Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Getting Started with Digital Scrapbooking

Getting Started!
I've had so much fun with digital scrapbooking I thought I'd share with you. I tried making layouts using Photoshop, but it was a little complicated for me. I found this page on Facebook called MyMemories. I lurked for a while and thought maybe I would give the software a try. Everyone said it was really easy, so I decided I was going to "bite the bullet" and buy the software. It was $40, but a friend gave me a code to use to get $10 off the software, plus $10 to spend in the shop mymemories.com. I figured that was like half price, and I'm a real bargain hunter, so maybe this would be the thing for me.

First, I went to the website and took a look around. They had all these free kits you could download, whether you had a PC or a Mac. Plus, if you choose not to buy the software, you could download them as "General" files and use them in Photoshop. Well, what's better than free? Then I looked at the Dollar Store. So many kits for $1.00!! Wow! You get the papers and embellishments with some of these kits - for $1.00? Loving that.

Downloading the software was easy and so was downloading the kits. Once I got the software installed, I opened up the file for one of the kits, and it automatically downloaded to my Applications folder. Cool Beans! I decided to try one of the "Quick Pages." The designer puts together everything but the photo. I have SO MANY photos I need to get scrapbooked! Holy cow! It was so easy! And it looked really professional. I really liked it, so I decided to try a page using the kit and make it up myself. Not super good, not super bad. I uploaded a jpg of the page to the MyMemories facebook page and asked for critique. A lady said it would look better with "shadows" so I gave that a try. What a difference! It looked like all the photos and embellishments jumped off the page! Go look for yourself! It's http://www.mymemories.com

I am having so much fun with this! If you think you might want the software, I'm going to do for you what my friend did for me. If you buy the software, when it asks for a Promo Code, cut and paste this:

STMMMS31635

It's best to cut and paste so your get all the letters and numbers correct. That will get you $10 off the software and the software will come with a coupon for $10 any purchase in the store.

If you decide to give it a try, let me know. I'd love to share pages and tips with you. If you decide not to get the software and continue to use Photoshop or something like that, also let me know. I'd love to swap ideas!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Africa

It's been quite a while since I posted. Thank the Lord, we've had some work and many more children are going to be adopted.
Saxon Holt is having a contest this week on the MyMemories Blog. Use any of her kits to make a page. This page has been kicking around my head for the past few weeks, ever since I bought her "At the Museum - Africa" kit. We've helped a lot of families adopt from Africa, Ethiopia especially. Every family comes back with tales of the street children, especially in Addis Ababa. As many orphanages open, they are filled to capacity in less than 24 hours. So many parents dying of AIDS, there just aren't enough relatives left to care for the children. So the kids are forced on the streets. Prey to whomever is bigger or stronger. Some organizations are trying to spread rumors that the children in Africa are being trafficked. Spend a day in Addis Ababa. Worse, spend a night there. There are so many true orphans wandering the streets, who would need to steal any from their parents? Get real! The eyes of these children haunt me. My dream is that organizations like UNICEF would make it easier for these children to be adopted, and stop putting up roadblocks. These kids need to be safe. They need families!
I'll get off my soapbox now...


We had a light snow on Monday. This is after Sunday being 70ยบ! I wasn't sure how long the snow would last, so I hurried and snapped as many photos as I could. The first thing that struck me as I left the house were the spiderwebs. Spiderwebs filled with snow. Just beautiful!!

I used Saxon Holt's "Snowy Day" for the papers and elements and http://www.dafont.com/halloween-spider.font for the spiderweb font.


My side garden was just getting green with all the lily-of-the-valley leaves shooting high in the air. I love the glossy emerald green leaves.
I used "Winterland" by marieh and (see below) http://www.dafont.com/santas-sleigh.font for the font.


I didn't use any kit for this. Just my photos and some free clipart I got off the web for the daffodils. The font is from http://www.dafont.com/kingthings-christmas.font

I've been playing with my Scrapbooking, even though I haven't updated the blog till now. Here's my efforts from two weeks ago when MyMemories had a BlogContest to tell a story with one word.

I misunderstood and did this one first:


And I made this companion page to go with it.
Isn't this a fun idea? My daughter went to a birthday "tea party" for one of her best friends and they had this idea to take pictures with their faces in the frames. I think it is a great idea!

Here are some more pictures from the same tea party.