Buy Digital Content by clicking the image below

Panstoria Digital Content

Buy Artisan by Panstoria by clicking the image below

Panstoria Artisan

Buy Historian by Panstoria by clicking the image below

Panstoria Historian

If you do not see the images above click on this link

Capture Lifetimes (click image below)

Capture Lifetimes (click image below)
Link to print your books. Please use Cowens as your distributor code, so I receive credit.

Instructions for printing your book

Link to instructions on how to print your book with Capture Lifetimes. http://www.4shared.com/web/preview/doc/LCXxhZMZ

Friday, January 23, 2009

Making Shapes of your Photos

When making a shape out of a photo. Right click on top of the photo and choose Aspect Ratio, then make the photo a Square. Then use the Photo tab and choose Mat, and select Cut Outs. Choose your shape. If you cut out photos this way, you will not have to flatten the photos.

If you are doing multiple photos on a page with the same shape, copy and paste the original shaped photo, as many times as you want to add a new photo. This will maintain the same size and features on each shape. Then drag your new photo into the copied Shape.

Torn Edges the easy way

Start with one of Creative Memories digital pages that has a torn edge. Select the edge, and copy it, then paste the edge. You will then have two of the same thing. Next change the color of one edge to white (or the color of your choice). Use the opacity tool to make it lighter. Then change the color of the second one to any paper of your choice. Then layer the two with the white one on the bottom and the colored paper on top. This makes a wonderful torn edge and very easy to create.

This page was created using Earthy Serenity Predesigned pages.

You can then save the torn edge by right clicking on the edge and choosing Save Selection to save it in your My Scrapbooking Stuff.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Touching up photos



Have you ever scanned a photo that had a textured finish to it and could not get rid of the texture?  Well StoryBook Creator Plus and Memory Manager both have the neatest tool to help you fix those grainy photos.  On the Enhance Tab at the top in StoryBook Creator, use the Focus area click on Soften.  The top photo was the original scan photo and the photo on the bottom has had the Soften focus used.

One of my favorite tools is on the Enhance tab.  The section for Color and Light.  The photos on the right were corrected using the Levels.  The first adjustment that was made was to reduce the red tones, then I used the light level and adjusted it to where the photo looked it's best.

The soft edge on the paper is done by the Tools Tab and the choose More Effects, Edge Blur.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Memory Manager Questions

I had several questions about Memory Manager and could not find my answers in the videos and webinars and helps. So I called support, who was a great help for me. Here are my questions and answers.

How do I get photos into my blog? We have to export them from MM to a folder on our computer or desktop and import them into our blog from that folder. We could have a sort box for Blogs and one for emails (just an idea) and then export them from those sort boxes. I do have an export folder on my desktop but that can get full at times, so I am thinking I may need a few others for specific jobs. I also have problems finding the Exchange folder at times because it is on my desktop. So to sum the question up, we must export the photos from MM into a folder and then bring them in with our blogs.

Naming photos? I explained that when I share photos with extended family members, that I want them to know the names of the people in the photo. Is it better to name photos by names or events? He told me that would be a personal preference and that the name we put to each photo would go with the photo when emailed from MM. I tested this and it does work somewhat. It puts a lot of extra characters like $# and things like this, but it is understandable. If we use Tell the Story and put the names there, that would not go with the photo.

Can we get pictures out of MM folders? Not right now. The second support person said that he had heard rumors that this could change and that our folders and sort boxes might be maintained for easier finding with my computer icon.

I have heard in classes and webinars that once you get your photos into MM you can delete them off your hard drive, is this a good idea? He did tell me that once you bring them into mm and still keep them on your hard drive it will have the same file size as say you’re My Pictures folder, so yes there would be duplicates and take up twice the disk space. I am still nervous to delete the fold My Pictures, until I know how this will work. I also am thinking that maybe having my memory vault on a external hard drive might be a good idea. We can change where the vault is located, like our external drives. If I can not access my pictures like we do when using My Computer icon, I am scared. So I do hope they change this option soooooon.

How does the 63 folders that are in my memory vault folder work. I tried to find the photos in my vault using My Computer and found a folder with 63 folders and photos randomly placed. I wanted them to explain how that works but both support guys just said that is how it is programmed by the programmers and that the photos are just randomly put into these folders. So I have gathered from these two support guys that there is not an easy way to find our photos using My Computer.

44,000 pictures and 849 folders They were amazed by how many photos I had. We had a discussion on how to best organize this mess. We merely bounced ideas off each other. I really don't think at this point there is an easy and simple way to organize all my folders and photos. I think the way I have done it in the past may be the best. Like we talked about today, I could have a sort box for each family and then put the members of the family in that box. I keep thinking of a pedigree tree and thinking that I should use this an the basis of organizing my Family Sort Box. Still keeping my other sort boxes that would fit the different occasions and events. I do think that of all the questions I asked these guys this one was the biggest and hardest to get a good answer. It really is up to each person how they sort their photos. Oh I could also have a separate vault for each family, but I think this might make it harder, as you can only have one vault open at a time.

I do know that we can export any folder to our desktop or a folder on our computer and then burn copies for family members, with the name staying with the photos. The year and story will not copy unless we use the backup function or share function and then if a person has MM can import and all information will be maintained. We can email the photos.