My First Giveaway!

I'm so excited! I have my very first review and giveaway to share with you today. Liz from My Memories contacted me a few weeks ago about sharing this great digital scrapbooking software with you. Since I've recently become a full convert of digital scrapbooking, I jumped on the chance to try it out.
Before I get into this software, let me tell you why I'm a convert, especially because I get asked this question all the time.  Having 6 kids, plus our family book to work on I have A LOT to scrapbook.  Needless to say, I'm very behind.  So I was trying to find a faster, easier way to get caught up.  I decided digital scrapbooking was the answer.  However, I still loved working with my hands and the actually putting together of a great page.  So I decided I'd scrapbook our family book the old way with the tangible papers, embellishments, etc. and I'd do my kids books digitally.  That way I could make one Christmas page and change out the main picture and put it in 6 books.  Well, that was before I actually tried it out.  I had so much fun on the computer, and it was so quick, who needs to do the cutting by hand. :)  This summer as Cheyenne and I were scrapbooking, I got 9 pages done (just changing the focal point pictures and a little journaling) in the time it took her to do 2 or 3, and she's a very simple, not many embellishments kind of scrapbooker.  It was so fun! I still got to pick out all my embellishments and papers, but didn't have to run to the store to find the perfect thing every time.  Plus, the whole reason Bill bought me the software is so my scraping area stays clean, he hates a mess.  When I had to stop in the middle of a page to run a kid somewhere, I just clicked "save" and I picked right back up the next time I had a minute.  No rushing to clean up all my scraps, trying very carefully not to move the perfect layout before it's glued on, or kids getting into what I've done while I had to go cook dinner.  Another advantage to digital, the cost.  Digital kits are so much cheaper, usually, than buying the same amount of papers and embellishments from the store.  Plus, you get to use them over and over again.

So back to Liz.  I got to download the My Memories Suite software and play with it for a while. My review - I really liked it.  It was very simple to use and had some great features.  After a few minutes, okay about 1/2 half hour, I had this page completely done.


It was so easy, the part that took the longest was deciding which pictures I was going to use.  Even more fun, when I look at this on my computer, or if I burned it to a cd, it has nice background music to it and I can click on one of the pictures and it shows me a cute little video of these three.  So cool!! I also made an awesome page of Billy playing football and added the clip of one of his games.  Now that is fun!  I know several people who burn their books onto dvd's and just watch their scrapbooks on tv, this is a great feature to merge all those videos with the pictures you take.  I love this feature! 

I also made a cute card, well, it was much cuter until I remembered I don't have a color printer anymore and had to change things to black and white.  But it's still okay.  Just picture this in whatever fun colors you like, and think of how quickly you could make lots of fun, cute cards so easily.

My Memories also has many kits to purchase, but also many free kits. This is one of my favorites:

Or if you don't like all the "cutesy" stuff, like my mom, I really like this pack, too:

Plus, if you can't find the perfect kit or alphabet on their site, you can download papers and stuff from other sites to use in this software.  That was an important thing to me, since there are SOOO many sites with free scrapbooking items.  (Just one thing to note on this, however, be careful and make sure you're downloading things from a reputable site.  I did get a virus attached to something I downloaded and it really messed my computer up.)

You can do so much more than scrapbook, too.  You can make calendars (great for Christmas presents), cards, posters, handouts for church lessons or visiting teaching, party invitations, teacher gifts (how fun would it be to make a little book of your child's classmates with a little note from each child and/or parents) and much more.

If I haven't convinced you yet, watch this quick video clip or this longer one to give you more info.


Now for the very best part!!  I get to giveaway a My Memories Suite, a $40 value, to one of my wonderful visitors.  Or if you can't wait or don't want to take your chances, you can use this code: STMMMS28745, and get $10 off the purchase price.  Plus, the software comes with a $10 off code to the My Memories Store, so your $40 is now only $20. Woo, hoo!! That is a great price!

To enter the contest:

1. Follow me - see the side bar

2.  Check out Mymemories.com and tell me which kit you like or could use most.

For more entries:

1. Follow My Memories Blog

2.  Like My Memories on Facebook

3.  Follow My Memories on Twitter

Easy peesy! Just leave me a separate comment for each entry.  This entry will end at 11:59 p.m. (MST) on September 6, 2011.

Linking to:
Abowlfulloflemons
Gigglesglitzandglam
Type A Decorating
Crystal and Comp
By Your Hands