With Memorial Day weekend here – have a cookout this weekend or any time this summer!
It is not unusual as we think about childhood memories that lots of them center around Family Cookouts!
With Memorial Day on the horizon lots of people spend part of the weekend at family picnics, or involve their backyard BBQing with family and friends.
Memorial Day often signals summer time, and it is often the first cookout of the year. It is always nice to create new summer memories out in the sun enjoying good food and good company! Here are some tips for this Memorial Day weekend cookout or for any time you want to have some outdoor fun!
Summer Cookout Ideas and Tips!
Whether you’re single, a family with four kids (two dogs, and three fish), or the new young couple on the block, spend some time with family and friends this weekend at a BBQ, Cookout, or Picnic!
Because these summer events are a great way to get friends and family together, they make great photo-catching opportunities for our digital camera! Make new memories and remember this year’s wonderful summer activities on film. Once you have captured these fun summer memories, preserve them by turning them into Digital Scrapbooking Albums.
So get out there, get your grilling tongs and digital camera and start creating fun filled summer memories! Enjoy these tips for the ultimate BBQ, Cookout, or Picnic, this year.
4 Tips to Create fantastic summer memories at your next Cookout, BBQ or Picnic
Tip 1: Keep Your Food Fresh. One thing that really can ruin memories quickly is food that spoils because it is not kept at safe temperatures. One example that stands out in my mind, when I was a teen I was at a family cookout where the main dish was grilled fish. That was great except for the fact that the raw fish wasn’t kept cold enough before it was grilled and sat under
a tree for hours before it was grilled. It spoiled the fish and the family became very sick shortly thereafter. Not fun. Unfortunately, this simple cookout step did not create fun summer memories, and everyone who attended remembers how sick they got! To this day, my father still can’t eat any fish because of this unfortunate experience!
So, remember to keep foods fresh and cold so that you can Digitally Scrap photos later that won’t bring back unpleasant memories!
Idea for keeping food cold: Get a cheap, inflatable kiddie-pool and fill with ice! This makes for a more affordable, inflatable buffet or drink-cooler!
Tip 2: Add One New Event to Create New Memories. Incorporate new traditions each time you host a BBQ or event. This might be a new family game, a new food, or anything that sets your event apart from other ones in the past. Adding something new makes special new memories and gets others excited about the BBQ, Cookout or Picnic’s festivities.
My sister-in-law created a fun event for us one year that really pumped some fun into our typical family reunions. She separated the girl from the boys and assigned each group to go around the reunion with tape recorders, digital cameras, and
video recorders to interview family members at the picnic.
The questions were different for the two groups and included questions like, “Find Aunt Cheri and ask her what her favorite song is and the last one she listened to on her iPod” or “Locate Grandma and ask her when she knew she was in love with Grandpa”.
At the end of the reunion she had lots of great Digital Photos, recorded interviews, and video of all the family members at the reunion … plus, it was a entertaining activity that was new and exciting– instead of all regular, typical family reunion games!
Ideas to Add New Games: You can create a memorable event by planning a couple of fun games to entertain guests. There is no reason to spend lots of money on picnic games, as many fun games are FREE, found on these websites: Basket4Picnic.com or see this article: Outdoor Games to Rock the Picnic Don’t forget to take lots of photos as you play the games!
Tip 3: Record the Event with your Digital Camera and Video Camera. It is so sad to have the best memories and not have any photos of the great event. I wonder how we can let so many special times go unrecorded. If you forget your camera then take out your cell phone and snap some photos anyway.
Make it a habit to bring your camera with you everywhere. Throw it in your purse and try to keep it with you. Think of it like your cell phone and bring it with you as much as you can. Your digital camera is the best bet for Digitally Scrapbooking your special summer memories!
Bonus Tip: I am a total Digital Camera snob, but out of experience, I know it’s smart to always have a “throw away camera” in my trunk just in case! If I forget my good camera, I always have an emergency-back up so I never have to miss any priceless,memory-making moments.
Here are few products that might help you even take better photos to hang onto precious Cookout memories:
- Get a tripod! No need to leave anyone out of the BBQ photos! Get everyone in your pictures by using a tripod. Try this Tripod – Target’s Joby Gorillapod Original Flexible Tripod $21.99– This easy-to-use tripod comes in fun, funky colors, can fit in your purse or picnic basket, and can be bent to sit on or wrap around just about anything when you’re ready to take a few photos! It can bend around things like a tree branch to help you get the shot you want without carrying a larger tripod with long legs!
- Get a Digital SLR Camera. This camera is expensive, but more than worth it if you want hardcore, professional-looking photos. Once you see how great the photos are with higher-end digital camera, it will be hard to go back to anything else!
Two reasons why we like Digital SLRs … first, the shutter speeds are faster
(which means less blurry photos, better action shots… like when the kids play tag football or are just being kids!). The second reason, is the ability to use a different lens, like the close up lens that can focus super-close on a
butterfly on a flower, or take a picture of the whole park from a wide angle lens!
These make better photos for Digital Scrapbooking Projects later on!
Remember, whenever you start with a better picture you can have more
options in digital scrapbooking!
Tip 4: Scrap your Summer BBQ, Cookout or Family Picnic! Digitally 
Scrap your event by making invitations to your BBQ, Cookout, or Picnic ahead of time in order to make them personalized and absolutely
adorable. Also, don’t forget to scrap the event after it is over too!
Keep the memories alive by taking your photos and putting them on Digital Scrapbooking Pages! Take all the scrap pages from your event and combine them into Digital Scrapbooking Albums.
Email the photos and scrap pages of the event to all your family and friends that attended. You can also have them uploaded to an online printing company to make a hard copy of your Digital Scrapbooking Album!
Here are few Digital Scrapbooking products that will help you preserve your memories!
- Personalized “Your Invited” invitations and “Thank You” cards
(use the Cookout Brushes). Create adorable invites and thank you cards to your guests who you invited and attended your BBQ! Stamp-on “BBQ-tastic” detail with these super cute, BBQ-inspired custom brushes. Filled with brushes of men and women grilling, it also features yummy, summer foods so that you can create unique, one-of-a-kind cards! Need Custom Brush Training in Photoshop? Or Custom Brush Training in Photoshop Elements? We got it …see the Scrap Shop!
Digi Tip: Send your personalized thank you cards to your guests & include special Digital Scrapbooking photos of them from the BBQ!
- Get great digital scrapbooking supplies for your summer albums and projects at our Scrap Shop. Take a look
at all the great Scrapbook Supplies to create a fun summer project! Check out the Digital Scrapbooking Kit we used for these scrap pages ~ Goals and Resolutions Scrap Kit: nice for using for days at the park, Cookouts and Picnic Digital Scrapbooking Pages!
Learn Digital Scrapbooking. If you haven’t already got the Getting Started Series, then get it and learn Digital Scrapbooking so you can preserve all your special memories!
Once you’ve completed your Beginner’s Digital Scrapbooking Training, your ready to improve your photos with the Digi Makeover Training.
Next go to Intermediate Tutorials or Advanced Digital Scrapbooking Training to take your digital scrapbooking to the next level!
So, what are you waiting for? This weekend create your own fun-filled memories! Take tons of pictures and use these tips to make extra-special BBQ, Cookout, and Picnic memories!
Happy Scrapping!
Cheri
——–
Learn how to use Custom Brushes too:
Need Training in Using Custom Brushes?
Are you interested in Custom Digital Brushes but you are not sure how to install them and use them? Not to worry ~ we have video training in Custom Brushes!
Our training comes with not only videos about brushes in general, but how to load brushes two different ways to use in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and the benefits of both ways!
Also, our Brush Training comes with another video tutorial just about using Custom Brushes, (tips and tricks) so you can really enjoy them in Digital Scrapbooking Projects and Crafts.
Our Training Has MORE!
This training also comes with Step-by-Step training guides to make it really easy to follow the steps on your own. Not to mention the training comes with 3 Cheat Sheets and a set of Digital Brushes to get you started right away!
For more information or to buy our Training in Digital Custom Brushes for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
——–
