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

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