What keeps you up at night?

What keeps you up at night? Are your memories as safe and organized as you would like them to be?

I have 90 Creative Memories scrapbooks and 97,000 digital photos on my computer. So yes, I basically panic every time I even THINK ABOUT anything happening to my house or computer. This has been a huge fear of mine for a while - all those memories are PRICELESS and IRREPLACEABLE. Enter Forever.

Forever is your one stop shop for your photos and the company's premiere offering is online storage for your photos. Unlike so many other providers out there, your memories are backed by the Forever Guarantee Fund and three servers strategically located throughout the U.S. Your account is fully encrypted like a bank's system and completely private other than the folks you decide to share it with. Your memories are guaranteed to be safe for your life plus 100 years - they will never shrink your resolution or share your info with advertisers. It is truly like photo insurance.

 The deeper I get into Forever, the more I love what I have been able to do to have fun with my pictures and to get that precious peace of mind I have been seeking for years! I want to share some images with you of what my accounts and projects look like:

My Home page where I can see all of my albums

What pictures look like as they come in from your phone or your PC (you can later drag them to your albums to get them out of this view!) The phone App is great - I have mine set to "auto upload" whenever I am on wifi. 

The inside of one of my albums, "Baby Andrew" - these are obviously pictures I would never want to lose to a hard drive crash of a photo vendor's tricky terms.

Whether you have a PC or a Mac, you can access your Forever account online, edit, organize and even create projects in Forever Projects (like "Artisan Lite".) I have created Storybooks and canvases already - I am about to try some cards because they are on sale this month.You can upload pictures from your phone and PC either automatically or manually (I love the phone app - it's free for your Smartphone or iPad!)

Forever also scans all types of media (photos, scrapbooks, videos, slides and negatives) and stores those high resolution images in your account. 

Forever Services has now scanned 7 of my traditional scrapbooks - I love seeing the images pop into my account. I can have them turned into page prints, into storybooks, share them with the people who are in the pages, or just sleep better knowing that if my house burned down all those pictures and  JOURNALING would be saved! Some things are irreplaceable- my 90 scrapbooks definitely fall into that category.

Personalized service - they call to let you know your digitization boxes have arrived safely before they start to scan them

Another album, home safe and scanned into my Forever account

In addition to curating my Forever account online, I also use desktop based Historian (formerly Memory Manager) and Artisan (formerly Storybook Creator) for more detailed editing and project creation. I love how I can create projects and work with my photos without the internet in these programs if necessary (some hotel rooms and scrapbook retreat venues don't always have the best wifi!) 

Want to create digital storybooks and have them preserved in the cloud (and printed as many times as you'd like!?) Here is how my pages are coming along in Artisan

A different view of a project coming together in Artisan

Now I can order my books any time I want!

If you haven't already, check out Forever - you will not be sorry! Please respond in the comments with any questions you might have - I am here to answer them! Here's to sleeping better at night! Fran

Fitting Scrapbooking into the Nooks and Crannies of Your Life!

Ahhhh, spring break 2015 - days at the theme parks, meeting characters, riding rides and eating food that I didn't have to cook, this was the life. Sadly it's coming to an end, but our memories will last forever because this Momma is determined to tell these stories before the finer details slip away as life returns to normal. These are blessed and special times for our family, and anyone who knows me won't be surprised that I took 1,036 photos on this trip. And guess what? I am not sweating it because I was actually able to organize and edit my photos AND scrap my vacation while I was ON vacation - how about that? With Panstoria's Historian I was able to take all the photos off of my camera at the end of each day so I could feel good that in the event of a "camera catastrophe" they were in more than one location. I took it one more level and actually started my vacation scrapbook by using my Artisan software to begin my 12X12 hardback book! No wifi at our timeshare? No problem! You don't have to be online to create your project (but you do have to be online to download the software or to upload your book to the Panstoria Print Shop  - that's why I recommend buying it and your artwork before you head out of town.)

A little downtime while the boys are sleeping - what better time to start our scrapbook?

It is so fun watching your photos quickly transform into pages that will eventually be turned into  a beautiful, well-crafted hardbound book that your family can enjoy for all time. You can design the front and back cover of the book and your album can be up to 99 pages long - I love the 12X12 size, but there are smaller options as well. Your art collection of papers, embellishments and fonts can be used over and over again and best of all,none of this takes up any more space in your house or your luggage than your computer itself! 

We all take pictures to capture the most wonderful times in our lives - the places we've seen, the people we love, the meals we have enjoyed. We proudly display them on Facebook, we might even organize them in folders on our computers, if we're really good we take the time to upload them to a photo website. Unfortunately in our digital world, getting them developed is something we are no longer forced to do - those rolls of film aren't piling up like they used to, reminding us to take a trip to the drugstore to see what photos are waiting for us. Nowadays, maybe folks think they'll eventually get around to it, but they don't have time now to put those photos in albums and tell the great stories that go along with them. My message  - if it's important to you, make the time (even if it's in the nooks and crannies of your life! :) Step off Facebook for 30 minutes (gasp!) Let the laundry or the dishes wait til tomorrow (eek!) Say no to that additional committee meeting! We can all do it! :)

I have been reading The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You by Jessica Turner because I want to find ways to help others find (or make) the time they need for themselves and for their photos.I know that I am no superwoman, but I feel in my heart that my family, my home, my health and my career are in good shape, and somehow I find the time to make scrapbooks because I WANT to. Jessica writes that we OWE it to ourselves to find downtime, to let the laundry wait a day, to say no to an obligation that stresses you out, and to unleash the creative part of ourself that we all have to nurture to become a whole person. Maybe scrapbooking isn't it for you, but if it is, you owe it to yourself to make the time. These memories aren't going to get any fresher.

Scrapbooking does not have to be time consuming but it does need to be done in a quality fashion with the best tools. Digital scrapbooking with Panstoria's Artisan is perfect for people who don't want the adhesives, the papers and the cutting tools - watch how this story is starting to develop within a matter of minutes...

Can't wait to wrap this project up and to add my new album to my collection of digital scrapbooks-what book do you want to work on? 

As always, feel free to reach out to me at flafla@bellsouth.net if you have any questions about my digital or traditional scrapbooks, my workshops, my retreats, or anything Panstoria or CM Group has to offer! Click on the banners on this blog to learn more about them - I receive a small commission for any purchases made through these links so I thank you in advance for your support! Thanks for reading and keep scrappin'!

Fran Smitherman, CM Advisor and Panstoria Affiliate

Historian and Artisan - A Match Made in Heaven!

Click on this photo to see it better 

I share so much about Artisan (formerly Storybook Creator) because it is easy to get excited about the fun sense of accomplishment you have when you create beautiful pages and hardbound books from your photos, but I don't want to neglect the power of Historian (formerly Memory Manager.) They work so well together and I cannot imagine my digital life without EITHER of them! As someone with 75,000 photographs, I am forever indebted to the creators of this fine software, Panstoria. I can edit photos, tell the story, rate the photos, keep up with which ones I have printed and not printed, and find ANY PICTURE I WANT in seconds either by using the timeline feature (that's automatic) or by using the Sort Boxes and folders I have created. I have Sort Boxes for Activities, Events, Travel, School, Individuals, Holidays, Parties, and then folders under each of them with specific events. Search made easy (and then you just shoot it over to Artisan to use in a project!

It took no time to make this comparison page - thank you Historian!