Tutorial 2: How to insert embellishments into your album

Hey everyone!


I’m back! Well, the special news is, as some of you may know, that a newer version of My Memories Suite has arrived! In version 3, you will find everything you received in version 2 plus lots more album templates, papers, embellishments etc., so you can choose from thousands of items to work with and to create something unique and of your own. On the control panel you will find two new tabs: the ‘Imprints’ tab and the ‘Calendars’ tab.
Use my discount code: STMMMS35043 to get your discount on this software!!!
I’m going to continue with my previous tutorial. So you have to open your My Memories Suite software by double clicking on the MMS icon or by clicking on ‘start’ and then clicking on ‘My Memories Suite’. It may take a moment for your MMS program to open.

Your ‘New Album Options’ window will open, and because I’m going to work further with the album I was working on previously, I’m going to click on the thumbnail of my Jingle Bell album which is one of my five ‘Recent Albums’.

So now your album has opened.

You can zoom in or out to get a better look at your page or page elements. I’m going to click twice on the '-' tab to zoom my page out to 50%.You can also click on the Caron sign 'ˇ' next to the zoom percentage to choose a zoom option.

The left corner of my page looks a bit empty, so I want to add an embellishment to this corner. There are two options how you can add your embellishment: you can click on the ‘Embellishments’ tab from your ‘Control Panel’ on the right of your screen or you can click on the embellishments tab (the flower) from your ‘Resource Gallery’ on the left of your screen. I’m going to start by clicking on my ‘Embellishments’ tab from my ‘Control Panel’ to show you how it’s done from here. Your embellishment options will open up when you click on your ‘Embellishments’ tab. Click on ‘Add’.

You will now get your ‘Choose Embellishment’ window from where you can choose an embellishment. What you see on the left of this window is that all the embellishments are categorized, so this way it’s easy to find an embellishment.

I’m going to click on the ‘+’ of my purchased items. I can now choose from the items that are again categorized. I want a Christmas embellishment, so I’m going to click on the ‘+’ tab of ‘Christmas’, which is once again categorized. I’m going to choose for ‘A Gift for You’, which comes with the My Memories Suite V3 software. I love playing with embellishments and imprints. I’ll talk some other time about the imprints. So now I’m going to click on ‘Deer’ next, and I can now choose from three deers. I’m going to click on ‘Deer 2’ of the ‘Preview’ and then click on ‘Apply’ and then on ‘Close’.

I now have my chosen deer on my page, but it’s not where I want it to be. So I’m going to drag it to the place I want it to be with my mouse held in.

At the right on the ‘Control Panel’, you see all the options for your embellishment. You can give your embellishment a ‘Shadow’, ‘Mirror’ it, ‘Flip’ it, ‘Rotate’ it or change your ‘Opacity’. What I am about to do is to mirror my embellishment and change the opacity to make it matching with the grey on my page. To mirror it, simply click on the ‘Mirror’ tab, and to change the ‘Opacity’ value scroll to the left or type your opacity value and hit your ‘Enter’ key. I’m changing my opacity to 40. You can drag your embellishment again to have it exactly where you want it to be if you’re not satisfied. This is what I got.

You can click on your ‘Embellishments’ tab on your ‘Control Panel’ to hide all the options if you want to work with some other tab.

When you click on the embellishments tab from your ‘Resource Gallery’, you will get a better and bigger view of the embellishments. I recently worked with deer, that’s why I will get a view of all the deers. If I want to place another deer, I can double click on the image of the embellishment to get it on my page. By clicking on the ‘Select Category’ tab, you will find all the categories from which you can choose in the same way as from your control panel.

 I can hide my ‘Resource Gallery’ to get a better view of my page by clicking on the left-pointing double angle quotation ‘«’

What you also may have noticed is that the borders of your page are grey; this is the area that will be cropped when you print your album, so keep in mind that you don’t place embellishments and text that you want to be shown, in this area. When you are going to export you album to a JPEG file for example, and are not intending to print it out, you can place your text, embellishment(s) or imprint(s) in this area, cause they will appear normally on your JPEG file. If you don’t want the crop area to be shown, click on ‘View’, then go to ‘Guides’ and click on ‘Trim area-large photo album’ which is active, to make it inactive. So now you don’t see the grey border. If you are to print your album it’s better to leave the grey area or make your trim area active if it’s inactive.

That’s it for today’s tutorial!

This is something I had created with the pack from previous week. The green background is actually from this week’s giveaway pack. Featuring on the picture are Indian actor Gurmeet Choudhary and his wife, and the quote in hindi is from the Indian actress Priyanka Chopra.:D The quote says: “Don’t look at how many moments there are left in one’s life, but look at how much life there is in each moment”.

As no one has participated in this week’s giveaway, this pack is completely mine!!! I really love this pack!

I will be offering scrapbooking Freebies regularly, so you can start with your album for photo books, printing or online viewing by using them!

Do leave your name and e-mail in the comment section of this blog post for a chance to win the next set of Quick Pages next week!

Hugs and kisses,
Sharda

Tutorial1: How to add pictures to your designer template

Hey everyone!
I’m back with my first My Memories Suite tutorial. Follow my step by step instructions if you have purchased your software recently and you need some guidance to work with this software. If you still haven’t purchased this software you can always use my coupon code STMMMS35043 to get a $10 discount. Software also comes with a $10 coupon for downloads-a total value of $20! Just copy and paste the code to avoid typos when using it.

You can open your My Memories Suite Program by double clicking on your My Memories Suite icon or by clicking on ‘Start’ and then on ‘My Memories Suite’. Your ‘New Album Options’ window will open.

You now have two options from which you can pick; you can create an album with a designer template or you can build your own album. What you see at the bottom of this window are thumbnails of my recent albums. When you want to continue with your album some other time, you can easily click on the album you were working on to pursue further with your work. I’m going to work with a designer template today, so click on ‘Create Album From Designer Template’. A ‘Choose Designer Template’ window will open up now.

So now you have to choose a designer template. You can see how the designer templates look like on the picture at the right corner below. What you see on the picture above is how the template ‘A Day in the Life’ looks like. What you also may have noticed is that all templates come with a name, a theme, a size and the amount of pages they contain. The templates come in 8½" x 11" and 12" x 12" sizes, but you can convert them into other sizes.  ‘A day in the Life’ contains 7 pages, so when you have more pictures, the 7 pages will repeat itself when you choose for the ‘Fast Fill’ option. Christmas is not far away, so I’m now going to choose for the ‘Holiday Simplicity’ template.

This template has the theme ‘Christmas’, it has a size of 12" x 12" and it contains 7 pages. So now click on ‘Next’. You will get a ‘Custom Page Arrangement’ window.

You can now remove, add, and/or place your pages in the order you like. To arrange the pages in a different way, simply drag the thumbnail images of your pages to the place where you want your pages in the ‘Page Arrangement’ bar. If you want to place some more pages, drag the thumbnails you want from the ‘Available Template Pages’ bar  to the ‘Page Arrangement’ bar below. If you want to remove some pages, click on the thumbnail on the ‘Page Arrangement’ bar, which you want to remove and then click on ‘Remove’. If you want to remove more then one page, hold your control key in and select those thumbnails and then click on ‘Remove’. I’m going to remove the 3^rd and the 5^th page and I’m going to add the last page as my third page now.

I now have 6 pages, but you can add as many pages as you like.

Now click on ‘Next’ when you’re done adding and removing your pages. You will now get a ‘Select Photos’ window from which your can choose from two options: ‘Pick and Click’ and ‘Fast Fill’. You can choose for the ‘Fast Fill’ option when you have lots of pictures and the order of the pictures isn’t important. For example, when you want the hundreds of pictures that you had taken on your campus trip quickly put together in an album, this is a great option. I’m going to work with the ‘Pick and Click’ option today.

Click on ‘Next’ if you have selected your option. You will now get a ‘Name Album’ window.

You can now change your Album Name and location if you like. I’m going to name my album ‘Jingle Bell’. And the next step is to click on ‘Finish’.

You now have your album opened in your ‘My Memories Suite’ software. This is the page that you will get.

At the left you have your ‘Resource Gallery’ and at the right you have your ‘Control Panel’. I’ll talk about these two in my second tutorial. You can see all the thumbnails of your pages in the bar at the bottom, so if you want to go to your second page, simply click on the thumbnail of your second page to view this page. You can also delete or drag your thumbnails in this bar. I’m going to keep it short this time; I’ll show you how you can add pictures to these templates. To add a picture, double click on the dark square area that you see. You will get an ‘Add Photo’ window now.

Go to the file where you have saved or stored your picture, then select your picture and then click on ‘OK’. You can choose from selecting the name of your picture or clicking on the thumbnail image on the right. I’ve chosen to click on my thumbnail image on the right. I hadn’t placed any pictures of our cat Kido out here for quite some time.:)

 Now, I have my picture in the picture frame of my template.

You can select the area that you want to be shown in the picture frame by double clicking on the picture. You will get your ‘Crop Photo’ window now.

So I’m just going to drag the bright area a little bit to the left. Click on ‘OK’ when you’re done.

So this is what I finally got.

That’s it for today’s tutorial. You can fill the other pages with your pictures if you like. Click on ‘File’ and then on ‘Save’ to save your work.

What do you guys think of this week’s Quick Pages?

Here’s the link for everyone to download these Quick Pages for free: Sorry, link has expired. Check out my newest post for new freebies.

I have great news this week; My Memories Suite is giving away an iPad 2 to a lucky winner very soon!!!

Do participate in this great giveaway of My Memories Suite. The only thing that you have to do is to like and share their page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593 . You can find the details at http://www.mymemoriesblog.com/2011/09/so-make-sure-you-check-out-mymemories.html . At the moment, they’re on 9,740 followers on Facebook, so be fast before they reach the 10,000!!! I would love it if not me, one of my followers would win this very cool giveaway.;) Nobody loses, cause you can download a Christmas kit for free on their Facebook page, just for liking their page.;)

I’m giving away another set of Quick Pages to some lucky winners next week. Leave your first name or nick name together with your e-mail address in the comment section of this post to participate in my giveaway.

And do visit my blog next week; I have something very special to share with you guys!;)

Hugs and kisses,

Sharda

How to use My Memories Suite Quick Pages in Microsoft Word

Hey everyone!
I’m back to continue with my tutorial in how to work with My Memories Suite Quick Pages in Microsoft Word and how to save the Quick Pages made up in Word in a .jpg format. The last thing I had explained in my previous tutorial was how you can place a Word Art on the zipper pull. You can also maybe place a picture on the zipper pull. There are a lot of creative things you can do with these Quick Pages. So if you want to place a picture on the zipper pull, first open a new blank Microsoft document, and insert your picture the way I had described in the previous post. You can also insert a picture in your blank document by going in the file where you have saved your picture, then right click on the picture without opening it and choose for the ‘Copy’ option. Come back to your blank Microsoft Word document, then right click on the blank page and choose for the option ‘Paste’. So now you have your picture on the blank page.

The second step is to change the shape of the picture. You can choose from a lot of shapes, like you can give your picture the shape of a sun, a cloud etc. I’m going to choose for the ‘Oval’ shape cause the zipper pull has an oval shape. Make the picture smaller by pushing the little circles at the corners. Now right click and choose for the option ‘Copy’. You now have to get this picture in your previously saved document. So open that document, then right click and choose for the option ‘Paste’.

 

You now have your oval shaped picture on your page together with your Quick Pages. Click on the oval shaped picture, then click on the red ‘Picture Tools’ tab at the top. You can now change your Text Wrapping. Choose for the option ‘Behind Text’ from the Text Wrapping pull down menu.

 

I want my Word Art on top of my picture so I’m going to drag it somewhere on top of my page. The oval shaped picture is still too big and it needs to be stretched out in order to get the zipper pull shape. Give the picture the angle of the zipper pull in the way done previously by rotating the oval shaped picture. You can zoom in a little bit to get a closer look. Just move the zoom tuner, at the bottom, to the right; you will see that the percentage will go up. So this is what you will get.

Now right click on your Word Art and choose for the option ‘Order’ and then click on ‘Bring to Front’. You can now drag your Word Art on top of your picture. You can also change the shape of your Word Art if you like. Simply click on the ‘Change WordArt shape’ tab (on the little triangle of a blue ‘A’ that you will see if you click on your Word Art tab), and choose for a shape. I’ve chosen for ‘Arch Down (Curve)’.

I want my Word Art a little bit brighter so I’m going to choose for a brightness of +10% for my oval shaped picture, then I’m giving my Word Art a shadow and I’m going to outline the Word Art with a dark blue color. This is what I am getting.

This week, the pictures on my blog are clearer, cause I’ve used my My Memories Suite software to resize them.;) Now I want to be able to mail the picture I’ve made up or to be able to place it on Facebook or whatsoever. So what you should do now is to press together your ‘Alt’ and ‘Print Screen’ tab on you keyboard. The next step is to open a blank page in Paint. I think that you guys know how to open a blank page in Paint. I’ll give you one of the options how to open a blank page in Paint. Click on ‘Start’, then go to ‘All Programs’, then go to ‘Accessories’ and then click on the ‘Paint’ option. So you will now get a blank page in Paint. Now click on ‘Edit’ and choose for the option ‘Paste’. You will see your whole Word Screen in Paint now. Save this Word Screen in Paint.

Now for the final step; go to the location where you have saved your Paint document and right click, then go to ‘Open With’ and choose for the option ‘Microsoft Office Picture Manager’. We are now going to crop those areas that we don’t want in our picture to be shown. Click on ‘Picture’ in your ‘Microsoft Office Picture Manager’ and choose for the option ‘Crop…’. You will get a crop toolbar on the right.

Move your picture borders inside with your mouse held in to crop those areas that are not needed. This is what you will get; you can see that the black corners and the black small lines in the middle have moved.

Now click on ‘OK’ on the side bar and save your modified document by clicking on ‘File’ and then on ‘Save’. Your picture is ready to be shared with friends and family!!! This is what I finally got.;)

Although no one has participated in my Quick Pages giveaway this time, I have my winners for this week!!! This is the pack that the winners Meenu and Francesca have received because they had participated in my My Memories Suite V2 software giveaway on my blog CREATIVE D-ZINE and I don’t want to leave the participants of my software giveaway empty-handed. Do participate next time everyone! You can use all your creative ideas to work with the 2 Quick Pages of my giveaway.

This is something I’ve created with the My Memories Suite software using pictures I had taken in our garden and using some items from this software. The cupcake paper is from the free kit ‘This is My Day!’, and the background is from the free kit ‘Honeycomb Solids’. If you purchase this software, you can download all the free kits at http://www.mymemories.com/. Use the coupon code STMMMS35043 to get a 25% discount on your MMS software.;)

Ciaoooo everyone!!! Come and get your new Freebies out here next week!;)

Scrapbooking tips and tools

Hey everyone!
I hadn’t posted anything out here for quite some time. I’ll try to share some scrapbooking tips and tools out here now on a regular basis.

Today, I again have something special for all of my blog visitors. Any guesses? Freebies for all of you guys!!! The freebies include 2 Quick Pages, and all the papers and elements used in creating them. The Quick Pages can be used in any software, like Microsoft Office, Photoshop, AutoCAD etc. But I encourage you to try the My Memories Suite Version 2 software if you still haven’t bought this software. You can get a $10 discount when you use the coupon code STMMMS35043 to purchase the My Memories Suite v2 scrapbooking software at www.MyMemories.com. Software also comes with a $10 coupon for downloads-a total value of $20! Just copy and paste the code to avoid typos when using it.

The elements and Quick Pages are .png and the papers are .jpg format. The Quick Pages and the Papers and Embellishments are for Personal Use Only, and are not to be used for any commercial use-either for profit or gratis.

How do you guys like these 2 Quick Pages?

This is the link for everyone to download these Quick Pages for free:
Sorry, link has expired. Check out my newest post for new freebies.

For those who haven’t bought this software, I’ll show you how you can work with these Quick Pages in Microsoft Word. I think that everyone has Microsoft Word on his/her mac or pc and knows to work with it. But for those having a little bit of problem I’m giving you step by step instructions this time.

I’m going to work with a picture I had taken of one of my friends and his friend. First you place your desired embellishment(s) with which you want to work, on your blank page of your Microsoft Word Document. You can get your embellishment(s) on your page by clicking on Insert and then clicking on picture. Choose the file where you have saved your downloaded embellishments and insert the embellishments one by one. I’ve chosen for QP1 en QP2 to work with for this example.

I want the two embellishments next to each other, so I am going to make them smaller by clicking on the picture and then pushing on one of the little rectangles at the corners of the pictures in a downward or upward way. The next step is to click on one of the embellishments, then right click and click on ‘Text Wrapping’ and now choose for the ‘Behind Text’ option in your pull down menu. Do the same for the other embellishment. This way you can place the two embellishments side by side without any problems.

I am now giving these embellishments an angle. You can do this by clicking on the embellishment you want to rotate and holding your cursor above the green dot that you can see in the picture above. When you see arrows around the green dot, hold your mouse down and move the cursor the way you want to rotate your embellishment. Now you can insert your pictures and this goes in the same way you had inserted your embellishments.

Click on your picture and push on one of the little circles at the corners of the picture to get the picture smaller. Now try giving your pictures the same angle you had given to your embellishments in the same way as described before. Do the text wrapping for your pictures as well and send them at the back.

Now for the final part; click on one of the embellishments and then right click on ‘Bring to Front’ and then again on ‘Bring to Front’.  Do this step also for the other embellishment. You can play a little bit around if you’re not satisfied with how the items are placed.

You can also add a Word Art on the blank zipper pull if you want. Click on insert; then choose from a Word Art from the Word Art pull down menu. Click on your chosen Word Art and then type your text and click on OK. Now you right click on your Word Art, and then click on ‘Format WordArt’ and then you choose for the option ‘Behind Text’ for the layout. You can now give your Word Art an angle and drag it to the right place.

Sorry that the pictures are unclear, I had to resize them to be able to place them on my blog. That’s it for today; so save your Word file! I’ll tell you next week how you can save these two Quick Pages as one picture and use it on Facebook, Twitter, your blog or for mailing it to your family and friends.;)

I’m giving away a Quick Page to some lucky winners next week. Leave a comment with your first name or nickname together with your e-mail address in the comment section of this blog post to participate.

Enjoy life, have fun, dream, explore, play, be adventurous, create, run, skip, jump, laugh and smile,

Sharda