MyMemories V4 is HERE!

What's New in MyMemories Suite?

Already rated as the #1 scrapbook software, MyMemories Suite v4 delivers more new features and content.

• Export to SVG to use with your Electronic Die Cutter
• More Custom Canvas Sizes
• New Paint Tool
• Improved Printing from Home
• Global Search and Add
• Photo Recolor Options
• Change Shape Option
• Photo Tiling
• Rip Photo Edge
• In Software Customized Artwork Organization
• Mirror and Flip Groups
• Mirror and Flip Backgrounds
• Enhanced Text Features
  • tracking
  • text inside shapes
  • text mirroring
  • top, middle and bottom justification
• Enhanced Word Art Features
• 15 New Designer Templates
  • 210 Backgrounds
  • 753 Embellishments
  • 587 Monograms

Click here to order and be sure to use the special code:  STMMMS70891 at checkout to receive $10 off the software. You'll also receive a $10 certificate to use in the MyMemories Design Shop!

Happy Digi-Scrappin'!

Homemade Gifts for Giving

It's that time again...thinking of special gifts to give during the holidays. Here's a home made goodie that will be loved by one and all!  Easy to make, looks beautiful in a jar, and just imagine the cute tag you can make using MyMemories Suite!

Doesn't it look divine?  Just four ingredients, too.  That makes it even more divine!  Would you like the recipe?  Click here. While you're at Marathon Mom's site, check out all the other great ideas and recipes there, too.  It all looks fabulous!

http://themarathonmom.com/brown-sugar-vanilla-body-scrub.htm

Funny Memories

They happen to us A LOT.  At any given moment of any given day.  When they happen to me, I swear that it was so darn funny I'll never forget it.  But the next day or week comes along and guess what?  This crazy, busy, working 3 jobs, mother of an extremely active pre-teen and teenager who are involved in sports, after school activities, faith formation classes and hanging with friends and the MOMMY taxi for it all can't even remember what day it is at times let alone what happened yesterday or last week!

My mission?  Write it down (and throw in a current picture of the child who said it!) so that days, weeks, years and even decades from now, we can look back upon these fun days and laugh together.  My dear cousin, Karen, just shared one of the funniest stories I've heard in a long time that she said I could share here with you:

I just finished tucking in Laurel and Charli, and Laurel says "Mom, I'm sorry I told you earlier today those jeans made your butt look bad while we were shopping. I thought it was the jeans. I didn't really know your legs were shaped that way." Silence. The bed is shaking. Then, "Mom, are you crying? Or are you laughing?"

Laughing. Laughing my funny looking butt off! Thanks for the apology, Laurel!

(Karen, you are awesome for sharing this!  Thank you!)

Now who hasn't heard the honest (I say this word facetiously), funny truth from your children? I hear it almost every day but I fail to write it all down.  SO!  I told you my mission:  I'm going to write these funnies down, put them in a book with my photographs and make an album out of them when I have enough (which quite honestly shouldn't take too long with my kids!). What do you plan to do with all the funny things you hear?

Cookie Dough for Giving

It's not too early to start thinking about gift giving! Sometimes the greatest gifts come from the heart.  It isn't how much money is spent but the thought that goes into that gift.  Do you have neighbors that you'd like to do something special for over the holidays?  Don't forget about all the gifts you can make at home yourself.  Here's such a great idea I found on Pinterest.  Don't bake batches and batches of cookies to give during the same time others are baking, too.  Make that cookie dough and give THAT!  If the recipient doesn't want to use it right away, it can be put in the freezer for use a few weeks later.  What a lovely idea.  And coming from this gal in cold, wintery Michigan, I wouldn't mind cranking up the oven in freezing January to warm the house with delicious smells wafting through the rooms!

Don't forget to use MyMemories Suite to make the cutest labels and tags for all these gifts!  You can print them yourself, cut and place on the packages.  Keep checking our blog for homemade gift ideas all throughout this holiday season because we'll be grabbing them and sharing them here!

Check out this one here for the cookie dough gifts from  Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  Love it!  You'll find recipes for all different kinds of cookies, step-by-step directions for creating cookie dough tins, helpful hints and even a link for a free St. Nicholas font!  Enjoy!

What is "Bleed"?

When I was looking for a preferred printer for The Memory Boutique, Mary and I spent countless hours searching, calling, asking questions, demanding answers and spending a LOT of money getting samples of our album pages printed. I even travelled to Salt Lake City to visit some! What did we find?  First, we were highly disappointed with the quality (or lack there of!) that we received from a LOT of the printers out there.  Second, so many of them wouldn't even honestly tell us the machines they used to print the pages on!  Shockingly, we found out from a Xerox rep that many of these companies simply purchase a copy machine to run your pages through.  Third, you don't need to spend super amounts of money to get your pages printed correctly and that are of great quality.  We found the printer that does just that and so much more, which is why (click on this link to create a free account at The Memory Boutique where you can order prints and safely store your images for free!) Persnickety Prints is our preferred printer that we order all of our photo paper pages from.  Why?  Because they are professional, honest, genuine, thorough and precise, or "persnickety".  We love them!

So to answer the question we've received so many times, "What is bleed?" I'm pleased to  share with you what our printing partners over at Persnickety Prints shared about the printing process from start to finish as well as a link (found below this explanation) showing pictures of "bleed":

True Photographic Prints: A real photograph is exposed with light on light sensitive paper. That's right - light. Photons. Some of the smallest particles in the universe.This "light" is formed by Light contained in a Laser light or LED head that "floats" over a light sensitive paper on a bed of warm air. The light exposure excites chemicals on the photographic paper by spraying tiny diamond-shaped patterns on the emulsion. It is this concentration of diamonds created from tiny photons that gives a photograph its unique look, color and depth. Ink doesn't come close. The rest is just science. After "exciting" the chemicals in the paper's emulsion, the paper moves through a warm RA4 chemical bath which activates and seals your colors. Because the light exposure head floats over the paper there is no machine vibration to degrade the image. Real Photographs still involve chemicals and light sensitive papers so, believe it or not, our lab technicians still go into a darkroom to load the paper we use to print your layouts. Not only that, but every time we change a roll of paper we recalibrate our machine so the colors in a photograph today will match the colors in a photograph sent a year from today. BLEED: For photographic prints (as stated above): machines allow for a slight difference in print sizes and alignments by overlayingyour image over the paper to avoid having a white border. The problem with this is you can lose a good portion of the edge of your layouts. If your layout has a thin border, it can appear uneven or completely gone on one or more side. Our goal, at Persnickety, is to print your image centered evenly with as little overlay as possible. You can be confident that your image will appear as expected as our trim is kept tightly at less than 1/16 of an inch.

Click here for Persnickety's excellent explanation of "bleed".

When you schedule a MyMemories digital scrapbooking session with us, one of the first recommendations we make is for you to get into the habit of automatically turning on the guides each and every time you create pages to make sure all of your page (the important goodies like the images and text) will be printed.  The program does too, with this reminder the first time you use it:

How do you turn on the guides?  On the top menu bar, select "View", "Guides" and select the appropriate "trim area" or "crop size" for your project.  You'll see the shaded guides pop right on!

Now that you know what "bleed" is, you'll understand why those wonderful guides are so important.  Happy scrapping!