The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms

My memories of the first 5 months of Bowser’s life are best summed up like this:

He was, let’s just say, ‘challenging’ as a baby. I have much fonder memories of Pickle as a baby…and as she was the firstborn we also have a lot more of her progress recorded: I wrote a journal; I have a ‘My Baby Keepsakes’ box full of memories; we have photos printed off and organised in albums – proper baby albums with cute covers and words on the front like ‘My little baby faces’ and ‘Precious baby pictures’. In fact we had 3 albums filled before she was 2 years old. For Bowser we have photos …in folders on the computer. And that’s it.

For Pickle’s homework last week she was asked to complete a timeline of her life and I was able to delve into the journal and provide great detail of what happened when. If Bowser ever gets set the same task there will be a lot more guess work involved.

I think that’s pretty standard parent behaviour for first child vs those that follow. With Baby #1 it’s all new and you dote more, worry more and celebrate more. Plus you have time. You may not think so at the time, but once you have a toddler plus a newborn you’ll realise you did have time. Are there truly any parents out there that made the same fuss over baby #2, 3 or 4 as baby #1? Now Pickle and Bowser are 8 and 5 and both at school I do have time so I’m going to attempt to redress the balance by recording and organising some of my memories of Bowser’s baby days.

Handily we’ve been asked to take a look at My Memories digital scrapbooking software. I am by no means a scrapbooker – haven’t got the patience – but this certainly seems to be a fun and easy way to create scrapbooks, photobooks and more. I didn’t read the instructions; instead I took the bull in a china shop approach. But in all honesty once the download was complete (which did take quite some time) it only took me about 10 minutes to create the custom page above. All I have to compare it to is Photoshop which I’ve had for ages but never got to grips with – can’t even work out how to add a label to a photo. The possibilities with the software are near endless. If you do read the instructions and take time to experiment you can definitely create some beautiful records of your beautiful memories.

You can make photobooks from scratch or you can build an entire album using one of the many professionally-designed templates provided within the software. A large collection of papers and embellishments are also included to help you make each page uniquely your own. And if you’re looking for something specific you can also choose from hundreds of scrapbooking kits and photo book templates from the My Memories shop.

You can print off your designs to make personalized greetings cards, or use the share option within the software to turn your digital scrapbook into a professionally printed and bound book. If you’re after a challenge you can get even craftier with custom gifts. Alternatively stay in digital mode and you can even put your memories to music and share the completed project on a DVD or slideshow.

I’m not sure what traditional scrapbookers will think of this, but some advantages you might consider are:

• Speedier – creating pages takes minutes rather than hours
• No mess - no set up or clean up
• Cheaper – you can reuse all your digital backgrounds and embellishments and if you don’t like the end result all you’ve wasted is a bit of time
• More flexible – try different layouts, and papers etc without having to commit to anything
• Many ways to share your creations
• You can include videos and sound rather than just static pictures

To be honest when I first downloaded the software I had doubts that I would ever use it beyond creating something for this review, but the more I read about My Memories Suite the more it appeals to my creative side. It’s definitely wetted my appetite to look into this more – there are so many possibilities.

Giveaway! If you fancy giving My Memories a try you’re in luck. Not only do we have a copy of the MyMemories Suite v4 Software (RRP $39.97) to give away, we also have a code giving you $10 off a purchase of the software if you’re not the lucky winner.**

To enter the giveaway simply pop to the My Memories site and let us know the name of a design kit that takes your fancy.

Once you have completed the above mandatory entry you may do the following for bonus entries:

• Tell us you’re a liker of The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms on facebook
• Tell us you’re a liker of MyMemories on facebook
• Follow @MyMemories on Twitter
• Retweet this giveaway ‘  A fun and easy way to create scrapbooks, photobooks & more. #Win @MyMemoriesSuite digital scrapbooking via @RookieMommy http://wp.me/pC8a1-3Pa ‘
• Pin us on your Pinterest board (either Pin our book or Pin this giveaway)

• Giveaway is open Worldwide!
• Winner will be chosen at random
• Winner will be provided with a promo code via email allowing them to download My Memories Suite Version 4 for free
  
• Giveaway closes February 7th, 2013
  

**If you wish to purchase My Memories Suite v4 be sure to use our coupon code STMMMS10858 at checkout to receive a $10 discount PLUS a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store – $20 value!. Please go ahead and share this code with your family and friends!

Filed under: Parenting Tagged: | Digital Scrapbooking Software, Family, giveaway, My Memories, Parenting, photobook software, photography, scrapbook software