Tutorial 4: How to create a layout for your envelope

I’m back with a new tutorial and today I’m going to show you how you can create your own envelope. You can open your album in MMS in which your had created your Christmas postcard and we are going to create a layout for the front of our envelope.

Method 1 for creating a layout for your envelope in MMS

If you are not planning on using the layout of the back of your postcard, you can simply make some changes on the layout you already had created. If you are planning to use your layout again, there are two options from which you can choose. Option no.1 is to right click on the thumbnail of your layout for the back and then click on ‘Insert Duplicate Page’. So we are now going to make a little bit of changes on the layout we had already created. If you hadn’t created a layout for the back of your postcard scroll down and try method 2.

Drag your embellishment(s) to the side of your layout to create some space for typing the addressee’s name. You can make your embellishment(s) bigger or smaller with the handles of your embellishment if you like. Now drag your text somewhere in the middle. Delete the text by selecting the text box, then clicking on the text; you will see a cursor. Place the cursor at the end of your text and backspace it. Your text is now deleted and you can type in the recipient’s address now. You can also make some changes to the font if you like.

The Curlz MT is to curly; I’m afraid that the postman won’t be able to read the address easily, so I’m going to change the font back to ‘Times New Roman’. Simply select the whole text and then choose for another font. You’re now done creating a layout for your envelope! Sorry, I’ve blurred the address I had typed, cause I don’t want the address to be seen on my blog.

Method 2 for creating a layout for your envelope in MMS

The second option for creating a layout for your envelope is to click on ‘Insert’ on your Menu bar and then click on ‘Add Page’, ‘Blank Page’ and then on ‘OK’; this way you’ll have a blank page in which you can add your embellishment(s) and/or text. Start by inserting an embellishment or embellishments which you had used for creating your postcard.

The second step is to click on ‘Text’ from your Control Panel and then click on ‘Add’. You will see a text box on your page which you can make bigger or smaller with the handles of your text box. Choose for a font, size etc. and type the address of the recipient. That’s it; done in a jiffy!

How to draw the shape of your envelope in Microsoft Word

Now it’s time to draw the shape of our envelope; this way it’s easier to cut out the shape. You can print out the layout which you had created in MMS and then draw the shape with a pencil or you can also draw the shape on your pc or Mac using a software; MMS can also be used for this task. I’ve worked with Microsoft Word to draw the shape of my envelope, cuase I had printed out my layout in Microsoft Word. So open your previously saved file in Microsoft Word.

We are going to insert two more lines at the top and bottom and then we are going to delete the pictures.

I’m going to move my rectangle a little bit downwards by selecting all the lines. First select one line, then hold your control key down and select the other lines. Now move your rectangle with your downward (↓) key.

Move the line at the top of your rectangle a little bit upward; I’ve hit 3 times on my upwards key (↑). Now move the line on the right of your rectangle also by using the rightwards key (→). Close the rectangle by pulling a little bit on the lines. We’re doing this cause we need a little bit extra space for the card. If you have stuck embellishments on your postcard that needs some more envelope space, just move the lines a little bit more. Now you can draw the wings of your postcard by inserting lines.

You can select the lines and use ‘Copy’ ‘Paste’ to get exact lines of the same lengths for your wings. You can now also insert your layout that you had created in MMS.

When you’re done drawing your wings, move the line at the bottom of the rectangle a little bit upward to create some space for the recipient to be able to easily get your postcard out of the envelope.

Make the vertical lines a little bit shorter, so all the lines are closed now.

We are now going to round the corners of the wings a little bit by inserting arcs at the corners.

Delete the line at the top of the rectangle and make the lines on the left and right of your rectangle a little bit shorter, so this way you won’t see the lines when your are done creating your envelope.

You are now ready to print out your envelope!

Cut out the shape of your envelope.

Fold up your envelope.

Glue the right and left wing and then you’re done!!! My camera lens was dirty; sorry about that.

Wishing you guys a merry X-mas!!! And I have a Christmas gift for everyone! You guys are getting 2 Quick Pages, and all of the papers and elements used in creating them. The elements and Quick Pages are .png and the papers are .jpg format. They can be used in any software. Here’s the link for everyone to download these Simply Adorable freebies: http://www.mymemories.com/store/share_the_memories_kit_2 

Here’s an image of how your free gift looks like. If you want more Quick Pages just leave your name and e-mail in the comment section of this post to participate in next week’s giveaway!

And remember, everyone can use the coupon code STMMMS35043 to purchase the My Memories Suite Version 3 software; you will get a $10 discount by using this code. It’s still not late to create your Christmas postcard if you don’t need the postman to deliver it.;) But even when your postcard arrives a bit late, the recipients will be happy that he/she still received something from you.You can also use this software to create your own unique calendar for the New Year!

XOXO
Sharda

How to print out your MMS layouts if you don’t have a printer of your own

Hey everyone!
How are you guys doing?
I’m good; just pampered my feet in a hot tub. It’s good for your body as well as for your soul to pamper yourself now and then.;)

Today I’m going to share my printed postcard with you guys. I don’t have a printer of my own, so I had placed my exported JPEG images which I had created with my My Memories Suite close to each other in Microsoft Word to print it out.

First I had inserted my JPEG images by right clicking on the thumbnail of my JPEG image and then clicking on ‘Paste’ in Microsoft Word. I had created another layout for the back of my postcard in MMS. So when you insert your layouts in Microsoft Word they will be on two pages. I’m going to place them on one page. So how do you do that?

First start by changing your page layout. Click on ‘Page Layout’ and choose for ‘Narrow Margins’.

Now I’m going to make my images smaller. First select your picture, then click on ‘Picture Tools’. Now you can change the size of your picture.

I’m gong to change the height and width of my picture into 4.84”, but you can also choose some other value if you like. So type in the value; I’m typing 4.84” for the height and width and then I’m hitting the ‘Enter’ key.

Select the other picture if you have also created a back in MMS. I’ve added a deer embellishment and a Text ‘Created by Sharda Sewdien’ for the layout of the back. If you haven’t created a back for your postcard, you can also leave a piece of white area and cut out the white area as your back after printing out your layout. So now I have both my layouts on one page.

Select the pictures one by one and and choose for the option ‘Rotate Right 90˚’ from your Format menu.

You could actually also have choosen for a landscape orientation; this way you wouldn’t have to rotate the pictures. There are lots of ways to get the job done.

When you only have one layout, you can place your layout somewhere below on your page and print it out and your done after cutting out your layout! When you also have a layout for the back of your postcard, we are going to continue. So when you’ve rotated your pictures, give it a borderline by selecting a picture border color; this way you will be able to view the borders of your layout.

You can now see that there’s a space between the two layouts. So what we are going to do is, we are going to select the second layout and then we are going to give it a Text Wrapping; click on ‘Behind Text’.

Now you can place the two layouts close to each other without any space; use your arrow key ‘↑’ to get the layout a bit up.

Now choose for ‘No outline’ cause you don’t want to see the line between the two layouts and then insert a line shape instead at the top and bottom of your postcard, this way you’ll know where you should be cutting your postcard.

To insert a line, go to ‘Insert’, ‘Shapes’, then click on ‘Line’ and draw your line by holding your mouse in. Now you can print out your postcard.

This is the front cover of my postcard.

The back of my postcard.

You can also decorate the inside of your postcard if you like. There are endless ways from which you can choose to decorate your postcard. You could for example also have created another layout for the inside or you could use cut-outs and or other decoration items. As a little girl I would love cutting out shapes and pictures from magazines and decorating my diary with them. I’ve chosen for this option this time to decorate the inside, cause I love reusing materials.  You could also try this out when it’s for personal use. I’ve cut out a light-up penguin pal from the inside of an Avon brochure cover which isn’t valid anymore and I’ve glued it on the inside of my postcard. I’ve also stuck some glitter stickers on the side of the penguin and I glued a piece of red lace on the other side. This is how the inside of my postcard looks like.

The only thing missing is a handwritten message and I can do it in the post. I also have created my own envelope; maybe I’ll explain next time how I created my envelope.

I have something special for you guys this week! Everyone visiting my blog gets a free gift. You can download your full of spunk quick pages from this link: Sorry, link has expired. Check out my newest post for new freebies. . You have the time till Tuesday to download your free gift. Have fun creating your layouts with them!!!

I’m going to polish my nails now.

Till next week,
XOXO

Tutorial 3: How to place extra pictures and Word Art on your designer templates and how to export your layouts to a JPEG file

Hey everyone!
How are u guys doing? I’m doing pretty good.

I’m going to start with my third tutorial in My Memories Suite V3. So you have to open your album that you had saved previously to follow along. I’m going to highlight the important steps. So if you find my posts too long just follow the highlights along with the pictures, cause this software really is as easy as walking.;)

So my album has opened.

We are going to work on the second page. So click on the thumbnail of the second page on the bar at the bottom. I am going to zoom this page out to 50%, so you can see the whole page.

There are no photo boxes to be seen on this layout, but I want to add a picture. What I am going to do is, I am going to click on Photos from the ‘Control Panel’. You can also click on the ‘Photos’ tab from your ‘Resource Gallery’ if you wish, this way you will have a better view of your pictures. So now your have two options: ‘Add’ and ‘Box’. When you add your photo with the ‘Add’ option you won’t have an option to replace your picture with another picture when you want to reuse your created layout. I am going to pick the option Box. When you want to replace your picture with another picture just right click and choose for the option delete; your picture will be deleted, but the picture box will still be there, so you can easily add another picture in the same box format. When you’ve clicked on ‘Box’ you will get a grey box with a lady on it saying ‘YOUR PHOTO HERE’.

Double click on the box and insert your picture the way I had explained in the first MMS tutorial. So now I have my picture inserted in my picture box, but it’s cropped.

I am going to change the crop area by double clicking on the picture.

Just push or pull the arrow corner and move and position the bright area the way you want.

Click on OK when you’re done. This is what I got.

I’m going to hide my ‘Resource Gallery’ so you can get a better view. So I’m going to stretch my picture out a little bit, I’m going to move it where I want it to be and then I’m going to give it a mat by clicking on ‘Mat’. You will get a Mat Properties Window. From here you can choose your Mat Size and Color. You can also decide weather you want to choose this mat for this page or for the whole album if you are going to place more pictures.

I am going to choose for Size 2 and I’m going to click on Change Color.  You will now get a Mat Color window. Click on the Picker tab. With the Picker you can choose a color from your page. I’m going to hover over the text HOLIDAY and click on the black color. Then click on OK and then again on OK.

You now have a mat for your picture. I am going to make the picture a little bit smaller, cause it’s on the line and then I’m going to move it a little bit.

I don’t have a personal printer so I am going to use my dad’s laptop and printer to print this out in Microsoft Word. So I am going to make my trim area inactive, cause I am not going to print it from the My Memories Suite software this time. But when you guys are going to print it out from your pc or mac, leave the trim area as it is and don’t place text and embellishments that you want to be shown on this area. I am going to zoom out my page, so you can read what’s written on the right. You can add your text here, but I am going to add an embellishment and Word Arts here, so I’m going to remove this text area completely. If you guys want to add journaling, a poem etc. you can also do that.

So I’m going to select the text area, then right click to delete. I am going to add some embellishments. You guys can also do that and pick any embellishment you like and add them the way I had explained in my previous tutorial. I am going to pick embellishments from a ‘Gift for You’ which I also had used in my previous tutorial. I am also going to pick the Word Art embellishment from this pack. Here I have them!

So I’m now going to add a Word Art. Click on Word Art Designer and then click on Add. You will get a ‘Word Art’ area on your page. Enter your text in the white box where there’s written Enter Word Art text below. You can change your Font, Size, Line Spacing, Style, Opacity, Color etc. if you like. Move your Word Art to the right place and you can stretch it in or out if you wish. You can’t place two fonts in one Word Art box, so you have to add another Word Art for this. I’ve chosen the Fonts Lucida Calligraphy and Tahoma one by one for my Word Arts and I’ve clicked on the Bold tab, to make the text normal. The fill is Gradient, so I’ve changed my fill into a Solid Fill and picked a matching color with the Picker. I’ve right clicked on the text & A HAPPY 2012!!! and chose for the option Bring to Front, to get the other Word Art below. This is what I got.

One final thing I have to do with my layout; I am going to bring the embellishment that’s behind the cat to the front. Click on the embellishment and choose for the option Bring to Front.

Now you can print your layout or you can make a JPEG File from your layout and place it on Facebook or mail it to your friends etc. I’ll show you how to export your layout to a JPEG file. Click on Share Album from your Control Panel, then choose for the option Export Pages.

You will get ‘Do you want to save your changes to this album?’; Click on ‘Yes’, cause I hadn’t saved the changes of my album yet. You will get a ‘Photo Export Wizard’ window.

Now click on the Change Pages tab. I want to export my second page only so I’m going to click on the Clear All tab and then I’m going to select the second page. If your want to export your 1^st page as well, you can select both pages and then I am going to click on OK. When you’re back at your ‘Photo Export Wizard’ window, click on Finish.

So now your file has been exported to a JPEG image type. My output location is on my C drive in ‘My Documents’, so that is where I will find my exported file. When it’s exported, you will get a message that your album pages have been successfully written. Klik on ‘OK’.

This is my JPEG image.

I haven’t taken pictures of my postcard yet, so I am going to show you my postcard in my next post. Today I’m sharing a layout with you guys that I had created previous week with the giveaway pack that no one wanted.:) The bird, flowers and vail are embellishments from the ‘Cherished Wedding Pack’, which you can find at http://www.mymemories.com/ for $6.99.

So see you guys next week!
Sharda