Making a Newsletter

I have been completely engrossed in designing a club newsletter and my personal digiscrapping has just about stopped.  I am all about the challenge!  I am designing a newsletter using PSE, even though my son has said it cannot be done.  I am too stubborn to get Publisher and learn it.  Plus, we like the arty edge to the newsletter I am producing.  I went back to PSE8 so I can make a multi page file.  Sometimes it pays to never throw things away.

Here is a sample blank front for the October newsletter.  We use the blanks for luncheon invitation.  I design a new one each month.

november

My son is 38!

Finally made a digi page.  Of course I used a stacker.  So not original.  But it is done!

Lowcountry Beauty

From this photo:

 Add some Photoshop Magic.  I cut and copied bits of the photo and used blend modes.

Stars and Hearts

From this:

To this:

Everyday to Magical

It is amazing what can be done in PSE with a little tutorial help.

I started with this very ordinary photo of Teaghan that would have likely gone into the delete pile.

Look what happened to it:

YESSSSS...........

A Funny New Family Story/Adventure

I just had to write about our recent hilarious experience at Waffle House.  I will not even tell you which Waffle House, because the incident was an aberration.

We love Waffle House when we need a quick meal late.  My fav is the grilled cheese sandwich, which is not on the menu.  I did not ask for that this time, and, as you will see, it was a good thing.

There were six of us, 4 at one table, me and hubby at adjoining one.  It was about 9:00.  We chose Waffle House since most restaurants in the area were closed and we needed a quick, tasty meal.  We all ordered.  We waited 1/2 an hour while food slowly was distributed to everybody else in the restaurant.  Usually you are in and out in 1/2 hour.  Ha.

Finally the first four got their meals; almost.  The grilled chicken sandwich only contained lettuce and tomato.  No meat.  So it went back.  The BLT was done on white instead of whole wheat....I had also ordered that and had a sudden feeling I had better grab it as it was going back to the kitchen.  Good plan.

I slowly ate my sandwich, trying to wait for hubby to get his bacon patty melt.  The waitress kept telling him it was on the way.  I was watching the sloooooow cooks behind the counter.  Finally I noticed the cook was cleaning the grill.  Still no sandwich.  The waitress first apologized and said it was on the way, and she would comp it.  Still no sandwich.  Finally, after a full hour at the restaurant, hubby got a BLT.  No kidding.

At one point the cooks walked out for a smoke break.........just stopped cooking altogether.

When we left, the waitress, who was attentive and pleasant even if she rarely delivered food, did not know how to use the register and nobody would help her, so she just charged the 6 of us $16.  No kidding.

By the way, what food we managed to get was good.  And the next day we discovered if we had turned right at the next intersection there were dozens of places that would have still been open. #strange city #dark #late #fail.

Don't let this tale keep you from Waffle House.  We had nowhere else to be but back at the hotel, and actually found the whole incident quite funny.  A family story to tell, indeed.

Month of Memories

I am going to play along with a game in the Scrap Girls Forum.  I am a paying member of the web site and get a huge kit once a month.  The challenges and games do not restrict me to just their products, which is very important.  I can't stand to be limited when I start creating.

We are supposed to take a photo everyday and scrap it in a 4x6 format.  This is a variation of Project Life, which is way too big a project.  I think I can do this for a month, especially since we have a lot of stuff happening this month to take photos of; not our usual quiet days.

Here is my first layout, welcoming you on my month's journey.

As you can see, I did not make many more layouts.  Life got busy and I lost interest in the prompts.  Here are the rest.  There might be more, no promises!

Springtime in Texas

We visited the grands in Texas over Easter and enjoyed an Egg Hunt in the neighborhood park. Activities inckuded a minigolf hole!  Papa just had to help Teaghan get a hole in one, even if it did involve putting the ball in the hole with her hand!

Good Life

We love it here.

Cluster by Kimeric with considerable changes made by me.

Walking Paris

Ah, memories!  When you live overseas for awhile, you get to tour the continent slowly..............

Sweet Valentine

This says it all.

Mini kit from Kimeric.  Scraplifted from LO by MelindaMakesArt

Coon Dog Cemetery

I am reading a book called Spirit of the Rod by Rick L. Huffman.  Early on he mentions the Coon Dog Cemetery in Alabama.  So I went to Google and was fascinated.  I took this description from the web site.  Then I had to make this layout.

In a small, grassy meadow, deep in the rich, thick wilderness of Freedom Hills, Alabama, Key Underwood sadly buried his faithful coondog, Troop. They had hunted together for more than 15 years. The burial spot was a popular hunting camp where coon hunters from miles around gathered. Other hunters started doing the same when their favorite coon dogs died. Today more than 185 coon dogs from all across the United States are buried in this spot in Northwest Alabama.   The "Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard," has became a popular tourist attraction and is the only cemetery of its kind in the world.

Coon dogs are hunting dogs with keen noses..  They are descended from fox hounds, traditionally used for fox hunting in England.

Feeling Artsy Today

I opened a simple template today and this is where it took me.  The best art pages appear from nowhere.  Love this.

Art is Good

Art is good.  It also occupies grandchildren at Thanksgiving!  Photo by Poppi.  Layout by Nana.

This layout was inspired by a Recipe Challenge over at Pixel Scrapper.  We had to include a Word Art and when I spotted making my mark from WordArtWorld in my stash, I knew it was perfect for this photo.  I jazzed up all the paint with bevels in PSE.

Create

I moved my computer upstairs to a cubby hole room in the new house.  It has two loooong walls for me to hang creations without Larry rolling his eyes.  Here is the first one.  From the kit Don't Blink by LJS Designs from the January 2015 Digi Files.

Recycling

I have been recycling glass to use for leftovers, yogurt containers for rubberbands and acrylic paint palettes, picture frames from Goodwill for my own art.  Recycling is a way of life anymore.  Why not take that a step further and recycle digital scrapbook pages?  If they are saved in layers, it is so easy.  I heard one digi scrapper say there is no point in inventing the wheel over and over.

Creating brand new digital pages is fun and exciting, but time consuming and can be overwhelming.  After over 5 years of collecting digi supplies, my choices are just too much and I am sure lots of really amazing goodies are completely buried in my computer files, no matter how I try to organize them.

Today, after sitting at my computer and shuffling files around, I randomly opened a 2013 folder of my layered layouts.  One caught my eye, so I opened it and replaced the photo.  Tweaked and added a new title and had a brand new layout for the 2014 book with a photo of Griff and Ella that is precious and now remembered.

So, even if you are not feeling very creative (me), you can go back and reuse the brilliant layouts you might have made in the past.  Just remember....always save a layered copy or this will NOT work.

Color & Challenges

I follow a blog called The Color Sisters.  Every month they post a new color palette and I decided to start the new year with that for a layout challenge. This is what I had to work with.

This gave me good practice for practicing the PSE change color menu.  It is not so easy and sometimes does not work, but it was a good morning challenge for me.

The photo is one taken at my daughter's.  She lives on the Florida coast.