Creative Memories Digital 411 Blog

Sweet 2013 calendar templates are here!

Each year about this time, our designers come up with some sweet new calendar templates for us, and guess what - they're here (US|Canada)!

Not only do this year's calendar templates feature fresh, fun and bright new content, but there's an even more fun spin on them - we've created one option for each month in "reverse calendar" style. What's that mean, you ask? It means that some folks have said they would like to have more room to write, so we put the grid up on top. Don't worry, though - if you're a huge fan of the grids on the bottom, we've included that option too.

Here's a handful of the designs you'll find on the new Changing Seasons Calendar Digital Predesigned Pages:

And what you'll find in the 2013 Calendar Digital Predesigned Pages:

Aren't all these pages super fun? Use them either way - grids on top, or grids on bottom. Or, some of each perhaps? Start your calendar project today... They're wonderful designs, and the coolest part is - you can start on any month you choose!

Have fun, and happy calendar creating! :)

Creating a Heritage Album - Step 3

This is Mike’s third installment in our series of blog posts for creating a heritage album. Click here to see the first in this series, and click here to see the second installment.

Based on previous blog posts, by this time you have hopefully managed to complete your intel gathering with relatives and late-night scanning sessions. In addition, you should have created a book project and added a name to each page to help determine the book contents and length, and started to think about the design of the book. Now the fun really begins as we start to select backgrounds and add images to pages.

First, I suggest determining the general look & feel of your book, and adding background to each page. Here are several options, though there are certainly many different ideas for page backgrounds. And remember that you can always go back later and change your mind (ahh, the beauty of digital scrapbooking!):

1. The Same Background Throughout – This simple option can be highly effective: make each page background identical. This may be something as basic as a solid color or a single piece of paper. Move ahead and insert that background now onto all of the pages in the album.
2. Different Page Backgrounds – With different backgrounds, the layout of each page may be similar in style, but they will each be distinct in their own way. They still may be simple in design, such as a variety of solid colors, but they may also be far more intricate, making it difficult to do until you are specifically working on that page. An example would be using different photographs on the background of each page.
3. Predesigned Template – You should already have the names of the people on each page of your heritage album. If you decide to use predesigned pages, I recommend selecting a predesigned page that best suits that person, then adding the name of the person back to the page once you have selected the template to use. Remember, you can always add or remove photo boxes to predesigned pages, so don’t get too hung up on the number of photos on the predesigned page. You may also end up using the same page template on multiple pages in the book. I recommend not using the same template on pages that face one another, or it may make the final product look awkward and visually out of sync (unless you use a layout that’s exactly the opposite of the facing page).

They say it is almost impossible to pick your favorite child, and I suppose with most families that is true. The good news is you won’t have to in this lesson, but you will want to think about what your favorite pictures are, as they will be the focal points of your pages. Most of us will have them: that special picture of a parent or grandparent that we already know without a doubt will be incorporated into that person’s page in your heritage album. Now’s the time to add a focal point to each page. Remember: it may be a photograph, but it may also be an image of a document, newspaper clipping, or some other special piece of family history. After inserting it I would also size it at this point of how large or small you want it. This may change as you work on the page itself, but once done, it will give you a much clearer view of how much page you will have left to work with for any other photos, documents and text. So between now and lesson 4:

1. Insert and rearrange the backgrounds for each page you intend on doing, if possible (remember, you can change your mind later as the heritage album takes firmer shape).
2. Pick your focal point for each page.
3. Insert and size your focal point pictures onto the corresponding pages.

Go back to Step 1
Go back to Step 2

Mike Pleice, Creative Memories Go Digital Facebook Page Admin

Embellishment Duos Explained

We've heard that lots of folks have been wondering just what in the world these fun little things called Digtal Embellishment Duos (US|Canada) are, so I was uber excited to be able to play with them while creating a little mini tutorial for you. Oh, and to show you how completely cool they are in the process. :)

Here's a brief definition: Digital Embellishment Duos are digital illustrations or designs that are created in pairs - pairs that perfectly complement each other. The purpose of them is to create super fun, dimensional & colorful mini works of art to include in your projects by layering the two parts of each design on top of each other.

To help explain them a bit better, I took a few screen shots as I created a design using a design pair from the star patterned embellishments:

In step 1, I added the first layer of the design to my project.

In Step 2, I filled in the first layer with a color:

In Step 3, WITHOUT MOVING OR RESIZING THE FIRST LAYER, I added the second layer of the design of my project (note: it's best to add both layers to your page, then group them together to move & resize them together if you plan to use them as they were intended - stacked together):

In Step 4, if you wish to color the second layer, fill it in with the color (or gradient) of your choice:

There we have it - a brief "how to" in using Digital Embellishment Duos. To create other super fun looks and designs, play around with filters and gradients for fun effects like these:

Currently there are three sets available (Flower, Simple and Star), with plenty more on the way. Watch for them coming soon, and enjoy!

, then group them together to move & resize them if you plan to use them as they were intended - stacked together):

Creating a Heritage Album - Step 2

[This is Mike’s second installment in our series of blog posts for creating a heritage album. Click here to see the first in this series.]

Now that you have spent the last few weeks treasure hunting, gathering intel from every family member you can think of and electronically storing it, the real fun begins.

When I am speaking with my American friends and they ask me how the weather is up here in Canada, to simplify our conversation I do a quick calculation in my head from Celsius to Fahrenheit: take my local temp, double it and add 30. So if it is +10° in my backyard, I tell my friend in Southern California that it’s 50°. The fascinating thing is when you are trying to map out the total length of your heritage album the same calculation will usually apply. If you have a 20-page book in mind, there is a good chance it will be 60 or 70 by the time you’re finished. The only “right” thing is that in the end you are happy with the work you have done.

In Lesson One you decided whether the book will be one of “length” or “width.” Now is the time to start assigning names to pages. The easiest way to do this is physically write a list of those people who you know will be included in your album. For this step I started a new project in StoryBook Creator. I left the pages blank other than inserting a line of text on each with the name of the person designated for the page(s). This will give you a good overview, a rough idea of how your album will flow as well as the possible length. I assure you, the order will be rearranged as you go, but you never lose the guideline which is the key point, remembering back to charting our course in Lesson One.

Hopefully, as you have spent the last few weeks thinking about your project, you have in mind a desired look and design for your album. The nice thing about using StoryBook Creator for these projects is that the possibilities for creative design are virtually endless. It can be as simple as using the same background for every page (which I have seen some excellent examples of), using predesigned templates, using a unique design on each page, or using a combination of design layouts. Spend some time looking at what others have done. There are always some great examples posted by the administrators and fans on the Creative Memories Go Digital Facebook page.

So for this lesson, the steps to work on are as follows:

1. Create a new project in StoryBook Creator.
2. Assign names to each page of those people you want included in the book, giving you a good overview of how it will flow.
3. Find examples of what others have done for their heritage albums and decide the design layout you will be doing for yours.

Go back to Step 1
Go ahead to Step 3

Mike Pleice, Creative Memories Go Digital Facebook Page Admin

Make chores fun this summer!

Who says chores can't be fun? With this fun dry erase chore chart project, they can be, and during the month of May, all photo panels are 15% off!

This 11x8.5 photo panel project is designed on a white background using simple text underscores to create the chore lines and a few embellishments from the Summer Digital Additions (US|Canada). The fonts I used were CK Becky and Century Gothic.

Here's a quick video on how to create this project:

After you've designed the project and customized it for your family, simply order it by uploading to the Digital Center. After it arrives, you can write on it using a dry erase marker, then wipe it off when you're finished for the day - then start again the next!

Enjoy :)

Creating a Heritage Album - Step 1

Creating heritage albums (or family tree albums, for those more familiar with that terminology) is considered by most to be a desirable but daunting achievement. It would be amazing to have all the information gathered into a single resource (even better: one that can be ordered in multiple copies!), but where do you even begin? Over the next several weeks we are doing a series of blog posts to guide you through some logical, small steps you can take to achieve the goal of a family heritage album.

Anyone who has done any kind of family research has probably heard the old joke, “I shook my family tree and a bunch of nuts fell out.” When putting together a family heritage album you need to decide which nuts you intend to gather up in your basket, and which ones are best left to the wildlife.

LESSON 1 – Getting Started
Any ship captain worth his or her salt knows that in every successful voyage starts with charting and plotting the course. The same rule applies to a heritage album. There are endless possibilities and configurations, with no one way being more right than the other. Now is the time that you need to decide 2 key things:

1. What is the purpose of your project? Once you decide why you are doing the project, it will point you toward the right path for continuing. Answering a few basic questions helps: Is it an album for one side of the family or both? Is it meant to be an item to be passed down to future generations, in which case the journaling and stories would be as much of a focus (and possibly even more so) than the photographs themselves? Or is it just a great place to put your pictures once and for all so you can free up some space in your Power® Sort boxes? Once you decide the intent of your project, you are well on your way to a project you will be proud of.
2. Is the book going to be one of “length” or “width”? “Length” being a rundown of just how far back you have traced your family tree; “width” being more of a current version of only a few generations of your family, with as many photographs as you can find.

Again, there is no right or wrong way to make your family heritage album. It is totally up to you! But with that being said, I can’t stress enough how important it is to be a good captain and chart your course beforehand.

Once these decisions have been made, gather together all the “items” that you may want to use in the book. I say “items” and not just “photographs” because there’s no reason to limit the book to photographs only. There are so many other things that can be used: birth certificates, marriage certificates, newspaper clippings, military records, family recipes, just about anything that you can scan or take a picture of that could be used even in a very subtle way that will add meaning and depth to the page. This step can get tedious if you do not already have everything scanned or in a digital format of some kind, so be sure to have plenty of energy drinks and sugar cookies at the ready for the 1:00 a.m. boost you will need to power through. I assure you that all of the long hours and late nights doing this step will be worth it in the end, even if some things never get used. It is far better to have too much and too many than too little.

In conjunction with gathering tangible “items,” you’ll also want to collect as much information and as many family stories as you can. Another point that can’t be stressed enough: it will be worth it in the end even if it means you have to sit down for another afternoon of listening to Great Aunt Edna tell the same story 4 times. There may be a new piece of information you can glean from each retelling. Don’t be afraid to outright interview family members on family history.

To review, here are the three steps you’ll want to undertake to begin:

1. Chart your course
2. Treasure hunt
3. Gather intel

If you spend the time on these initial steps it will make creating your family heirloom far more enjoyable as we move along over the next weeks.

Jump to Step 2
Jump to Step 3

Mike Pleice, Creative Memories Go Digital Facebook Page Admin

Beautiful wedding invitations in a snap!

Getting married soon, or know someone who is? Check out our gorgeous selection of new wedding templates, designed to coordinate with the new Divine and Enchanted Power Palettes. The one you see to the right is likely going to be the template I choose when it's time to send out my save the date cards :)

Available are invitation, save the date and thank you cards in a variety of sizes (5x7 Flat, 5x7 Folded and 4x8) and styles such as these:

Check out all our beautiful new template selections on the Digital Center (US|Canada) - just drag and drop your photos into a template, order them and you're done!

A sweet gift for Dad!

Let's face it - fathers are hard to buy gifts for. Lucky for some of us, they do love to see photos and messages from their loved ones, so we've got an especially cool Father's Day gift option for you this year. Beginning May 1, Photo Panels (US|Canada) are 15% off - and Dads happen to love them!

The sale runs through May 30, so you've got plenty of time to create one from scratch. The one to the right was created using the Take It Easy Digital Kit (US|Canada), or you can drag and drop photos into one of our beautifully designed templates on the Digital Center (US|Canada).

Also, note that all sizes of our photo panels are available in either regular finish or super sweet metal finish. Note that when ordering a metal photo panel, any areas within your design that show up as white in your design will appear as metallic on your project when you receive it.

Enjoy! :)

National Scrapbook Day Celebration

In 1995, Creative Memories declared the first weekend in May as National Scrapbook Day. This year, we’re celebrating BIG with special events, exclusive products and amazing deals!

Celebrate with us by attending a National Scrapbook Day event in your area or hosting a party! (Contact a Consultant to find out more)

We'll also be celebrating online with Virtual National Scrapbook Day from April 27 - May 5, 2012. Stop by every day to see what's new.

 

Daily Challenge	Daily Sketch
April 27	April 27
April 28	April 28
April 29	April 29
April 30	April 30
May 1	May 1
May 2	May 2
May 3	May 3
May 4	May 4
May 5	May 5

Winner's List

Find links to the daily challenges and sketches on our social channels:

Meet Mike. He Scrapbooks.

Several months ago, I was cruising through the Creative Memories Go Digital Facebook Fan Page when I ran across some fantastic heritage digital scrapbook pages. As I clicked in to look closer at them, I noticed that the creator of the pages was a man. Odd, since we don't get many guys who frequent our page, let alone post awesome pages on a regular basis. Mike made his way into the group pretty naturally - he posted pages and everyone loved them. He became one of us.

We all thoroughly enjoyed his creations, as did all of our fans, so one day I decided to reach out to him and ask him if he'd be interested in joining the admin team of the fan page, and to our delight - he agreed! He's fit in perfectly with all of us, and we thoroughly enjoy having him on the team.

I was curious, though, how does a guy like Mike get into digital scrapbooking - so I asked him. Here's the story:

"What’s a regular guy like me doing in a place like this? The scrapbooking universe. Truth be known, it was quite by accident really. In September of 2010 I was looking at all the pictures my wife and I had on our computer that dated back about 6 years from the birth of our son Halen. There were hundreds of them, and other than printing out the odd one to send with Christmas cards or letters to the grandparents they just sat on the computer collecting electronic dust.

For some strange reason the idea of a scrapbook came to mind for a Christmas present for my wife. I had never actually even really seen one before but I figured, how hard could it be? You just need a photo album with construction paper and some glue right? 3 months and plenty of cuss words later it was completed and I was quite content to retire from this new found hobby so I could continue on with my various other ones. Besides I had completed what I set out to do.

One of those other hobbies was genealogy. I had spent about 10 years doing research and collecting family information. Anyone that traces their roots I think suffers with the same problem, what does one do with the mounds of paper that inevitably accumulate? How does one organize it in such a way so that it is reader friendly and appealing to look at?

I began to wonder if a scrapbook was the answer to my problem, but honestly dreaded the thought of how much work it would be. Then, a lady from work asked to see my traditional scrapbook of my son and asked me if I had given any thought to digital scrapbooking. She told me about the Creative Memories Storybook Creator and I thought I just might have the solution to my problem. It turns out I did.

I have been working on my heritage album now on Storybook Creator for about a year now and thankfully it is nearing completion. I really enjoyed visiting the Creative Memories Go Digital Facebook page to post my work looking for advice and to see what kind of projects everyone was doing. I quickly discovered that being a guy I was in the large minority as far as scrapbooking goes. I was, and still am, so appreciative of all the advice and tips I get from the visitors on the page.

I already have some more ideas in mind to try once my heritage album is completed and can’t wait to get started. So, what’s a regular guy like me doing in a place like this? Having an absolute blast!"

Here are some samples of what Mike has created that we all love:

If you haven't yet discovered Mike's creations, visit the Creative Memories Go Digital Facebook Fan Page - chances are you'll find him there. If you have discovered them, share some love here for Mike - he rocks! :)