The Constant Scrapper

If I'm not scrapbooking I'm thinking about scrapbooking!

Janice Daquila-Pardo

How to use a movie poster as scrapbook inspiration

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After seeing the movie “Julie & Julia” in 2009—which intertwines the story of Julia Child’s start in the cooking profession with blogger Julie Powell’s challenge to cook all the recipes in Child’s first book—I received Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” for Christmas. There’s a scene in the movie where Julie Powell has to cook dinner for a special guest and chooses to make Boeuf Bourguignon. Matt and I decided that would be the first dish we would try.

Let me tell you, you don’t just make Boeuf Bourguignon one day after work. This recipe takes several hours and requires some special ingredients that most of us don’t normally keep in our pantries. In our house when we undertake a project like that, we take photos.

My process

Julie & Julia movie posterWhen I was ready to scrap these photos I already knew what I wanted to title my layout. So I decided to look to the movie art for inspiration. First I looked up “Julie & Julia” on IMDB and thought the title treatment on the movie poster was something I could work with. I could cut out the title with my Silhouette, but what were those fonts?

So I searched on “what fonts are used on julie & julia poster?” and the most helpful result I found was on FontFeed. This site identified the two fonts used as Didot for the words Julie/Julia and Bernhard Modern for the ampersand. The problem was that I didn’t have either of those fonts, and I couldn’t find them on any free font sites.

Then I did another search for “fonts similar to Didot” and found identifont.com, where you can find lists of fonts that are similar to the one you’re looking for. Following this site’s recommendations I found replacement fonts within those that I already owned and I was able to go to town setting up my cut files in the Silhouette Studio software.

I decided to base my color scheme on the movie poster as well. Black and green factor heavily in what makes this poster pop, so I tried to use those colors. I found the perfect paper in my stash that combined the black and green from the poster as well as the red and gold in my photos. From all that came this layout. Bon appetit!

Julie&Julia3_JDaquila-Pardo

Scrap goodies are so fun to receive I had to share

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A few weekends ago, while the CHA Winter 2011 show was going on in Los Angeles, avid craft trend followers were hunting for sneak peaks and videos from the show floor and participating in challenges in the hopes of winning new product before it becomes available in stores.

That’s what I was doing, at least! I found a fun series of challenges being hosted at the always hopping community section of twopeasinabucket.com and threw my hat in the ring for a few of them. I was excited to see my name posted as one of the challenge winners and waited eagerly for my little package to arrive. Rather than keep all the fun of getting this package to myself, I thought you might like to see what I received.

Thanks to Two Peas Community + Education Manager Jamie Sorenson for hosting these fun challenges and for sending such great products (and thanks to sponsor Jillibean Soup for providing the prize)! I love them. I’ll be back very soon with a layout using these products.

I love furr like Goldmember loves gold!

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Sketch #88 is now live at the Twisted Sketches blog. It’s a great sketch, and “soft” is the twist. Here’s my interpretation:

ILoveFurr_JDaquila-Pardo

I love furr like Goldmember loves gooooold!

Do you remember the scene in “Austin Powers in Goldmember” (2002) when Goldmember explains his name? You may be interested in reliving it with me:

One day as I was petting one of our cats I looked off into the distance and said in my best Goldmember voice, “I love fuuuuuuuur!” My husband laughed, and the idea for a layout went into my mental scrapbook vault. The “soft” twist on this sketch gave me the perfect opportunity to use the idea. (Plus, did you notice that I used soft felt letters for the word “furr” in the title?)

Why not head over to the Twisted Sketches blog and play along?

Charlie the Tuna, a pleated skirt and a jack-o-lantern smile

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It is such a wonder to me that even photos from our past that have almost no visual context (like a school portrait) can bring back so many connected memories. In this horrible, wonderful photo of me from second grade I notice:

  1. The sweet sweater vest my mom knit for me
  2. My jack-o-lantern smile
  3. The very precise way my hands have been arranged
  4. That awful haircut (I mean, really?)
  5. My Charlie the Tuna pin

The details that aren’t in this photo but that come flooding back to me just by looking at it are:

  1. The way my classroom at Immaculate Conception School looked
  2. My homeroom teacher, Mrs. Strittmatter
  3. Being escorted up the hill to school every morning by the next-door neighbors’ dog, Barney
  4. Watching in fascination as Mike Batiste, who sat in front of me, turned his paper upside-down to write his notes left-handed
  5. How much I loved my shoes for that year, which were tan and navy tie ups with a turtle embossed on the side

Some photos might not tell you a lot about themselves at the outset. I have found that sometimes just sitting with a photo like this one and casting yourself mentally back to that time—to the feelings of that time—can work a little memory magic.

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My second grade school portrait, 1974-75

Now for a little note about the design of this page (because I’m not sure if it’s obvious in the photo above). I wanted to imitate the skirt of my school uniform—a blue, gray, white and black jumper—so I pleated blue checked paper across the bottom section.

Have a Coke and a purr: One-photo layout

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Today’s layout is one I have been wanting to complete for some time. This photo is from 2003, which means it was taken with one of the early digital cameras. Do you remember the ones that took 16×12-inch photos in 72dpi? That’s a small low-resolution photo, which means that in order to print it and retain good resolution I had to make it 4×3 inches.

So, the question was how to take a darling but small photo (in relation to the 12×12 page) and keep the focus on it without sacrificing the fun of design. Simplicity was my answer. By mirroring the size and shape of the photo with one patterned paper and underlining it with a border sticker from the same line, I satisfied my need to use patterned paper (my weakness) without overdoing it. Then I finished off the look by using my Silhouette to cut the title from a free Coke font I found online.

I really love complex, layered designs. But sometimes simplicity leads to a more dramatic result.

HaveACoke_JDaquila-Pardo

Our cat, Oliver, caught on camera sniffing around my drink