business - What are some good ways to gain practical experience to add to my portfolio?

I passed the ACE exams for InDesign and Photoshop a few months ago, but I am stumbling on how to get practical experience.

I have a couple of years of news page design, and a very small number of non-newspaper work samples. I'm a mid-career professional and have spent most of my time editing.

I'd be very happy to do some jobs for free to beef up my portfolio, but I've had lousy luck finding any. Unfortunately, most of my editing clients are not design-friendly so I'm not having much luck with referrals that way.

Any suggestions would be very welcome!

How can I gain practical graphic design experience, without an existing network of clients?