Scrapbooking with We R Memorykeepers Frame Punch Board

Last week, I picked up the We R Memory Keepers Frame Punch Board.  I'm not sure what made me do it, maybe the fact that it was on sale. As I waited for it to arrive, I was wondering if it was going to end up in my growing pile of cool but unused tools.

Today, I decided to get it out and make something with it and I have to say, I really like it. It is quite easy to use. I lost the instructions right off the bat, but that wasn't a problem. I found a video on Scrapbook.com that told me all I needed to know to get started.

Once I had the mechanics down, I reached for one of my many boxes of photos that are in need of a scrapbook home.  I chose one of my niece that I took way back in 1979.  The photo isn't that great because the camera wasn't either (it was a 110 instamatic) but it's all I have from that era.  Since these photos are so small, I decided to scrap them on 4 x 6 bases. That way, I can just slip them into a 4x6 sleeve. This is also a great size to work with if you're intimidated by a 12 x 12 page.


First, I cropped the photo to a more appropriate size (3" x 3/3/4"), then I cut the same size rectangle from pink paper.  I rounded the corners, then set the guides to 1/4" for a narrow border, punched and trimmed and presto!  A perfectly sized frame.  I used the paper that I cut from the middle of the frame for journaling and, do you see those cute arrows at the bottom?  Those are the punch outs from another frame I made earlier.  I couldn't just throw them out, could I?  They're perfect!  To finish it off, I added a flower and a tag.

This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, I may be paid a small commission if you purchase items using these links - see my disclosure for details.

Stormy Seas

I love the Pacific coast and spend quite a bit of time there.  Here is another digital layout from my January 2018 trip.

The layout is fairly simple. I used diagonal mats to create continuity. I liked the look of the rusty prongs from the Oceanside pack so I added them to the first photo.  The sandy border was just what I needed for beach photos so I extended it across both pages. For a fun look, I added a sand splat to the upper right corner of the first page.

I flipped the layout for the second page and added some netting and a bird to the large photo. The sea grass and driftwood anchor the bottom left photo to the page.

Project Supply List:

• Papers - Day at the Beach (CMD)
• Sandy border, sand splat, rusted prongs, driftwood, tags and net - Oceanside Pack
• Wave border - Summer Doodles (MMDCS)
• Birds, grass and shells - Walking By the Sea (Sekada)

If you'd like to try My Memories, you can download a free trial here: http://mymemories.com/mms/my_memories_suite.  If you decide to buy it, be sure to use my coupon code: STMMMS97442 to get $10 off (coupon cannot be used in combination with other discounts). You will receive a discount and at no additional cost to you, I will receive a commission.

South Slough Estuarine Research Reserve

A digital scrapbooking layout? What's going on here?

Well, I have thousands of photos on my comptuer that are just begging to be scrapbooked.  One of my goals this year is to actually FINISH a scrapbook including having it printed. Toward that end, I've decided to consolidate my scrapbooking blog with my card making blog.  Going forward you will find a fusion of both digital and physical creations. I have a passion for both card making and photography and this just made sense.

First, here's a little information about the pictures in this layout...

If you head South out of North Bend on the Cape Arago Highway, you'll eventually come across Seven Devils Road which will lead you to the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.  It's right in the middle of some pretty rugged terrain, but the road leading to it is good.  You can't see much from the parking lot so you'll want to bring a good pair of walking shoes and maybe even a walking stick.  The trails are well maintained but some are a little steep.  The views make the drive and the hike well worth it.

Here are a couple pages I made in My Memories Suite using the pictures I took last January.

Picking a color palette to accent my photos is always a challenge.  I try to keep my choices to just 1 or 2 digital paper packs, but I'm not always successful.  For this two page spread I chose papers from Fireflies (MMDCS) and Day At the Beach (CMD).

For the blue and orange layers, I added photo boxes first and sized them to the dimensions I wanted. After that I added the background papers as photos and dropped them into the photo boxes.  It's always best to do any resizing before dropping the papers or photos into your photo boxes or you may end up with distorted images.

One of the things I love about digital scrapbooking is having so much control over image sizes and zoom levels.  The bridge on the above page was actually from a landscape photo. Since there was no more room on the page for a landscape shot, I dropped the photo into a portrait oriented photo box and zoomed in on just the bridge.

I don't often use a lot of embellishments on my pages, just a little here and there to accent the photos or page topic.  The embellishments for this spread came from several different kits from My Memories as follows:

• Tags - Bella Grace Add On Kit (jjscrap)
• Washi Tape - Beach Romance (kapi)
• Stitches - Day at the Beach (CMD)
• Frame, green and red leaves - Autumn Garden (CatDes)
• Bow - Turtle Cove (MMDCS)
• Fir sprig - A Little Birdie Told Me (DBMarci)
• Star Confetti - Fireflies(MMDCS)

If you'd like to try My Memories, you can download a free trial here: http://mymemories.com/mms/my_memories_suite.  If you decide to buy it, be sure to use my coupon code: STMMMS97442 to get $10 off (coupon cannot be used in combination with other discounts). You will receive a discount and at no additional cost to you, I will receive a commission.

Chipmunk Cheeks

I created this layout using this week’s freebie from Touched By A Butterfly.

This kit will only be available for free until December 15, 2013 so be sure to grab it while it’s free.

Vintage Photo Frame

I made the frame for this picture in just a few minutes using the Old Secret designer pack by ButterflyDsign.  The little girl in the picture is my grandma Ila.  She was an incredible lady.

The Old Secret designer pack is free until November 3, 2013, so be sure to grab it while you can.  If you like vintage, be sure to check out the other designer packs from ButterflyDsign as well.

Pretty Painted Piggies

Here’s a layout I created in MyMemories Suite 4 using pictures of my sweet little granddaughter and the new Serendipity digital paper pack from Hot Off The Press. 

Isn’t she adorable?

I used the basic circle and scalloped circle shapes for the flowers and I used the photo shape tool to make round photos for the flower centers.   The font for the title is called Robot Teacher and the font for the journaling is CK Carefree from Creating Keepsakes.  Everything else except for the ribbons is from the Serendipity digital paper pack.

Attaching Text to a Shape in MyMemories Suite 4

The May challenge over at the MyMemories forum was to use the Attach to Shape feature on a layout.  I was almost too late to join in the fun, but I managed to find some time yesterday afternoon and put this page together:

I attached the journaling to a tree shape from the Treedle Dee svg collection from Lettering Delights.  The combo pack I used for the papers and embellishments is Outdoor Adventure by Albums2Remember.

After I posted the layout, someone asked a question about attaching text to shapes, so I wrote up this quick tutorial.  Of course, I wrote it in MyMemories Suite 4!

If you’d like to purchase MyMemories Suite 4, be sure to use coupon code STMMMS97442 to receive $10 off the purchase price plus a $10 gift certificate to use in the My Memories online store.

Another Page Done!

I was late joining in on the fun, but I did manage to win a $10 gift certificate for any of the packages by Jusme Digital, so of course, I had to spend it today while things were on sale.  I made this page with the Whenever You Remember kit.

The page layout is from another Speed Scrap challenge on the My Memories forum.

Cute as a Button

As a beginning digital scrapper, I find things like the speed scrap challenges very helpful.  I’m far from speedy, but having a recipe for a page is very useful.  Since yesterday was National Scrapbooking day, there were plenty of challenges to choose from.  I chose this one from the MyMemories forum, and here’s what I came up with.

The papers and embellishments all came stock with MyMemories Suite. The font for the page title is Accent Dot Writer.

Making Photo and Page Masks For My Memories

Today, I learned how to make masks to use in My Memories Suite.  It all started with a post on the Facebook group.  One of the members posted a page that had been created in another program using a page mask and wanted to know if she could do the same thing in My Memories and apply paper from a specific kit to the mask. I had been playing with creating .svg files to use in MM so, I thought I’d see if I could make a mask as well.

So, I broke out the crayons and scribbled a quick frame on a piece of white paper.

Then I scanned it and imported it into Make the Cut using the pixel trace tool.  I had to fiddle with the settings quite a bit, but I finally settled on using the luminescence setting with a threshold of about 225.  I then exported the mask as a .svg file and saved it into: C:\Program Files\My Memories Suite\Components\Shapes\Users.

I opened a new page in My Memories 4, added a photo, then used the shape tool to add the .svg mask over the top of the photo.  I filled the shape with blue paper and here’s the result:

Papers for this page and the next page are from My Kid bundle.

Next, I got to thinking about layering multiple masks, so I ran the frame through make the cut again, this time setting the threshold to about 190 (I can’t remember the exact number) and the resulting frame had a lot more transparency.  I layered that over the first frame, filled it in with a darker paper and ended up with this:

If you’re going to try a frame this complex, be aware that it takes a LOT of memory and your system will bog down.  So far, the only way I’ve been able to free up the memory again is to exit My Memories and start it back up.

Next, I thought I would try torn paper, so I tore The middle out of a piece of scrap paper and ran it through MTC’s pixel trace utility. Here’s how it turned out:

And another:

And finally, I decided to make a complete page mask.  One thing that’s really nice about using .svg files in My Memories is that you can shrink or stretch them to fit any page or picture and as long as you do the resizing before you add the digital paper, there’s no stretching or skewing of the paper.  Here’s a rectangular page I made from my square page mask.

The papers and embellishments on this page are from the Spring Fling designer pack.

I did not have the memory problems with this page that I had with the layered masks, which confirms my theory that the more nodes and vectors (jagged edges and holes) you have in a frame, the more memory it’s going to take up when you use it.

If you don’t want to shell out the money for Make the Cut, I found a free online svg conversion tool here:  http://image.online-convert.com/convert-to-svg.  It’s not as flexible as Make the Cut, but hey, it’s free and it worked very well on the images I tested.

If you’re interested in purchasing a copy of My Memories Suite 4, be sure to use coupon code STMMMS97442 to receive $10 off the purchase price plus a $10 gift certificate to use in the My Memories online store.

Come Run With Me Beside The Sea…

Here’s another page I made with MM4.  This one is for this week’s challenge on the MyMemories blog.  The challenge is to use papers and embellishments from the Hello February Add-on which is a free download.

Cute couple, don’t you think?

MyMemories Suite 4: Ripped Photos Feature

One of the new features in MyMemories Suite 4 is the ability to simulate a torn edge on photos and digital papers.  It’s super easy to do and I love the look!    There’s a great Tutorial on the MyMemories blog describing how to tear photos and pages.  After watching it, I was able to put together page 2 of my beach trip album in no time at all.

If you would like a chance to win a FREE copy of MyMemories Suite 4, check out the Scrapbooking kits at MyMemories.com, then come back here and add a comment with a link to your favorite pack and include a sentence or two stating why you like that pack. Only one entry per person, please. Comments must be posted by Midnight PDT, March 31, 2013 to be eligible. I will announce the winner by the end of the day on April 1. The winner must be willing to provide me with their e-mail address so I can send them the code for the free download (do NOT include your e-mail address in your comment!).

MyMemories Suite 4 Right Out of the (Virtual) Box

Like a lot of people, I have hundreds, if not thousands of digital photos sitting on my hard drive and on CDs. I’ve often thought about doing something with them, but that was as far as I got. I know there are several Digital Scrapbooking programs available to choose from, but most don’t have all the features I want…

… until I found MyMemories Suite 4.  I first became interested in MyMemories Suite when I saw that it was listed as the number one digital scrapbooking program on Top 10 Reviews.  After taking a quick look at the feature list, I knew I wanted to try it out, so when Liz from MyMemories asked me if I would evaluate their software, I jumped at the chance.

First, let’s get the technical stuff out of the way.  Skip this paragraph if you don’t like geek-speak.  I installed MyMemories Suite 4 on an older computer (purchased in 2007) with a Windows Vista 32 bit operating system, an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor and 4gb of memory.  According to the software requirements, 2gb is the minimum, but you really need 4gb unless you like tearing your hair out in frustration because your system is running so slow. I know this because a couple years ago when I only had 2gb of memory, I installed MyMemories 3 and quickly gave up because my system would grind to a halt whenever I tried to run it. (Note: Up to and including Windows 7, the 32 bit versions of Windows operating systems max out at just under 4gb of memory, so if you already have that much, there’s no point adding more).  Happily, I have only experiencing minor slow downs running MyMemories Suite 4 with my current configuration and that’s with several other applications running at the same time.

Installation:

After downloading the 120mb install file, I was eager to get started.  I was a little bit annoyed that there was an additional 4gb (yes, that’s Gigabytes) that needed to be downloaded. That took about an hour and a half.  Fortunately, I had some grocery shopping to do this morning so I left while it was downloading.  After that, the installation continued without a hitch.

Running MyMemories Suite 4:

When you start MyMemories Suite you will be presented with four options: Create Album From Designer Template, Design Your Own, Browse More Content Online or Open an existing album.  I chose to create a new album using the Birthday Celebration template.  I left the page arrangement as-is and chose the pick-and-click method of filling the album.  After naming the album and clicking OK, it took several seconds for it to create all the pages.

The next step is to add photos, which is quite simple.  Just open the Photo tab on in the Resource Gallery on the left side of the MyMemories Suite screen and select a folder from your system.  From there, it’s an easy drag and drop into the photo boxes on the page. When you drop a photo into a box you have several easy options for zooming and placement. If you use a pre-made template, you can create and populate an album in minutes.  Here’s the first page from my granddaughter’s birthday album (isn’t  she cute?).

Of course, you can also create an album entirely from scratch.  After working with the designer templates, I decided to step out on my own.  I wanted to create an album of the beach trip I took with my daughter-in-law and granddaughters last Summer, so I went to the MyMemories website and searched for a beach-themed kit.  I found several and added them to my wish list and ultimately decided on the Oceanside Pack by Trixie Scraps Designs.

Creating my own page took considerably longer and I was slightly alarmed at first because I couldn’t find my newly purchased pack.  Suffice it to say, reading the user’s guide, as boring as that may sound, would have saved me a some time and frustration.  I highly recommend it!  To get a good understanding of how the elements in designer packs are categorized, open Help and read the following section: Using MyMemories Suite > Background Papers > Adding Background Papers > Purchased Backgrounds  (Yes, you can read the user guide online and check out all the features before purchasing the software – they also have a YouTube Channel with lots of tutorials).  After you see how the papers are categorized, you can apply that same principle to the other page elements.

Here’s the first page of my beach trip album.  I think it turned out pretty good for someone who is new to digital scrapbooking and has only done a little paper scrapbooking.

That’s it for today!

If you would like a chance to win a FREE copy of MyMemories Suite 4, check out the Scrapbooking kits at MyMemories.com, then come back here and add a comment to this post with a link to your favorite pack and include a sentence or two stating why you like that pack.  Only one entry per person, please.  Comments must be posted by Midnight PDT, March 31, 2013 to be eligible.  I will announce the winner by the end of the day on April 1.  The winner must be willing to provide me with their e-mail address so I can send them the code for the free download (do NOT include your e-mail address in your comment!).

Scrapping Keukenhof

I have two crafty resolutions this year.  One is to do more scrapbooking (I have boxes and boxes of photos) and the other is to use more of the supplies I get in my monthly shopper and VIP kits from Paper Wishes. 

To get things started, I pulled out some pictures I took while visiting Keukenhof several years ago.  I thought they would go well with the Pyramid Papers I got in my VIP package. 

I used the Boutique paper pack for both layouts. On the first layout, I wanted to mimic the lacy border from the pyramid decoupage, so I used the long lace border stamp from the Lace and Doilies stamp set and stamped it on brown paper using white ink.  I used Multi Shaper punch for the picture borders on the second page.  The top and bottom page borders are the trimmings from the picture borders.

Star Mini Photo Album

Now that Christmas is over, I finally have some time to record a tutorial for the albums I made this year.  These are so cute and really not that difficult to make.

 

They open up to form a star which can be hung as an ornament.

I think they would be a great first Christmas gift for a new baby or a newlywed couple.  Each year for 12 years, a new picture can be added.  They’re also great as a collection of photos from Christmases past (as I did) or a year in pictures (one for each month).

I made 18 of these little albums this year for my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews.

If you’d like to make one, here’s a tutorial.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Materials list:

• 12 photos sized no larger than 1.75” x 1.75”
• 18” ribbon (anywhere from one half to one inch wide)
• White glue
• Glue stick
• Scoring board
• Plain scrapbook paper
• Three coordinating sheets of scrapbook paper (I used Winter Flannels from Hot Off The Press)
• Distress ink
• Paper board (I used a cereal box)

Cover:

• Cut  a 4 1/8” x 7 1/2” rectangle from the plain scrapbook paper.
  Score lengthwise at 1/2” and 3 5/8”.
  Score crosswise at 1/2”, 3 5/8”, 3 7/8” and 7”.
• Cut two 3 1/8” squares from paper board (the second largest Nestabilities square die works perfectly for this)
  

Pages:

• Cut three 3” x 12” strips and one 9” x 12” strip from the first color. Score every 3 inches.
• Cut two 2.5” x 12” strips and one 2.5” x 10” strip from the second color.  Score every 2.5 inches.
• Cut two 2” x 12” strips and one 2” x 4” strip from the third color.  Score every 2 inches.

More 4 x 6 Scrapbook Pages

Since I've been having such a hard time coming up with ideas for cards lately, I decided to pull out my scrapbooking stuff instead (which means, pretty much the same stuff I had out already, just add pictures!).  I still have a ton of pictures to rescue from my old "magnetic" albums.  The stack I'm working on now is from Christmas 1978.  Yeah, I have a LONG way to go!!!

Here's today's layout:

Nothing fancy.  The papers are from the DCWV Metallic Stack and Christmas stack.  I managed to snag both stacks for less than half price at JoAnn's.  I cut the pictures out using my Coluzzle nested rectangle and nested square templates.

The composition of the photos themselves could definitely be better.  I was 14 when I took them and I was using a 110 camera.

Wordle It!

For those of you who scrapbook, Wordle ( http://www.wordle.com ) is a very cool site for creating word clouds you can use on album pages.  Write a paragraph or two about the pictures on your page, paste what you've written into wordle and see what comes out.  I pasted in my entire final reflective essay from my college writing class.  Here's what it generated:

 

The more often a word is used, the larger it prints.

Here's one I made for my youngest son:

Wordle provides a variety of fonts, layouts and colors.  You can even create a custom color palette to match your page.

A Sunny Afternoon at the Park

I have been collecting cilp art from PCCrafter for about three years now with the intent to use it in something some day.  Every once in a while I will make a card with it, but mostly I just look at it, which is fun but it doesn't seem particularly practical to me.

This week, however, I decided to DO something.  Last Sunday afternoon my youngest son and I took my granddaughter, Allie to the park near our house.  This of course, provided "Oma" (that's me) with the perfect opportunity to take pictures. 

Of course, pictures MUST be scrap booked, so I put together these two pages.  They will go in an "Allie" album I am making in Picaboo (You can download Picaboo for free from www.picaboo.com).  I made a Picaboo Christmas album at the beginning of the year and was really pleased with the way it turned out so I decided to start working on one for Allie.  At the rate I'm going, I might have it done by the time she's 18! :)

Here is what I used...

The clip art collections I used for my background and graphics are all from PCCrafter.  The collection names are as follows:

• Debbie Mumm's Everyday Angels (cloud and side bar)
• Debbie Mumm's Green Garden (backgrounds and border)
• Friends Forever (butterflies and bunny)
• PC Autumn Harvest Font set (on side bars)
• LD Audrey font (journaling)

I used Printmaster Gold 18 to put the pages together.  I started to make my pages in Paint Shop Pro, but I quickly got frustrated with it because I haven't had time to learn to use it.  Printmaster was much easier!

Another Mini-Layout

This is a fun mini-layout I made of my Dad's 50th birthday.  It's for my 4 x 6 album.  The pages display two photos each, so I made both layouts with the same background paper.

Except for the number 50, The stamps I used for the page embellishments are from the dollar bin at Michael's. I stamped the images with red or blue pigment ink and then embossed them with clear embossing powder.

Starting Out Small

While I've been making cards for several years now, it's only been recently that I started scrapbooking.  Even though the skills and techniques are similar, the thought of filling a 12 x 12 page is pretty intimidating.  In addition to that, there are the albums themselves.  I have several albums with the acid free 4 x 6 photo sleeves and I just can't bear toss them.  I also have several years' worth of 3 x 5 photos that were taken with an old 110mm camera.  Enter the 4 x 6 scrapbook page!

This is a low stakes way for me to practice.  I don't have to worry about ruining a 12 x 12 layout and the photos aren't that great in the first place, so I won't be horribly distraught if I ruin a few.  Here are a couple of pages I put together using Christmas pictures from 1978.

OK. I'll admit, I could have used a different pattern for the background, but other than that, I think they look allright.  I used clip art from PCCrafter's Good Tidings collection and the font is PC Christmas Train, also from PCCrafter.