Wednesday, September 21, 2011

A Giveaway!

Well, hush my mouth!  I've been given the opportunity to host a Blog Giveaway.

What do I have to give away?  A digital copy of My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking software from www.mymemories.com.  This is a $40.00 value, and you can have it for free (my favorite price -- especially if it doesn't add to clutter).

What do you have to do?  Simply leave a comment here on this post and in two weeks I'll use a random number generator to draw the winner.  Visit www.mymemories.com, look around and share here what you might create with this software, or your favorite paper pack or layout.

Now, in full disclosure My Memories gave me my own copy of My Memories Suite for my own personal use, and I have spent the past week messing around with it and playing with it.  I would also get a portion from any sales using the coupon code I provide at the end of this post.  You don't have to enter the giveaway or do anything special to use the coupon code.  Just copy and paste it when you place your order.

I had an issue downloading the software to my new Mac Pro, but their tech support responded immediately and told me what I needed to do (duh -- who knew I needed a computer password -- I am so low low tech -- it was totally my problem, not any problem with the software) and got me up and going in no time.

Anyone that knows me knows: 1.  I'm not much of a photo person; 2. I am low tech, tech averse, and pretty computer illiterate (I can do word processing, I can do email -- usually, and I can do this blog -- usually); and 3.  I've never been into scrapbooking, especially cutesy style scrapbooking (no offense to those that like that) -- perhaps related to my singular lack of photo-taking through the years, causing a lack of photos to use in said scrapbooking -- and that doesn't even get into the issue of all that tedious sorting and cropping and tricking out of pages.  But, who doesn't like a finished memory book or photo album?

This digital scrapbooking software gets around all of that -- I was able to put together a nice page of a couple of contrasting photos of my pond (what?  you think I should do photos of my kids?), with a stone textured background page, and some fancy text using the templates and materials included in the software and it took me maybe 15 minutes (most of which was looking around and trying different things -- once you know where things are you can whiz through production).  The software seamlessly interacted with my photos in iPhoto, and one can do cropping, effects, and manipulations within My Memories Suite.  Now, I know this is nothing for a real "scrapper", but -- remember, this is me -- the non-scrapper.

One interesting feature is the ability to import backgrounds and elements from wherever into the program, so you are not limited only to what MyMemories produces or sells (the company has a lot of free stuff at their site, and also backgrounds and elements that they sell).  I suspect (though I don't know for sure) that one could scan in one's own art and incorporate that.

Another feature is the ability to take the finished page (or pages of an album) and share them -- by email, or to a disc, print them out oneself, or have them professionally printed.  The software includes the ability to add music and video components, to create a multi-media interactive "book".  Here's the page I did.  It was a cinch to export the page from the My Memories Suite program as a jpeg to my computer, and then upload it here.


I really don't know how this compares to other digital scrapbooking programs, but it sure seems to do a lot, seems to do it well, and (most importantly) I could make it work without having to watch tutorials or buying a "for Dummies" book.

How would I use this?  I can see using it to produce special interest "albums" or books for me or my family:  a year in my garden; a homeschooling yearbook; a family cookbook; a heritage book containing birth certificates, immigration documents and old photos scanned in.  With this software I can almost see it happening . . . .

So, to recap:  Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of My Memories.  If you "follow" you'll get another chance (be sure to tell me so I don't miss it), and the good folks at My Memories say if you "like" their Facebook page you should have another chance (tell me this, too) and in the meantime here is a coupon code good for $10.00 off the purchase of My Memories Suite v.2 Digital Scrapbooking Software, and a $10.00 coupon for My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Store : STMMMS96861 .

The giveaway will close midnight October 1 central time, and I'll announce the winner on October 2.

1 comment:

Michelle713 said...

When we get a chance to visit, iRL, we don't often have time to talk about all the great stuff you add to your blog. Thank you for sharing this part of your life.