We just found out about this great offer and wanted to let all of our readers know about it!
**********

YesVideo has released the beta version of its new YesDVD Smileshow, an affordable DVD authoring service that enables consumers to enjoy and share photos and video clips from their digital cameras as a movie slideshow for TV or PC viewing. Perfect for sharing digital photos and videos with friends and relatives, YesDVD Smileshow is an affordable option for easily preserving and enjoying memories and during the beta period you can make your own Smileshows for free.

The YesDVD Smileshow service is easy to use. Customers go to www.smileshowdvd.com and upload their photos and videos. From there they can add a title page, rearrange and select music. That’s it. YesVideo’s advanced technology recognizes faces in a photo, and the software automatically creates zooming and panning effects to highlight loved ones during the slideshow which will be delivered to their doorstep.

The base price includes 50 photos and is only $4.99; $.05 per additional photo, $0.50 per minute of video and $1.99 for shipping. But right now, our readers can order their own Smileshow DVDs (up to $15) for free. Just use coupon code “MOMMY”!

I am super-excited to bring you a great giveaway this week of a MyPublisher photo book.  I first discovered MyPublisher when Joshua was a baby and photo books were pretty new on the market.  At that time, I made a couple of gorgeous photo books for myself and as gifts for my family.  They were always a big hit!  It’s been a couple of years since I’ve made one, so I was excited for the chance to do a review and a giveaway of this great product – especially since they’ve gotten even better since I last made one!

All you do to make a MyPublisher photo book is get your photos together (the hardest part for me, since I picked up photography in 2008!) and then download MyPublisher’s free bookmaker software from their website.  The software literally walks you through the process step-by-step!  There are tons of layouts to choose from, and you can even add captions and make your photo book into a story book.

MyPublisher also has a ton of cover options – I love the hardcover  books.  You can choose from many different cover colors (I chose orange for fun this time! I love orange!) and you can even make a full-color book jacket for your book, or go for a fancy leather-bound photo book.  The options are endless!

I’ve tried other company’s photobooks and nothing can compare to MyPublisher.  They really are very high-quality books, and the perfect way to preserve your precious memories.  Hardcover books start at just $29.80!

I’m so happy that one lucky winner will get to make their own MyPublisher photo book worth up to $40!  Here’s how to enter!

1) Leave a comment on this post, telling us who would star in your photo book.

2) Tweet about this post on Twitter, then leave us a separate comment with your twitter URL telling us you did so.

3) Post about this contest on your blog, and leave us a separate comment with your post URL

4) Subscribe to our feed and leave us a separate comment telling you did so (or already do)

One winner will be selected by Random.org on Saturday, March 21st.  Good luck!

I have dabbled with digital scrapbooking before… I am SO not likely to ever do real scrapbooking, so it’s a fun way for me to get a little creative without straying too far from my computer. I’ve always downloaded elements from various webpages and have tried to teach myself enough Photoshop to make cute invitations and Christmas cards, etc.

However, I am going to stop being a Photoshop hack because I have found a program that makes digital scrapbooking SUPER easy. It’s called Digital Scrapbook Artist, and it is GREAT. It contains a ton of different themes and elements and you can customize your design in a lot of different ways. The program is unique in that it enables users to edit every object on their scrapbook page and perfect their designs to look exactly as they would in a traditional scrapbook. All of the paper backgrounds and embellishments in the program are hi-res and the program comes with a built-in photo editor.

Additional features of Scrapbook Artist include:
– Choice of 8”x8”, letter-size or 12”x12” pages
– Photo paintbrushes
– Decorative edge scissor cut out tool
– Filter effects for every object
– One-click sharing to post designs for others to see
– 10 free themed digikits

I made this in about 10 minutes:

Digital Scrapbook Artist retails for $39.95 and you can order it at www.serif.com/scrapbook. As a special offer for Reviewin’ It Up readers, you can get $5 off by entering coupon code DSAUSPR04. Woohoo!

Welcome to another edition of Things I Love Thursday! Today I need to gush about my Sony Cybershot DSC-T2. I have had it for three months, so this review is long overdue, but I haven’t spent as much time with it as with my Sony Alpha, so it took me awhile to fully test it out. Now if you haven’t already read about how I got this lovely little camera, please do so here. It’s a fun story!

 

The Cybershot is a great little camera. I love its size – it is compact and very easy to throw in the purse, diaper bag, or even your pocket. I love its look – very stylish! Fortunately, it also takes really nice pictures at the high-quality size of 8.1 megapixels. What really blew me away is that is has a HUGE internal memory of 4 gigabytes!! That means it will hold approximately 400 million pictures (hey – I said approximately!) on the camera itself. You don’t need a separate memory card unless you want to copy pictures onto one to stick in a photo machine to make prints. Another thing I looooove about this camera is that it has a wicked cool touch screen that makes it very easy to navigate the camera’s menus and settings.

 

The Cybershot also has a really fun feature called “Smile Shutter” where you can set your camera to wait to take the picture until the subject of the picture smiles. It is AMAZING! It really works. You can set your Cybershot on Smile Shutter and point that baby at your kiddo and it will not take the picture until said kiddo shows his or her pearly whites. Amazing!

 

Here are some of the photos I have taken with my Cybershot:

 

 

My friend Megan’s first dance at her wedding

Joshua swinging

Fresh juices we drank at the Sony Mommy Blogger Event!

The only “cons” I have found to the Cybershot are that the buttons on the back are flat and a little hard to push, and that the pictures indoor in low light don’t come out too well, even with the flash. Of course, indoors in low light is the LEAST ideal setting to take a photo in – but still a con. All in all, I love this camera! To find out what other bloggers love, visit the Diaper Diaries (at its new home!) for Things I love Thursday!

 First of all, I would like to say, for the record, that there was absolutely no pressure put on me or any of the other  bloggers by the folks at Sony to blog about this event or their products. It was neither mentioned nor inferred.  But they were SO GREAT, there is no way I wouldn’t blog about the trip, the products, or the people I met.

When I first got the email inviting me to an all-expenses paid trip to California courtesy of the Sony Corporation, I was both shocked and dubious. I mean, things like this just do not happen to me!  Plus, they were offering spa treatments and free gifts!  Crazy!  What really got me hooked on going, though, is that it would a) give me a much-needed break from my daily life and b) we were going to test cameras!  I love taking pictures but wish I was a lot, lot, better at it.  They had booked a professional photographer to give us lessons (more on her later) and I was very excited about that!  But really – free trip?  They had me at “free”.

The flights there were long but uneventful, and I was tickled to see a driver with my name on a sign at the airport when I got there. Again – a surreal experience! I wish I would have gotten a picture of that!  When we got to the hotel, we were given a voucher for spa service and for dinner.  I ate a fancy dinner with Kim and Christina, had a great time, took some pics, and went to bed. I was very jet laggy.  Since I went to bed at 9 p.m. Cali time, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. Cali time!  I was still on my Ohio schedule!  Our sessions with Sony didn’t start until 9 a.m. Ha! I had puh-lenty of time to get ready, since I only had myself to worry about!  It was weird just having to take care of me, but great.  I mean I got a shower without the kids being in the bathroom with me! That’s luxury, baby.

There were 14 other Mommy Bloggers at the event, and when we all walked into the conference room, we were greeted with a very special treat: three of Sony’s cameras, the ones we were going to be testing, at our seats, waiting for us, but also given to us. FOR KEEPS!  I could hardly believe it!  We were not only testing the products we got to take them home!  We got the Cybershot DSC-T2, the Alpha DSLR-A200K, and the Handycam HDR-SR11. I was floored. Give me a free trip and a couple grand in free products?  Did I have to sign over my firstborn child? Join a harem? Was there a catch?

Believe it or not, there really was no catch.  Just a room full of Sony folk legitimately wanting to know what moms think about their products.  It was so refreshing.  All the presenters with Sony told us the different reasons how and why they wanted to market to women, and moms in particular.  I must say this is a first for a technology company.  I think it goes without saying that most technology products are produced for and marketed to the male consumer.  But Sony is looking to change that. And dangit if they weren’t so nice about it.  I kept thanking each Sony rep I’d meet for bringing us to La Jolla and for all the great treatment we were getting.  The response was always the same: “Thank you so much for coming and giving your valuable time to give us this important feedback.”  They were as grateful to  have me there as I was to be there!

After some introduction and training on the cameras, as well as a great lunch, we got into our photo tips session with photographer Me Ra Koh.  (Pronounce it “Meera” like it’s all one word.)  She is amazing.  Not just as a photographer, but as a woman, a mom, and a  blogger. We had the best time with her.  I encourage you to check out her photography site and her blog.  She has also recently produced a set of DVDs that I’m going to be reviewing and giving away soon, so stay tuned for that!  After some practice shooting with our SLRs, we had a little free time, and I got a wonderful massage. THANK YOU SONY!  That was the best hour I’ve had in a looong time.  Oh my gosh. It was awesome!  Although I did get into a small non-relaxing debate with the masseuse about whether or not  it was ok to give Sophie whole milk while I was gone. (I was of the opinon that it was fine. The massage therapist…not so much.) Yeah…we had to drop that subject.  I’ll have to blog on that later.  After that, I left feeling all relaxed and happy, and we all went to a fancy-schmancy dinner at a restaurant called Azul’s. It was sooo good. I had a great time!  I got to sit next to the fabulous Me Ra and she was so nice.  We had a great talk and a lot of laughs!

Then it was off to bed…the next morning was early and busy.  We had just a couple of hours of sessions before it was time to go home!! We made prints of some of the photos we had taken the day before and Me Ra and her husband Brian critiqued them for us.  It was really fun to see the shots everyone had gotten!  Then, it was  over and I was whisked off to the airport by a uniformed driver (who, me??).  In all the rush I somehow lost my laptop power adapter.   Very sad indeed! I am not sure if I left it at the hotel (called, haven’t heard back) or in the airport…I had to unpack my laptop bag to get thru security, and again when I was pumping my breasts in the airport bathroom. So, that was kind of a bummer, but considering all I gained on the trip, not so bad! 

Let me share a few pictures I took with my CyberShot. Sony is shipping my other two cameras to me and I am going to do a full review of all three cameras once I have tested them thoroughly!  I am even going to try and do my first VIDEO review of the CyberShot. Exciting stuff! In the meantime, here are some shots:

This is the first pic I took with my CyberShot. I call it “Jenny likey free camera.” I thought this one looked kind cool.  Watch out, Me Ra Koh!This was the view from the meeting roomThis is a view of the meeting room – the veranda was off of our meeting room, the garden below is where we had lunch!Of course I had to get some practice in with the CyberShot when I got home, on my two little favorite subjects!
They were a sight for sore eyes indeed!So to recap: The time away was great, the fancy schmancy treatments rocked, the free cameras were amazing, Me Ra Koh is inspiring, and Sony is the technology company that gives a crap what YOU as a MOM thinks. Who knew??Stay tuned for my reviews coming in the next couple weeks of the CyberShot, the Handycam, and the Alpha DSLR!