My Memories Suite Review and Giveaway

I remember when all my friends started getting into the scrapbooking craze. I was recently married and working full-time. I loved seeing their creations, but I feared that once I started, I would never get a photo into an album again. I also didn’t like having to buy so much to get started, not to mention the amount of space necessary to store all the materials. So even though scrapbooking appealed to me in some ways, I avoided ever starting the hobby.

Several years ago I started hearing about digital scrapbooking. I have pretty decent computer skills so I was intrigued. I tried using some generic print software to make scrapbook pages, but was never very successful making anything that I thought looked good. Part of the problem was that the generic program didn’t have all the elements of a “real” scrapbook. Plus using a generic program requires more skill and talent in designing than I possess.

I was recently given My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking software to review. Wow, what a difference! My Memories Suite comes with TONS of pre-loaded scrapbooking templates. It also has many different styles of paper, embellishments, word art, shapes, and much more included. You can make a scrapbook page in seconds (literally) if you choose a pre-made template and just add pictures. Or you can let your own creative juices flow, and design your own.

I found the software to be fairly straightforward and easy to use. It’s easy to insert elements and move them around. They only thing I’ve tried but haven’t figured out yet, is how to use the pictures from iPhoto. (I should mention that My Memories is available for both PC and Mac which is great since I’m a newly converted Mac user.)

Here’s my very first page.

I love the fact that you can sit down and work on your scrapbook without making a mess. Plus you don’t have to store all the scrapbooking supplies. They’re all there on the hard drive. With My Memories you can save and share your scrapbooks in a variety of ways. You can have your pages printed professionally, or you can print them yourself. You can share them on the web, burn them to a CD, or even put them on your iPod! You can even add hyperlinks, video, music, and narration to your albums! The possibilities are endless.

Which really is the only downside to My Memories Suite. There are so many options, it’s hard to decide. In addition to all the stuff that comes pre-loaded with the software, there are also great templates and pages available at www.MyMemories.com.

I mentioned my lack of design talent earlier (Please do keep that in mind and don’t judge the software by my very beginning results!). One of the things that I am finding helpful are the speed scraps. Every week, My Memories posts a speed scrap challenge on their Facebook page. They post very simple guidelines and step-by-step  instructions for making a quick page. These are very simple like:

1. Pick 2 types of paper. Make 1 a background.
2. Add 1 picture to your page.
3. Mat picture with second paper.
4. Add 4 embellishments.

I made that one up, but you get the idea. I find them really helpful because it keeps me moving along and not getting so overwhelmed with all the possibilities. Plus it really helps to see other people’s creations!

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