Amys Digi World

Page Template idea.

2009-04-25T11:41:00.002+10:00

Credit for this layout goes to Mistra. Check out her blog HERE

You can download this as a live page template for StoryBook Creator Plus HERE

2009-03-20T07:45:00.000+11:00

Two More Pages

2009-03-13T16:15:00.001+11:00

Sept 06 Colour Challange on Scrap Witch

2009-03-12T16:26:00.000+11:00

Had this colour palette pop up in the random image today and was inspired to do a layout. So Did!

Time Conuming Page

2009-03-11T22:24:00.000+11:00

I normally limit myself to an hour, maybe 2 on a page. This one I've been working on and off for the last 26 hours.

I'm happy with the result. Gave up on directions page to go with it though.

Copy if you dare. LOL.

Blatent Scraplift

2009-03-09T10:57:00.000+11:00

Borrowed this page idea from Kim Mannino. Love it.

Been Busy

2009-03-09T10:54:00.000+11:00

Keep meaning to upload to here as well but keep forgetting. Am playing with loads of new ideas and techniques in SB+.

To Make Bubbles:
Make two Circles one Black and One White.
Blur the Black circles edges a little.
Blur the white circles edges a bit more than you did the black.
Put the white circle on the black.
GROUP them.
Use the Opacity to make the bubble see through.

Make a White crescent (use two circles the same size, offset them a bit and wand away the top one).

Use the blur tool on the crescent. Align and size over your bubble.

Put a photo in a circle mat behind for the photos in bubble. Your bubble will need to be a bit bigger than your photo to get a good effect.

Enjoy.

Selections from Family Vault 2002+

2009-03-06T12:19:00.000+11:00

Found a new group and some wonderful new techniques. These are all scrap lifted.

Amy

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Recent pages

2009-03-03T14:26:00.000+11:00

Am going to try and upload new pages here each time I send them off to Scrap Witch. Might go back and get a few old ones as well. Enjoy.

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Selections from Family Vault 2002+

2009-02-14T13:19:00.000+11:00

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final lot

2009-02-02T11:23:00.001+11:00

Not in any real order as such, sorry. And for those interested I am still pregnant.

More M's Book

2009-02-02T11:14:00.003+11:00

Fw: M's New book

2009-02-02T11:14:00.002+11:00

M has been playing in SB again and constructed a new book on the Yank. This will come through in stages.

More M's Book

2009-02-02T11:10:00.001+11:00

M's New book

2009-02-02T11:09:00.000+11:00

M has been playing in SB again and constructed a new book on the Yank. This will come through in stages.

New Page Done and Its PINK!!!

2009-01-12T07:00:00.001+11:00

Got myself some new digital kits for my Birthday. Have done a heap of pages, however thought I'd share this one from this morning first.

Its PINK!!!

Amys Big Belly

2009-01-05T10:50:00.001+11:00

Hi All,
Sorry for the rather bulk email, however just thought I would share with you the first page for the new baby's album. I got a lovely new digital additions kit from the US and just loved playing with it.

The Belly shots that Michael managed helped as well.

Wont be too long and we will have pictures of baby to share. (4 weeks till due date last Friday, and I doubt I will get that far).
Amy

New Page

2008-10-06T08:04:00.004+11:00

I had fun (and hair pulling moments) making this page last night.

The frames and chains and hinges for the locket are all 'hand-pieced. DH made my Hinge for me and then made me a link for the chain and I individually added them to the 'necklace'.

I am so happy with how the page came out I entered it in the open comp over at www.scrapwitch.com.au

I must give credits to Blush Butter (http://www.blushbutter.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=36&pos=26) for the Gold Eyelet (modified to the Oval frame and also the chain link).
And to SnoGirl (http://snogirl.snoville.com/Alphabets/GoldFlourishAlpha.html

for the gold flourish alphabet used for the title.

The paper is from CM's Free template Brushed Blue (but I transformed it with the Sepia option)

I've been busy

2008-09-24T15:14:00.001+10:00

Making Name Tags and Challenges for the upcoming Weekend retreat. Thought I'd share them all with you. The Challenges are made from FREE templates, and the Nametags the Paid for templates in Australia (EARTHY, PASTEL, PRIMARY, ROMANCE and JEWEL)

Have a good one,

Amy

A Page SBS in SB PLUS

2008-09-16T13:15:00.035+10:00

Ok So I thought I'd be good and take Pics of my screen as I go with this page. Then I may actually finish a post.

I pre-laid out all my pages earlier so this is my first screen shot.

As you can see I used the album planner in MM and added in Journal boxes to separate my Pics for the pages to make laying out my book easier.

The SBS 29 refers to the challenge I am using these Pics for over at SCRAP WITCH. I've managed to learn a heap over there with the Step by Step challenges (both traditionally and now digitally as well).

The first thing I do when I come into a page like this is make my work area bigger using the slider bar, and move my Pics of my page.

Ok so something went awry in my planning and I need another pic. So I duck over to the next page to find one.

Remove the pic from that page - Right Click Choose Delete option. And it turns up in my Photos Tab.
Go back to my original page and add the photo.
For this challenge I need to crop the photos a bit. So I crop one. By going into Properties I can make it the correct dimensions.

In this instance Witch has asked for portraits 3 by 4 Inches, So I change the measurements to Inches. Then take off Lock Aspect Ratio and put in 3 and 4.

Then I go back to my page view, Select all the photos I wish to have this size, select the one I resized last and right click to get the option of sizing.
I choose MAKE SAME SIZE and it resizes my Pics for me :-)

Now Witch wants a background paper. I browse my papers tab, find one I want and then select using the drop down arrow MAKE BACKGROUND

And it becomes my background paper :-) Too easy.
Next step from Witch is to pick another paper. 12"wide, and 8cm High. I also need to Scallop the bottom edge. So I goto my handmade embellishments. And find my Scalloped strip that I have made earlier (will do another post on hand making useful bits).
I add it to the page (either by using drop down arrow or dragging it across).

Now I resize the width - to 12 Inches.

If I resize the height to 8cm now it will muck up my scallops seriously badly. SO instead I add a rectangle 12" by 7cm to the page.
At this stage the size and colour don't matter. (An easy colour to see over the top of everything is usually good).
Then resize in properties again to the right dimensions. If swapping between Inches and CMs then you need to apply each action first. :-)
Then we need to align the scalloped strip and the new rectangle. I align vertically by eye. And use the Align option in the right click menu to align the left sides together.

(Note both objects are selected in the elements panel).

Then using the right click again I Flatten the elements together.

They now work as one shape and I can fill them with a paper.

Now for Holes for Witch.
Using the Arrows down the bottom I zoom in on the page. And then select my purple scalloped paper, and go to the tools tab.

In the Tools Tab I select the Eclipse option. I zoom in a bit more - Make the circle small, and position it on the scallop.

I then select Erase the Shaded area and continue for each scallop.

The circle stays the same shape so I have perfectly uniform circle punches on my scallops.
Then I go to the Layout Tab to flip the shape Upside down.

And position it in the correct place with my mouse by eye.

Next step photo positioning.
I align the bottoms of the Pics with the select all and right click option. I line them up next to each other by eye. And then select them all and move them as a group to the final position.

Next step - Make 5 - 6 white strips.
Shapes tab, select rectangle and make one. Resize it to the correct size and then copy (CTRL C or right click) and Paste (Ctrl V or right click) 5 times.

Position pasted strips to placing. Unlock the aspect ratio to make them stay the correct height as you change the widths.

Make three strips of PP. Again use the Create a shape, then make it the right size in properties. Then copy and paste that shape, then fill each with PP.

Move photo into place, need to move it to the front using the Right Click Option.

At this point I decide I don't like my background, so I pick a new paper and using the drop down menu select it to become my background.

Use a journaling card, so I peruse my embellishments to find one. Resize to meet Witch requirements. Then using the Green Adjournment I rotate the card slightly. I rebel and rotate the other way to what Witch wants. LOL.

Add a title. Goto text Tab and Create a Journal Box.

Fiddle a bit swapping between sizes and fonts etc. Until I am happy.
Then I go to the Tools Tab and add a Heavy Shadow.

Add another text box to the page and again use the green arrows to line it up to fit the journal box added before. Am too tired and kids screaming to much to journal in it right now so plan to come back later.

Add another text Box put a Bracket { in it. Flatten it cause I cant get the font any bigger and then resize the flattened object.
Add the date with a text box to the bottom corner.
Add some more embellishments to around the title.

And realise I really don't like those strips white, so in the tools tab fiddle with the colouring. And papers. Then decide to add some texture (using the surfaces option in the Tools Tab).

Add some shadows to the photos and embellishments.

And DONE!!!!!

2008-09-08T20:34:00.002+10:00

OK so I have 20 million half drafted posts in my outbox, but I just cant seem to get time to finish them.
Thought I'd cheat and pop a link in to my latest digital pages. They are over at scrapwitch where I have challanged myself using the pics from May - Aug of this year to complete all 34 Step By Step Challanges. Am going well.

http://www.scrapwitch.com.au/community/mediagallery/album.php?aid=535&page=1

Will take you to the Alum I am uploading to as I go.

I promise I will be back here with some tips and tricks and some digital freebies soon. (Just leet me find the house so DH doesn't have heart failure first).

Life.....

2008-08-26T21:23:00.002+10:00

Just keeps seeming to come along and stop me from scrapping, blogging and just generally playing. I even escaped for a full weekend retreat and only got 3 7" pages done. Sigh!!!

This baby has finally decided to settle itself down and go back to only sucking half of my energy instead of all of it, and then I get a cold that is sucking ALL my energy, so I am back to needing more time, and mostly more Energy. Wish I could borrow some of the revitalised 2 year olds. ;-)

Anyway PLUS will be released here on the 1st September and I am in the processes of finalising the first section of this years family album (will be finished and sent off before 31st Aug to benifit from the fantastic Aussie special).

Hopefully by early Sept I will have shaken the cold and got myself organised. Looking forward to being back soon with some digitally from scratch created pages.

2008-07-16T15:49:00.002+10:00

I am still here! Sort Of! Life just seems to get in the way. Of everything. I am very excited to tell you that I am pregnant. So between chasing the two kids (3 and 2) and dealing with what this new baby (internal) is doing to me, I have been rather tired.

I am currently in the process of redesigning my computor structure and moving my memory vaults. I will do a more detailed post of my findings once I am completed.

Fear not, I will be back soon. Hopefully with Story Book Plus to play with as well.

Power of the Pen

2008-05-30T11:08:00.000+10:00

My DH did the second page. Isn't he clever????

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Another Tearing tool page

2008-05-28T11:05:00.000+10:00

Again this one is fairly simple, but very effective.

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New CM Tearing tool

2008-05-27T11:04:00.000+10:00

I had a great time playing with this new tool. These are two very easy layouts utilising both sides of the tool.

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Daycare Photos

2008-05-25T11:03:00.000+10:00

Boys Professional pics from Daycare.

Very happy with the simplicity of this layout.

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Scrap Witch Cyber Crop Challanges

2008-05-22T23:02:00.001+10:00

I had such a great time doing these layouts.

Base a page around a Bumper sticker.

Create a page to look like a magazine layout.

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Scraplift Layouts from Creative Memories Storybook.

2008-05-22T10:55:00.001+10:00

I had the pleasure of going away to a scrap retreat on the weekend. I completed 28 pages, I shall share these all with you over the next few weeks. The first one I wish to share is this one. Its a blatent scraplift of one of the layouts in the Storybook options. I find browsing page layouts in there can help me find my creative muse again. I've included for you the original storybook template and my layout. For some reason my camera doesn't like focusing on these colours. I've taken the pic 8 times and just cant seem to get any better than this.

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Drag and Drop Feature in Memroy Manager compatable with Windows

2008-05-11T07:24:00.001+10:00

I was so excited when I found this option. You can Drag from Memory Manager directly to a Windows folder. This is great when you dont want the image resized in any way. (I will do a post on emailing and exporting for web another day.)

Basically you just select the photos you want and then Drag them to an open windows folder.

Hopefully these screen shots and simple instructions will give you an idea, otherwise feel free to ask questions in the comments section and I will try my best to answer them.

1. Select the Folder to which you wish to move the images to.

2. Open It.

3. Open Memory Manager and access and select the images you wish to move.

(Note: They will still be in MM, they will just also be available from the Windows folder you move them into. )

Your Cursor should change to something like the above image. As you drag the curser down to your windows menu bar (generally down, some people have it at the top). Once you drag the cursor over the name of your folder it should display on top of MM. Drag your cursor over the open folder. And it should change to:

Or something similar. I Hope!

A Black Line will display withing your folder and is the position where you images will be placed. Release your mouse button and the images are 'dropped'.

And While Playing here I just realised you can do it in Reverse too. Woohoo!!!!!

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New Online Class

2008-05-10T07:39:00.001+10:00

I had the plessure last night of taking a Penny Hackney Class online. Basic information can be found HERE! The class thread is closed and you must join scrapwitch (which is worth its while and FREE!) to be able to sign up for Pennys class which cost $10. Well worth every cent. The picture above is a sneak peak at my layout. Until Penny gives us release we aren't able to post the full layout image. As soon as I can I will share with you my layout. It was well out of my comfort zone and I LOVE it!!!

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Monthly Wrap Up Pages for Digital Albums

2008-05-07T08:54:00.002+10:00

Here are four samples of my monthly wrap up pages for my digital albums. I pick one photo from the month (one of my artistic/photography photos rather than my everyday documentation photos) and use it as a full page bleed on the page. I then do a monthly sumary on the top of the image.

I try to include the activities we had that month, a look at the new things that the boys are up to/ have learnt / did, anything significant for Michael and I etc.

My Aim is to do a Months summary as soon as possible in the beginning of the following month. I am not always acheiving this. I will get Michael to help me go back and do the months I have missed.

Wedding Album Pics and Photo Album extra precautions storage.

2008-05-06T11:38:00.001+10:00

I have decided that at some point in tie when I have some time to spare (ROFL) I will photograph and store all my traditional albums on CD's at my Mums. Just in case.

I started with some of my favorite wedding album pages today and thought I'd share them here as well.

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Too Many Pics??

2008-04-29T14:23:00.001+10:00

I take by far too many photos. I want to keep all of said photos. Umm so whats a Girl to do. I did discover in the last few days that one of the templates for Storybook will allow me to have 12 pics on one page. I also found another one that I quite like that has 10 pics on the page. I think both these templates will be featuring heavily in my Family Album for this year.

Bring on Plus when I can make some variation for myself. Change papers etc. Or DH's solution, confiscate my camera. I am getting a bit closer to the mark of the right number of pages in the album. I have spent a fair bit of time compressing them into loads of pics on one page the last few days.

I am hoping that I will be able to fit 6 months in one album. Fortunatley we seem to have got past all the big events for this 6 months, providing my brother doesn't decide to go all out and have a big 18th birthday party now he will be home. We shall see.

Currently for this year I have 3442 images in my Family Memory Vault. So how many pics do you take on average??

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Cyber Crop Weekend

2008-04-24T10:14:00.001+10:00

Scrap Witch held a Cyber Crop this last weekend. I comleted four layouts meeting all the challanges.

I also managed to get a prize for the flower one.

DH did one as well.

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Are Digital Albums Too Expensive?

2008-04-22T14:54:00.001+10:00

First it depends. What are you going to do with your pictures otherwise?? Are you going to ignore them and leave them on your computor for it to crash and you lose them?? Are you going to stuff them under your bed in a box?? If that is your plan then by all means digital albums Are too expensive.

If however you plan on preserving your memories in a photo safe album the answer is a little different. If you plan on printing and just putting them in a cheap album then its probably still more expensive.

If however you plan to traditionally scrap book instead well then you might be suprised at the price comparison.

My Passion is the photos into safe albums with the stories written right along side of them. Pictures may tell a thousand words, but sometimes they aren't always enough. Heartfelt journalling is key. In my book anyway.

So A price comparison. I decided to compare what it would cost to do the Album Michael did digitally with a traditional Creative Memories 12" Album.

As you may remember Michaels digital album cost $139 plus $10 postage and handling. It contained 24 pages. He used a voucher so got 6 free pages beyond the normal 20 included.

Michaels album has No embilishemnts of any kind. (He's a bit slack like that ;-) It was done on Black Pages. And contains 59 Photos.

Michael being the Guy He is would probably just have the photos printed as 4 by 6. Then being the guy he is he would order a Black (or Ebony) Coverset, Black pages (15, working on the theory that 4 by 6 prints would need less pages), and page protectors. Thats it. In True 12" size that would be $95. Using Snapfish pricing for mail order it would cost $8.85 for prints and $2.95 for postage.

Making this version total at $106.80

Me being me, would order prints in similar sizing to whats included in the StoryBook. I would also need to order more pages and page protectors. He can still keep his Black coverset ;-) My Album, pages and protectors cost would be $140.50. Instantly we are on par with a digital album.

My photos will be printed in a number of sizes. Again using Snap Fish mail order prices.
19 * 4 by 6 = $2.85
8 * 5 by 7 = $3.92
10 * 8 by 10 = $39.50
22 * Wallet Size = $5.45
Postage of $2.95
Total = $54.67

Add in my Album costs of $140.50 and we get $195.17
Making my total more than the digital. And I still haven't bought papers yet. Which of course are a must in my own albums.

Also its worth noting that Michael has a number of 12 by 12 full page prints in his digital book. I am only getting 8 by 10's, thus making the price cheaper than the reality.

Anyway its just a bit of food for thought.

User Guide

2008-04-18T03:57:00.000+10:00

This is worth a Browse. Even for me :-) You can find the user guide as shown in the picture. There are a lot of details in there to help you out and I recomend highly taking a gander. Also if you are only using StoryBook Creater 2.0 you can check out the advanced features of StoryBook Plus coming out soon in Australia.

Cheers.

New Pic and Page of William

2008-04-17T03:55:00.001+10:00

This was soo funny. William just wouldn't stop, he reclined and kept saying, "So Anyway..." He was just so darn cute.

Why Do I Stress Organisation??

2008-04-13T09:12:00.002+10:00

Ok, I Like Organising Photos in Memory Manager so enjoy the process. I understand that not everyone else in the world feels that way. However I do feel that for everyone some sort of organisation is imperitive. If your images are not organised then you cant find them, if you cant find them, well then you dont tend to look at them, If you dont look at them then what was the point in taking them???

I take photos to help me remember. I need to look at them and preferably put them in an album and document the story for them to do that. Organisation is critical for finding your images, whether it be just to have a flick through or complete an album with a purpose.

When someone starts organising with me in a tutorial I ask a series of questions to help them work out their categories.

Why do you take Photos?
Why do you look for Photos?
What kind of album projects would you like to undertake if they are simple and easy to complete?

From them its easy to work out how they will look for images. Once you establish how you will look for images then it becomes easy to establlish how to sort images.

I stress organisation because it means you can find and enjoy your images. Even if you ignore all the previous images you have; and start just by Organising new images I beleive you will see an impact.

Please feel free to email me and ask questions.

Birthday Cards

2008-04-12T12:06:00.001+10:00

Some pics of the homemade Birthday cards W and I made this morning.

I used the Cricut for the words and shapes and numbers. They are fairly simple, yet effective.

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Page Layouts

2008-04-09T20:09:00.002+10:00

Ok, I am not managing to post as often as I would like. Instead of pushing myself to post more I have decided to expand what I want to post here. So from now on here you will find my layouts, photos and my essays and tips on all of that.

Today and yesterday I have been low. So low all I wanted to do was hide. Fortunatly DH was home and I did get to hide. The fruits of my hiding are below. Two days of scrapping and DVD's and now I feel a bit better. Hoping I can tackle tomorrow on my own.

At MIL's B'day Party. All 6 kids and both parents, a very rare picture indeed.

My Sister (who I am sure wont appreciate this picture, but it captures the escence of her)

A Blast from my past, the organisers of my Grad Ball for Uni, it was held in the year 2001.

Michael in true self form at Zig Zag.

Another Blast from the past. My 21st Birthday Pics. In 2002.

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Michaels Train Book Arrived.

2008-03-31T16:20:00.002+11:00

This is Michaels newly arrived Story Book. He completed it on his own. And for anyone that knows how computor illiterate M is that says a LOT for the programs simplicity.

Total cost worked out at $149 for Book and postage. His book is 12" square and came with a dust cover sheet. It has 24 pages within its Hard cover. He used a voucher ordered previously to the book to get those extra 4 pages for FREE!

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Colour Enhancement

2008-03-27T13:33:00.001+11:00

I've done a step by step of this technique previously. Thought I'd share these pics though as I am running flat out prepearing for a weekend show.

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Create A New Project In StoryBook

2008-03-24T10:20:00.000+11:00

Once Story Book opens you will be presented with this screen:

Select A Theme (the size cant be changed once you start, but the page and cover themes can)

Name your Project and Give it a Location.

Project will open and Start on your title page!

:-)

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Fork Comp Entrance

2008-03-24T09:00:00.000+11:00

Novel Photo Competition. Can be found at Iron Chef. This is my entry.

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A Story Book Created From Memory Manager

2008-03-22T10:18:00.002+11:00

This process is really simple. Basically if you have already put together an album in Memory Manager you just follow the screen shots and then once in Story Book create a New Project.

See tomorrows post on that.

Have a great Easter.

Go into the Album you wish to use.

Click SHARE and then Create a StoryBook (Note the storybook option is not available until you install the program)

Choose ALL or the selected images.

Photos will transfer. This may take a few minutes depending on the number you transfer.

Story Book will open (you must have it closed for the process to take place)

Too Easy......

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Clone Edit

2008-03-21T08:50:00.001+11:00

This picture got second prize in the digitally edited section at the Lithgow Show. :-)

Comparison - One Click

2008-03-19T04:45:00.002+11:00

Using only the one click fix buttons in each program the following are the images that I recieved. I will let you come to your own conclussions as to which one you prefer.

Original/Picasa

Memory Manager/PhotoShop Elements 4

Original - Picasa

Memory Manager / Adobe Photo Shop Elements 4.

Original /Picasa

MM /Photo Shop Elements 4

Original /Picasa

Memory Manager /Photo Shop Elements 4

Original /Picasa

Memory Manager /Adobe PhotoShop Elements 4

My Photo Process

2008-03-18T08:05:00.000+11:00

1. Transfer Photos directly to MM from Camera.
In Import Date View:
2. Rotate Images (Using the arrows underneath the image screen).
3. Organise in Bulk (1.Place, 2.Event, 3.People 4.Any other tags)
In Sort boxes and ratings view by day:
4. Select images for album on a day basis.
5. Share images with an Album.
6. Any obvious editing. (Colour, light etc)
7. If Printing I will now crop. If going to SB I wont.
8. Print or export to SB.
9. Power layout Photos(Both mediums - digital and traditional)
10. Go back to each page and add decoration etc.

My Detailed Photo Process

2008-03-18T08:00:00.000+11:00

I will grant that this process may not work for everyone, however it really seems to be an efficient method for me at the moment. I am mostly using digital photo albums, but feel it would work as well with traditional.

1. Transfer Photos directly to MM from Camera.
My Camera automatically when connected to the computor imports the images straight into MM. I have 2 memory vaults that I use on a regular basis, My Family Vault and My Creative Memories Training Vault. This process is related to images that go in my Family Vault, images that go into My Training Vault are a bit different but generally follow a very similar process.

In Import Date View:

2. Rotate Images (Using the arrows underneath the image screen). I do this in bulk, I selct all the images that need to go the same way and then click the arrow to rotate them. It can take a while for the program to do this.

3. Organise in Bulk (1.Place, 2.Event, 3.People 4.Any other tags). See my article on organisation tips for more information, this is the process I prefer.

PLACE

EVENT

PEOPLE

Other Odd things/projects etc.

In Sort boxes and ratings view by day:
4. Select images for album on a day basis.
I find sorting images into the album on a day by day level keeps me feeling in control and not overwhelmed by the process. This works for me and my family album, it may not work for the project you are doing, in which case it may be good to use your sort folders as well.

5. Share images with an Album.
You can either do this directly, or place them on the clipboard and do it in bulk. The contents of the clipboard are not saved when you close MM so be careful.

In Album View:
6. Any obvious editing. (Colour, light etc). The number of photos I do edit has dramatically decreased as I try and speed up my process, my camera and I are also becoming much better aquanted adn I am finding I dont need as much editing done.

7. If Printing I will now crop. If going to SB I wont. I dont crop if going to storybook as using their fixed templates means I generally want the whole image to be able to move around in the frame. If Printing I crop to the aspect ratio I want to print in - this saves me a heap of time in the camera store later.

8. Print or export to SB. You can either export the whole bunch into storybook using the feature pictured below. Or you can Export to a folder and then import into SB later. If you are adding photos to an exsisting book then the folder is your only option. I will do a more detailed post on that later.

9. Power layout Photos(Both mediums - digital and traditional). I find if I lay out all my photos and dont worry about the papers/embelishments etc I get through it quickly. This then enables me to come back and do a page or two at a time later. I know which way the page goes for lining up double page spreads etc. Also helps me keep track of the number of pages I am up to.

10. Go back to each page and add decoration etc. I wont do this on all pages to the same level, some I will leave as just photos on a white background, others I will enhance (as pictured) and then others I will really go to town decoratively.

I pick my page. If my photos are just dumped on there and not in an order then I select a Text only page so that my photos will be placed back in the Photos section at the bottom of the screen.

Then I will pick my new template base. In this case a collage one.

You can see here my new template page blank and the images down below waiting to be dragged to the page.

Drag and Drop them on and its completed.

Selections from Creative Memories Training

2008-03-15T09:16:00.001+11:00

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These items were sent from Creative Memories® Memory Manager

Colour Enhancement

2008-03-11T10:53:00.001+11:00

This is such a good effective technique. Making the majority of the image Black and White leaving just selected areas in colours. Now in this instance I am using one of my 3yo Sons images (as he insisted LOL) but you can get the point.

Step One.

Select an image. Something with an obvious bit you want to stand out. In this case the castle and the potatos.

Step 2.

Do any other basic editing you want done. In this instance I rotated and cropped the image a bit first.

Step 3.

Select the Remove Colour Tool.

AS you can see you have the option of changing the slider bars of brush size and pressure. For this technique you really want the brush pressure set on HIGH. The Brush size you will chnage as necessary.

Step 4.

Using the largest Brush *Colour in* the large areas away from the edges of the bits you want left in colour.

Step 5.

Adjust the brush size as you go around the finer edges.

Done.

I will be uploading a few before and after shots using this process for the rest of this week.

Enjoy.

Just for Fun

2008-03-08T09:10:00.000+11:00

Playing with this Picture of P. His head is awfully shiny in the original and it just wasn't photographically artistic to me.

I played with the light levels, used the darken brush on the corner. Just for Fun.

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These items were sent from Creative Memories® Memory Manager

Enlarging Pics for Creative Memories Picfolio Albums

2008-03-07T15:41:00.002+11:00

Making Photos BIG is fun, it can however be costly. In the case of a Picfolio album you are then going to need to Cut your photo. Memory Managers Album Planning tool gives us an alternative to this.

Step 1. Select your image. The quality of your digital image is important it needs to be able to be blown up to the 11' by 14' or 22' by 14' size.
Step 2. Save your image 5 (single page) or 10 times (Double page). (Name them all the same.)

Step 3. Select all of your same images and put them on the clipboard.
(Note You can use the search feature and search for the name you just gave all the images)

Step 4. Go into My Albums

Step 5. Create Album from Clipboard. Select Picfolio Milestones Album Layout.

Step 6. Select one of the Top images.

Step 7. Using the Crop feature Crop your image.

(Note - Use the Yellow 'Dots' as guides. When doing your landscape oreintated image your dots are 3, 3 and then 4 to the edge. When doing Portrait its 2, 2 and then 6 to the edge.)

Step 8. Repeat for each image.

Notes:

You can move the Crop box so you can see the remaining images and line them up by eye.
For the second image in an orientation initially set the crop up in the same place that you did the first image making it exactly the same size, then drag the crop parrameters to the new location just below the first images area. Dont forget to allow 1/2 inch for the break on the page.

Be aware that using the Picfolio Crop doesn't save it. If you want to save the crops as you go you will need to open the image and crop them there. It is harder to check lining up that way.

To get your images Printed at a developer in the correct format, simply Export them from the Picfolio album planner to a CD, do not change any of the size settings. They will then print as 4 by 6 photos when you take the CD to the developer.

Enjoy :-)

Historical Significance

2008-03-06T15:49:00.002+11:00

As a Creative Memories consultant one thing that has been consistent for me as I taught classes was that as I did the speech about cropping I always talked about not cropping anything of historical significance.
I talk about the importance of establishing what is historically significant to yourself and also to others, in my case I like to see everything at least a little bit, my DH not so in depth pictures are ok. I think it is partly due to remembering methods. DH's memory is pretty well photographic and fairly comprehensive, mine is far more sketchy.

Anyway I re-watched the Scrapped Movie recently and it reminded me of the spiel I have when teaching (been a while since I taught a beginner class) and reminded me of the need to be away of this when cropping. It also made me think about the cropping we do as digital photographers.

A comment on ScrapWitch about not being able to crop photos as they are already so zoomed in with digital made me think. Are we eliminating the ability to discriminate Historical Significance in our pictures with the technological advances digital provide.

I mean we can zoom in and check the image as we take it. Once its taken and put on the computer we can then digitally crop the photo, edit out with clone tools the bits we don't want etc etc.

I urge each of you to seriously consider not doing any editing, and zooming, any Cropping of at least some of the images you put into albums. Those background 'bits' are so significant in recording True history that it would be a shame to lose them all.

So A picture of the messy sink, the bookshelf untidy, your Childs face dirty while not the most perfect picture are capturing the moment, when we record our images as photos to preserve the past we need to actually leave those extra bits in.

Needless to say, Don't stop editing pics, just leave some 'Whole' as well.

Happy photography and preservation.

Clone Tool Basics

2008-03-01T08:41:00.002+11:00

BEFORE AFTER

The Clone tool is a basic tool that allows you to add, remove, change areas in your image.

The Clone tool is located in TouchUp Menu in the editing screen. (I also have it in my Common editors).

Very Basic knowledge needed.

The Clone tool works like a stamp.
You select an area and the brush then Stamps that over the next area you choose.
You can use it as a brush and the selection area and the overwritten area will move together for the process.
The area you are picking up is shown by a + sign.
The area you are overwriting is shown by a circle.
You are in control of the size of the brush.
You can change the brush hardness.
To reselect the area use the shift Key or simply change the brush size or hardness.

Initial selection (First and everytime you change brush size or hardness).
Initially you will have a Circle with a Stamp in it displayed.
Click the clone from area. The stamp dissapears.

Click the Clone to area and a + sign appears at the clone from area.

The reselection process without changing brush sizes.
Hold down the Shift Key.

A Small Stamp appears in the circle.

While still holding the Shift Key - Click the area you wish to clone from. The stamp and the + sign dissapear. Release the Shift Key. Move the Circle to the area you wish to clone to. Click on that area. The + sign reappears where you where previously.
Each time you change brush sizes you will be required to reslect the areas you wish to clone from and to. Simply Click the clone from and then the clone to.

My Top Ten Tips Can be found HERE!

Questions most welcome.

New Pics

2008-02-27T07:07:00.001+11:00

Sorry been a bit slack with editing, blogging and everything in general. The above pic is of a little girl I babysat the other day and my William. They are playing in shredded paper. They had a lovely time and I got some fantastic pics. This one however I wasn't too pleased with, but a little fiddling in the light settings made it much more acceptable to me. :-)

Digital Vs Traditional Scrapbooking

2008-02-19T06:17:00.002+11:00

Digital and Traditional Scrapbooking do NOT need to be in compitition with each other, there is no reason that you can't use both forms.

However as to why you would choose one over the other is what this article is meant to do. It is possible, although tricky to use both digital and traditional pages in the same book. You can have your digital pages printed and then mount them on a page in a traditional book.

First some definitions:
Traditional Scrapbooking - The art of making photo books with papers, embelishments and photos.
Digital Scrapbooking - The art of imitating traditional scrapbooking in a digital realm and then having it printed in a book or leaving it on the computor and sharing online.

So which should you use?
First you need to answer the questions: Why Do YOU Scrap? What is it that you are trying to acheive? What is real sharing to you? What stops you from scrapping?

The answers of course to these questions are personal and will be different for everyone. However it does seem that there are a lot of common themes among the answers.

Why Do You Scrap?
The craft - A love of doing something crafty.
The socialisation - At crops, online etc.
Photo and Story preservation.

What is it that you are trying to Acheive?
The perfect page.
An artistic outlet.
Photos and Stories documented and preserved for generations to come.

What is 'real' sharing to you?
This answer will be at different levels for different people. For some people sharing on the computor is enough, for others the touch feel of a printed image is important (this can be on a page in a book) and lastly the printed photos are stand alone individual pictures on a page, rather than part of a page.

What stops you scrapping? (Top four answers)
Time
Money
Creativity
Space

So which way should you go? Lets look at the answers to the questions above.

If you are scrapping for the craft then it is possible to meet this in both areas. Although to see digital scrapping as a craft is hard for non-computor literate scrappers. For me both digital and traditional meet this need. It will be different for different people.

The socialisation. Now this of course comes back to your definition of socialisation. If you are unable to feel the socialisation effects of online forums, then digital scrapping is not really likely to meet this need. Traditional crops are a better form of socialisation. It is however possible to combat this with the bvringing of laptops to a group area and scrapping on laptops in a group. Many would argue its not the same, and to be honest I tend to agree.

Photo and Story Preservation, both mediums address this particulalry well. Personally I am more at home with in depth journalling on the computor and prefer digital for that aspect.

An Artistic Outlet - Again both traditional and digital scrapbooking can meet this need depending on your personality and preference.

What Stops you Scrapping? (To me this is where digital comes into play big time).
Four factors generally stop us scrapping. Time, space, money and creativity.
Now I can help people to see how to overcome these areas with traditional scrapping and if your heart desire is to traditionally scrap then you yourself know how you overcome those obsticles. If however your desire is to preserve memories with the least amount of 'fight' against the above obsticles then I seriously urge you to consider Digital scrapping.

Time - In my experience digital scrapping is significatly faster. The program I am using has been designed with not largely computor literate people in mind. It may take some practice to get quick, however so does traditional scrapping. One of the biggest time savers with digital is the lack of set up and pack up times. Also the searching for embelishmesnts and papers is by far quicker. (At least in the program I am using).

Space - Well the space on the hard-drive does become an issue, however the amount of area that an external hard-drive takes up in comparison to traditional scrapping supplies is negligible. The work area is also considerably more confined. (This is coming from a person who is currently storing ample amounts of scrapping supplies, now even if we limit it to only my personal use stuff, I am currently storing my scrap stuff on two tables (really need to attack that) a large cart, a huge cupboard and some smaller under bed areas).

Money - Overall the costs of digital seem higher, until you take into account the reusability of your products. All the kits are infinite in paper, stickers etc. The books themselves seem rather expensive (I am strictly comparing costs of CM traditional v's digital) however when you calculate papers, stickers and photo developing into the equation then you come out about on par. It is also important to note the reusable supplies needed for traditional scrapping and the costs associated with them, your trimmers, punches, templates etc. Once the initial advanced program is purchased you have all of these at your access for free. for basic scrappers that dont use a huge amount of embilishments you also have the option of the FREE downlaodable program, which does still open a wide range of posibbilities.

Creativity - There are two arguements I have heard regarding digital scrapbooking. It stifles your creativity and it aids it. Now this depends upon the level of creativity you desrire.
If you feel that creativity is a reason not to scrap then digital albums allow you the ease of not needing it. The downloadable templates come in a range of colours and designs. If you can manage to pick a colour or design set then all you need to do is pick the number of photos for your page and pick which template you would like to use. If you struggle with creativity then pick one theme and use it for the entire book. The basic FREE downlaodable software will cover your needs nicely.
Regarding the stiffling of creativity I would say that digital enhances your need to be more creative if you feel that you need lumpy, bumpy bits on your page for it to be creative then digital probably wont meet your needs, however I challange you to do a traditional page with completly flat embisishments made only from paper. This doesn't stiffle your creativity it infact makes you draw upon more of it to get the effect you so desire. The same can be said of digitally scrapping. Making the page look as though it has texture, when of course it does not, making people want to touch the page because an embilishment looks as though its going to jump out at you. I beleive that the people that say that the creativity is stifled actually fear having to stretch the creativity to a new level to acheive such pages.

In conclusion -
If you scrap for craft (and dont beleive on screen manipulation to meet that need) and socialisation then digital scrapbooking is probably not for you. If you beleive that a photo must be traditionally printed and really stand off the page for it to be truely shared then I suggest you stick with traditional scrapbooking.

If however you are time and space poor, feel that you dont really care how your memories are preserved, so long as they are then digital scrapping is the way to go. If you have a project that has been hanging over your head (and you already have the images as digital) then why not try a small project. Continue with traditional scrapbooking for all the reasons you started, yet comlete at least one project quickly and effeciently.

If the thought of getting out scissors and glue (I dont use glue) makes you break into a sweat, yet the computor is your friend, then digital scrapping is the way to go.

So which way have I gone??
I scrap primarily for two reasons. I want my memories preserved and I want the socialisation.
I dont scrap for Space and Time.

So for me, I choose BOTH. For all the photos I already have printed I choose to continue to scrap slowly and at crops. I choose to use this as quality time with my husband (who also scraps). However for the images I am yet to print, I am yet to take, I will be digitally scrapping, at least until I run out of photos. As I manage to catch up on my printed photos I will be selecting images and making 'crafty pages' traditionally.

I have already done a faithbook digitally and the amount of journalling I put in it would never have happened if I had done the album traditionally. For me it is just as real and heartfelt in a printied bound book as if I had done it traditionally.

Good Luck and whichever way you choose, Happy Scrapping.

Selections from Noahs MV

2008-02-09T17:55:00.000+11:00

Ok So I have been doing the arduos task of scanning and then putting into a digital album the two films that my brother brought home with him from the kimberlys. As I scanned though all my images ended up with a white static noise on them.
So I had to go through and blur or remove the noise. Looks much better afterwards in MM. Doesn't really appear well in these smaller images.

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These items were sent from Creative Memories® Memory Manager

My New EntreCard

2008-02-03T17:40:00.000+11:00

I felt I needed something different even originally. The prompt to do someone elses kinda gave me the nudge to finish off my own as well. I just picked 3 images and pasted them together in Paint and used the Text in paint as well.

Feedback???

Oh and in case you didn't notice I also updated my header. :-)

Entre Card Design

2008-02-03T13:18:00.000+11:00

Morning all,
I was asked this morning If I could design EntreCard business cards. (by http://www.lighteningsblogworld.com/) Hmm No not really thinks I. But of course said I'd try. So I did and created the above. (It of course needs to be shrunk for the EntreCard slot).

How one asks??

Ok well I trawled through countless images on the web looking for a pic of someone at a puter. Then thinking of course that an EntreCard needs to be intrigueing to click on it, realised that a pic of a baby at a puter would reach that bit. I didn't really find anything that was what I was looking for, however was reminded that I have a pic (or 7) of P sitting at the puter typing etc. That particular image is of course in my yet to be sorted 'pile'. So I found a pic of me blogging with babys help. Kinda covers both worlds.

Took the image to paint and added the top and bottom texts. Then took the image back to MM and seriously overfocused it to get the cartoon look.

To Do this select your image, then Focus (Mine is in my common editors, but can also be found under adjustments). You will be given three options - Soft Focus, Sharpen Lite, Sharpen. In the case of wanting to Cartoon choose Sharpen, select Done and then repeat until desired effect is acheived. You must complete the action by clicking on Done each time or nothing will change. If the final one is over focused too much and the previous one is not enough you can use the Sharpen Lite option to get an in the middle one.

Use the 'Review Change' option at the bottom of the menu to check which you prefer, and remember that in MM you almost cant overwrite the original so you are safe to play. :-)

I then chose to email the image to my friend to see if she likes it and resized it in this function at the same time so as to meet EntreCards sizing standards.

Later today I shall trawl through my unsorted images once more and find the three I want to put on my own card. I like the one I have curtesy of Jay from Http://www.datmoney.com/
However it was only ever to be temporary. I will post my completed entrecard business card ad later today.

Faith Journal Book - OT

2008-01-31T14:01:00.000+11:00

Hi All
Sorry for the bulk email and being off topic in some groups. However I beleive its relevent to everyone.

I am going to try and compile a book of different peoples beliefs to do with faith, religion and God. I am not going to make any money from this. I am just curious as to other peoples beliefs. And want to demonstrate that people of all beliefs can benifit from listening to other peoples beliefs.

What I am looking for is a range (hence the bulk email) of people from different religions, faiths, backgrounds and beleifs. I will compile a small list (no more than 10) of questions that I would like people to answer and choose one or two photos to go with their story and beleifs.

Once I have a good range ( I am looking at about 100 people at least) then I will create a Story Book and have it Digitally made and printed. I will be using the book as a demonstration for my business of what you can do with SB. You can choose to have your name or be anonymus on the page completed for you.

Once its completed I will be allowing other contributors to purchase the book for themselves. It will end up being rather expensive due to the costs of a story book. If we get 100 people the cost will be $171 (approx) I think. Not sure if a bulk discount will be available, more on that after. If you contribute you are under no obligation to buy the end product.

For people that have SB+ they can complete a 12 by 12 page in the creator and email it to me as a Jpg and I will use the full page photo bleed option to put it into SB 2.0. For people that have SB 2.0 you may choose any page from the free downloads and let me know how you want your images and text placed and I will follow your directions to the best of my ability. For people who have no idea what SB is then you can just email me your text and pictures and a colour preference and I will place them on a page for you.

Any interested parties can email me off group at amgrantham@aapt.net.au I will be compiling the questions over the next few days and will be emailing them out to the first group of participants on Monday or Tuesday.

Train Pic Clone Edit

2008-01-27T08:55:00.001+11:00

I loved this pic. And I do actually love it with the mirror in it so you can actually place it in the scheme of things. However for my Sons album page I wanted the mirror gone so I did.

Tips for Clone Brush:
1. Unclick the mouse often. It saves that section and you can then undo in smaller bits rather than large chunks.
2. Line up on a straight bit when choosing your area to Clone from and to. (In the instance of the blurred road in this pic I lined up on the grey/green diaganol line and followed that.)
3. Play with brush pressures. (In the one above I started with the hardest brush pressure and it ended up with circular obvious clone bits. I then dropped right down to the lowest setting and just went over the area a couple of times.)
4. Make sure when you take pictures and know you are going to want to clone something out later that you note (or even take a picture) of what should be there. This is especially important if the area is intricate or different to the surround.
5. Have patience. I have been doing this a while and its still not always easy.
6. Make sure you are comfortable with the program you are using. (I find MM to be quite easy, I find photoshop to be difficult and I seem to have less control, I do know of others that prefer the other way around).
7. Practice easy clones first. (Like short green grass, or a brick wall that is consistent).
8. Zoom in, and Zoom out often to check on your work. If you are doing finer detail its important to be close, however zoom back out everynow and again to make sure the whole picture still looks right.
9. Practice Practice Practice.
10. Seek help from others when you need it. Ask questions. Ask opinions.

Most of all have fun with it. This shouldn't be a chore!!!

Story Book Is Coming

2008-01-24T22:05:00.000+11:00

Recieved my consultant magazine today and it tells me that Story Book will be released here on March 1st this year. I am so very excited. Story Book is a program that is designed to allow you to create Digital Scrap books and then have them printed as Photo Books.
I personally cheated and did one through an American consultant friend and was so pleased with the results. I am in the processes of comparing CM prices with those of competitors and shall post the results once they are tabulated.
The program is sooooo easy to use and the results are just fantastic. I tell you people this will be fantastic. I am so looking forward to my show stand in March now. I was struggling a bit with traditional scrapbooking and now I can promote this.
Keep yourselves posted by coming back often. I will soon be moving into not only comparing Memory manager to other programs, but Story Book as well.

Wonders are coming, and you can see my creations here first. :-)

Have a Great day all. I sure will tomorrow (I am going Cricut Shopping :-)

2008-01-23T16:45:00.000+11:00

Just playing with the clone and crop tools. Love this Pic. My Mum asked me the other day how to crop the pictures for a page and my answer - well first upload it to memory manager crop, clone and generally enhance, then print it as a 5 by 7 and layer the originals underneath. So here I have cropped, cloned and generally enhanced. Will print it for her in the next few days.

Comparison Issues

2008-01-22T12:27:00.000+11:00

Ok Really wanted to compare the tools between photoshop and Memory Manager, even with the comment left on the previous post I still cant find the Burn tool. The hand in the version I am using just increases the size and allows me to move the image around. (Had been trying to work that out too so acheived something).

I am loving the complex aspects of Adobe Photoshop, I am however becoming more convinced that Memory Manager is the way to go for simpler editing processes and definatly what I would be recomending to the beginner photo editor.

I will be finalising my comparison table for Adobe Photoshop Elements, Memory Manager and Picasa in the next 8 days (at which point my free trial runs out). I would love some feedback on the aspects that people would like compared.

Thanks guys,

Amy

Paccy and I portrait edit

2008-01-16T15:41:00.000+11:00

The above image was edited in Memory Manager. I used the remove colour brush on my teeth. The lighten brush under my eyes. The clone and Blur brushes to remove the snot from P's nose (Both tip and nostril). I then increased the contrast slightly and the brightness slightly on the entire pic. Thoughts anyone??

Auto colour Fix in Memory Manager

2008-01-12T11:50:00.000+11:00

Alright Ladies and Gents. One tool today. The "Apply Auto Colour Fix" found in Colour and Light, then Quick Colour Fix. I love the simplicity of this tool. Basically you select the image, open it, click on this one click feature (I have mine on the Common editors) and Wallah perfect Colour photo.

The first Image I have for you is a scanned in faded ultrasound image of my first born W.
Before: After:

In One step I was able to redefine this in the black background that should be present.

Image two - A pic of my lovely boys (first born a bit older here) asleep. On my camera I used the 'use available light' setting. Which I must admit does make taking pictures easier in the dark, however it tends to leave an Orangy glow. Again only the 'Auto Colour Fix' option is used in the editing.

Before: After:

This pic isn't too bad originally, however the 'Auto Colour Fix' lightens it enough to make the colours more true.

Before: After:

This is my first born (going back a while again) it was learning to stand on his own. A very quick pic on my part, easily recoloured with 'Quick Colour Fix'
Before: After:

Ok, had to throw in a scenery pic cause this is where all the huge benefits are noticed (works wonders on out of windows on aeroplanes shots, couldn't find them they aren't in my Memory Manager Vault) so thought I'd appease DH and include a steam train shot.

Before: After:

I will concede that it doesn't work on all photos. It also wont do anything for images that are actually well taken in the first place, but for your amateur photographer that would like more professional results (or a semi -professional photographer that has to contend with her husband and sons rotten composition and colour perception) this is THE tool for you.

It is easy to find, easy to operate, and easy to undo if the results aren't what you are after.

10 Stars for the "Apply Auto Colour Fix".

How Cool Is this Pic

2008-01-11T09:26:00.000+11:00

And you know the coolest thing, its real! Well this particular shot of its not, however here is the un-edited version. I followed a simple process to get to the Cool image. First I cropped the image.
Then I used the Darken (Dodge) brush on my arm. (I changed the brush size to fit within my arm and used the brush pressure on the first notch from the left). Then continuing with the Darken Brush (now in the largest brush size and hardest brush pressure I went over my torso and removed the line.
Next using the clone brush I erase the wires and poles.

Then using the clone brush again I erased the growth out of my waist.

From this -> To this ->

And there you have the final product as above. I did also play a bit with this image in the light editors and colour editors.

And last but by no means least the really cool star in the sun that I found with the add colour brush….

This was found by just playing around. I couldn't get any colour in the centre of the sun, however in the fringes got this really odd yellow green circle. I thought it was pretty cool, although no real value except of course fun value.

And really last and most definitely not least…

Over focused several (3ish) times and then adjusted with the light.

Top 10 Sorting Tips.

2008-01-10T10:43:00.000+11:00

Espicially relevant for those using Creative Memories Memory Manager

Realise and accept that you need a system to Sort images.

Work out how you look for photos and backwards engineer your sort system.

Utilise the original Sort box categories.

Upload photos in small chunks on a daily basis.

Use the un-sorted tracking features to allow you to sort in smaller chunks.

Do not add in date folders (utilise the timeline function instead)

Do your sorting in the Import Date View.

For events that have a lot of similar pics group and sort using CTRL Click.

For images that are vastly different use the one click, hide in a folder method.

Sort regularly to keep on top of things.

A new view on Family pics.

2008-01-06T15:14:00.000+11:00

The above is a page made with my edited photos in Creative Memories Story book. (Thanks Renee). I needed to use a few effects to get to the four final pictures. Firstly I used the timer on my Camera to take the picture in my lounge. The original looks like this:

So the first thing I did was crop the photo. Double click on your image in MM to open the edit screen, then select adjustments, the fourth one down is Crop. In this instance I chose 4 by 6 landscape to crop to. This is the size I normally print my pcitures. It is important when cropping photos that you maintain the aspect ratio that is needed for printing. If you plan on using them on the internet this isn't as important and you can use any crop size.

The cropped image:

I then saved the "image as". This allows me to access the smaller cropped image and also the larger original. It is virtually impossible to over write the original image in MM. This has its benefits however can get frustrating when wanting to make multiple changes to one image and maintain several copies. The easiest way to overcome this is to use the "save as" option.

Once I had saved a second image I moved on to the second process. Blackening out the background. To do this I selected Darken (dodge) under the Touchup menu. I then used the brush in various sizes to blacken out the background. I used the brush at its highest brush pressure and used the big brush for the outer edges and zoomed in and used the smaller sized brushes closer to the people.

Giving this effect:

That looks much better in my opinion. However I wanted to do a full page spread with this photo. I didn't really want to blow it up. (Although I have since decided that this image will now be given a double page spread, one side will be the above image blown up to 8 by 10, the other side will be the intial page at the very top of this post). So I wanted to include multiple images. I decided to have an image highlighting each of us. So using the remove colour brush (found 3rd from the bottom in Touchup menu) I removed the colour from all but one person. I then used the save image as feature to save that image (P - Highlight) then went back to the above image and redid the process highlighting another person (W - Highlight). I repeated till the four of us had a highlighted image.

The highlighted P:

Then finally I emailed them to my friend to put into a storybook (not yet released here) page and got her to email it back to me. To email the pictures I selected them using the "ctrl" click method. you could also drag them to the clipboard and share from there. Once you have selected your pictures click on share (above the main screen, above the clipboard and in the right click menu), select email. A pop up box appears. Select your email provided, I always use default. You can then click Ok and an email will be formed with the attachemetns. Add in your message and click send. In this instance, however I chose to use theadvanced features to change the size of the image (which is really a preferable thing to do if you have a high resolution camera). To do this click on advanced options (blue link above ok/cancel buttons). The window expands and you can change the file name and the size of the image. I chose to use the large email size. MM then automatically resized my images and attached them to an email.

To get the pictures up on the web I exported them to my desktop. To Export - select Share, then Export (a pop up window appears). In the window you can choose to a folder or to a cd/dvd. I chose to a folder, browsed the computor by clicking on the ... at the end of the folder text box. I also agian used advanced features. The first image I exported as a Large web pic on its own. The remaining pics I selected all together and then I chose small web pic. MM automatically resized the images and placed them on my desktop for easy finding. I will now go and delete these from my desktop to save on my computors memory. Too easy.

I hope that is clear. Questions gratefully recieved and I will answer as many as I can.

Condensed Organisation Comparison

2008-01-05T11:50:00.001+11:00

I noted a few differences between the programs (MM and APSE) that may impact on a decision between the two. I have only included differences in my analysis. The actual process is not examined here, as they were primarily both the same. Some differences between the sorting systems are; MM provides a second method for sorting. APSE has very cute colour coded tags that are visible in all views of the images. MM has two simple ways of assessing which images are not yet sorted.

Both programs have the ability to find images with no sorting by the user. APSE goes so far as time of import in import date view. APSE allows you to view by original folder on your computer. MM allows you to name a group of images the same and find with search feature. MM allows you to view a month, year, or decade together. APSE allows only one day of images displayed at a time.

In terms of finding images once sorted, again both programs are very similar. APSE - Elimination reduction of a folder/tag search criteria. MM ability to display items from two unrelated folders/tags. MM's search function much easier to navigate and use.

Finding images in the program outside the program is impossible with MM, APSE however leaves photos available through Windows search.

My Personal Conclusion:

After reviewing purely organisational data I conclude that neither program is better or worse overall. Each had areas of importance depending on your needs.

Images within the program: If you like colour coding, "face tagging" and do lots of imports in a day then APSE is better. If you aren't a fan of drag and drop sorting methods, need to be able to sort little chunks and easily know where you are up to, then go for Memory Manager.

ASPE keeps the original folders on your computer (something some days I wish I had) however MM will export easily. I also found it much easier to find images with MM than APSE. Unless you keep your images well stored and sorted within the windows folder (and if you do that, you don't need any organisational program) then MM wins here as well. It takes as long to find the images not well sorted within APSE as it does to find a similarly unsorted image and export it out from within MM.

My conclusion: I will continue with MM. And it is what I would recommend to most other everyday photographers and users.

Happy Organising.

Organisation Comparison

2008-01-04T14:55:00.000+11:00

Task: Compare and Contrast Memory Manager (MM) and Adobe Photo Shop Elements 4 (APSE) in terms of Organisation.

In any program there are two main areas of importance to me regarding organisation of digital images; the ability to sort images and the ability to then find images. Both of these are discussed in detail throughout this document. In the first section I compare the programs abilities to "sort". I do this through comparing two important functions. 1. How does one sort within the program? 2. Secondly how does one keep track of sorted images and unsorted images? Then in the second section I compare the ability to find images both pre and post sorting, as well as outside the program.

Housekeeping:

Each program has a similar system for labelling images, viewing images etc. Generally the names for the same system are different in the two programs. For example in the system of sorting: MM has Sort boxes and folders. APSE has Keyword Tags and categories/sub-categories. Both systems are the same in principle they have just been given different names. As I discuss and compare these programs I will use both programs names with a / between them in the format MM/APSE. MM's name will always be first followed by ASPE.

Summary:This is placed at the top to provide easy access. Below is a more detailed assesment.

Differences I noted between the programs that may impact on a decision between the two:

Section 1: (Sorting).

Giving images folders/tags: MM has a secondary method for this.

Creating New folders/tags: MM has a secondary method for this.

Size of Image while Tagging: APSE has a "face tagging" feature.

Section 1:(Monitoring Progress)

APSE has colour coded visible tags for easy ID of main category sorting.

MM has the ability to display items not yet in any folder in two ways.

Section 2 (Finding with no sorting)

APSE goes so far as time of import in import date view.

APSE allows you to view by original folder on your computer.

MM allows you to name a group of images the same and find with search feature.

MM allows you to view a month, year, or decade together. APSE allows only one day of images displayed at a time.

Section 2 (Finding with pre-sorting done)

APSE - Elimination reduction of a folder/tag search criteria.

MM ability to display items from two unrelated folders/tags.

MM search function much easier to navigate and use.

Section 2 (Outside the program)

APSE leaves photos available through Windows search.

Detailed Analysis and comparison.

Section 1. Sorting Comparison.

Both systems are primarily the same; Images are assigned to Folders/subcategories and they are within the sort boxes/keyword tags. Various methods can be used to allocate images to folders/keyword categories, once allocated various methods can be used to then find images again. Areas that will be closely compared in this section include: putting images into folders/tags, creating new folders/tags, removing images from folders/tags, monitoring which images are sorted into folders/tags.

Initial Sorting:

Giving Images tags:

Both programs use the drop and drag feature. The drag and drop feature entails selecting either one or more images on the screen where the sort boxes and folders/keyword tags menu is visible and dragging the image to the appropriate folder/keyword tag.

As far as I could tell that was the only way in which to allocate images to a tag in APSE. It worked in all the views.

In Memory manager the drag and drop method only works in some views, there is however a second way in which you can do this in the sort boxes and folders view. It is the only way to do it when in the Import date view. This involves Right clicking an image (one or more images can be selected initially) and select add to a folder, select appropriate folders and click add. This feature allows you to add images to multiple folders at once. It also allows for more error in mouse driving skills, as you select with a Tick which folders you wish the images to enter rather than needing to co-ordinate "dropping" on the correct folder.

Creating new Tags/folders:

Both programs have a similar process to create new folders/tags. At the top of the Folders/tags box there is a button ("Create +"/ "+ v") and a simple process follows to create new Sort boxes/ Keyword Tags or folders/tags.

MM also has this ability in the right click add to a folder view. At the top of the screen you can click New Sort Box or New folder to add a new one of either and instantly add your selected image(s) into it.

Removing Image Tags:

In both programs you initially right click on the image. On the menu select: Remove a tag. In APSE you then select the tag in the side menu and click. MM a pop up box appears and you do the same thing. In both programs images can only be removed from one folder at a time. I am guessing this is a safety measure to help prevent your sorting being undone easily.

Size of Image while Tagging:

Both programs allow you to change the size of your images while allocating to a tag/folder. Allowing you to make them smaller and view multiple images to sort in big bunches, or zoom in and see closer faces, places etc. One extra benefit given by APSE is that you can "Face Tag" basically this feature pulls out faces from the picture and puts them on there own in a screen allowing you to just tag by face and not having to find who's in the picture.

Monitoring your progress:

It is hard work to sort images and can't always be done in one sitting. The ability to determine which images are sorted and which are not has great value. Both programs have this ability, however they are very different in the approach.

APSE has colour-coded tags that attach themselves to the picture. These can be seen in all views in APSE. This allows you to see those images that have been tagged into various areas by the little tag pics at the bottom. These are colour coded so it is easy to see those that you have sorted into people, places etc. This allows you to sort by people one day, places another etc and you can prioritise which area you want sorted first.

MM provides a couple of ways of monitoring your progress. The two most basic options are:

1. In the Import Date view you are able to check a box that says "Hide Items once I place them in a folder". Thus only displaying the pictures not in a folder from a particular import date. Using this method you can go from date to date checking you have allocated all images. You can use the below to identify easily the dates you need to go to.

In the Sort boxes and ratings view you are able to select the not in any folder "un-folder" which is second on the list of folders/sort boxes. In this view you can hold your cursor over the image and it will display the Import date so you can go to method one easily if you prefer.

Once placed in a folder in either option the images disappear leaving only those that remain to be sorted.

Within the Import Date view you can unselect the box to sort images by larger category if necessary.

Both programs allow you to view which folders/tags are already asigned to an image. To do this you need to go to the details/properties tab/window. In MM this is automatically displayed when in the Folders/Sort boxes view, it is a side bar (right side) and always there. In APSE you can select to have the properties of an image visible, (Right click on image, check the tick is visible next to properties the last option in the menu) it is then a floating box on screen.

In both programs you need to have selected folders/tabs for them to be visible. Once selected both programs keep this information visible and you can switch between images and it will change to the new selected image.

MM will also allow you to have selected multiple images and will display the folders that they are all contained in.

Section 2: Finding Photos.

With no pre-sorting by the user:

Due to the time consuming nature of the sorting process it is important to know that you can find images without any actions by the user. Both programs provide this using a date feature.

Both programs allow you to find images by Import Date. (MM select view my memory vault by Import Date on the left hand side bar. APSE Click on Display then choose Import Batch.) Both programs sort the images imported by date. APSE goes one step further and also includes a time. Beneficial if you do a lot of imports in one day.

Both programs also allow you to find images by date of image. In MM you do this by using the time scale (found at the bottom of the images in Sort boxes and ratings display screen). You can select a day, month, year, or decade to display images from. A slider bar is used to accordion the dates larger (decade) and smaller (day). In APSE you choose Date View in the Display options (top right hand of screen), a calendar then appears and you can choose between year, month, day views of the calendar to select which day you want images from. You are unable to select more than one day at a time to view in this mode. In both programs the days with pictures on them are highlighted.

It should be noted (in both programs) that some images wont have an accurate date on them and will need to be changed to use this feature accurately. Images that have been scanned will have the scan date instead of the actual date. Both programs allow for this and make it easy to change the date. (MM the date is in the details panel displayed on the right, simply change the date and click elsewhere to save. APSE in properties edit date). Both programs will allow "Fuzzy" dates. "Fuzzy" dates allow you to select a year on its own, a month and year, or a day, month and year with no time. Both programs also allow you to enter time in minutes and hours. Memory manager will also allow you to enter seasons and year.

APSE also allows you to find images by the folder location they have on the computer.

For very basic organisation with minimal work Memory Manager allows you to name a group of images at once, ie all pics of one event can be given that name and found that way. MM will allow you to name a number of images with the same name. APSE needs them to be different.

Finding after sorting images:

Both programs allow you to view images by the tags/folders you have assigned to them. Click on the folder/tag and it will view the images in that folder/tag.

MM allows you to view images from two or more multiple folders not necessarily in the same category allowing you to have (for example) all photos of William and all photos of Our house displayed and nothing else.

Both programs allow you to view images that are in two or more folders concurrently. For example you can view all photos of William and "in our house".

APSE allows you to eliminate images from another tag from the view of an initial tag. For example: all pictures of William Without "in our house".

What does this mean for the average user?? The difference is really negligible and only matters in how you sort and search for items. If you are likely to want to find pictures of just one child on his/her own, then APSE is the better. If you want to display pictures of more than one thing at a time, for example a day at the zoo. There will be photos of William, photos of William and the zoo and photos of just the zoo. To make an album you will want to select from the third option, only available in MM. Both really have the same amount of value; it is dependant on which way you are more likely to search; with elimination of a folder/tag or with desire for both folders/tags??

Both programs allow you to utilise the Date View feature with the above to further narrow search criteria.

Both programs allow you to find images by searching the stories/captions added to your images.

MM has a view called Search. In that you enter the search word. It will then allow you to search either the name, the Tell the story, or both. You can also choose to search the entire story or just the beginning.

APSE allows you to do something similar in the Create Smart Album option. Smart albums are albums that automatically collect files that match defined criteria. You can add in a number of criteria for the items to meet. Including filename, rating, keyword tags, picture details (mega pixels, camera make and more) and notes. It was a rather extensive list, and then an album is formed with the items that met those criteria. I imagine that as new images are added that meet the criteria that they too go in the new album, however I am not sure.

Finding images Outside the program:

MM completely randomises its sorting in Windows folders. It is almost impossible to find your photo in its folder in Windows.

APSE leaves the images in the original folders. From APSE you can go directly to the folder that the image is in, this can easily be found within APSE the "View by folders".

MM will easily export photos to an area of your computer that you designate. You can then access the image through windows.

My Personal Conclusion:

After reviewing purely organisational data I conclude that neither program is better or worse overall.

My personal choice (Please note: Individual people will have different areas that are of importance to them.) My personal area's of importance in regards organisation are: easy system, ability to sort a bit at a time, and being able to come back and find my place with ease. Easy system is really met by both programs. Memory Manager does have some functions that are by far easier as does Adobe Photo Shop Elements 4, overall they equal out for an all over r/v.

Initial sorting. Both programs are fairly equal in the drag and drop method. MM does provide a second method and personally I like being able to add an image to more than one folder at a time. I must admit the "face tagging" feature did really appeal to me, although not enough to change programs. The ability to sort a bit at a time again is really met by both programs. The ability to come back and find my place easily is met by Memory Manager to a higher level and easier for me personally to use. As much as I love the colourful tagging system in adobe Photo Shop Elements, it doesn't beat the ability to go to "items not sorted" as provided by Memory Manager. In terms of later finding photos for progjects etc Personally for me the ability to display non-related images on the screen is of greater value than the elimination ability. While I will grant it certainly has its merits, I am more likely to be looking for images from two different groups in conjunction than wanting to eliminate subjects, areas from a search. You how ever may be different and if only looking for a program based on organisational merits I suggest you take that into consideration. :-) The ability to narrow down to time appeals to me right at the minute as I am doing three or four uploads a day as I transfer images from the old computor, however in an everyday user context a daily find function is generally enough. ASPE keps the original folders on your computer (something somedays I wish I had) however MM will export easily. The only time I find I need the image available elsewhere is when I am uploading to the net. For sharing images I can do all I need to from within MM. The ability to view a whole month using the date find feature really appeals to the album planner in me, and the disorganised person as well (means I can look more broadly for an image I've misplaced :-) rather than having to browse each day singularly). I struggled to use the search feature in APSE and it is buried in the album maker section. MM far excells in that area. So to sum up, while I will grant that for someone not yet used to any program either would be just as benificial for pure organisation techniques MM is still my personal preference. And of course what I am recommending.

Happy Organising.

Selections from My Memory Vault

2008-01-01T20:29:00.000+11:00

Hi All,

Been playing with the timer on my camera :-) And the editing tools available with Paint (as in basic comes with windows paint) and Memory Manager. Put a bit of time into these and want someone/anyone to notice how good they are.

Will post detailed instructions on doing this over the next few days.

Amy

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These items were sent from Creative Memories® Memory Manager

Introduction

2008-01-01T19:50:00.000+11:00

Ok Ladies and Gents,

Why am I creating Another blog??

This is for me to share knowledge, training, odd bits, and commitment to CM digital products. The primary purpose of this blog is to translate things I find in the scrapping magazines for photo shop to Memory Manger easy to follow instructions. I will also compare programs. Share my personal work - the trials, tribulations and joys.

Upcoming topics shall include:

Initial sorting.

Maintaing sorted images in a time effecient manner.

Comparison between MM and Photo Shop Elements 4

Creating Albums - the basics.

Any questions? Please ask and I will do my best to answer them for you.

Welcome I hope you enjoy.

Amy