12x12 layouts using 6x6 paper

Summer ritual

July 11, 2013 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Going to Ski Shores for lunch has become a summer ritual for us.

There’s a place in Austin that Matt and I like to be sure to visit each summer (at least once). It’s a little restaurant called “Ski Shores” that’s right on a part of the river that the boats frequent. We love to hang out and watch the boaters come in for a break and a meal, look out over the water at the gorgeous homes on the other side and watch the turtles come to the surface for hand-outs. It’s casual (most people are wearing bathing suits), quirky and relaxing. So I’m recording it as one of our summer rituals because it really does feel like summer to us to have lunch there.

These photos were taken on Labor Day weekend 2012.

Product/technique notes

I created this layout using patterned papers from My Mind’s Eye’s 6×6 pad, “Summer Splash” and am entering it in their July “red, white and blue” challenge (even though I had to use that sunny yellow cardstock in the background). I also did some hand stitching to create the sun and the banner elements.

I heart trying new recipes

May 4, 2013 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 6 Comments

I cooked this crazy-good Moroccan chickpea, kale and couscous recipe when Phil was in town last December.

I really love the process of reading through recipes, imagining the ingredients coming together to make flavors and textures and then choosing and making one. It’s quite gratifying for me to finish cooking something new. And I love hearing feedback from those I serve it to (usually just Matt, but on the day represented in these photos my baby bro was in town, too).

In fact, I like this process so much that I hardly ever follow a recipe twice. Sure, we have our standby meals that we make over and over. But the ones I try from a recipe book are usually one-timers, even if we love them, because there are just so many out there to try!

Product/technique notes:
I created this layout using this cool sketch from the Paper Bakery blog, and I’m entering in their sketch contest. The patterned papers are from We R Memory Keepers.

Labor Day 1974

April 28, 2013 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, Phil and me in our backyard on Labor Day in 1974

On this layout is a photo of a very rare occurrence: both sets of my grandparents are visiting us at the same time. We lived in Ohio; Nana and Papa, Dad’s parents (on the left), lived in Pennsylvania; and Grandma and Grandpa, Mom’s parents (on the right) lived in California. So there were not a lot of opportunities to be together.

I’m assuming that Grandma and Grandpa were in town for a few weeks to visit, and then Nana and Papa drove in the two hours from PA to visit for Labor Day. Very cool. I love this photo.

Do I even have to point out the 1974 fashions Phil and I are sporting?

Product/technique notes:
I created this layout with patterned papers from Little Yellow Bicycle’s beautiful “Elizabeth Park” collection. I did a good bit of fussy cutting around the perimeter of my center area so that I could pop up the profusion of flowers over it around the edges. And in the bottom right quadrant I debossed the cardstock to add texture without adding a patterned paper that would compete with the flowers from the background paper.

Out & about

March 25, 2013 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

Building my whole layout around tags was new for me, and I'm really happy with the look.

This layout was fun to pull together! I gathered four photos of Matt and me just out doing our thing in Austin last December. The north photo is of us waiting for our friends’ wedding to start; the east photo is when we were waiting outside the Alamo Drafthouse before seeing Les Miserables; the south photo is us waiting for our lunch to arrive at Cheddars; and the west photo is when we scored the fireplace table at La Madeleine.

My friend, Laurie, published this cool sketch on her blog and is running a contest with it for her birthday. Isn’t that a great idea? I decided to use the tags as my main focus but configure them a little differently by arranging them in a circle. I’ll tell you, using the Studio Calico cloud background paper with the grid really helped make aligning everything easier. I cut the eight tags out of another piece from the same SC “Here & There” collection and then embellished each. To bring it all together I created a circular title treatment on my Silhouette. I really like my final result, and I would’t have come up with this idea without Laurie’s sketch for inspiration.

Happy birthday, my friend!

UPDATE: The happy news is that I won this sketch contest! Thanks for the Amy Tangerine stitching template kits, Laurie. I can’t wait to use them on my pages. 🙂

You make my heart sing

March 17, 2013 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Just chillin' with Daddy in front of the television, March 1967.

This is one of those photos that I can just sit and stare into. It’s quite imperfect, as far as photos go—with the bad lighting, crooked angles and muddy colors. But it’s a beautiful photo to me.

It allows me a glimpse into Mom and Dad’s apartment before they bought the house I grew up in. In fact, some of that decor (the round table, tan chair, lamp, pocket watch under a dome and afghan) stayed with us for a very long time.

In it I get to see my dad as a 33-year-old new father, obviously pretty comfortable with the whole new baby thing. “Ain’t no big deal.”

And I really love that Daddy is acting as a human recliner for me as we watch TV together. Just look how well I fit in the circle formed by his legs and how he has me tipped back at the perfect angle for maximum viewing enjoyment. Speaking of that, what could we be watching, I wonder? I mean, it looks equally riveting to both a four-month old and a grown man. It must be something on PBS!

Product/technique notes:
I created this page following the sketch below from Artful Delight and products from American Crafts, BasicGrey, K&Company, My Mind’s Eye and October Afternoon.

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