Dear Abby

I found this in DEAR ABBY last week:

DEAR ABBY: I have a suggestion for people who are stuck for gift ideas. Several years ago, I asked my mom for a very special Christmas gift. I asked her to write down her life story -- things she had done as a child, the experience of hitchhiking from New Mexico to Tennessee during the Great Depression, and all the other experiences of her life. She did, and I printed it for her. That year she gave each child, grandchild and great-grandchild a copy. It was the best Christmas present ever and one that's still cherished by us all. Both my parents are gone now, but we have Mom's wonderful stories to remember. Without her book, those memories would be lost forever. I encourage everyone to record their family history and memories for your loved ones to read. You'll never regret it, and it will be enjoyed for generations to come. -- ANDREW IN JOHNSON CITY, TENN.

DEAR ANDREW: That's a terrific suggestion. And if the parent or grandparent isn't comfortable with writing, the same goal can be accomplished by setting up a video camera and interviewing the family member by asking questions about his or her youth.

NEW Post-Bound Albums!

From CREDITS to POINTS

If you have any publishing credits purchased you may have noticed (or will notice) that they are gone. There is a new system of keeping your purchases - and I think it is a great improvement. Instead of having an 8x8 credit in your account you now have publishing points in your account for $49.95. That is the retail price of the book. No matter what sale price you paid you still get the credit for the full cost, so it still benefits you to take advantage of those sales! But, if you change your mind about what product you want to publish it is easy to use your points for whatever you want!

Another change that I'm excited about is that publishing points are now automatically good for 2 years - and that change has already been made in your account - BUT..... there will be NO extensions after that 2 years - so let's use them!You can now use your points toward extra pages if you choose.

Club Premier

Club Premier gives you the ability to save on Premier by purchasing 12 months for only $99.95, that's under $9 per month. Plus, Club Premier members can order as many additional credits or publishing points as they would like on their first* order at 25% off. Club Premier members can also save all year long with special Pick of the Month pricing.

* Please note that Club Premier 25% off pricing is only available on the first order (the order which Club Premier Membership is ordered). After the first order, members can continue to enjoy savings through the monthly Pick of the Month Club Premier offer.

Family Yearbook Club

I've found a wonderful new location for our meetings...
Polly's Pies on Imperial Hwy in Yorba Linda.
Upcoming workshop dates (Fridays, 6-10pm):
August 27
September 24
October 22
November 19
December 17
January 28
February 18
March 25
April 29
May 27
June 24
July 22

Upcoming Digital Worskhops

I've found a wonderful new location for my workshops...
Polly's Pies on Imperial Hwy in Yorba Linda.
Upcoming workshop dates (Sundays, 1-5pm):
August 15
September 12
October 17
November 14
December 5
January 9, 2011
February 13
March 13
April 10
May 15
June 12
July 10

WHAT IS A DIGI-CROP?

• A "GET-IT-DONE" MEETING for digital storybookers.

• A SOCIAL EVENT you won't want to miss.

• The HELP you need from your Heritage Makers consultant--LIVE!

• A CLASS for all skill levels--designers to dummies.

• The BEST PLACE to BRAG about your latest Heritage Makers book!

So, think of it this way.
First there was the quilting bee.
Then there was that whole scrapbook thing.
Now, we have the digi-crop--The #1 place to join with others who understand the importance of getting your pictures and stories in the same place.

Come and have a great time, eat a little food, and get your project DONE!

Christmas in July

It's Here! It's Here! It's Here!

I love this sale. It's when I buy my Christmas card credits. This time they've added other items that can be given as Christmas gifts!!! And if you're a Club Premier member, you get a special gift when you order!

Photo Storage Tips

Photo Storage Tips

to make your life much easier
by Jennifer Zucker

One of the best parts about My Studio is the photo storage system. And to help you make the most of your storage and use of photos, I've got a few tips.

Watch this quick "How to Upload Photos" (6 minute) YouTube video
Click here

Before Uploading Pictures
Because of the digital age and because camera memory is not an issue, we can take 100 pictures of some small-hour events. Many times we will take the same shot five to seven times just to make sure we get a good shot. But for a book, we don't need all seven shots of Billy Joe eating his corn on the cob.

Go through your pictures and clean them out. Pick your one or two best sunset pictures. Don't clutter your HM folder with 15 pictures of the same sunset.

If Problems Occur
When uploading your photos, if you get a 2038 error, or only a couple of images load while others don't or get stuck loading, go to the original file on your computer and open it using an image view program. Resave the image as a JPG and re-upload the image to Heritage Makers.

Rotate Photos
Before you upload photos to Heritage Makers, rotate images so they are set at the right angle. You can rotate inside Studio (not within your photos folder); however, when you submit a project as a template with photos that have been rotated inside Studio, new photos-if in the correct rotation before-will no longer be rotated correctly. Making sure your photos are rotated correctly before hand will help your design and other designs flow mush easier.

For Basic Account Members
With a Basic account, you have limited photo storage space (1 GB), compared to the space Premier members have. To help save space, only upload the photos you know you are going to use in the project.

Before I Was Your Mother

From the Heritage Makers Blog:

These are simple words with a huge impact. Imagine all the stories that children want and need to hear about their mother’s life before having kids. Her whole life has been one incredible adventure, with experiences growing up, going to school, working, falling in love… Imagine how much closer a child and mother can become with such a story.

Heritage Makers consultant Melodie Jones witnessed first-hand just how powerful such a story is for the whole family.

By Melodie Jones

I had jury duty during December and January and so, of course, I shared Heritage Makers with my fellow jurors. One woman, Dee, we thought for sure was going to be excused as she had an adult disabled daughter that she helped take care of… But she wasn’t.

We became friends and I showed her a book template in our catalog called Before I Was Your Mom. She got very excited because her daughter, Mary, had an 11-year old son that only knew his mother as disabled and bed-ridden. Dee took the catalog home to show Mary who then helped Dee choose photos and what to put in the book. Mary was very excited to finally have this book to show her son that she wasn’t always disabled.

I scanned all the photos for Dee then helped her upload them into her account. We scheduled a time when Dee could come to my March workshop so she could finish her book and get it ordered. One week before the workshop I got an email from Dee. Her daughter had suddenly passed away the week before, but she wanted me to know that she still planned on coming to the workshop to finish Mary’s book, which we did.

Dee ordered the book on a Wednesday, and she received it on Saturday. Dee called to tell me how beautiful it was, and how much she appreciated my help, and that now she knows why she was put on jury duty: to meet me so I could help her make Mary’s book. She was so happy that Mary knew about the book before she passed away, and Dee was so happy to be able to finish it for Tyler, Dee’s grandson.

Premier Membership

Hello to My Heritage Makers Friends!

In January we ran a special for our Club Premier Membership--a full year of Premier Membership for $99.95!

This special has ended, but did you know that through February we are offering Premier 3 months as a time for $29.95 if you choose a renewing membership!

Starting March 1, the 3 month renewing price will go up, but with the purchase of a 3 month membership in February, you can maintain this lower cost IF YOU DO NOT CANCEL IT!

So, even if you now have Premier that expires a few months down the road, it may be to your advantage to purchase the 3 month renewing membership now. It will tag on to the end of the membership that you already have and then maintain the better rate until you choose to cancel!

It's the best of both worlds!

In addition to this awesome special, we also have 2 new canvas poster sizes--8x8 and 8x20, and they are both on sale!

$57.95 for 2-8x8's
or
$57.95 for 1-8x20!

These are great fun and easy to make! And at this fantastic price, you can get started today!

Please email or call me if you would like to take advantage of either of these special offers!

Family Yearbook Club

You are invited to take part in my 2010 Yearbook Club!

It’s January and a great time to start your 2010 family yearbook and stay caught up by working on it together at a fun digital scrap-booking "girls night out" party each month.

Not only will you be getting your yearly scrapbook done with my personal help each month, and having a blast with friends, the year will also include:

* 12 months of Premier membership with unlimited photo storage and access to Premier templates
* Mini Master Design Class to learn new page layout ideas and awesome special effects that you can do with our design studio (30 minutes during the night of the party).
* $520 worth of Heritage Makers Products (including your 11.5X8.5 yearbook…see the full list below)

Cost is $100 in Jan and $18 a month thereafter from February to December. Payments will be made at the party during the last week of each month.

Details:

I am looking for 12 people to be in the club. One person to host each month. You can host it at your own home or you can host it at mine. We will draw names to see what month you get.

When it’s your month to host you will get:
* 11.5x8.5 yearbook
* 8x8 book
* 5X5 book
* Wirebound book
* 18x24 poster
* Deck of cards
* 5 greeting cards
* 5 12x12 scrapbook pages
* Swatchbook
* $30 host credit that can be used towards anything you want
* An additional month of Premier
* Monthly Free Product Host Gift (varies)

This list may vary a little during your month depending on that month’s host specials.

Invite your best friends and email me today to reserve your spot!!!

Jury Duty, part 2

We were all joking in the jury room. One gal said, "It'd be nice if they settled this next week!". Then another gal said, "I'd be happy if they settled it today!" We get into the court room and the judge reminds us that we've already served 12 days (seems like lots longer!) and that there are 12 days more scheduled...BUT he was happy to report that the case had been settled and thank you for your time. Wow, were we ever surprised! We had a chance to talk to the plantiffs and both sides of lawyers, then we had a mini party in the jury room. Someone had brought us lunch, so we decided to stay and eat and visit. We'd become friends during the past 1 1/2 months. It was weird saying good bye.

Sample of a Family Yearbook

I'm not done with it, but here is what I have so far for my 2007 family yearbook. I've made it my goal to keep updated in 2010!!!! Join me once a month to work on YOURS!

http://www.heritagemakers.com/projectBrowserStandAlone.cfm?projectId=793403&productId=11&projectSponsor=155355

Jury Duty

I've spent most of January on a civil trial (jury duty) and they are expecting it to go until the beginning of February. It's amazing how you become friends with everyone after being together for so long. We can't talk about the trial within each other, but we still find a lot to talk about. So many of the jurers have such interesting life stories!

Club Premier

It's January and we invite you to join in the fun of our huge Club Premier savings before the month ends. You can enjoy all the great perks of Premier membership for our lowest price of the season!

Until January 31, 2010 you can get:

12 months of Premier for only $99.95. You save 58%!

OR

12 months of Premier plus a 12x12 storybook for only $159.95. You save 47%!

Remember, a Premier membership gives:
• unlimited photo storage
• unlimited project creation and storage
• new art monthly
• free online master classes
• 40,000+ pieces of digital art
• 1,500 templates
• and much more

And this month, you can get all of this for around $9/month!

This is the greatest deal ever! Take advantage of this opportunity while it still lasts. Offer ends January 31, 2010.

Check out this adorable board book I made for my sister-in-law...from a template.

http://www.heritagemakers.com/projectBrowserStandAlone.cfm?projectId=1166084&productId=60&projectSponsor=155355

One Year of Premier for $99.95 is back!

If you were fortunate enough to sign up for Club Premier last year, you know how much money you saved on 1 year of Premier.

HM is offering, once again, 1 year of Premier for $99.95. That's $8.33 per month, a savings of 58%. If you love Premier, if you love the idea of having an entire scrapbook store at your disposal with unlimited access, you'll love a Premier membership and this is the chance to have it at the lowest price of the year.

If you already have a Premier membership, the year of Premier will just tack on to the end of your current membership.

With Premier you have unlimited photo storage and access to all the templates in the Template Gallery. This will broaden your options and your ability to design in a creative and fun way.

You don't want to miss out on this opportunity, so contact me right away, even if you're not ready to order yet this month. I'll remember to contact you, instead of you trying to remember to contact me.

If you're new to Heritage Makers and haven't started publishing yet, I'd be happy to demonstrate the publishing tool for you, show you the art work that's available in the Basic Art program (which is free) and in our Premier Art program (which is a membership). Don't wait to start publishing because you're not sure about which art program to use, let me help you make an informed decision. Our Basic Art is good, and some are very happy with this program because they're uncomfortable with the range of choices that are available through Premier. Whichever art program you decide to use, your projects will be amazing and you'll love your finished project!

I'm looking forward to hearing from you and being of service to you, your family and friends.