Giveaway time...

...finally.  After some technical difficulties, and without further ado, let's get on with the giveaway!

I recently received an email from a rep of mymemories.com asking if I would like to host a giveaway of their digital scrapbook software on my blog.  I'll admit, I've never done any scrapbooking in my life, unless you want to count photo collages made when I was much younger.  I've also never really talked about scrapbooks here on Pro-craft-inate so I was a little surprised that I got the offer (I know I'm not the only one to have been given the opportunity, but the others that I've found seemed like more likely blogs to host the giveaway).

At any rate, I decided to take them up on the offer because I have a boatload of digital photographs gathering virtual dust on my hard drive and because it might be nice to offer up something to my readers who have stuck by my sporadic postings.  I also thought it might be fun to try it out and see if it was something I could get into.

I downloaded my complimentary copy of My Memories Suite and was able to jump right in and create pages without much fuss.  There are a wide range of page templates included in the software, as well as embellishments, so you don't have to buy any 'extras' in order to start building albums.  If you've ever used any kind of photo editing, or painting software, you won't have any trouble navigating this program.  If you've never used that kind of software, you'll still be able to figure out what you're doing very easily.  Really, it's as easy as picking a template and choosing your photos.

Clicking buttons!  It's that easy.

This is the basic screen.  All I did here was pick my template page, add a few photos and that was it.   If there's an embellishment on the page that you don't particularly care for - take it out.  You can customize these as much as you want, or if you're on a creative roll you can start with a blank page and build it from scratch.  You can see the selections on the right - background paper, text, word art, embellishments, etc.

You don't have to stop there, though.  With the My Memories software you can add video and multimedia, hot links, music and narration to the albums you create.  How great is that?  If you build a wedding album, you could add the music from your wedding.  If you were making an album to send to the grandparents, you could add video of the kids, or recorded messages.  Sharing the albums is a snap, too.

There's a theme to my page.  Can you guess what it is?

If you don't find what you're looking for in the template choices that come with the software, there are many, many more at mymemories.com that you can choose from.  Prices range from around two dollars to ten dollars (9.99 was the most expensive I found but I admit I didn't go through all of the hundred + pages of options).  There is also a very good selection of free templates and a 'dollar store'.  Plus, they have a large number of tutorials and galleries to view if you get a little stuck for ideas.

Keep in mind that you don't have to stick with traditional scrapbook sized pages.  You can also re-size and make custom pages, calendars, cards, gift tags, invitations, announcements, etc.  Print them off at home or send them to your favourite photo printer.

All in all, I'd say the My Memories software is reasonably priced (39.97 USD) for what you get, what you can do with it and how easy it is to use.  Having said that, you could get your very own My Memories Suite (download) for free!  All you have to do is leave a comment below.  Tell me what you'd like to create, pop over to mymemories.com and tell me your favourite paper pack, or let me know that you've 'liked' the My Memories page on Facebook and you're in the draw.  Easy peasy, lemon squeasy!  The draw is open until midnight PST on September 22, 2011.  I'll be drawing the lucky winner's name out of a hat (or something like that) on Friday, September 23.

Edited to add:  If you are posting a comment as 'Anonymous', please provide an email address so that I can contact you if you win.

If you don't win, fear not!  mymemories.com are also offering a discount to any of my readers who purchase the My Memories Suite V2 software.  Use the coupon code when you buy the software and you'll get $10 off the software plus a $10 coupon for the store.  The coupon code is: STMMMS88799.  


Be sure to tell your friends about the giveaway and good luck!