Sunday, March 18, 2012

My Memories Winner

Happy St. Patrick's Day (a day late!)

The winner for the My Memories Suite giveaway was Dawn!

Dawn, send your e-mail to christina (at) dinneratchristinas (.com) and I'll send you the information for your scrapbook suite!

Thanks everybody :)

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Checking In and a Giveaway

I've been lurking behind the scenes for awhile, checking in on a few of you guys. I know that Hannah just had her 20th birthday party, Laura continues to be the Queen of All, thrifting, and cooking away with beautiful views and crazy pets, and Ally is my Pinterest hero - making and creating all kinds of amazing!

I'm plotting and planning my return to food blogging. I have recipes pinned, blogs bookmarked, and an obscene amount of cookbooks scored during my hiatus. I never intended on the crazy turns our lives have taken in these past few months to impact my blog the way it did. Even though I haven't blogged much in these months, it still is very much a part of who I am and an outlet I crave. Stay tuned, I'm excited to show you what's ahead for us in our new married life!

Speaking of wedding, I'm still working on sorting through over 2,000 images provided to us by our photographer. My mom has chosen the photos for their parent photo album, and I made a few small albums for relatives and family friends, but that is about it.

Until I was given the opportunity to review My Memories Suite Scrapbook software. I was so happy to have this resource to be able to do something fun, creative, and lasting with our wedding photos.

I was nervous at first, because it required a download and I thought it'd be hard. I'm not the most computer savvy, I usually call on Johnny for anything beyond the usual e-mail writing and web surfing kind of jobs. When I open Photoshop and see all the buttons and tools I panic and get overwhelmed. I thought this scrapbook software would be the same, but it wasn't.

The buttons are clearly labeled and very easy to use. You can choose a template and it loads itself from there. It's very intuitive and guides you through each step. Helpful bubbles pop up with prompts and tips every now and then.

I also really like that there are unique things to add to pages, such as editing and playing with text, photo embellishments and effects, even calendars!


The few books I'd made were on a web site with free software and it did not have any of these options, you couldn't even change the font. I really liked the ability to personalize and spend time making My Memories Suite book unique and personal to us and our wedding.

I did find it difficult to add one photo at a time, but perhaps as I learn the software more I'll learn a shortcut or easier way to do this. The thumbnails to choose from were small, even for these spry 27 year old eyes.

There were also moments where it ran kind of jerky, but I think that's more a reflection on my computer's ability than the software.

It seems to be the type of thing you could lose yourself in for hours, making your creation "perfect," so plan accordingly!

Giveaway Prize:

1 digital copy of My Memories Suite scrapbooking software (Valued at $39.97)

To Enter:

Please visit www.MyMemories.com and tell me which theme you would love to use to build your next scrapbook! (1 entry, leave a comment below)

Follow My Memories on Facebook (1 entry, leave a comment below)

Follow My Memories on Twitter (1 entry, leave a comment below)

Rules:

That is a chance for 3 entries! Contest will close Saturday, March 17th at midnight. I will announce the winner Sunday, March 18th.

For everyone:

My Memories has generously offered all Dinner at Christina's readers a $10 discount on the purchase of the My Memories Suite software and a $10 coupon good for anything in the MyMemories.com store (combined $20 value)! Just use code STMMMS62904 at checkout.


Disclosure: As part of the review and giveaway, I received a complimentary copy of the My Memories Suite scrapbooking software to download and use. The images and review are my own, honest opinion of using this product.

All wedding photos shown are the work of twoweddingphotographers.com