Like a lot of people, I have hundreds, if not thousands of digital photos sitting on my hard drive and on CDs. I’ve often thought about doing something with them, but that was as far as I got. I know there are several Digital Scrapbooking programs available to choose from, but most don’t have all the features I want…

… until I found MyMemories Suite 4.  I first became interested in MyMemories Suite when I saw that it was listed as the number one digital scrapbooking program on Top 10 Reviews.  After taking a quick look at the feature list, I knew I wanted to try it out, so when Liz from MyMemories asked me if I would evaluate their software, I jumped at the chance.

First, let’s get the technical stuff out of the way.  Skip this paragraph if you don’t like geek-speak.  I installed MyMemories Suite 4 on an older computer (purchased in 2007) with a Windows Vista 32 bit operating system, an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor and 4gb of memory.  According to the software requirements, 2gb is the minimum, but you really need 4gb unless you like tearing your hair out in frustration because your system is running so slow. I know this because a couple years ago when I only had 2gb of memory, I installed MyMemories 3 and quickly gave up because my system would grind to a halt whenever I tried to run it. (Note: Up to and including Windows 7, the 32 bit versions of Windows operating systems max out at just under 4gb of memory, so if you already have that much, there’s no point adding more).  Happily, I have only experiencing minor slow downs running MyMemories Suite 4 with my current configuration and that’s with several other applications running at the same time.

Installation:

After downloading the 120mb install file, I was eager to get started.  I was a little bit annoyed that there was an additional 4gb (yes, that’s Gigabytes) that needed to be downloaded. That took about an hour and a half.  Fortunately, I had some grocery shopping to do this morning so I left while it was downloading.  After that, the installation continued without a hitch.

Running MyMemories Suite 4:

When you start MyMemories Suite you will be presented with four options: Create Album From Designer Template, Design Your Own, Browse More Content Online or Open an existing album.  I chose to create a new album using the Birthday Celebration template.  I left the page arrangement as-is and chose the pick-and-click method of filling the album.  After naming the album and clicking OK, it took several seconds for it to create all the pages.

The next step is to add photos, which is quite simple.  Just open the Photo tab on in the Resource Gallery on the left side of the MyMemories Suite screen and select a folder from your system.  From there, it’s an easy drag and drop into the photo boxes on the page. When you drop a photo into a box you have several easy options for zooming and placement. If you use a pre-made template, you can create and populate an album in minutes.  Here’s the first page from my granddaughter’s birthday album (isn’t  she cute?).

Of course, you can also create an album entirely from scratch.  After working with the designer templates, I decided to step out on my own.  I wanted to create an album of the beach trip I took with my daughter-in-law and granddaughters last Summer, so I went to the MyMemories website and searched for a beach-themed kit.  I found several and added them to my wish list and ultimately decided on the Oceanside Pack by Trixie Scraps Designs.

Creating my own page took considerably longer and I was slightly alarmed at first because I couldn’t find my newly purchased pack.  Suffice it to say, reading the user’s guide, as boring as that may sound, would have saved me a some time and frustration.  I highly recommend it!  To get a good understanding of how the elements in designer packs are categorized, open Help and read the following section: Using MyMemories Suite > Background Papers > Adding Background Papers > Purchased Backgrounds  (Yes, you can read the user guide online and check out all the features before purchasing the software – they also have a YouTube Channel with lots of tutorials).  After you see how the papers are categorized, you can apply that same principle to the other page elements.

Here’s the first page of my beach trip album.  I think it turned out pretty good for someone who is new to digital scrapbooking and has only done a little paper scrapbooking.

That’s it for today!