April's Review	Chris' Review	Stephanie's Review	Pomaika`i's Review	Donna's Review

Review by April

Chances are, you have heard the name Polaroid at least once in your life. They have been globally recognized as a trusted brand for over 70 years and continue to create user friendly products that help you share your memories instantly. They recently introduced a digital scrapbooking software program that is said to help bring your photos and videos to life. Polaroid's My Memories Suite has already received a top 10 award for 2009 and I was very anxious to give it a try!

For this review I received the My Memories Suite standard package software created by Polaroid. This included one My Memories Suite software installation disc, one holiday designer disc, one travel & wedding designer disc, one family times designer disc, one kids & sports designer disc, and a gift certificate to the designs store. The software arrived in an box slightly larger than a 5x7 photo, and contained a protective cardboard insert and cd booklet to provide disc protection. To get started all you have to do is insert the installation disc in your computer and the program is up and running in less than 10 minutes. You can install the other discs containing additional designer templates, backgrounds, and embellishments in any order after your program is loaded.

The software is designed to provide the user with the tools necessary to create digital scrapbooking projects. Creating layouts is as simple as dragging and dropping photos directly into pre-designed pages, or you can build your own layout design in a matter of minutes. The user can then share their memory albums with others by creating DVD's, CD's, iPod Videos, greeting cards, slide shows for the web or email, and also hard or soft bound books. You can find a design shop on mymemoriessuite.com that offers a large library of professionally-designed graphics in a ready-to-use digital format. You can purchase designer templates and packs in coordinating themes and colors for your own personal use. Another plus is that the user can enhance their scrapbooks with music, narration, weblinks and hyperlinks. My memories suite software is available for both PC and Mac, and the standard package is available for $79.98, or you can purchase the deluxe package for $119.97.

To create my first layout, I opened up one of the designer templates that I had downloaded from mymemoriessuite.com, and simply inserted my photograph. I added some journaling and called it done. I had officially completed my first layout in less than 10 minutes. All I had to do was double click on the space where the picture would be inserted and it took me to a browse box so I could locate the photo of my choice. For the journaling I simply clicked on the add Text option, edited my font, size, etc. and then moved around the page until I had it just where I wanted it. I worked with seven other coordinating templates to create an entire "Thankful Album" and I had it completed in less than 30 minutes. Some I just added a picture and journaling to, and others I embellished a little more.  You can view the other 7 layouts I created for this album in my section of the ScrapFriends My Memories Suite Gallery.

Title: Count Your Blessings
Products used: Digital Software (Storyrock Publishing: Polaroid My Memories Suite)

The second layout I created took a little longer because I designed it myself. After playing around with all of the different options and figuring out all the possibilities I had to work with, the entire process got easier with each layout. For this layout, I added a corrugated background texture that was included with the software, and two different patterned papers that came with one of the designer templates I downloaded from the website. I then added my picture and built the rest of the layout by adding a mixture of embellishments that were included with the software and some that came with the designer templates I downloaded. All of the embellishments were easy to manipulate. The software made it very easy to change the size of the embellishments and they could easily be rotated so I could place them anywhere on the page I desired. One of my favorite features of the software was the ability to quickly change the image layers back and forth depending on what you liked best. For example, I was able to place several of the embellishments behind the photo and a couple of them on top. To control the layers, I simply had to right click on the object of choice and then I could choose whether to bring it to the front or take it to the back. Building the layout was really quite easy, the only thing that seemed to take time was simply figuring out which embellishments to add because there were so many to choose from.

Title: Pretty in Mud
Products used: Digital Software (Storyrock Publishing: Polaroid My Memories Suite)

One of the packages I downloaded from the My Memories Suite website contained several sports related backgrounds and embellishments. I used one of the premade backgrounds from this package on my third layout. After adding a picture, I used embellishments from the sports package and some that were included with the software. I created part of the journaling using the add text option and then I found the word "character" available in the embellishments section so I simply clicked on it and then edited it directly on the layout. The software also made it very easy to add frames or borders to pictures, and you have the option of choosing whatever color you desire, adjusting the thickness of the frame, and also adding shadows to create a more dimensional feel.

Title: He's Got Character
Products used: Digital Software (Storyrock Publishing: Polaroid My Memories Suite)

When you first open up an album, you are given the option to start with a blank page or you can choose from one of the many photo templates offered through the program. I decided to work with an existing photo template for my fourth layout. I chose one I liked and then inserted my pictures. Although the program had several background choices to choose from, I wanted something just a little different, so I scanned in one of my patterned papers and added it to the background. Then I added two other background papers from one of the downloaded designer templates. To complete the layout, I decorated it with several different digital embellishments and by this time I was getting used to the entire process and felt very comfortable with it.

Title: Cherish Them
Products used: Digital Software (Storyrock Publishing: Polaroid My Memories Suite)
Patterned Paper (Creative Imaginations)

I really enjoyed creating digital layouts and I can definitely say I will be making more digital creations in the future. However, I still really like to get my hands messy and I will never fully be able to put down my scissors, so I wanted to try and combine the two to create a hybrid layout. I started by opening a photo template where the picture took up the whole page. I moved it around a bit and added one of the backgrounds found in the software to the bottom of my page. I then added several digital embellishments on top of my photo. When I was happy with the results, I printed the layout out and then adhered it to a sheet of patterned paper and cardstock. I used 3-D embellishments to finish the layout and I really liked the results!

Title: Remember This Time
Products used: Digital Software (Storyrock Publishing: Polaroid My Memories Suite)
Patterned Paper (Best Creations)
Glitter Glue (Ranger)
Felt (Heidi Swapp)
Flowers (Prima, & Fancy Pants)
Lace (Fancy Pants)
Today Post it (Heidi Swapp)
Clear Heart & Clock (Heidi Swapp)
Rhinestones (Heidi Swapp, Wal-Mart)
Pen (American Crafts)
Adhesive (Adhesive Tech, Permanent Bond Glue Runner)

Another feature I really liked about this software was the ability to make mini movies of your creations and pictures. In a matter of minutes you can create an iPod-ready movie, a high quality DVD movie, or simply a short video to play back on your computer or the web. You can even add your own music and narration to the video's and it's such a great way to share all your hard work and memories with others. I created a short movie of all my new digital layouts and you can view by clicking on this link:

April's Video.   (converted to Flash format for the web)

I thought the software came with a fair amount of backgrounds and embellishments to get you started and there is a large variety also available for purchase and download on the memories suite website. It seems to work well with digital elements downloaded from other sites, and the program is not so complicated that it takes hours to figure out. Although you can read about the program in the help section on the web, I would have liked to have had an actual book to reference. I like the option of being able to create custom cards and photobooks and I'm looking forward to sharing slideshows of my layouts with my family. I consider myself to be beginner when it comes to digital scrapbooking, so for me, Polaroid's My Memories Suite seemed to be a great choice for those looking to get started creating digital projects.

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Review by Chris

My Memories Suite by Polaroid is advertised to be a “complete ScrapBook-PhotoBook-DVD-Video-iPod Movie-Slideshow-Greeting Card” software. This software program allows the user to place their photos in attractive layouts in any of the above-listed formats, then to store them on their computer, print or share via the internet. They can create printed versions, DVD versions, online versions to share with friends and family and iPod versions to carry with them everywhere. And, according to the video advertisement, the user can do all of this in a matter of “seconds.” They may use ready-made designer templates into which they would place their photos, or they can design their own album, layer by layer.

The installation went without a hitch except that I did have to upgrade my version of QuickTime. The installation software knew this and led me right to the download site, so there was no inconvenience. It added just a few more minutes to the installation process and who does not want to have the latest version of free software, right? After upgrading QuickTime, the installation software went back to work and after a few short minutes the program was installed. At this time, I did not elect to install any of the three bonus software disks.

Using one of the included album kits (created with Tinkering Ink’s Gibson collection), I created a 6 page album with photos of Matt and some friends on a Fourth of July trip to Big Bear. Once I opened a pre-created album, I had a choice of automatically inserting photos, where the program takes my photos in order and places them in layouts of the album; or individually selecting the photos to be included on a page. The second choice seems more logical to me, as I could then select the photos to group together or to feature individually on a page.

I selected the second option and grouped my photos by theme in this mini album. The program also allowed me to customize the pre-created pages, adding or deleting elements as I wished. I added journaling and some extra embellishments on the pages and I love the outcome of my little album. Photos for the pages are selected from photo files in the computer, no re-sizing is required. The photo editor does allow some adjustment in hue/saturation and brightness/contrast as well as conversion of the photos to black/white or sepia. There is also a red-eye removal process. Once the photos have been edited as desired, a double click on the photo spot in the layout inserts the photo. Very clean and simple. You can see additional pages of this album in my section of the Memories Suite gallery here at ScrapFriends.

After my album was completed, I used the Memories Suite program enhancements to make it into a video which I then emailed to myself. The pages came through in a Quicktime video with the individual pages timed at approximately 5 second intervals. The pages were clear and the journaling very legible. I did not add music to my video creation, which is an option in this program. After viewing my QuickTime video I did wish I had added music to make it more enjoyable while viewing.

I also tried out the capability to create an iPod-ready video. Unfortunately, I was less successful with this process. I saved the video to my computer and iTunes found it. But when I tried to install it onto my iPod, I received this message: “This movie was not copied to the iPod because it cannot be played on this iPod.” This puzzles me, since I have a fairly new, 16G iPod that easily plays my downloaded music videos. I’ll have to keep working on this since I think it’s a nice feature.

I tried to access the additional kits on the CD’s included with the program. Since I am always careful to conserve space on my computer I prefer to work off of CD’s whenever possible, especially for things like digital scrapbooking. I was disappointed that I was not able to access the data on the CD’s directly. I did not elect to install the data at this time, since disk space is an issue for me right now. It would be nice if this program were modified to allow access to the CD’s directly rather than requiring installation.

Let me first say that I am a dabbling digital scrapper and use Photoshop Elements, so when a packaged program says I can design my own pages, I feel the challenge coming on. I downloaded two kits from the My Memories Suite store. These files downloaded into the download section of my computer – that’s where everything goes that I download. I was not able to access these files from the software. I had to move folders around and place the downloaded files into the My Memories Suite folders before I could proceed. I did not have the program open at the time of download, so I’m not sure if that would have made a difference.

Once I had the folders located in their proper places, I was able to proceed to use my downloaded files. I was able to add embellishments and a matt for my photo, and I am quite happy with the results of this first page that I built myself. I do like the adjustability of the drop shadow effect that gives depth to the page. It is as simple as grabbing a corner of the shadow and adjusting it to your liking. Nice feature!!

Twinkle
Digital kit (Tinkering Ink, Yuletide)

I created my last page by scraplifting a template because I could not get the template to open correctly, and was not able to alter the pre-printed journaling or add a photo. So I simply selected the individual elements and created the page myself. I don’t know who makes this kit, but I do love that bird!!!

I have been scrapping digitally now for about 4 years. I’m not a pro, but I do like to dabble and I do like to create my own pages. I am not a big user of the QuickPages that many designers sell. However, I do know many people who love to use pre-designed pages. I think this program is perfect for them. I like that it includes the capability to create online albums, to modify and customize the pages, to print albums or create DVD’s. I really like that the program allows the user to add music to their album and to imbed a link or a video into the page. I don't think anyone can "create albums with hundreds of pages in only seconds" as the online literature claims, but the process is simple and straight forward, especially when the pre-created pages are used. The pre-designed albums are a great bargain. My recommended audience for this software is the folks who want to get their albums created quickly with pages that look professionally designed with little effort. Sharing over the internet is definitely a plus, since many users can take advantage of that free feature to email the albums to friends and family.

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Review by Stephanie

First off, I need to say that I DON’T do digital scrapbooking. It scares me. Computer programs and I have a love/hate relationship. The programs never do what they are supposed to do and can be totally frustrating. That being said, I must say that My Memories Suite is amazing!!!! Yep, you heard me, this digital program will have you digi scrapping like a pro in no time at all. It’s incredible and so easy to use. I am in awe of all it’s possibilities and I can't believe what I've been able to do in a short time span.

When I found out I had the opportunity to review My Memories Suite, I very reluctantly accepted the challenge. I had no idea what I’d be getting into and had no idea if I’d even enjoy it, let alone be able to work with it. My review of Polaroid’s My Memories Suite, included 5 disks containing different images and embellishments, instructions for using the program as well as a tips and tricks guide. According to the paperwork, My Memories Suite “provides for the most comprehensive, well-founded Digital Scrapbook Software program available on the market”. It is PC and MAC compatible and comes in three price levels: $14.99 for the Polaroid Quick Design Club; $79.98 for My Memories Suite standard package, which I received; and $119.97 for My Memories Suite deluxe package.

I inserted disk 1, the program disk, and followed the prompts for installation. The upload process time depends upon your computer’s speed. My upload took about 12 minutes, which I didn’t think was too bad at all. The other 4 disks covered sports and kids, family time, holidays and travel and weddings. It does take awhile to load the additional disks, but with the amount of “stuff” included, it is so worth it. Plus you can load these disks whenever you want to. Since I am not working on wedding layouts yet, I didn't install that disk.

Creating an album took less than 2 minutes because specific albums have already been preset. You can use all the included pages of the album you select or delete those pages you don’t want. All you need do is insert photos, add titles and journaling. How easy is that! I was actually excited to be playing with this program and not at all intimidated by it.

I started with an album entitled “Style”. All I did was click on the “insert photo box”. My picture files opened and then I just clicked on the photo I wanted and it was inserted. If the photo wasn’t quite right, I could crop it till it was just the right size, or delete it and add a different photo. Then all I had to do was save my file and I was done. The next step was then to share my layout and that was just as easy. I clicked on “sharing” and “exporting in JPEG format” and the prompts walked me through the entire process. Super easy!

Title: Style
Products used: Digital Software (Polaroid, My Memories Suite)

After creating a few individual layouts, I decided to try a full album and I worked with an album entitled “Thankful”. While I did not add too many elements to this album, I was excited to be creating a truly digital album. These are my first 2 pages. The rest of the album can be seen in my gallery.

Title: Thankful Album
Products used: Digital Software (Polaroid, My Memories Suite)

I was also able to access My Memories Suite’s website and download some additional products from their website. Their site is full of exciting products and it was extremely easy to select and download what I wanted. After I placed the items in my chart and checked out, the files were ready for download and immediate use. Since my son is an avid ice hockey player, I downloaded some ice hockey papers and embellishments, then easily created a digital album to send to my parents. This program makes it that easy. I was changing photo sizes, adding and resizing embellishments, deleting items I didn't want, and changing opacity levels. Wow! My first 2 pages are shown and the rest of the album can be seen in my gallery.

Title: Hockey Album
Products used: Digital Software (Polaroid, My Memories Suite)

Once you have completed your layout or album, you can even check your pages for errors before printing or uploading. This program identifies the errors and offers ways to correct them. There are a number of options available once your album is complete: printing, exporting to jpeg, creating photo books, greeting cards, interactive albums, movies, IPOD-ready, DVDs. My Memories Suite’s online service allows you to upload pages which can then be turned into greeting cards or photo books and forwarded to family and friends. The photo books can be generated in hard cover, soft cover or wire. They come in 26 standard pages in your choice of covers, in sizes from 6x6 to 12x12. Additional pages can be added for a small cost. The books look wonderful and I don’t think the prices are at all unreasonable.

I can’t say enough great things about this digital software. What I thought was amazing was that I could play with this program as soon as I loaded the software. Besides the ability to create layouts and albums easily, you can also create videos and movies and send them to family members. I am very excited about the video and movie aspects of this program, but haven't yet had the time to work with them. For a beginner like me, this was the perfect program to start my digi endeavors. But even if you are a seasoned veteran, this program is just one more avenue you can use to enhance your digital work. I am so pleased I had the opportunity to work with My Memories Suite. What an awesome program.

Click here to watch my video project.   (converted to Flash format for the web)

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Review by Pomaika`i

The Polaroid Corporation has been around for over 70 years and has a worldwide reach with their outside-the-box instant photo-electronic related products. I remember the growing up with the old Polaroid instant film cameras and just the other day I saw the new Zink mobile instant photo printer, a digital printer that hooks up to your camera or phone and is small enough to carry around with you! What will they think up next?

Apparently it is instant gratification of a different sort, this time tapping into the digital scrapbooking side of the market. Polaroid “My Memories Suite” is a software program that allows you to create albums from your own digital photos. I was eager to give this program a try. One huge plus is that this software is Mac and PC compatible, with emphasis on the former. I will be reviewing this product on an iMac.

There are a few reasons why I was so excited to work with this program. First, I have tons of photos and I don’t want to create paper albums with all of them. However, I want a way of organizing and marking them (with journaling, dates etc.) and storing them in an entertaining format. About four years ago when I was still using a PC, I tried a very well known software program that was supposed to allow me to create albums, add music and everything, but I was sorely disappointed. This was a second chance for me. Secondly, I keep meaning to learn more about digital scrapbooking, but just haven’t had the time. This program, with it’s designer templates would allow me to create some pages in less time than it would take me to create my own from scratch. I think that this might be a great jump start for me.

According to the package and the “my memories suite” website, this software allows you to create photo pages automatically, choose from designer templates or design your own pages. You can add internet links, music and narration to digitally stored creations, or you can print your project on paper or into a photo-book.

For this review I received the Polaroid “My Memories Suite” in a box similar in size to a video cassette case. The packaging was simple, and gave a summary in full color pictures of what the software allows you to do and the system requirements. Inside the box was a durable tips and tricks card that holds a number of things to help with your project (reading this would have saved me a lot of time, more on that later). The software disks came in a sturdy cardstock folder, folded in very intricate ways to hold and protect 5 disks, one holding the program itself and the other four holding album templates.

To help you put this review in context, I’ll tell you a little about my computer and digital scrapbooking skills. I am not a techie by an stretch of the imagination. I am one of those people that don’t read the manual, but try to learn everything by intuition and trial and error. I can use Photoshop for simple editing, and I use iPhoto for photo storage. I have basic knowledge of digital scrapbooking.

Uploading the software program and all the support albums went smoothly. I thought that the time it took to upload was reasonable. Not super quick, but then again, I decided to upload the entire suite at one time and you don’t have to do that if you have a specific project in mind. Each of the support disks is clearly labeled: Holidays, Kids and Sports, Family Times and Travel and Weddings.

I was pleased with the variety of templates included in the software. They are professional and attractive. If you plan on doing a lot of work using this digital software, you will be happy to know that the websute, www.mymemoiressuite.com has a customer support section with technical support as well as updates, faqs and an online user’s guide. There is also an online Design Shop that holds many many more designer templates and elements for pages, albums and cards.

Polaroid “My Memories Suite” allowed me purchase items from the Design Shop so that I could tell you about my experience shopping and downloading the items. There are many outstanding items in the Design Shop to choose from. The items are organized by Designer Collections or Categories. The site is easy and quick to navigate through, the hardest part was choosing the items I wanted to purchase.

I finally chose a calendar template, a Tinkering Ink digital element pack and an embellishment pack. Check out was easy and quick. I think that my items were available right away, but I was waiting for an email to let me know that I could download them to my computer. The next day I logged back into the “my memories suite” website account and was taken directly to the page with my goodies to download. I also found some really great valentine cards for free. Great incentive to visit the shop every so often to see what’s new.

My first project is a thank you album for my Mother-in-Law. I created it using the Winter Wonderland album template that is included in your software bundle. Remember that I don’t like to read the instructions? There is a comprehensive Adobe PDF instruction manual that comes with the software. You can access easily. I started to read it, but to be fair, didn’t really get too far. Initially I took a relatively long time creating this album, because I wasn’t using the program correctly. After finishing it, my son came home with more photos from my Father-in-Law. They were better than mine, so I went about replacing most of the ones I had and adding more pages to the album.

By the way, as a Mac user, I had to export my photos out of iPhoto into my pictures folder in order to use them. Somewhere down the line I stumbled upon the correct way to add a photo into the template. It’s so easy. Double click on the photo matt and your directory of photos will pop up. Choose your photo and a window will open with your photo in a frame the size it will be. Move your photo around in the frame to fit the way you want it to, click done and your photo appears in the template space. This made the whole process of adding photos lightning quick.

You have complete freedom in choosing how many, the order of, and which pages to have in your album. You can add or subtract text, embellishments, extra photo matts, and photos. There are tab menus for all the different editing features on the right hand side of the screen. The tabs close down when you are not using them. Another really cool thing is that all of the fonts you have on your computer are available to use in your “my memories suite” program! How cool is that!!!

Since this album was going to be on a DVD, I had to add music. I chose my favorite Pachelbel Canon. It was a no brainer to add the track from iTunes. When I was finally finished with this album, I did a number of things to test the quality of the final project. I made a DVD in large and web format. I sent it to my iPod and posted it on my blog (as a test) and I created .jpegs out of each page. The conversion process takes time, depending on the number of elements you have on each page and how large your project is. I think the wait was reasonable and the results were awesome.

Click here to see the project.   (converted to Flash format for the web)

With this software, you can check the borders of your project depending on what your final project will be. The boundaries are different depending on whether you will print your project (large or small book) or where it will be shown (computer, TV screen, ipod or web). I suggest that you decide what type of project your final will be and check your margins early and often. The DVD looked wonderful on my computer screen, it was fuzzy, but the text was still readable on a conventional TV screen, and it looked great on my iPod. The sound quality was also good. The one thing I didn’t like was the ending. I was unable to control fade out or music ending, it just cuts off, and the “my memories suite” logo comes up. I personally don’t like that. I feel that it breaks the mood created by the project and is too much like a commercial. I think that I can get rid of it by taking the extra step of importing it to iDVD or iMovie and working on the ending that way. I didn’t have time to do that yet, but suspect that it could be done.

You can view more pages in the ScrapFriends My Memories Suite Gallery.

Title: A Leavenworth Thank You
Products used: Polaroid “my memories suite” Software
Computer (iMac 2.4GHz INtel Core 2 Duo, Leopard)

For my second project, I created a layout using the calendar template I downloaded from the Design Shop at www.mymemoriessuite.com. The calendar template was only $5.99 and can be used for 2008 or any year of your choice! With the template comes all of the embellishments like birthday candles, hearts, arrows, and various numbers that you need to create your own calendar scrapbook. I experimented with the January template and was really surprised at how many pictures I was able to use! I love this concept for creating a record of the year in pictures.

This software is so easy to use. To add another “magic” photo matt, you just press a button under the photo menu. You can resize the matt and then insert your photo. To zoom closer to a subject in your photo, just select the photo matt and press the zoom button. You can bring your subject closer, then re-center it with your mouse. Amazingly easy! I’m impressed!!

Title: Year in Review 2008
Products used: Polaroid “my memories suite” Software
Template (Year of Memories ’08 Square Template, www.mymemoriessuite.com) Computer (iMac 2.4GHz INtel Core 2 Duo, Leopard)

My third project was a one of those free Valentines Day cards that I mentioned (they have some free Christmas Cards too, check it out). I had every intention of sending a paper Valentine card to my nephews, but February 14th came around and I had no time. I quickly whipped out this card adding in some text over the heart and at the bottom of the card and emailed it to my sister in time! She thought that I spent a lot of time on it, but I just used the template! It looked great. I changed it slightly for my neighbor, ah the beauty of digital scrapping!! I could get to like this...

Title: Happy Valentine’s Day
Products used: Polaroid “my memories suite” Software
Template (Lovely Valentine Card, www.mymemoriessuite.com) Computer (iMac 2.4GHz INtel Core 2 Duo, Leopard)

The last project I’d like to share with you was created by my son Ikaika who is 12. He doesn’t get much time on the computer, but he is very knowledgeable anyway. He watched me create my calendar page for a while and then asked if he could create an album with his aquarium photos. I set him up with the template and he took it from there. He said that there were so many places for photos that he had to go back and choose more. I think that the album is wonderful. People say that your projects are only as good as your tools, and in this case these tools shine! I think the fact that a 12 year old can independently use this software means kudos for the program designers. Ikaika didn’t have any trouble, he didn’t ask for any help, and I noticed he even added text on his own.

See more pages in the ScrapFriends My Memories Suite Gallery.

Title: The Aquarium by Ikaika
Products used: Polaroid “my memories suite” Software
Computer (iMac 2.4GHz INtel Core 2 Duo, Leopard)

I am so excited about this new software tool! It’s so rare to find a software program that works and really does everything it says it will! I have too many albums to create and so little time, this will help me immensely. You can bet I’ll be using this program again and again! The Polaroid “My Memories Suite” is user friendly, it works perfectly on a Mac platform. There are tons of included templates, more than enough to get you jump started. If you are a beginning digital scrapper like me, with the desire to create digital albums that look good in a short amount of time, I recommend you seriously consider this software.

You can create print albums or DVDs, publish to your blog or to your iPod. I am glad that someone finally created a software tool that works, and doesn’t have a steep learning curve. Read your directions, at least until you get the hang of it, and have a blast! If I can use it, anyone who can use a computer can use it! Share this software with your children and the whole family can have fun getting those photos off the hard drive and into albums that take up virtually NO space at all! Polaroid “My Memories Suite”, I highly recommend this product. I think it’s a great value for the price considering you’ll create some priceless projects for your family library!

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Review by Donna

I’m a “create by hand” (even when they are full of glue) type of scrapper, the one that loves to touch each and every piece of paper, embellishment, brad or whatever moves me at the given moment. I love the smell of new paper, the slippery feel of an overlay, using my craft knife, and threading a needle. And so far, I’ve been the girl that boasts that she is completely and undeniably anti-digital as it relates to this hobby and no one, not anybody, could convince me that the marriage of computer software and scrapbooking would be something that I would ever enjoy, let alone try. Until now.

Now, I must admit, I’ve always admired the digital creations of other scrapbookers. Despite that though, I was still reluctant to try it myself. Perhaps I didn’t feel comfortable enough with my own computer and/or photo editing skills, perhaps I’m a person that’s hesitant to change or perhaps, I just didn’t want to find myself ultimately having to admit I was wrong. Enter Polaroid’s My Memories Suite, by Storyrock, Inc., the subject of this review.

When I received the My Memories Suite software, I let it sit on my desk for a couple of days just to get myself comfortable with the whole idea and, when I finally took a deep breath and opened the box, I must admit, a good amount of my reluctance was cast side immediately.

Once inside the glossy, smooth white box, I found five distinctly labeled discs, one of which was an installation disc and the other four, design discs. There is one disc each for Holiday, Travel and Wedding, Family Times and Kids and Sports. Additionally, I was thrilled to find a handy, informative and clearly written three page, hard laminated booklet entitled Tips and Tricks. I installed my five discs and immediately launched the program in an attempt to get to understanding and then creating. Digitally creating, that is.

Once I began to familiarize myself with the program, I quickly found myself feeling more and more comfortable with the whole digital concept – and I understood it, too! I was amazed by the ease of use of the drag and drop and point and click tools as well as the editing features within the program. There is a conveniently located right hand expandable control panel allowing easy access for viewing and inserting photos, page backgrounds, text, embellishments and more as well as drop down menus across the top of the screen for editing, viewing and file sharing, among others. You’ll also find one click button commands such as “undo”, “cut’, “paste” and spell check arranged across the top of the screen as well as a handy set of buttons that are duplicates of those in the right-hand control panel (including “add text”, “embellishments” or “shapes” or “objects”).

There are countless templates for creating pages as well as loads of backgrounds, embellishments, photo mats, alphabets, word art and more should you choose to create without a template or, begin with a blank page. There are automatic photo placement options that allow for use of several different sizes of photos, whether on one page or separate pages, a myriad of page titles and fonts, options to create greeting cards and slide shows, and much, more and, there are additional templates and page layouts available for download at Polaroid’s website for a very nominal fee. The program too, does give you the ability to download additional elements and templates from other digital sites as well.

The My Memories Suite program allows you to use JPEG, PNG or GIF image types, create DVD’s from your completed albums, import images from your scanner, export separate images or an entire album to the website to create a photo book and you can even add video or sound clips to your pages. File sharing, too, is easy, whether that be to export to your pictures from the program to your computer’s “My Pictures” file as a JPEG, export to your Ipod, or into a movie or even directly to printing services.

Once I felt confident and had a clearer understanding of the basics of the program, on to my first project I went. I began by creating a layout with the use of a pre-designed page template. I simply added the photo, embellishments (I adored all of the different stitching designs available for use), borders and title to the page.

Title: Beauty
Inspired by My Memories Suite (Storyrock, Inc.)
Products used: Digital Designer Template, Bliss (Tinkering Ink)
Designer Pack, Nuts and Bolts (Tinkering Ink)

To call this program user friendly is an understatement. The more I created with it, the more I loved it. I simply could not believe how easy it was to navigate through the program’s menus, cut and past elements and essentially, create with. So, for my next couple of layouts, I incorporated both the use of elements from pre-designed templates as well as from the many different designer packs available.

Title: Birthday Layouts
Inspired by My Memories Suite (Storyrock, Inc.)
Products used: Kid Fun, Spilled Milk (Storyrock, Inc.)
Polaroid Picture This, Snapshot (Storyrock, Inc.)
Digital Designer Template, Bliss (Tinkering Ink)
Friends, My Personal Style (Tinkering Ink)

I grew more and more confident each and every time I sat to create with this program. It's hard not to, really. Here, I was able to achieve the look of layered papers by beginning with a photo block, converting it into a shape and, instead of inserting a photo in the space, inserted patterned paper instead.

Title: Nine
Inspired by My Memories Suite (Storyrock, Inc.)
Products used: Designer Pack, Nuts and Bolts (Tinkering Ink)
Layout Base: Kid Fun, Spilled Milk, No. 6 (Storyrock, Inc.)
Frame: Calendar, Year of Memories, Highlight (Storyrock, Inc.)

For my last project, I stuck with layouts, continuing to with the layering of elements and experimenting with elements from many different areas of the program.

Title: Crazy Silly
Inspired by My Memories Suite (Storyrock, Inc.)
Products used: Designer Template, Bliss (Tinkering Ink)
Ribbon and Title: Kid Fun, Spilled Milk (Storyrock, Inc)
Designer Pack, Nuts and Bolts, (Tinkering Ink)

You can see the rest of my layouts here.

Its no wonder that My Memories Suite has received the Top Ten Reviews Gold award. It’s a wonderful program for both beginners and experienced “digi’s” alike. This software is amazing, and I cannot wait to continue creating with it. I did not create any movies or cards for this review, nor did I experiment with creating any photo books, but I certainly intend to do so in the future.

Thank you My Memories Suite! I was wrong!

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