Janice Daquila-Pardo

Cookies made especially for Santa

December 21, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #133, and the twist is “jewel.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch and see all the other design team members’ beautiful examples, then create something of your own and link it up! 🙂

Here is what I created using this great new sketch:

That "Cookies for Santa" title came from the Silhouette store and is for decorating plates for Santa's cookies.

To make this layout I used a punch to create the decorative edge that I adhered to the circle. Then I used a craft knife to cut around the edges of the Christmas trees on the background paper so I could tuck the circle in behind them. The title is a cut file I purchased at the Silhouette store that is intended to be used to decorate a small plate that will hold cookies for Santa. I thought it was perfect with this sketch and my photo! Now the background circle resembles a cookie plate. The little gift bow element is made from another Silhouette file and is topped with a jewel (this sketch’s twist). All the patterned paper is from an older My Mind’s Eye Christmas collection.

The photo if of my brother and me on Christmas Eve 1973. I just adore that impish look on Phil’s sweet face. We’re in the basement, where we put our Christmas tree and hung our stockings (until several years later when my parents put an addition on our family room, and we moved the celebration up there). Wearing our pajamas and putting out Santa’s cookies means it was time for us to head to bed and visions of sugarplums. But you can see on our faces that we were much too excited for sleep!

My first sketch designer gig

December 20, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 7 Comments

I have exciting news to share. Starting in January I will be the sketch designer for a brand new scrapbook blog! It’s called Sketches with a Twist, and when I saw that their design team call included the need for a sketch designer, I had to apply for it.

If you’ve read my blog for any time at all, you know my love for scrap sketches. I don’t create a layout without one. But I don’t always use other peoples’ sketches; sometimes I like to create my own. In fact, when I told my sweet husband about the SWAT sketch designer call he said, “You’re already a sketch artist, so you should definitely apply for that position!” He’s very supportive. 🙂

Here’s a look at the new design team:

The first sketch, with design team examples, goes live on January 1, 2012. Of course, I will be pointing to their blog on the first of each month to remind you when each new sketch is revealed so you can grab it and play along. In the meantime, I’d better get sketching!

It’s a marshmallow world in the winter

December 15, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

Sketchabilities has revealed its latest sketch, #61! Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch, then create something and link it up!

Here’s my Design Team layout inspired by the sketch. This shot of my little brother, Phil, and me is in January 1977 when we took our sleds out into the front yard and played in the new-fallen snow. It was great growing up in the snow belt!

January in Ohio meant an opportunity to use our new Christmas sleds!

I used embossed cardstock by Bazzill for the background to give the feel of falling snow. Then I used all patterned papers from Cosmo Cricket. The silhouette of the children sledding is a Silhouette cut file, and the title is a cut file I created.

You know, I had a little trouble with that title. I had the layout all finished and photographed, and I was writing the email to send to Karan, who runs the Sketchabilities site. When I typed in the word “marshmellow,” as I have always spelled it (although, how many of us has to spell that word often?), Outlook told me I had it wrong. NOOOOO! I never knew it was supposed to be “marshmallow!” That meant I had to tear the title off my layout, create a new cut file, cut it out in two colors, add the title back to my layout and photograph it again. Ugh! So, please learn from my mistake. Check all the spellings in your titles before you finish your layout to save yourself lots of time and frustration.

And if anyone would like the Silhouette cut file I created for the title (with the corrected spelling!), please leave me a comment about that and I’ll email it to you. 🙂

Merry

December 8, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Have you ever wondered why we say “Merry Christmas” to each other but don’t use the word “merry” in any other salutation throughout the year? You hear nary a “Merry birthday” or “Merry Valentine’s Day,” right? Well, I did a little online search for the history behind the popular Christmas greeting and found varying stories about when it all began. I’m sorry I can’t vouch for the correctness of its story either, but I’ve decided to share with you the description from Wikipedia:

“Merry,” derived from the Old English myrige, originally meant merely “pleasant and agreeable” rather than joyous or jolly.

Though Christmas has been observed since the 4th century AD, the first known usage of any Christmastime greeting dates back to 1565, when it appeared in The Hereford Municipal Manuscript: “And thus I comytt you to God, who send you a mery Christmas.” “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” (thus incorporating two greetings) was in an informal letter written by an English admiral in 1699. The same phrase is contained in the sixteenth century secular English carol “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” as well as the first commercial Christmas card, produced in England in 1843.

Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” was also published in 1843, during the mid Victorian revival of the holiday. The word merry was then beginning to take on its current meaning of “jovial, cheerful, jolly and outgoing.” Merry Christmas in this new context figured prominently in “A Christmas Carol.” The cynical Ebenezer Scrooge rudely deflects the friendly greeting: “If I could work my will…every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding.” After the visit from the Ghosts of Christmas affects his transformation Scrooge exclaims, “I am as merry as a school-boy. A merry Christmas to everybody!” and heartily exchanges the wish to all he meets. Because of the instant popularity of “A Christmas Carol,” the Victorian era Christmas traditions it typifies and the term’s new meaning appearing in the book, Dickens’ tale popularized the phrase “Merry Christmas.”

I think it’s so cool that our saying “Merry Christmas” is bound up with Dickens’ famous story (which I’ve always loved)! Now that you know from whence it came, perhaps you will enjoy a little more heartily exchanging this greeting with all you meet during the season. 🙂

Here is a layout I created with photos from Christmas 1972. It’s based on a sketch from the Sketch Support site and uses patterned papers from Webster’s Pages and Jillibean Soup.

How do you like my little cap to match my nightgown? I really loved that set!

Swab the deck, you scurvy dogs!

December 3, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

Back in 1995 two friends developed the idea for International Talk Like a Pirate Day (you can read the whole history of this quirky holiday on their Web site). Celebration of this day has really taken off since 2002, when syndicated columnist Dave Barry covered the idea in an article. It has now become quite well known, and on September 19th each year you can hear conversations being held in pirate slang.

Our friends, Keith and Katie, have hosted Talk Like a Pirate Day parties for the last few years, and this year we were able to attend! There was good grub and grog, a bawdy limerick contest, great costumes, a sea shanty sing-along and good conversation. We had a great time! And me thinks Matt was born to be a pirate! Arr!

These are fun photos from our friends' Talk Like a Pirate Day party.

I created this layout with papers from the My Mind’s Eye “Mischievous” line and based it on sketch #21 from Sketch Support.

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