Young author contest

What are your kids doing this summer? When the pool is not an option and outside is burning temperature, are your kids in front of the TV? Or with a PlayStation in their hands?
How about something that will engage their brain, increase their creativity, improve their self esteem and even better, give them the chance to win something?

Get a free basic account at http://Preservemyheritage.com and then have them have fun working at a project to submit to the

Young author contest!
Encourage your kids to capture a slice of their life and times.

Want to know more about your family’s budding author? If so, encourage them to participate in Heritage Makers Young Authors’ Contest this summer and see what life looks like from their perspective!

Contest details
Here’s how the Young Authors’ Contest works:

1. Stories are to be authored in our 6x8.75 spiral-bound Cookbook/Planner.
2. Stories must focus on the theme “All About Me.”
3. Participants between the ages of 8-17 are eligible.
4. Entries, along with a completed copy of the Young Authors’ Contest application, must be submitted between June 2, 2009, and August 31, 2009. See terms and conditions here.
5. No purchase necessary.

Prizes
Winners will be announced September 15, 2009. Winners will be judged both on the quality of their story and the design of their storybook.

Contestants will be judged in these age groups: 8-10 years, 11-13 years, and 14-17 years.

The following prizes will be awarded in each age group:

* 1st place: 12x12 storybook
* 2nd place: 8x8 storybook
* 3rd place: 7x5 storybook
* Honorable mention: 12x18 poster

All Young Authors’ Contest winners will also receive a copy of their entry project.

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!

The best gift

What is the best gift you could give?
When I was younger I thought the more expensive a gift, the better.
In the beginning I loved dolls and cars; growing up it was the time of clothes and jewelry...
Then I grew up a little more, and realized that all those things weren't really important. What was starting to really be important, was time.
Time spent with my family, my friends.
Time I wish I could enjoy again talking with my dad, whom I lost when I was 13...
Time traveling and making new discoveries.
Time making memories.
Time preserving those memories.

My husband wanted to get me a diamond ring for our engagement. You might think I am weird, but my answer was:" And what would I do with it? Wouldn't a simple much less expensive ring still be a good memento of the day you asked me to marry you?
How about we save that money for future travels? For family needs?"
It took him a lot to understand that I really didn't desire a diamond ring, but then he appreciated the fact that we went 5 different places for our honey moon: Florida, Utah, Italy, Switzerland and England and that now we have a book preserving those memories.A diamond ring could only be passed on to one of our children. I can make copies of the book I made, and all my children will be able to enjoy it and share it with their children.
If they desire, the will be able to make more copies for each of their children so they will know their grandparents' love story.
I get my children's toys at garage sales. They will get broken anyway. The real gifts from me to them are the books I make about them, the playing cards with their pictures, the family folds, the genealogy posters I created.
While right now toys might be their first desire since they are so little, I know that when they will be grown up, they will really treasure these books and other projects I have taken the time to create for them.
I do have a couple dolls, and some jewelry pieces from my mom and my grandma and I do treasure them, but they tell me very little about the persons that gave them to me.
The Storybooks I create for my children and for all my other family members and friends, tell them that they are special to me, that they mean a lot, that they are worth the time I took to make something for them, to preserve a special memory.
These projects will remind them of me, of who I am when I am too old or I am not here anymore.
One of the last books I created was my son's VPK book. It has pictures of him, his friends, his teachers, and a collection of many of his favorite things.
I have no memory of my pre-k years(we call it asilo in Italy) except for a couple of flash backs that I can't tell if they are a dream of the reality. I don't remember any of the friends I had or what I liked to do there. My son will be able to look at the book and know that his memories are not dreams and remember all of his friends and favorite things.
How much I wish my parents could have done something like this for me, but there was nothing like Heritage Makers 30 years ago!

So, don't waste your time looking for expensive gifts that could end up in a future garage sale or that just aren't able to really say a lot about you.
Take time to tell the stories in your home.
Take time to help your child understand his/her self worth, to improve his/her self esteem, make a book about him or her , about his/her family history.
Take time to read these books with your children at night time or any other time during the day.
Time is the best gift you can give, and you will see that as time goes by, all the other material things lose importance and value while time with the memories related to it becomes the most precious thing of all!

Brides on a budget

I wish I had known about Storybooking when I was getting married, 6 years ago...
We did everything on a budget, I really didn't care about anything but marrying the Love of my life and having lots of pictures to testify of the most important day of our life...
We didn't even have a professional photographer, just friends and family taking pictures with their camera. We ended up with more than 800 pictures, and many of them turned out really cute!
I didn't know anything about scrapbooking, I tried to make a wedding album with some pages embellished, but that was all.
4 years later I discovered Heritage Makers and was finally able to create a book with our love story, foldouts with pictures of our wedding and our honeymoon, and then a simple wedding album(which you can see going all the way down on this page).

Had I known Heritage Makers then, I could have created our invitations using the greeting cards, saving the dates and table place cards using the playing card format, a signature book, thank you cards... Everything would have just been unforgettable not only for me and my husband but also for all our family and friends, and what would have been even better, it would have still been on a budget.

We are living during troubled times, but people still get married, they are just getting smarter on how and where they are spending their money.

Since having a great professional photographer is the desire for most brides, you can still save money by choosing a photographer that will give you a CD with all the pictures and the copyright, allowing you to create your own wedding album, small books with engagement picture as center pieces at each table, signature book, invitations, canvases, posters, thank you card and any gift for your parents and the whole party.
Right now there is a package that is just perfect for professional looking bridal albums and keepsakes for you, your family and friends!
This is what it contains:
12x12 Wedding album
(2) 8x8 Wedding album(great for wedding story and parent book)
8x8 wedding Scrapbook
(2) Change of address playing cards
18x24 Wedding poster
(2) Matching Souvenir Family Folds
2 months Premiere membership
only $299.95 save $124.95!!!

Creating your own wedding albums, posters and any other product is so easy that you will have so much fun and will be so amazed when they will be shipped to you!
You can start by signing up for a FREE basic account here and then write me to let me know that you would like the wedding package or even to ask for any other package or deal with any other product(you can create a canvas for just $100, but could be much less if bought with at least a $200 package!). I want to save you as much money as possible and see you smile because not only you marry the love of your life, but you will be able to preserve every bit of that day saving tons of money!

So, brides, you can be on a budget and still have the wedding stationery and albums of your dream!

Life happens

Yesterday I was in a car accident.
It was pouring down rain and I was being much more cautious than usual, but this person didn't see me while I was going from a parking lot to another and hit my car.
My car is now totaled, but I know Somebody was watching over me. I got bruises from the seat belt and my right arm got kind of burned from the airbag explosion, and am now wearing a splint for my broken wrist.
I am so glad my children weren't with me in the car.
For a millisecond I thought my time had come.
Was I prepared? My children are all under 5 years old. Would they remember who their mom was and how much I love them? Would they have memories of the things we did together, of what were my dreams for them?

Now more than ever I am so glad that I discovered Heritage Makers and have been Storybooking since then...
My children have books about them that will always remind them how special they are and how much they are loved. They will know their parent's love Story which will make them feel even more special.
They will know our family Story through the yearbooks I have been creating, and they will know their family heritage through the genealogy posters, folds and books I have published.

I had many of my books with me in the car and when I saw the smoke coming from the air bags I feared that the car was going to take fire and I would have not only lost the car, but my precious books. Then I realized that my projects were preserved in my online account, and I could have printed as many copies as I wanted at any time, so my memories and my work weren't lost.

Don't wait for tomorrow to be the Heritage Maker in your home.
Life happens.
I know it now more than ever.

Father's day Frenzy!!!!

It's almost Father's Day! What are you gettin' that guy?
A Tie? Another Coffee MUG?Are you going to give him something that will be in the next garage sale?

There is something so much better that he will treasure for years to come! Make Dad the Best Gift he'll ever receive!
A Storybook from Heritage Makers!

Create your own or use a fully designed template to tell Dad that HE'S the Best Dad ever!

Don't worry, this book can be made in as little as ONE day and I can help you every step of the way!

You can only take advantage of these never seen before prices through me, your Heritage Makers Personal Publishing Consultant!

contact me today!
http://www.preservemyheritage.com

I love the father of my children

Yes, I love my husband, I am so grateful that he chose me as the mother of his children a little over 6 years ago, and I want him to know it every day more, so I have created a father's day card for him, with pictures of him with our children, our children alone, and all of us together, and a few words that express what our children and I feel.
He is such a great dad, he plays with the kids, changes diapers, cooks when I cannot do it, helps me give the boys their baths, and works hard to find a job now that he is unemployed while allowing me to preserve our heritage so that our children will always know who they are.
I created this card starting from a template in the template gallery and I changed it a little because I wanted to add more pictures, inside and on the back. It took just a few minutes and the best dad in the world is going to have a wonderful card for father's day! You can have a full view of the card by clicking here.
You will be able to zoom, open and close and see the card from any angle just by clicking on it and dragging around with your mouse.

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?