500 followers and a giveaway!

Today I'd like to switch the focus from me to you. See that little collection of photos on the right side bar, the one entitled "followers"? That's you guys; the people who pop by here on a regular basis. For me writing this blog has been a wonderful journey. I remember hitting "publish" on my first post back in August 2010 and being uncertain as to why I was starting a blog, what did I want to achieve and if anyone other than myself would call by to see what I had been doing. Hitting "publish" was one of the best things I've done as blogging has opened a new world to me. A crafty world of goodness, friends, fun, challenges and recently of design teams and being published.

So as I noticed that counter move to 500 followers I thought it was high time to say thank you. Thank you for spending the time to call by and spend a few moments here. Thank you for all your kind comments, friendship and encouragement.

As it so happens I was recently contacted by Liz Gardner from My Memories, the producer of the award winning digital scrapbook software My Memories Suite.



Liz has very kindly given me the opportunity to give away one copy of My Memories Suite to a follower on my blog! My Memories Suite is rated #1 by Amazon and TopTen Reviews and retails for $40!

Here's the details:

• Make sure you are a follower here on my blog
• Pop by My Memories and take a look around
• Call back here and leave a comment telling me how you would use this software - scrapbooking, cardmaking, digi, hybrid ....
• Leave your comment by 31 March and I will draw a winner on 01 April
• That's it!

A wonderful thing about this giveaway is that because it's a digital download this giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere in the world! Once the winner is chosen they can download their software immediately - no stalking the postie and talking of which there will be no postal charges for me either - bonus!

Now the giveaway is for one lucky winner to receive a copy of My Memories Suite but what if that lucky person turns out not to be you? Well Liz has also given me a code which provides a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store, so a $20 value!

Here's the code, be sure to use it if you pop by My Memories!

STMMMS97419

Now then lets move on to what this software can do. I don't scrapbook much these days, so I though I'd investigate how this software can be used by someone who is mainly a card maker. I downloaded a copy of the software and had a play - let me tell you that it is so intuitive! Everything is clearly displayed and easy to work out what options I have at my disposal.
 

I decided to use the My Memories Suite to create a piece of patterned paper as a base for a hybrid (mixture of digital and supplies) card. I chose my pattern then added some shapes in a darker hue to give the same impression as you would with versamark on a dark cardstock. Printed out and added a couple of bits from my stash and here you go!

The next card is a CAS one. I really like the shapes within the software package and used one shape repeatedly to create a design. I like that you can change the size of the shape to suit. Don't you find that the scale on a lot of patterned paper is too large for cardmaking? Well I could make these shapes as tiny as I liked! I created a grid and added a simple sentiment before printing out. I added just a few rhinestones for bling and mounted on to a white card base.

Phew, that was a long post for me! So once again a big thank you and I hope you will keep calling by. Oh and don't forget to leave a comment to be entered for this giveaway :)