MyMemoriesSuite Giveaway

*Update - thanks for entering, I picked a winner already but I'm glad you came to check out the giveaway*

Guys, the craziest thing happened.  Someone contacted me and wanted to do a sponsored giveaway.
It's a company called MyMemoriesSuite and they're all about digital scrapbooking.  Here's the downside though, I've never been into digital scrapbooking and I just couldn't see myself doing this program justice.  I didn't want to turn down such a fun opportunity though and it didn't take me very long to think of my friend JaCobi who happens to love digital scrapbooking.  I asked her if she was interested in guest posting and she immediately said yes.

MyMemoriesSuite provided me with a copy of their software which I passed on to JaCobi for her to play with.  So without further ado, here's JaCobi and her review (make sure you read to the very bottom where there's a treat for you).

Hi there!!  I'm JaCobi and I blog over at Changed For Good.  I'm super excited to be visiting here at Laura Thoughts today and sharing my digital craftyness with you! As some of you may know, I've been into digital scrapbooking for a few years now.  I started by downloading the GIMP (an image manipulation software) and then teaching myself how to use it to scrapbook.  This was not an easy task, as this software is not very user friendly.  But I learned to do what I needed to and have made a ton of scrapbook pages and some other crafty stuff with it. But, recently I got a new digital scrapbooking software!  I was so excited to get MyMemorySuite and to try it out!  The first thing I noticed is how user friendly it is!  It has a convenient side bar menu that makes it quick and easy to add or change anything to your page, whether you want a background paper, a photo, embellishments, or text!

The next thing I noticed is that although there are papers and embellishments that come with the software,  I can still use all of the kits and embellishments that I already have!  This is a great feature, because I have been collecting papers and kits and stuff for years and would not be happy if I couldn't use it still.  But I can!  I can find all of my files and add them through the Resource Gallery menu on the left.  All I have to do is look through my files, then just drag and drop elements onto my page.  As easy as that!

Another thing that I love about MyMemorySuite is all of the ways to share a project.

• You can print at home or export to JPEG, which I usually do to post my projects on my blog or facebook, or to have them printed at Costco or Walmart.  
• There is a Professional Printing option.  You can upload your album right from the program to the MyMemory website to have it printed and bound as a book or calendar.
• And then there are the Multimedia Output options.  You can save your album as an Interactive Album, Movie, I-Pod Ready or DVD-Video files. 

I guess I need to explain some of the other cool features before I explain the multimedia output options.  MyMemorySuite allows you to add music or narration to your album.  So maybe there is a story that goes along with your pictures, but it needs to be heard, and not just read.  Now you can actually narrate your album, telling the story how you want it! You can also add video or audio clips, files, website links and links to another page of your album.  If you share the album as an interactive album on a CD then your audience can actually click your hotspots to play videos, or open websites or files.  I love that this scrapbooking software is not limiting, but allows me to do even more than I thought possible with my photo albums! I used these great features to make a Wedding Album.  I was able to add one of our songs as background music and then I added video clips from our reception program.  With all of the video, the album is too big a file to post online and keep the quality, so I ended up cutting out the video so you could just see the wedding album.  I also realized that no one else probably wanted to see our wedding reception program anyway!  So here's just the Wedding Photo Album, set to our wedding song, JALS by Colors.

Some of the other features I love:

• you can just drag and drop photos into photo boxes
• you can rotate text or set it around a circle or square
• you can quickly and easily add a mat or shadow to any photo or element

A couple things that I haven't figured out how to do yet (or maybe I can't do them at all) with MyMemorySuite:

• change the color of any element
• use page templates from other sources (the program has it's own, but I can't figure out how to use ones that I already have)
• how to change the size of the grid to help line things up more precisely

But the features definitely outweigh the limitations for me!  

Now check out some of the other projects I have made with MyMemorySuite digital scrapbooking software:

I made this page completely from scratch

Created with a kit by Connie Prince

Here's my new To Do list!  Check out this post to see other To Do lists that I've made

Created with a kit by Captivated Visions

Here's an album that I made using a pre-made pages that came with the software.  All I did was add pictures and titles

I hope you all have as much fun as I did playing with MyMemorySuite!  I'm so glad I could come visit LauraThoughts and all of you, her awesome followers!  Thanks for letting me come on by!

Thanks JaCobi, now the fun part for you.  Not only did My Memories Suite give JaCobi a copy of their software but they want to give one to a lucky reader.  All you need to do to enter the giveaway is visit MyMemoriesSuite website and then leave me a comment telling me about your favourite product.  Whether it be a scrapbook kit, a template or a theme, doesn't matter just tell me something you love.  I'll give you a second entry if you go to JaCobi's site and tell her how awesome she is (you'll need to comment here telling me you've done so).  I'll run the giveaway for a week and then pick a random winner.

Because they're so awesome they've also given me a discount code to pass on to you.  This code will get you $10 of the price of the software ($40) or $10 to the store.  Just copy this code, STMMMS87059, and paste it at checkout.