My Memories Scrapbooking Software Giveaway!

Giveaway Closed

I am excited to announce an amazing Giveaway today!!
(and an awesome discount at the bottom of this post!)

Update: I am extending this giveaway to end on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at midnight PST. Enter today!

Are any of you digital scrapbookers? Are any of you regular scrapbookers trying to make the switch to digital but don't know how? Or do you just have tons of pictures filling up your computer and you have no idea what to do with them? Well this giveaway is for you!

Have you heard of the My Memories Suite before? It is the top rated digital scrapbooking software and it makes scrapbooking so easy! I've been given one copy of the software to try out for myself and one copy to give away to a lucky reader! Before I give you the giveaway details, let me tell you about the software and show you what it can do.

When I first downloaded the software, I was worried that I was going to have to purchase kits from their store in order to make my scrapbooks. I already have tons of digital scrapbooking kits for my blog designs and would hate to have to buy them all over again. Luckily, I was wrong. It is very easy to use kits you already own to make your layouts.

I am currently working on a scrapbook of my son's first year. Here is page of his first haircut that I made in My Memories:

Excuse the blurry faces. I like to keep my baby's face private. :)
I used a kit from Katie Castillo at Just So Scrappy called "Boys Will Be Boys" to make this page. 

I didn't use a template but it was still fairly easy to place the pictures and images wherever I chose. The design I did above was simple as far as figuring out how to use the program, but it did take me some time to put all of the elements together. If you are interested in putting together "Quick Pages", My Memories makes it really easy. Here is an example of a quick page I made:

(Image removed)

To make a quick page in My Memories, I simply added the photos and placed them behind the quick page image. It was SO easy. The only downside to the Quick Pages is that they are not very customizable. The photos have to fit in the frames provided. You can't resize anything.

Fortunately, My Memories has another feature that does is easy and customizable. By purchasing Templates from the My Memories store, you can create pages quickly and then customize them by moving around photo frames, changing the size and shape of those frames, and much more. The video below gives a basic overview of My Memories and shows how these template pages can be customized.

Now, My Memories is a great digital scrapbooking software program, but do not expect it to be a powerful photo/graphics editing program. It is built for scrapbooking first and editing second. But for $39.97 USD (retail price), this software really can't be beat. It does have some good photo effects like Crop, Red Eye, Sepia, Black and White, Sharpen, Blur and several more. One feature I really like is how easy it is to cut photos into the shape of your choice with just the click of a button.

Once you create your scrapbook albums, it is fairly easy to get them printed. You can either print them through My Memories or you can save the images as jpg's and upload them to the site where you would like to get them printed.If you don't want to print your albums you can keep them digital and view them as slideshows on your blog, your ipod, your computer or wherever. You can even add multimedia such as music and videos to your albums and burn the album with the embedded media onto a DVD.

For any software, the biggest test for me is how versatile it is. Can you do more than just scrapbooks with this software? The answer is yes! This week I needed to make an invitation for a church activity. I was able to put together a simple invitation quickly by making a custom project. Here is the invitation I made:

This invitation was made using Just So Scrappy's kit "I Toadally Love You". 

Another project that I made with My Memories was a Calendar. There is a great calendar feature that places the dates for the month or year that you choose and allows you to customize it with your own photos or design elements. Here is my calendar for October:

This calendar was made using Just So Scrappy's kit "Toil and Trouble".

My final test for My Memories was whether or not I could create blog design elements in the program. I found that I could create backgrounds like the one below:

This background was made using Just So Scrappy's kit "Abby".

This background is made following instructions similar to my tutorial on How to Make Your Own Blog Background with the Minima Template. However, I was not able to make a background using my simplified instructions on How to Make Your Own Blog Background with the Blogger Simple Template. 

 Update: Since I posted this, I have tried to upload the background image above to a blog and have not had success. The header image below worked great, but I cannot guarantee that the other design elements will work when created in My Memories.

 I was unable to make the simplified backgrounds because the documents in My Memories have to be at least 200pixels wide x 500pixels high. I also had a hard time cropping the image precisely so that it would repeat the pattern smoothly on my blog.

 My Memories will not save images as transparent png files so the final images will have to be rectangular.  Using this software I was able to make a nice rectangular header shown below:

This header was made using Just So Scrappy's kit "Abby".
You can follow instructions similar to my tutorial on How to Make Your Own Header to make a header similar to this.

So what do you think? Is the My Memories Suite Software something that you could use to preserve your memories or to create your own miscellaneous designs? I think it's totally worth it! And one lucky reader will get a free copy of the software!

Here's how you can enter to win your own free copy:

You may comment once on this post for each of the items below. 

Each comment on this post is an entry for the giveaway.

1. Visit My Memories and find your favorite digital paper pack, layout or anything else you like. Then leave a comment on this post saying which kit, layout, etc. you found and what project you would make with it. 
2. Follow my blog and leave a comment on this post saying that you are a follower.
3. Follow the My Memories blog and leave a comment on this post saying that you are a follower.

This giveaway starts Tuesday, October 9, 2012 and ends Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at midnight PST. The winner will be chosen randomly using random.org and will be announced the following Wednesday, October 17, 2012.

Please be sure to check back to see if you won. If the winner does not respond within 24 hours, a new winner will be chosen.

This software is available worldwide. However, it is intended for English-language computers. Technical support is English-only.

And for anyone that is interested in purchasing the software, I have a discount for you!

If you purchase the My Memories Suite using the following discount code, you can receive a $10 discount on your software purchase (retail price is $39.97 USD before the discount). That means that for just under $30 USD, you can create beautiful digital scrapbooks and other digital designs!

In addition to this discount, you will receive a $10 coupon for the My Memories.com store, giving you a total savings of $20!

To use this discount, simply go to My Memories.com and enter the following discount code:

STMMMS20877