Improving a free genealogy Template

Last week I was presenting my class on Creative Family history at the New England Family history conference, and I had a workshop to help the attendants realize how easy it is to modify a template.
This was the Template I used:

To choose the Template, I went to the Template gallery and entered the keyword "pedigree" in the search box.

 There were 11 templates with this keyword

Then, since none of the attendants had a premier membership yet, I narrowed my search to only the basic templates.

In this case there was only one template that was in basic, thus completely free, but it was sufficient for our needs.
I chose this Template which was a little bland, and using the free basic digital art available in studio,
I transformed it in this new pedigree chart.

All I did was:
1) Swap the pictures with the ones I needed.
2)Delete the ones I didn't need.
3)Add 2 more pictures for more children
4)Change the background, (I used keyword "green paper" and "pink paper" to find them in the art collection)
5)Add frames (I used keyword "frame" to find them)
6)Add a flower (I used keyword "Flower"to find it)
7)Add leaves (I used keyword "Leaf" to find them)
7)Use ribbons to decorate the chart (I used keyword"Ribbon" to find it)
I dragged and dropped these elements, re-sized them to my needs, and put them in place.
If you were attending my class, you would have been able to see everything step by step, but if you weren't able to be there, no worries.

You can learn how to modify a template through one of our easy tutorials, like this one:
 

Since the Template I used was BASIC, anyone can try and modify it according to their own taste and need.

I want to challenge you to experience for yourself how easy it is to modify a template.
Once you do, if you like,  send me a copy. I will show it on the blog and/or on my CavaGenealogy facebook page.

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You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

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Hurray for new Canvas sizes!

Great news!
Heritage Makers is offering  2 new Gallery wrapped Canvas sizes!!! 8x8 and 20x8!
I had been wishing they would come up with the 8x8, because I wanted to make one with just the face of each of my boys, and had just the right place in my house where to put them!

What's even better, they are on sale this month!!!

Contact me today to start creating wonderful canvases that will help you make your house a home!

Could you use unlimited photo storage?

How many pictures do you take in a year?

If you are someway like me, maybe the question should be how many pictures a week, but if you are just like me, then I should ask you how many pictures you take in a day!
This means that you have hundreds, thousands of pictures somewhere on a computer, on some memory cards, hopefully an external hard drive.
If you already have all of your pictures in at least two places, let's say your computer and an external hard drive, KUDOS to you...
Thing is, both the computer and the external hard drive can malfunction, and you might end up losing some if not all of your precious pictures.
It almost happened to me!
In one day, both my computer and my external hard drive crashed, and it would have been the end of the world, if I didn't know that I had already uploaded all my pictures on my Heritage Makers account.
All my pictures are safely stored there, and I can download them any time, on any computer, wherever I found my self in the world!
I have my Premier membership, and this allows me to upload all the pictures I want, and do what I want with them.
I can

• Use them to create any of my projects using the 45000+ digital art elements available
• Download them on any computer, anywhere, always at the same resolution as they were uploaded.
• Share them with my family and friends, thus allowing them to simply print them , download them on their computer and/or create projects of their own with them.
• Organize them in various folders and have them available wherever I go! I can work on them at home, office, library, college, anywhere with an internet connection!
• No need to bring a laptop with you!

 Can you tell I love premier?
Where else can you get all this for less than $9 a month?
Actually, I haven't found any other place that has all that the Heritage Makers Premium membership offers, period!
Check out the video that talks about premier  in a previous post!
You gotta give it a try! You will not be disappointed!
A whole year of  Premier membership for $99.95! Only until January 31st!
Contact me before Saturday night and leave a number where I will be able to reach you, to take advantage of this incredible offer, and why not, get a premier membership for a loved one! Peace of mind, an entire digital scrapbook store at your hand, templates, organization, photo storage.. .Premier membership has it all, and now you can have it too!

An entire Scrapbook store on your computer!

How would you like to have thousands of digital embellishments, backgrounds, papers and more at your hand? How would you like to be able to easily search them by color, theme, subject and more? How would you like to have a software that is extrememly intuitive and easy to use? How about countless templates where you can just drag and drop your pictures and/or modify anything you like? How great would be to have one safe place to store all your precious pictures in?

This is what Premier offers you, and much more!

You don't need to download any software on your computer, so you can use your account anywhere, even on other people's computers, at the library, at school, everywhere there is an internet connection!

This is  the last week to order your Heritage Makers Premier Membership $99 for the year! That's about $8 a month (regular price $19.95/month) for all the bells and whistles that Heritage Makers has to offer to give you the best photos and memory preservation solutions. You will practically have a whole digital scrapbook store at your hands for such a deal! Plus you will be able to have unlimited photo storage and archival!

This deal is NOT available online. To get in on Club Premier, call me or email me by Saturday (January 30th) at 10:00 PM EST and I will add your order to my workshop this week!
And if you'd like to add a 12x12 to your order, you can have both a year of premier and a 12x12 storybook for only $159.95!
To learn more about the differences between basic and premier accounts, I suggest the following:
1. CLICK BELOW to see a short video that explains the premier membership.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TqeT8q80l8
2. CLICK BELOW to browse through some of the 45,000+ pieces of artwork in the premier collection. The click the "Hide Premier" button on the upper left to see only the collections available in your basic account.
http://studio.heritagemakers.com/studi/ArtContentViewerStandalone.html
3. CLICK the LINK BELOW to look through the template gallery and compare basic and premier templates and see which you like better! On the top right, you can sort your search by membership, allowing you to view only basic templates or only premier templates. Then, search by type of book, keyword, or even the popularity of the template. Keep in mind that there are new templates being added to the gallery almost every day!
http://www.heritagemakers.com/templategallery.cfm
Also remember that with Premier, you get UNLIMITED photo storage! Your pictures will be safely stored and archived for your peace of mind! You will also be able to share them with anyone, and they will be able to download them in HIGH RESOLUTION, and/or to use them in their own publishing account to create a storybook or any other project! No more tiny tini pictures sent through email!This alone is worth the price!
If you are ready to order Club Premier, send me an email with "Ready for Club Premier" in the subject of the email. Please include a phone number where you can be reached between 12:00 PM and 5:00 PM EST. If you are one of the first three to order, you will receive a FREE GIFT from me in your account!
Don't let your PHOTOS go "unloved", Let me help you START Have a STORYBOOKING!!!

Holiday hits: week 4: Jewlery and History Hero DVDs

You already know how much I like the History hero DVDs. I have talked about them here and here.

I also love being able to show off my loved ones with a keepsake photo bracelet or pendant. I have talked about the bracelet I created here and will soon post about the pendant also.

Too bad I already bought them because they are on sale this week!!!

Just in time for those doing last minute Christmas shopping!

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You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com/ and start creating unlimited projects at once!

Want more? Check out our incredible host rewards and fantastic package deals!!
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Are you going to be remembered when this chapter of your existence comes to an end?

Many of us would like to think that we will be remembered long after we are gone.

We spend our life trying to build some kind of wealth, we collect objects that are dear to our heart, maybe some particular jewelery item that we would love to pass to our children, take pictures, record home videos, possibly leave a testament thinking that takes care of everything...

The truth is that fortunes are spent, properties are sold, jewelery can't be possibly divided among all of our descendants, records and stories are lost and memories fade.
Still, we want someone to know we existed. We want someone to know we made a difference. And that existence and difference has value. Unfortunately we often don't know what that value or worth is.

Perhaps this value is best understood to those who will follow us - our children, our grandchildren, or even strangers - those who will remember and learn about our lives of trials, of dreams, of hopes, of success and failures and can gain or learn from it.

The present is fleeting and soon to be… the past.

And although we may have thousands of photos and maybe hours of home movies the reality is that we've probably never recorded the obvious for posterity... what it is that we experienced, what we learned, why we did what we did, what we thought was important, and what words of wisdom and faith we wanted to pass on.

Taking the time to write your story and make sure that is is preserved, that the pictures you leave aren't just images from the past, but are connected to the experience and feelings you had when it was taken, will ensure that you leave a Legacy for your family and friends to appreciate and learn from for generations to come.

Your life is important and thanks to Storybooking, you can make sure that it is not forgotten.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!

This is what I exclaimed this morning when I went to look at the new Studio 3.0 version of our editing software!!!
I love how easy and fast it is now to go through all the digital art collections, and how fast it is to upload pictures and work at my projects!

I can also easily move pictures from an album to the other, not to mention that there are now 40000+ wonderful digital art items available with premier!!!

I can't wait to connect to the free class there is going to be on Thursday 25th, just in case I missed something. I want to know everything about the features and capabilities of Studio 3.0.
You can register here if you like to know more about the exciting upgrades and enhancements Heritage Makers has ready for us!

Time Traveling

Who wouldn't like to go back in time?
So many movies have been filmed about this topic, but do you believe you can travel time?
I do.
I just did it.
I went through old pictures, very old ones, pictures of my children great grandparents, their parents and even their great grandparents...
I looked at their face, their clothes, trying to imagine what they were thinking, and what their life was like 100+ years ago. I need to go talk with my husband's grandma, and ask her about her family, their jobs, what they were like when they were together, and then put a book together so that my kids will be able to travel time again and again even when we won't be around anymore.
Some of them had a few words in the back, and that really made them more precious.
In the meanwhile, I scanned all those pictures, I cannot stand the idea that if something happened to them, there would be no more time travel for my kids, my grand kids, my future generations...
I made various copies to make sure that should something happen to my computer, or my laptop, or my external hard drive, the pictures will still be on another device to make more copies again. This is also going to be my Christmas gift for all the other members of the family (inexpensive but at the same time priceless!), which at the same time will raise the chances to preserve these pictures forever and for many more families to travel time through the pictures of their ancestors.

I love time travel!

I travel time when I put together my storybooks, when I create a family tree poster, when I look at my children's pictures, or my childhood pictures, when I ask questions about my dad, my grandparents to any other family members...
When I write the story behind a picture I am allowing my family and friends to travel time with me at a superior level, because they don't need to guess what that picture was about, when it was taken, what I was thinking: they will know.

Time travel: this is one other reason why I am the Heritage Maker in my home.

Are you traveling time too?