Layouts based on sketches

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.

The Whos down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot!

November 30, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 9 Comments

Sketchabilities has revealed its latest sketch, #60, and it’s a great one! 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.

Don't Phil and I look like little Whos on this Christmas morning in 1969?

Aren’t these photos darling? It’s Phil and me on Christmas morning 1969. With our tousled hair and footie pajamas, we are having a great time opening and trying out the gifts Santa left beneath the tree. The details in these photos that really make me smile are the four stockings hanging in the background that Mom made for us, the shot of me blowing on my little plastic horn (my pantooker!) and my big gift that year—my “green ‘tove” with the matching dishes set. So sweet!

I hope you’ll play along with this sketch. And while you do, perhaps you’ll want to hum a little of this:

Fah Who foraze, Dah Who doraze
Welcome, Christmas, come this way
Fah Who foraze, Dah Who doraze
Welcome, Christmas, Christmas Day
Welcome, Welcome
Fah Who Rah Moos
Welcome, Welcome
Dah Who Dah Moos
Christmas Day is in our grasp
So long as we have hands to clasp

Fah Who foraze, Dah Who doraze
Welcome, Christmas, bring your cheer
Fah Who foraze, Dah Who doraze
Welcome, all Whos far and near

NOTE: The movie’s finale ends here, but there are more lyrics in the album version.
Welcome, Welcome
Fah Who Rah Moos
Welcome, Welcome
Dah Who Dah Moos
Christmas Day will always be
Just so long as we have we
Fah Who foraze, Dah Who doraze
Welcome, Christmas, come this way
Fah Who foraze, Dah Who doraze
Welcome, Christmas, Christmas Day

It’s a wonderful life

November 26, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 3 Comments

This has been one-page layout week on Sketch Support, and today my project is live! Please head over to grab the sketch so you can use it in your own crafting, and while you’re there I would love it if you would leave a quick comment for me. 🙂

Here is a look at the one-page layout I made.

Our darling Oliver loves Christmas decorations and wrapping paper, just like me!

Our cat, Oliver, is fascinated by everything about Christmas! He loves to be around the tree and in among the presents and wrapping paper. I started with the photo of him camped out in front of the classic Christmas movie, “It’s a wonderful life,” which I obviously stole to use as my title. Then I found a few other darling shots of him in full holiday mode to complete the concept.

I followed the sketch pretty closely, but I did make a few adjustments:

Rather than making the two background pieces 7 inches deep as stated in the instructions, I made mine 7.25 inches deep because I knew I wanted to add the tree at the bottom, and I wanted to ensure that it would overlap the other pieces.
I moved up the background pieces an inch so that the mistletoe wouldn’t have to “hang” too far from the top and the tree would have enough room.
Obviously the Christmas tree at the bottom isn’t in the sketch!
I replaced the trailing leaf elements with the mistletoe and made it hang from the top of the layout instead of the top of the patterned paper. I crocheted my hanger instead of stitching it.
I went with two rows of Christmas ribbon beneath the photos in place of the strips of patterned paper. It fit my theme better, plus I wanted to echo the ribbon from the bow on the mistletoe.
I also left out the little word sticker elements at the left and right of the page. I figured that my page was busy enough without them!

Here’s a close-up of part of the title area. I don’t think it shows up well, but the word “wonderful” is glittered.

I cut the mistletoe element and the title on my Silhouette.

I have so enjoyed being the guest designer this month and working with Sketch Support’s fabulous sketches. A big thank you to Allison and her great design team!

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