Friday, October 21, 2011

In an Instagram

Once again, after a too lengthy absence, it's time for another installment of In an Instagram! This time it's all about fall (which is far too short here in my neck of the woods if you ask me). Check out all the other wonderful Instagram pics over at Life Rearranged.


Clockwise from top left

The fall decorating projects have begun with a woven ribbon table runner for the dining room that will be layered with all sorts of other decorations!

We took in the St. Scholastica Homecoming Football game where they continued their undefeated season after only four years of their program.

My autumn Bunting O' Greetings is up in the living room and will be changed out to Halloween in just a few days.

A little drive through Jay Cooke State Park to take in the fall colors before they're all gone (which they very nearly are.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Digital Scrapbooking Software

I am so sorry for the lengthy absence - life has been a bit out of control and it's taken a bit to get back on even keel and I'm happy to be back. I'm even happier for you as there's a chance for you to win a really cool product a bit later on!

A project I've wanted to work on for quite a long time is creating a recipe/memory book using the recipe cards from my grandma. I always loved looking at the handwriting of both my grandma and grandpa (especially with writing by hand becoming a dying art) - grandpa wrote in a journal everyday but most of the writing from my grandma was seen on our cards for special occasions or her recipe cards. As I spent part of my young life living with my grandparents, I got to spend lots of quality time with them and especially with grandma in the kitchen. One of my favorite memories of time at their house was having toast made from grandma's homemade bread (which she used to make twice a week to help feed her family of six kids and grandpa) and homemade hot chocolate warmed up on the stove (before microwaves were around - so much better the old-fashioned way!).



I use Photoshop all the time for my creations but I was looking for a little bit simpler way to begin putting it together. A while back I had stumbled across some software called My Memories. After a bit of investigating (and an invitation from them to review the software) I thought I would give it a try to get this little (or big) project started.



I began with one of my grandma's recipe cards and went from there. I scanned the card and a picture of my grandma in her younger days as well as a wooden spoon and cleaned them up in Photoshop before I added them to my layout. There are lots of wonderful backgrounds and additional embellishments that are included with the My Memories Suite software when you purchase it. Once I decided on the background, it was really quick work to put the page together. Honestly, choosing from all the backgrounds really was the most difficult and time consuming part of the whole process. There are so many tools to make it super easy to put a project together in no time - layouts so you don't even have to think about photo placement, embellishments and flourishes,

I can't wait to put together the rest of the pages and get the whole book together and take advantage of some of the other great features that make it really easy to share your work. I definitely want to get at least a few books printed and the My Memories Suite allows you to do that pretty simply. I can't really afford to have them printed for everyone in my extended family but the My Memories Suite also allows you to share your work virtually and even add multimedia elements such as background music which I can't wait to try out!



In addition to their software, there are all kinds of fabulous designs for your digital scrapbooking on the My Memories site. I've downloaded a few and can't wait to get even more!

Now on to the really good news for you - head over to My Memories and peruse their vast selection of digital paper packs and layouts. Once you've thoroughly overwhelmed yourself with all they have to offer, come back here and leave a comment about your favorite paper pack or layout and you'll be entered into a contest to win your very own My Memories Suite Software (a $40 value!). For an additional entry head over to their blog and become a follower. You can get an additional entry by liking them on Facebook. And one more entry for becoming a follower of their Twitter feed. That is four total entries you can get into this great giveaway - just make sure to come back here and post a comment about each action you've taken to be entered into the contest.

And if you really can't wait to win the software and want to get started with all the fun stuff that the My Memories Suite has to offer, you can use this special code to get a $10 discount off the purchase price of the software AND get a $10 coupon for the My Memories store so you can start scrapbooking away to your heart's content! Just copy and paste this code at checkout to get your discount: STMMMS63148 (Copying and pasting the code is the way to go to avoid any typos). This coupon code doesn't have an expiration date!


The contest does have a deadline, however - make sure to get your comments posted and and entries in by midnight next Tuesday, October 25 for your chance to win the My Memories Suite software! The winner will be announced right here On Wednesday, October 26! Good luck and have fun browsing!