Janice Daquila-Pardo

Three candles

January 15, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

There’s just not much that’s cuter than a little birthday boy with his cheeks puffed up to blow out his candles.

Today is my baby brother’s birthday. To celebrate and show Phil that I’m thinking about him I created a layout featuring an adorable photo from his third birthday in 1971. God bless you, my sweet bro. Who could ever ask for better? I love you more.

Product/technique notes

I really liked this sketch from Creative Scrappers (and am quite sad that they are ceasing their sketch contests later this month), so I followed it for this page. The background paper is an older one from Sassafras Lass; the banner is from BasicGrey’s “Hey You;” and the rest of the papers and die cuts are from Crate Paper’s “Party Day” collection. I created the title with a combination of Silhouette shapes and my own lettering.

Never stop seeking

January 11, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

In January 1993 I started on an adventure that would change my life, as most journeys manage to do.

Being unfulfilled in my job as a conference planner and taken with the idea of becoming a corporate trainer, I had applied over the summer for graduate school at my undergrad alma mater, Ohio University. In November (on my birthday, no less) I received word from the School of Communication that I had been accepted for late admittance and was being granted a fellowship! What a wonderful memory I have of opening that letter and bursting into tears at the happy news.

So I gave notice at work, finished out my time there and then packed up my belongings and headed south in my powder blue Geo Prizm to Athens, Ohio. The left photo is of me in my parents’ driveway, ready to begin my adventure.

My apartment wasn’t going to be ready in time for the winter quarter to begin, so my friends, Rich and Lori Ozmun, generously allowed me to roost with them for the first few weeks. The right photo is from the day I moved to my own place. Mom, Dad and Phil had come to Athens to help me with the move. That’s me; the Ozmuns; my brother, Phil; and the Ozmuns’ neighbor, Christian, who soon after this became my grad school boyfriend.

Going to graduate school really did change my life. My world expanded: I made wonderful friends, learned from leaders in the field and changed as you always do when you immerse yourself in something new.

Product/technique notes

I used patterned papers from BoBunny’s “Souvenir” line because I thought the travel theme worked so well for my personal journey story. All the products on this page are from the Back Porch Memories January kit, for whom I am guest designing for the next few months.

Dashing through the snow

December 23, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

What a fabulous way to celebrate the cold Christmas season—riding in a horse-drawn sleigh to the sound of jingling bells!

I joined my parents and some of their friends in a freezing, spirited evening ride in a two-horse open sleigh back in December 1992. It was such a thrill to be living out the scenes we sing about in Christmas carols. We kept as warm as we could with blankets and laughter, and then ended the evening with steaming mugs of hot chocolate. This is such a magical Christmas memory.

Product/technique notes

I used this nice sketch from Stuck?! Sketches and papers from Little Yellow Bicycle’s “Winter Twig” collection. The title and one-horse open sleigh die cuts are from the Silhouette store. Puffy stickers are from SEI.

Vintage carolers Christmas card

December 20, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

The images of Christmas carolers from Charles Dickens’ era are so romantic. With this Christmas card I tried to capture that charm.

Product/technique notes

I cut 1/4-inch strips of patterned paper from Crate Paper’s “Bundled Up” collection to create the background for this card. The vintage carolers are a Silhouette cut file. Easy peasy!

Wine bottle tag tutorial

December 13, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

We have some Christmas parties to attend this weekend, so I thought I would try my hand at making some wine tags to adorn the bottles we took along. Here’s a tutorial based on what I learned while creating mine.

Tutorial

Cut base paper (I used cardstock, but it would look quite nice with patterned paper as well) to 3 x 10 inches.
Score base paper at 3 inches.
Cut patterned paper to 2.75 x 9.75 inches.
Don’t score the patterned paper yet; you want to wait until it’s lined up properly on the base paper so you know exactly where it needs to be folded. But I do recommend scoring a second time so that your project folds crisply. I’ll tell you when.
Notch the bottom of the patterned paper into a banner shape.
Lay the patterned paper on the base paper and cut the matching notch into the base paper.
Flip the base paper over and find the center of the 3-inch section by lightly drawing an X from corner to corner. This will ensure that you punch your bottle neck opening in the right spot.
At this point, because I use adhesive that isn’t hard to pull up, I adhered the two papers together so that I could punch them at the same time. Then I used a 1.25-inch circle punch to create the bottle neck opening.
Carefully pull up the patterned paper from the base paper and line up a 1.5-inch circle punch around the original hole to create the double ring effect. Glue the two papers back together.
Now put the project back on your scoring board and score again at 3 inches.
Have fun embellishing your wine tags!

Closeup shot of the left tag

Closeup shot of the right tag

Product/technique notes

I created both of these tags using past years’ My Mind’s Eye Christmas collections—”Festive” on the left tag and “Be Merry” on the right one. I loved how they turned out! And I’m entering them in the MME December challenge to make small gifts/stocking stuffers.

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