More 12x12 pages and other stuff

I've been pretty sick (still am pretty sick) and when I haven't been trying to entertain my kids or get my house back in order in my more lucid/better moments, I have managed a few pages and began working on another project.

Printed off some embellishments to fussy cut out from MMS software.  Don't forget to enter for your chance to win.

 Printing off embellishments is a fun, economical and great way to personalize your work.  I started printing off all sorts of embellishments lately.  There are a ton of free and cheap resources for clip art and digital embellishments for scrapbooking, paper art, etc... online.  I have just begun taking advantage of those resources.

I have tons of photos to scrapbook.  I have a lot of catching up to do, so much so, that I may never catch up but it is definitely fun to try.

 Kids and their need to stick stickers to themselves.

 Another of the Fourth of July.  What a wonderful day that was spent in Pensacola with my three most favorite peeps ever.

Letters are cut out using my Pazzles machine in white cardstock.  I then used chalk, glitter glue, glossy accents, markers, and inks to color them.

This alphabet page is just a basic trial run of a much larger project that I want to create.  I plan to get some canvases and modpodge and make myself some fun, colorful, textured wall art using mostly letters, numbers, and maybe a few clip art plants and animals.  I will try to keep you all up to date as this project progresses.  Right now I am just trying to get a feel for the idea I have.  The hardest part for me is taking that complete idea in my head and making it work as cool as the one in my head.  LOL! Let's just hope this all comes together in the end.

I hope everyone is happy, healthy and doing great. 

My Memories Suite Review

I received and installed my digital copy of My Memories Suite on the 29^th of August and have spent the last two weeks getting to know this program and ALL that can be done with it and I am impressed. 

There really is so much you can do beyond a simple scrapbook page with this software but  before I get ahead of myself let’s get back to my first few hours learning to use the program and what I created. 

I decided to start simple and create a basic 12x12 scrapbook page just to get a handle on it because with all new programs that we get there is always that learning curve.  I was pleasantly surprised with how user friendly the interface is and how easy and quick it was for me to explore and pick up the use of the software. 

This page was super quick to make once I knew where to look for things and how to use the software.  I exported it to JPEG to turn it into a strictly image file but could have created an interactive page by embedding some sound, like waves or me narrating, and then turning it into an ISO file.  The program really does the work, you just follow the prompts once you've selected what you want to do.

Although coming from a traditional scrappers point of view it can be pretty frustrating at first maneuvering your embellishments and page elements around and making them what you want. 

My tip….don’t think of this as scrapbooking because it really isn’t.  If you have ever played with Gimp Inkscape , Adobe Illustrator or any other image manipulation program then that is the mind frame you want. 

Okay, so you can’t do most of those cool graphics things in this program but the concept is similar.  You build your pages a layer at a time.  You have backgrounds, photos, text, embellishments, shapes, video, multimedia, music, and narration to work from to create your albums, story books, digital slide shows, interactive pages, and much more to send off for printing, book binding, exporting, emailing, burning to disk, etc…  The possibilities really are as limited as your imagination. 

This really is a great addition for your tool arsenal.  I've used it a few times just to print out embellishments for my traditional scrapbooking but the really cool thing about this software is that it isn’t a file snob, like so many programs out there, the file type isn’t proprietary.  It is just your average PNG file.  Which means you can create your own content using one of your nifty programs and import your creations into My Memories.

 For example you could use Gimp to create some embellishments or backgrounds and then use them in the program to build your “Day at the Park” story book with your children as the characters and when you complete your awesome personalized children’s book you can export it for printing and binding or, say, you want that children’s book to be a digital iPod ready book…you can do that too or even make that book interactive, burn it to a disc and mail it to family. 

Have I got the point across that this software has TONS of potential and will be what you make of it.  Oh, did I mention that it is user friendly.  There are also some tutorials online on YouTube.com if you need a little more guidance on using this software.  I believe the woman who created the tutorials is simply an avid user of the software and is not affiliated with My Memories.    Her channel is pinktoque, but it is easier to look up the tutorials by searching videos for My Memories Suite.

I know that the My Memories Suite software seems geared mostly to scrapbookers with all of the content that you can buy directly from the MyMemories.com shop, some of which is free, but don’t let that fool you.  This software is capable of much more than creating a simple scrapbook or digital photo album.  I think as a blogger or someone with a website this could add so much more to your page content.  With this programs ability to embed videos and music, add links and files as hot spots directly on your page for others to interact with and how easy it is to do, well, you see where I am going. 

As a way to create some seriously awesome and personal gifts this really is a great tool too.  I admit this will not replace my traditional scrapbooking.  I just enjoy playing with paper, scissors and glue too much for that to ever happen but I am super excited about all of the interactive capabilities this software has and as a resource for ideas for pages…this really can’t be beat.

If you are interested in finding out more about My Memories Suite software and what all they have to offer, please check out their sites.

www.mymemories.com

www.mymemoriesblog.com

www.facebook.com/mymemoriessuite

www.twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

www.youtube.com/user/MyMemoriesSuite

Oh! Don’t forget…..Subscribe (if you haven’t already) and Enter for your chance to win a FREE digital copy of My Memories Suite software.  For more information on what you need to do to enter check out My Memories Suite Giveaway tab at the top of my page.

Some Completed 12x12 Pages

Lately all I have felt like scrapbooking are pictures of my husband, which isn't too surprising I guess, as he is currently deployed.  I have a tendency to skip around when I scrapbook.  Nothing is done chronologically or with any real theme, but this time I seem to have picked up a theme and the theme is my husband. 

Here are some of my recent completed scrapbook 12x12 layouts.  About a weeks worth.  Might have been more except the weather was pretty frightening for a few days there and we stayed hunkered down watching children's movies in my room.

The red eight point stars are made out of circles.  Actually you normally make like 10-14 of these suckers and put them together to create a polish star ornament.  I thought they looked pretty cool just used individually. 

I have no idea why I decided my sun should be green but it is. :)

Went crazy rounding corners on this one.  Not something I normally do as I don't have a special tool for it but with some good measuring, a ruler, protractor and compass I made a template  all those corners came out just about the same.  Should have thought of the template sooner. 

There I go, adding crochet into my layouts again.  This was actually a really fun page where I didn't worry to much about being straight or perfect.

I hope you find something to inspire you today and took some time for yourself to create something.

It is never dull around here.

Yep! A small tornado touched down in my backyard, leaving my privacy fence much less private, my patio screen door now swinging in (hinges are broken), tree limbs and other plant debris strewn all over the place, a giant limb right up next to my bedroom window and had the nerve to steal off with my peppers all around 0530 this morning. 

I am a light sleeper and was woken up by that utter silence that comes before the roar.  Luckily no windows were broken and the tornado was a very small one.  Oh, it did some damage, a few neighbors also got a bit before it petered out a few houses away. 

Definitely a sound and experience I could live without.  We are all fine and extremely lucky that it dropped down in the backyard and not on the house.  I am just glad no one was hurt....I could care less about the damage.  It can all be fixed and what can't be fixed can be replaced or lived without.  Everything that is important is just fine. 

My kids were a bit shook up but are doing fine now.  I am also fine, just dreading the clean up. 

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Labor Day and don't ignore those warnings, watches and alerts your weather station puts out.  Never would have thought a tornado could be so small and do so much in such a short time. 

The Panhandle Butterfly House

I took the girls yesterday to help release butterflies into the Vivarium at the Panhandle Butterfly House just at the base of the Navarre Bridge. Wow! That place is so tiny, it is free though. We got there just after ten and just as they were finishing the releases. The girls loved it even though it was super hot and humid in there. My camera died really quickly (reminder to always charge the battery before an outing) which was a bummer. If you are in the area you should check it out, especially if you love butterflies.

This place reminds me that I have some butterfly cardstock to pull out and use.