My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software Review & Giveaway!

Can I make a crafting confession?  While I'm a fan of a lot of crafting genres, there is one that I have just never gotten into: paper scrapbooking.  I want to start off by saying I'm really impressed by the amazing scrapbooks other people do and totally appreciate the creativity involved.  However, even though I like doing other paper crafts, scrapbooking hasn't appealed to me for several reasons:

• It can take a lot of printed photos, materials & tools which can get pricey
• A great deal of time is needed to plan and assemble each page
• If you goof up cropping or attaching things it's not exactly easy to fix
• With 3 homeschooling kids I'm short on the time & space required for something I'd spend hours laboring over and would have to hide out of sight when finally completed (to avoid have them destroyed by my grabby 2yr old)

I know I sound like a total scrapping hater.  But I'm not really - I promise!  Here's why:

I've discovered the joys of digital scrapbooking & I LOVE IT!!! 

Thanks to MyMemories, I had the opportunity to try out their digital scrapbooking software and found that I could have all the fun of being creative and make great scrapbook goodies without buying loads of gear, needing extra crafting space or worry about my creations getting wrecked.  

The software is incredibly user friendly and versatile - within minutes I was ready to start putting things together and (unlike when I try to use Photoshop) it was easy to figure out how to change backgrounds, textures, add embellishments, text and edit my photos.

You can add all the special extras like buttons, brads and ribbon digitally for a fantastic layered look (& never run out of supplies!), and you can also do cool things like add video, links, music and narration that you just can't do with paper scrapbooking.  

So you can print it out as a traditional photo album, share it on a DVD, view it on an iPod or have it professionally printed it up as a calendar, cards or hardcover book.  Endless possibilities and you don't need to be some kind of graphics wizard to do it either!!

The software suite contains loads of drag & drop templates to make it easy to put together a complete album in no time at all and also has loads of ways to build your own for a completely custom creation.  I created a "Look Book" for my shop's holiday season hats using one of the standard templates called Holiday Snows:

And the add-on kits available are awesome too.  I purchased the A Day at the Park kit and have had a great time making the flowery pages shown above and some fanciful fairy tale-style pages:

And they have loads of FREE kits you can download too.  I'm a total convert and can honestly say I love scrapbooking now!  Want some My Memories goodies for yourself?  Here's how you can score a great deal:

Use the special promo code; STMMMS81187 to receive $10 off the purchase of the My Memories Software Suite plus another $10 coupon to use in the My Memories store (so you can get great kits like A Day at the Park that I showed off above)

And I'm also having a very special:

That's right.  One lucky Sew Can Do reader will win their own My Memories Software Suite worth $40!!

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Ready for a Chance To Win??

To Enter:

Head over to My Memories site and check out their fantastic digital papers & layouts.  Then come back and leave a comment saying which is your favorite item.  Be sure to include an email address if it's not on your profile.

Get Additional Entries (leave a separate comment for each one):

- Like My Memories on Facebook

- Follow My Memories blog  

- Follow My Memories on Twitter

- Follow Sew Can Do

- Like Sew Can Do on Facebook

- Link to this giveaway on your blog or Facebook

The giveaway is closed will be open until 11:59pm EST on November 15th, 2011.  The winner will be chosen at random and announced the following weekend.  Good luck everyone!