Historian Software Update WOW!

Guess what folks - Panstoria's Historian software just got better

NOTE: No... your Memory Manager software will not be updated with these new features.  Although your MM software will continue to work, it will not be able to receive bug fixes, updates and new features!  But, don't despair... for just $40, you can install Historian on your computer and get all this great stuff too!!!

TO PURCHASE HISTORIAN:  Click on the icon on the right hand side of my blog that says BUY HISTORIAN SOFTWARE.  Once you are logged into your account, you can order the software and I get a little kickback discount from Panstoria for telling you about it! THANKS... (questions about how to do this, contact me)

Update 4 of the Historian software includes numerous improvements to the previous version, including:

 

1) The addition of the Perfectly Clear™ image correction technology.  (Perfectly Clear is a trademark of Athentech Imaging, Inc.)

 

2) Watermarking of images.  Custom watermarks can now be easily added to images in the vault or to the exported version of images.

 

3) Support for maintaining, organizing, and viewing PDF images in the vault.

 

4) Support for the storage and viewing of animated GIFs.

 

5) Performance improvements to the image editing process.

 

6) Numerous bug fixes.

 

All together, these will provide an even better experience in your use of the best photo management software available.

NOTE: Installing the update will not affect your current vaults or other settings.

CLICK HERE for more detailed instructions and information about the new features.

Just so you know, I have both Historian and Memory Manager and Artisan and Storybook Creator running on my computer so no matter what version you are using, I can help you!  I'd suggest upgrading to Historian ASAP to get all these great new features at a SUPER reasonable price.

No matter what digital option you choose for printing your final product (Shutterfly, Panstoria, Heritage Makers, Snapfish, Blurb etc), you still need a place to organize, backup and protect your photos on your computer and this little piece of software is packed full of features at a very low price.

AND Remember, when you upload photos to Heritage Makers Studio online scrapbooking projects, you should already have them edited and their features enhanced before you do!

IF YOU ARE BUYING HISTORIAN - DON'T forget to click through using the box on the right side of my blog- that is the only way I get credit (my credit doesn't affect your sale).

Jazz Up Your Valentines

You love to use your Photo Design software (I use Storybook Creator - now called Panstoria Artisan) to create album pages, but what about to make custom photo Valentines???

Create a custom page project, add photos and embellish your photos to your HEART'S CONTENT (pun intended).  Did you not prepare for Valentine's Day or do you find yourself snowed in under the most recenet norEastern snowmaggeden?  Well... this is something you can make without even leaving the house.

AND... if you can't get to a photo developer store because it's too much of a snowy mess to leave the house, well, post your Valentines on Facebook... (or instagram or twitter) and make your sweetie the most popular LOVER on the planet!

Here's what I posted today (Valentine's Day and 25th Anniversary) my wishes to my lovely hubby.  Because he's working from home due to the weather, I had to hide my laptop screen from him while I designed but when he hopped on facebook during a conference call, he LOVED the photo surprise waiting for him there.

Hopefully, we will shovel our way out from under the foot and a half of snow that landed on the 2foot piles of snow that were sitting around from the past kazillion snows and we will still be able to trudge into the city of Philadelphia for our planned celebration night out!   Here's hoping.

Now go and spread some LOVE!

Final Fantastic Fox - last one in the Valentine Critter Series

Hey Mr. Fox - you sure are cute.  Thanks for joining the Valentine's Paper Critters...

There you have it - photo tutorials for all these super cute Valentine Critters.  Now go have some fun with your paper and hearts!

If you missed the others, find them here:

MOUSE
CATERPILLAR
PENGUIN
LOVE BIRD
BUTTERFLY

Valentines Critter: Some LOVE for the Love Bird

This is the Love Bird.  It was the hardest one for me to build.  Not sure why but I'm really happy with the final result for this one - hope you enjoy it!

There's only one more to go... stay tuned for the FOX!

Did you miss the others in the series?  Click the links below to see them:

MOUSE
CATERPILLAR
BUTTERFLY
PENGUIN

Valentine Critters: the Penguin

Playing with Paper Lesson for Valentine's Critters - presenting the penguin.

Stay tuned, up next is the LOVE BIRD!

Did you miss the others in this series?  If so, find them here.

THE MOUSE

THE CATERPILLAR

THE BUTTERFLY

Valentine Heart Critter - the Catterpillar

This is a Playing with Paper series of Valentine's Critters.

Did you see the Butterfly?
Did you see the Mouse?

The Catterpillar is super easy.  Just two steps!

Stay tuned, next up is the PENGUIN!

Valentine Heart Critters - the Mouse

This is the second post in a series of Valentine Critters, a Playing with Paper lesson.  Did you see the BUTTERFLY VALENTINE CRITTER? 

Here we go with the MOUSE!

Enjoy!  Next up - the Caterpillar...

Playing with Paper: Valentine Heart Critters

Welcome to this episode of Playing with Paper.  I wasn't sure I'd remember how.  Tools and tape and stuff....  But it all came back.

I've put together some fun paper crafts for Valentine's Day.  I plan to teach these at my workshop tonight.  There are several critters in the bunch and all are made with hearts.  I pulled out all the Creative Memories heart punches from my retired collection of cM tools and got to work.  You can make these critters any size, with any punches or with hand-cut hearts.  Just need a bit of paper, a pen, some tape/glue, scissors and heart making tools (optional).

Add these critters to a traditional scrapbook album page OR scan or photograph these critters to turn them into your own digital art to add to a digital scrapbook page OR use these critters on a Valentine's Card or other Valentine's Day decoration.

This first lesson shows you step by step (via photos) how to make the Butterfly Valentine Critter.

Apologies for the huge variance of light and colors in these photos - the lighting in the house this morning was very inconsistent.

Next up is the Valentine Mouse Critter - stay tuned.

OH... and if you like these ideas, consider doing these things:

Become a follower of my blog, publicly OR follow with BlogLovin' OR add me to your RSS feeds OR follow my scrapbook related Pinterest boards (buttons on sidebars of blog for all these things).

Also - consider following my FACEBOOK page.  Everytime I post to this blog, I announce it from my Facebook Group Page.  Again, there's a link in the blog sidebar.

Finally - if you like other crafts, consider checking out my other crafty blog called Fly the Coop Crafts.

Digi Scrap your Stories: Words on Ice

When I was younger, I used to write all the time.  It was a way to escape, to cope, to divert my mind...

Today I don't often use writing the same way, but sometimes it just creeps back... Here are photos from yesterday's icy mess.  Many around me are still without power tho. mine stayed on all day.  We had a big branch break in our spruce tree and a neighbor's branch came down but neither caused damage.

The dangerous and icy conditions also had beauty - maybe I managed to capture that.

I love to use photos and words that have been "designed" using my Panstoria Artisan software to post on Facebook - so much more interesting to add a collage or "page" style album of photos to share with family and friends.

Ahni and Zoe - What is it?

Ahni and Zoe by Creative Memories is the new company that cM has transformed into since it's most recent bankruptcy filing.  The company re-opened to existing consultants in November and on Jan 1, opened up to everyone else.

Below is the information listed in the "our story" section of the website.

Our Story
In 1987, Creative Memories was born when co-founders, Rhonda Anderson and Cheryl Lightle, discovered that they could help others share their memories and stories by placing photos in simple, beautiful albums.
Since that time, a revolution has taken place in the world of photos. Film was replaced by digital cameras. And, in many ways, smart phones have replaced those cameras. While the way we take photos has evolved, one thing hasn’t changed: the impact that printed photos can have when shared with family and friends. They spread joy and create smiles.
All we need is a fast, simple way to get us from click to print to share. That’s the secret. And that’s the inspiration for Ahni & Zoe.
Beyond the products, Ahni & Zoe by Creative Memories represents opportunity. Tens of thousands of women helped make Creative Memories one of the most successful and respected social selling companies in the world. And today, Consultants of all ages and from all walks of life are enriching their own lives and the lives of others through the power of photos. From stay-at-home moms to young professionals, our Consultants are truly fueling the Ahni & Zoe mission by seizing the moments that make up their beautiful lives.
Both the A&Z line and opportunity are designed for those with lots of ambition, but not a lot of time. It’s products & parties. Photos & friends. It’s Ahni & Zoe – a new destination for capturing, organizing and celebrating your beautiful life through photos. 

Ahni and Zoe carries print photo album supplies (the albums, the pages, and a means to attach photos to the pages - aka the tape runner).

There are two main types of photo albums.  The first is the Fast2Fabulous album.  The album comes with pages and protectors and looks pretty similar to their original strap hinge scrapbook style albums.  

The F2Fs come with the coversets you see above which each include their own pack of pre-designed pages as well as a pack of page protectors.  Pages typically fit 2-3 photos in uncropped 4X6 size.

If you wish to have more pages in your album, you can purchase an additional page set (includes protectors) either a set that's identical to the ones that came with your album or a set from another album design.

Many of the coversets have words or phrases.  None are a plain solid color. The company may offer additional album styles in the future.

The differences between these albums and the cM albums of late?  

1. The coverset (album exterior) is no longer made of book cloth, it's shinier and feels like a slick faux-leather.
2. The interior pages are all pre-designed and each contains a printed photo holder spot where you are to attach your 4X6 photo.
3. I am unsure at this time as to whether the albums sold by A&Z follow the ISO standards for photo safety.

The second type of album (actually the same album as above, strap-hinge, with a different interior page concept) is similar to the old picfolio style. 

What's different from the PicFolio?

1. The slip in the slot pages are all 12X12, the individual slot choices are 1 big 12X12 sized pocket, 6 horizontal 4X6 pockets or 6 vertical 4X6 pockets.  You can purchase a set of slide pages that includes a pocket page choice from the three choices mentioned.
2. There is no photo holder liner in the new pages between the two sides of the photo holder slot. If you have one photo in a slot, the other side will show the back of that photo.  Obviously, you put two back to back photos in each slot.
3. There are no different sized slots - all are 4X6
4. The plastic pages appear thinner than the old ones
5. The album is no longer leatherette and it comes in two colors, black and greige.

Pages from both F2F and "slide (aka PicFolio)" albums are 12X12 and can be combined in the same album and interspersed in any order.

Aside from albums, A&Z offers a tape runner with a drop-in refill and two pens.

The concept is simple - use printed 4X6 photos, add them to the photo holders on the pages using the tape runner and caption where needed using the pens.  The album is meant to be completed quickly in only a few hours. There is no longer a need to purchase tools, paper, stickers or other traditional scrapbook supplies to complete an album.  Since the concept is so simple, albums can be completed with no learning curve and no assistance from a consultant.  Further, albums can easily be completed at home in a small space and workshops are no longer necessary.

In addition to it's albums, A&Z offers a few other products and an iphone app for editing, storing and printing photos.  I will discuss those other products in a future post.

The business concept of the new company also has a new slant, I will discuss that in future posts.

If you wish to look at the Fall 2013 Ahni & Zoe catalog, click here.

If you wish to purchase products from A&Z, you can attend a hosted party, buy from an A&Z consultant or purchase online from the company itself.

SBC 4 Snowshoe Pages

I got a new laptop in mid-December.

As Storybook Creator software activations taken over by Panstoria ended on 12/31/13, I was of course re-activating my own software packages on that last day.  All went well except I realize that on my new computer Memory Manager will never contain the Perfectly Clear editing package.  It's still working fine on my old laptop but on the new one, the PC relationship w/ cM ended a few months ago tho. Panstoria still had rights to activate the software.

I COULD upgrade right away to Historian software by Panstoria, but they don't have the Perfectly Clear package included with their software either.  So for now, I'll go back to my manual editing tools - maybe I'll learn more about how to use them - I do use them, but have gotten lazy of late.

It's been a while since I made any SBC pages of my life.  I take photos, post on fb, organize on Mem Mgr and unless I have a digital scrapbooking project of my own (as opposed to the clients I make albums for), they sit in my memory vault.  Yesterday, I decided to make some pages of some recent photos and post the pages vs. just the photos to my facebook feed.  It was fun.

I kept the pages VERY simple and told the story of my outing with text.

The story was of a snowshoe adventure and the pages were fun to make and to look at.  I am going to try to post pages rather than just photos in the future.  After all, when I do have a project, they will already be finished pages that I can use!

Here are my pages, enjoy:

PS.  My new laptop is LOVELY.  It's a custom build Toshiba P50-A.  While I decided to go w/ a 15" screen for portability, I plan to invest in a lovely giant screen to use when I'm doing heavy duty digi-scrapping at home.  If you have questions about what I put in my laptop, I'm happy to pow wow with you about it.  I am in LOVE with my backlit keyboard.

Keeping Blog Amidst the Changes

So I wasn't sure what to do with this blog.  Originally I used this to post digital and traditional scrapbooking ideas associated to my job as a Creative Memories consultant.

I haven't posted here since November because I wasn't sure how to utilize the blog but I do plan to continue with it- tho. slightly changed.

If you have no idea why I have to make adjustments, it's because the company that I worked for as a consultant for 11 years is NO MORE.  Yep - if you don't already know this, Creative Memories has ceased to exist.  It has sort of been replaced by a spin off company Ahni and Zoe.  At this time, I am still a consultant with Ahni and Zoe.  All consultants had the opportunity to migrate to the new company.

However, Ahni and Zoe is a vastly different company than Creative Memories with respect to its products and services so I'm not quite sure how or if the new off-shoot will fit into my life - I'm still pondering that.

I do want to inform any faithful blog followers that I still plan to use this blog to inspire you to organize and preserve your family's photo memories as well as offer you resources for doing things with your photos.  I would like to address as many options as I can and explore more as I find and try them.

For now, my next post will tell you a bit about Ahni and Zoe - about what it is and what it isn't - about how I will utilize it and how I will not - about what it will offer and how to take advantages (or not) of those offerings.  First things first, I will re-design my blog to more reflect its new purpose without taking away the vast resources of scrapbook information that it already contains.

Stay tuned, in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger..."I'll be bahk"