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

Making Christmas Calendar Covers

I have a confession to make – I like being recognized as the creative and crafty mom who takes time to make gifts, remember all the special people in my kids’ lives and go above and beyond expectations.

One of my goals when I was a little girl was to be a great mommy. You know the type—a great mommy brings homemade snacks in for the classroom, a great mommy makes cool things for all the friends in the classroom to take home, etc. We all know they type of mommy I’m talking about. I wish I were that great!

Here’s the reality – I have three kids, a full time job, a house to run and plenty of extra curricular activities that leave me with next to no time to be creative and crafty. I more often than not forget special occasions, snacks for school are almost always store bought and making gifts for people has always just been a pipe-dream. That was until I discovered My Memories Suite (MMS). In fact, this was the very reason my love affair with My Memories Suite started—It allowed me to do something creative and crafty things in almost no time at all. And now…it’s helping me make personalized gifts for everyone I know…Oh how I love MMS.

So what’s my newest project? I’m making Christmas gifts. I discovered pocket calendar covers, and I am making them for everyone I know. They are a breeze to make and they will get me the kudos that make me feel like a great mommy – a perfect combination;-) You design a snazzy cover for a pocket calendar that you can buy almost anywhere for $1-2, they type that have a plastic covering that you might carry around in your purse, and you place your cover on top of the original cover and sheath it under the plastic.

Here’s a quick tutorial.

First you will need to purchase your pocket calendar. Measure the width and length of the calendar when it is spread open and flat on your work surface. Next you will open MMS and create a photo box the size of the calendar you are working with.

You will need to select a background and add it as a photo to your page. Drag the photo created with your background into your sized photo box.

Add your embellishments and photos. Remember that this will be folded in half once you put it around the calendar, so be careful not to add too much embellishment to the center of your layout.

Print your calendar cover and cut it out. (I recommend printing a practice cover to make sure you have everything the right size before printing it on photo paper.) Remove the calendar from the plastic sleeve and insert photo cover.

Insert calendar into sleeve on top of the calendar cover.

Now you have a finished product. Give it to a dear friend or family member.

Mama's Holiday Wish List

So I want to enter this awesome contest.  If you would like to, follow the links below.   


Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year? 

• A Fiskars paper cutter
• New pajamas (and undies and bras--but that might be TMI)
• Something made by my kids -- I love these gifts:-)
• Gift certificates to viovio.com so I can print more scrapbook pages
• A healthy family - It's so hard to be sick at this time of year.
  

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received? 

• Do cookies count as a handmade gift?  My mom always makes me Russian Tea Cakes and I love them every time!
  

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle? 

• I've always wanted to do a calendar.  I will be my closest ever this year if I get CD calendars done for someone in the family.  I actually just always want to make presents, but I always run out of time...I think anything homemade is an awesome gift.
  

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?

• The one I remember the most was the year we got an Amiga computer.  Santa had never brought anything that "big" to our house before.  I love Christmas though so I have lots of fond memories.
  

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year? 

• They think everything that flashes on the television screen is cool and they'd like that for Christmas, but they usually forget it after it's done flashing, so they don't really have a list:-)
  

6. What is your favorite holiday food? 

• What isn't?  I LOVE russian tea cakes and I only get them at Christmas.  They are probably the #1 favorite, but I don't refuse any of it.
  

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays? 

• I am so SUPER excited that I will actually be handcrafting some stuff this year.  I will be making russian tea for friends and family, I already have calendar covers made for several people and may get some cd calendars finished before Christmas.  Have I mentione dI love MMS---It makes me look good:-)
  

8. What is your favorite holiday movie? 

• We watch Elf every year when we are putting up the tree.  I LOVE it. It makes me laugh out load several times each showing.

9. Favorite holiday song? 

• Hmmm...I got James Taylor Christmas cd last year and really like it.  My longest running favorite is probably White Christmas by Anne Murry
  

10. Favorite holiday pastime?

• Sitting in my living room with my family and the lights off and listening to quiet music in the background.
  

Spread that holiday cheer!

National Digi-Scrap Day--Let's celebrate!

Happy National Digital Scrapbooking Day!  I have a fun little tutorial for you and a freebie.  Also look for a key word in my posting and you can use it to complete a mystery phrase for the My Memories Suite blog train prize.  Find all the words and you will qualify for a gift at the MMS Store!

I've mentioned more than once on the My Memories Suite facebook page that I really enjoy making boxes and hybrid projects with MMS.  I get inspiration all over the web for this fun little hobby.  Check out this awesome website - Kelleigh Ratzlaff Design.  She's posting 30 days of ornaments made with paper boxes.  How cute is that?  I also love browsing The Hybrid Chick's blog to see her amazing creations with paper box templates.

So  are you interested in trying one?  Let me walk you through the steps.  The first step is to get a box template.  Kelleigh Ratzlaff sells them in her shop, but you  find tons of them on the web for free.  One of the sites I frequent is Belle's Printables.  She offers lots of templates for free.  Her templates are offered in JPEG format, which unfortunately does not allow you to design directly on the templates, but I modify them in Photoshop and remove the background, and then I can play with them in MMS.  If you don't have Photoshop, you can still print your favorite paper and embellishments and then print the template on the back of the paper.  I will show you how to do either method. 

Removing the background in Photoshop Elements 7

If you own PSE, modifying one of Belle's templates to a PNG file is super easy.  Go to Belle's Printables and download the template you want to use.  I am going to use the small handle bag.  Save the image file from Belle's site and open it in PSE.  Your screen will look like this

You need to double click on the Layer box that says background to unlock it.  When you see the box asking for permission to create a Layer 0 - click okay.  Here's what that will look like.

Now choose the magic wand tool.  You will use this to delete the background of this photo.  Click on a white portion of the background.  It will select all potions of the picture that are white.  Then hit delete on your keyboard.  This will delete the white background and make the background transparent.  Here's what your final product will look like.

Save that as a PNG file and you will be able to play with it in MMS as an embellishment, which allows you to layer papers underneath it.

Now to the fun part---Open MMS.  You will want to open an album that is a rectangular shape.  I have one called landscape projects that I use for making boxes and cards.  This saves me from having too many new albums to search when I want to reprint a project.

Once you have your blank page open, click on Embellishments.  In the lower left hand corner is a Browse button.  Click on that button and then find your pgn file of the box template.  Select the template and then click OK.  You will see the template on your screen, but it may be very small. Stretch the size of your template until it covers your entire page.

Now you can select a background and embellishments to make this box super cute.  If you are using a light background I recommend changing the opacity of the template so that the lines are less visable when you are folding it.  If you want to avoid having any lines on the front side of your box, just print your paper without the template and then print the template on the back of your printed paper.  You can also use this method if you do not have PSE and cannot remove the background.

Here's what my box looks like after I have added the background and embellishments to it.   I used StoryRock's Hello Cupcake for this cute little layout. 

Now print this adorable little box and assemble it.  Cut it on the outside line - You will fold it on the other lines.

What do you think of the finished product?  I think these would make cute little party favors:-)

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial.  If you would like to make this little bag, Belle has graciously allowed me to modify it for you so that you can download it and use it in My Memories Suite!   Here's the link for the freebie - Small Handbag Template.

Don't forget to take a picture of your **MEMORIES**!

Hop on over to Lisa's blog for more blog train fun - http://imsewkrazy.blogspot.com/. 

Baby Announcements

One of my favorite gifts for expecting mothers is personalized baby announcements.  Right now I am waiting to hear from one of my friends that she had her baby girl so I can finish this baby announcement made with StoryRock's Hush kit.  This kit has some adorable baby embellishments.

I made this announcement for one of my friend a few months ago using Ettes and Comany's My ABC Book.  I love this kit because it is so versatile.

While I was making these, I palyed around with a framed poem/picture gift.  This one is a simple layout using the pink orleans paper from MMS and the dotted brown ribbon and brown bow.  I like the idea, even though I'm not sure this is the layout I like.

The next time one fo your friends has an exciting event coming up, consider making a personalized card for the occasion.  It makes a great gift!

Happy Scraping!
Sarah