Website with GREAT tips and tricks!

Through the "Creative Memories GO DIGITAL" group on Facebook, I found a fabulous blog with lots of tips and tricks on it. My Life in Digital Scrapbooking is by another CM consultant who is one of the best digital bloggers I've seen who uses Storybook as their software. She has templates, she has tutorials, she has videos....I highly recommend it!

I've been DIGITALLY ENDORSED!

Yes, I am now a DIGITALLY ENDORSED Creative Memories consultant! What this means is that I've completed a training on the digital Creative Memories features so that I can better help customers with their digital needs. Woo-hoo! I decided to go through with this since I am mostly doing digital work myself. I also believe that Digital Scrapbooking is a wonderful option for people who may be a little intimadated by the "arts and crafts" aspect of traditional scrapbooking, who are more techie in nature, or who--like me--need something that doesn't involve a lot of "stuff" to take out and keep out of little hands!

I've also started a Digital Scrapbooking mailing list for digital scrapbookers using the Creative Memories products. It's called CMDigiScrapping and you can join just by using the box in the sidebar. I'll double post somethings here and on the list, but the list will also have more discussion, more project examples, etc. Please join if you are at all interested!

I {{PUFFY HEART}} SIMPLE START!!!

Yes, I know that typing in all caps is the equivalent of yelling, but I want to yell out loud how much I love the Creative Memories "Simple Start" CD!

So, I can design my own digital scrapbook pages and I enjoy doing it. However, it takes a while--sometimes a great while--to get a page to a point where you can say you are satisfied. If you are like me, and behind on your projects, then THIS is the CD for you!

What is it? Blank templates--that's all! There are 150 templates to use! If you have Storybook Creator Plus, you can edit the templates as you need to! Here is an example:

I went from THIS:

(please ignore the background on this...I had to put in a background paper for it to save as a jpeg)

To THIS:

(I used the new Vintage Romance Content Collection here)

in about 5 minutes. Pretty good, eh?

The CD is $39.95, but it inlcudes a $39.95 coupon code good towards a hardcover storybook. So, really, it's FREE! You can order it from your Creative Memories consultant or, if you don't have one (or if you are already one of my customers!), you can order through my website.

12x18 Calendars are here!

Creative Memories have been touting their new 12X18 calendars for a while--of course, they started talking about them after I started working on a 2010 calendar in StoryBook with the old format! Grr. Oh well, no biggie!

So here's the thing about these new calendars. The actual calendar part is the bottom 6-inches of the page and, when the month is done, you can tear these off and you are left with a 12x12 page print. Brilliant, no?

If you are interested in trying this, the template is a free download for StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0! All you have to do is:
1. Go to my Creative Memory Website.
2. Click on Shop Products on the top bar.
3. Click on Digital Scrapbooking on the side bar.
4. Click on Digital Content Downloads on the side bar.
5. Click on Free Downloadable Themes on the side bar.
6. Scroll down and click on the template of your choice. There are three: Pre-designed pages for the free version of StoryBook (don't bother with this if you have StoryBook Creator Plus), Pre-designed pages for StoryBook Creator Plus, and Basic (Blank) pages for StoryBook Creator Plus.

I chose the third option, which allows you to create your own pages. Then, what I did, was go into another file where I had some 12x12 layouts I wanted to use. From there, I saved the pages as .jpegs in the images files for my calendar and then just stuck it in the calendar. It was unbelievably easy--far easier than it sounds here.

Anyhow, for those of you looking for some one-of-a-kind holiday gifts, this may be the way to go.

Quick bit on digital scrapbooking

My friend Jeannette wanted to know more about digital scrapbooking--and I will post more! I just want to make sure I lay out information clearly and logically (both of those are a challenge for me sometimes!). However, if you want some info now, feel free to check out Kerry's post about her obsession!

Memory Manager 3.0

Yesterday, my friend Kerry and I were talking about digital scrapbooking--which makes sense since since digital scrapbooking has become my preferred method since my daughter was born and Kerry is quite the digital scrapping queen. (The ironic part of this conversation was that it took place while were working on our traditional scrapbooks. Go figure!) Anyway, the one thing I think Creative Memories does excel in is digital scrapbooking.

I'll probably be posting quite a bit on digital scrapbooking in the future, so I won't do a whole run-down of it here. I will, however, start with the Memory Manager 3.0 software. Why start there? Two reasons:
1 - I've been using it sort of half-heartedly and am working of become more proficient with it myself. (And, I'm typing this while it backs up my pictures).
2 - It's really the "first step" in CM's digital scrapbooking.

Memory Manager 3.0 is actually not a digital scrapbooking program. It's a photo organizing program--which, let's face it, we need to organize our photos before we do anything with them. So, first steps first. I've always had my own system for organizing pictures, which was--well, okay. Not great. However, since our photo volume has exploded in the last 8 months, I figured I'd better step up and start using the "real stuff."

Okay, since I'm not an expert on this, I'm not going to give you all the sales pitch. However, if you'd like the sales pitch, click on over to this video from Creative Memories (and if you are sold on it, you can order it from my website).

I will tell you, though, that I'm working the program! Okay, right now I'm mostly just indexing my pictures. Once I'm caught up (well, since the beginning of 2009 on. I'll work backwards once I have that done), I'll get all artistic on some pics for you all and post them here so you can see the wonders of Memory Manager. Oh, what fun!