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At long last, here is my contribution to this challenge. I don't know that it's the absolute best I can do, but it's all I can muster for now (if that makes any sense.) Seems hard to believe I had all this time and THIS is all I could come up with. 
I am donating my services for a photo restoration to a benefit silent auction next weekend. So, I want my ad to attract people to bid on my services. The benefit is for a non-profit organization, Somewhere in the World Foundation, that sends money to orphanages and other children’s service organizations around the world. I will also have a brochure available for people to read, but I want the ad to catch people’s attention and prompt them to pick up the brochure to read more about my services. I’m definitely not an ad designer and this one’s not very fancy, so I would appreciate any feedback you might have.
FWIW, here’s what I did to create it:
1. I created a new 8x10” document with white background.
2. Resized the three photos so that I could fit all of them on an 8x10” sheet of paper.
3. For each photo, I used the rectangular marquee tool to select an area about 1/8” inside the border of the photo and feathered the selection 20 pixels.
4. Used the move tool to drag each photo onto the new document and placed in a “pleasing” arrangement.
5. Added black text using the Harrington font.
6. Decided that everything looked too dull, so tried some different color schemes for the background. At first I tried filling the background layer with the wood pattern. It matched the yellowing of the original photos, but still looked much to dull for my tastes. Decided that a dusty pink might work better, so filled the background layer with that color, then added a sandstone texture. I then changed the font color to a deep burgundy.
7. I copied my logo (which I had created a while ago) to the bottom of the ad and added my contact information on a separate text layer.
8. Added the text outlining my services at the very bottom.
9. Decided that the sharpness of the border of the background did not match the softness of the photo borders, so I made a rectangular selection just inside the edges of the background layer, feathered the selection 20 pixels, inverted and deleted the outer rim of the background to give it a softer look.
One thing I’d really appreciate feedback on is the text. It doesn’t really match the sequence of the photos. I tried making the last section of text be the “bring them back to life” to match the final version of the photo, but it just doesn’t flow as well. Plus, it seems to me that the “lost forever” part is what creates a sense that the reader needs to do something now – better to have it at the end rather than “lost” in the middle. So perhaps the text doesn’t need to “match” the sequence of photos. Any other thoughts?
Jeanie
I am donating my services for a photo restoration to a benefit silent auction next weekend. So, I want my ad to attract people to bid on my services. The benefit is for a non-profit organization, Somewhere in the World Foundation, that sends money to orphanages and other children’s service organizations around the world. I will also have a brochure available for people to read, but I want the ad to catch people’s attention and prompt them to pick up the brochure to read more about my services. I’m definitely not an ad designer and this one’s not very fancy, so I would appreciate any feedback you might have.
FWIW, here’s what I did to create it:
1. I created a new 8x10” document with white background.
2. Resized the three photos so that I could fit all of them on an 8x10” sheet of paper.
3. For each photo, I used the rectangular marquee tool to select an area about 1/8” inside the border of the photo and feathered the selection 20 pixels.
4. Used the move tool to drag each photo onto the new document and placed in a “pleasing” arrangement.
5. Added black text using the Harrington font.
6. Decided that everything looked too dull, so tried some different color schemes for the background. At first I tried filling the background layer with the wood pattern. It matched the yellowing of the original photos, but still looked much to dull for my tastes. Decided that a dusty pink might work better, so filled the background layer with that color, then added a sandstone texture. I then changed the font color to a deep burgundy.
7. I copied my logo (which I had created a while ago) to the bottom of the ad and added my contact information on a separate text layer.
8. Added the text outlining my services at the very bottom.
9. Decided that the sharpness of the border of the background did not match the softness of the photo borders, so I made a rectangular selection just inside the edges of the background layer, feathered the selection 20 pixels, inverted and deleted the outer rim of the background to give it a softer look.
One thing I’d really appreciate feedback on is the text. It doesn’t really match the sequence of the photos. I tried making the last section of text be the “bring them back to life” to match the final version of the photo, but it just doesn’t flow as well. Plus, it seems to me that the “lost forever” part is what creates a sense that the reader needs to do something now – better to have it at the end rather than “lost” in the middle. So perhaps the text doesn’t need to “match” the sequence of photos. Any other thoughts?
Jeanie
but now I'm all better. 
Thanks for your kind words.
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