A Valentine Tutorial - BLOG Train

Here's my entry for the MMS Blog Train.  I'm the first stop on the train.  Collect a special word from each of our blogs and then send an email to  lisaj@mymemoriessuite.com when you've completed the train.  All entries are entered in a contest for a free copy of MMS version 2, 14 Designer Template kits or 1 of the current Quick Design Club CD's.

• Mary and Jackie's Blog
• Beth’s Blog
• Brooke Free
• Lisa’s Blog

Valentine’s day is quickly approaching and I am already planning my pages for February.  As I have recently posted, I am doing a top ten list for every month this year.  When I got my last Design Club CD I found a perfect template to start my month.  The kit is called “Cross Your Heart” and has super cute quilted papers with hearts all over then.  I want to show you a quick tutorial of how I made the page match my theme for the year,
Here is a picture of the page from the kit.

This is going to be the first page of the month, so I am going to modify the page a little.  First I am going to delete the “Cross my heart" wordart and replace it with my own word art, using the new Word Art Designer in MMS Version2. 
Here you can see that I have clicked on the Word Art Text box.  By default if added from the right hand tool bar MMS adds a box for the word art and it has a gradient color.  You can also choose word art from the left hand side toolbar.

I resized the Word Art box and added my text.

Next I am going to adjust the color of the text.  This option on the Word Art Designer is called Fill.   

To Change the color, I want to make sure the Enable Fill checkbox is checked.  This will active four options under type. You can fill it with a gradient color or color, as shown, a solid color, an image (or paper), or a texture.
The Stroke option shown allows you to trace the word art.  You can vary the width of your tracing and the color. 
Next is the Shadow option, which is similar to other shadow features on MMS. 
The last two options, not pictured, are the Beveling option, which give height or depth to your word art, and the Shape option.  Under the Shape option, you can choose to arc, shear or  wave your word art.  If you choose to arc it and it is long enough, it can form a circle. 
Just a side note, the text option on V2 also allows you to form shapes with your text.  It provides an outside circle, inside circle, outside square and inside square option.
I have completed my wordart and am going to add a tag to begin my numbering for February.  I click on the paper toolbar on the left hand side, click the Add as Shape object box, locate the paper I want and identify the shape I want for the tag.

I copy the shape three times, add my number to each box and add my pictures.  Here’s my finished product!

***MAKE*** something special today!
Sarah

Top Ten Things

I have decided to do a top ten list of activities for each month this year.  This should help make scrapping all the important events a little easier to scrap.  Here’s my beginnings…

Have you started something new for the year?  I’d love to hear your great ideas!!

Starting the New Year!

There are so many ideas on  the internet it can be overwhelming to decide on what you want to do with your new yaer.  Do you make resoloutions or not?  A budget or not?  Set goals?  Dream big or little?  Whew...so much to think about.

Well, after weeks of seeing and looking, thinking and praying I think I am ready to start my year.  One of the neatest ideas I have seen this year is to choose a word to define the year, rather than make resolutions.  I love this idea because it is both freeing and convicting.  Want to know my word?  Generosity - I want to become more generous in every aspect of my life this year.  I want to declutter and give all those things I don't need to someone who will use them.  I want to be more aware of the needs of others and give to them what I can.  I also want to be more generous in my prayer life.  I want to broaden my prayer life and speak to God more frequently and about every aspect of my life.  I like my choice of words for the year.

And then there's the issue of scrap booking.  I love scrap booking, but when I see challenges to do 365 day projects, my bloodpressure rises and the anxiety starts to build.  I can't take medication 365 days a year and I am supposed to, so I seriously doubt that doing a 365 day project will work for me.  The 52 weeks projects look a little more inviting, but today I saw a blog that recommended a top ten memories project and knew I had found the prefect one for me.  I CAN make a top ten list for every month of memories for that month.  Couple that with my goal to write more stories down and do a monthly round-up and I think that's all I can handle.

On a personal note we are trying the envelope budget - You can check it out here.  It is exciting to me---I love living on a budget.  My hubby pays the bills, which I also like, but I know when I am working with a budget I am really strict on myself.  This system kinda does all the grunt work for me.  It's perfect. 

So what are your plans for 2010?  Goals, expectations, ideas? 

Happy New Year!

Sarah