Monday, March 30, 2015

Cordoba

Cordoba is located on the banks of the Guadalquivir river and flows under the ancient Roman Bridge. Surrounding the large old town are the Roman walls. The most important building and symbol of the city is the Great Mosque of Córdoba, also called The Mezquita, and is the current cathedral. 


Saturday, March 28, 2015

La Mancha

Don Quixote has always been one of Rick's favorite books. We traveled through the countryside upon which Cervantes based this story. Photo ops abound.


Friday, March 13, 2015

Holy Toledo

Rumor has it that the phrase "Holy Toledo" comes from the fact that this small city held in close proximity Christian, Jewish and Muslim churches. The city is hilly and the streets are narrow and cobbled. It's age is delightful.



Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Spain Revisited: Madrid

For our travel book from our trip to Spain, I used Anna Aspnes templates but modified them slightly. A book such as this can be compiled quickly if the following steps are taken:

  1. Choose a dozen papers and templates that work together and can be repeatedly used for the book.
  2. Blurb requires 12.25 inch pages if you want full bleed. That's color all the way to the edge. So resize the digital background papers and the templates.
  3. I like a slight vignette so I add this to the papers and save them that way.
  4. I eliminate anything I do not want on the templates and resave them.
  5. I add drop shadows to the templates and save them once again.
  6. I select the fonts I want to use for the titles and text boxes and the colors I want them to be and then type some placeholder words.
Now I am ready to grab a template that has the requisite number of photos spots for the story being told, rename it so I don't lose my modified template file and begin dragging and dropping photos in.
A paper is selected to blend with the photos on the page. Journaling is added and on to the next page.


I like including maps of the journey.


I like these templates because there are so many spots for photos.


Notice the fonts are the same but the size varies to fit in the space allowed.



The Prado is amazing. So much wonderful art. I could have stayed there for a long time. Our trip included visiting the work of Spanish painters: Velazques, Goya and el Greco.