My scrapbook layouts

You’re a grand old flag

July 6, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

July 4, 1971: I was 4-1/2 and Phil was 3-1/2 when we sang You're a Grand Old Flag for everyone at the family picnic.

“You’re a Grand Old Flag” was written by George M. Cohan for his 1906 stage musical “George Washington, Jr.” The song was introduced to the public in the play’s first act on opening night, February 6, 1906, in New York’s Herald Square Theater. It was the first song from a musical to sell over a million copies of sheet music.

Mom taught Phil and me to sing this song in the summer of 1971, and when the whole family gathered at my Aunt and Uncle Duffy’s house for our July 4th picnic I remember being hoisted up on a table to sing it for everyone. I still love singing this one!

You’re a grand old flag
You’re a high-flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave!

You’re the emblem of
The land I love
The home of the free and the brave!

Every heart beats true
Under red, white and blue
Where there’s never a boast or brag.

But should auld acquaintance be forgot
Keep your eye on the grand old flag!

Product/technique notes

I followed the sketch provided by PageMaps for the Back Porch Memories August guest designer contest, and all the products except the sequins are from the My Minds’ Eye “American Made” collection (for their Let Freedom Ring challenge).
Back Porch Memories PageMaps sketch

Note: I’m submitting this to the Paper Issues “Hooray for the red, white and blue” link party.

Sunset concert

June 30, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

We are fortunate to live in a place that has so many opportunities to take in the arts. What a lovely way to spend a summer evening—people watching and enjoying great music!

One of the joys of summer is sitting out under the evening sky and being carried away by the gift of free music. Concerts in the park are such a sweet summer tradition! On a Sunday last June Matt and I packed up our lawn chairs and something to drink and headed to downtown Austin for The Hartman Foundation “Concerts in the Park,” which are presented by the Austin Symphony Orchestra. It was so nice just to be out experiencing the sunset and watching the other concert goers with their elaborate picnic dinners while we waited for the concert to start. And then the music was just beautiful!

Product/technique notes

I used the sketch below, provided by My Mind’s Eye for their June challenge. The papers are from the MME “Miss Caroline” collection plus various little scraps from other collections of theirs. I created the title on the Silhouette and with American Crafts Thickers.

Anaheim picnic

June 22, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

My baby bro often seemed to be crying at photo time when he was a wee one.

My mom grew up in California, and her family continued to live there when she moved east for college (and then marriage and the rest of her life!). In the summer of 1968, when I would have been about 20 months and Phil 6 months, Mom took us to visit her family. In addition to introducing us to her family, she also made the trip to be in her brother’s wedding and to attend her tenth high school reunion.

On the back of this photo she wrote “Picnic in Anaheim, July 1968” and then the names of the family members. From left to right around the table: my Aunt Barbara, my mom’s Aunt Tilli, her son Loren, me (at the top of the photo in the sun hat), baby Phil being held by Uncle Terry (Mom’s brother, married to Barb) and the knees of Uncle Vic (married to Tilli).

Product/technique notes

I adjusted the size of elements in this 8.5 x 11-inch PageMaps sketch from November 2013 so it would work at 12 x 12. The majority of the patterned papers are from BasicGrey’s “pb&j” 6×6 pad. I created and cut the title on the Silhouette Cameo and sprinkled some buttons and sequins around to form a visual triangle.
November 2013 PageMaps sketch on which I based my layout

My month in the Creative Scrappers birthday bash sketch contest

June 3, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

You may have noticed that I spent the month of May participating in the Creative Scrappers birthday bash sketch contest. I’ve always been inspired by the CS sketches, and I decided to use as many of them in May as I could. In fact, I submitted layouts for 6 of the 10 sketches—not bad! And I hope it’s not too proud of me to say that I’m very happy with the pages that I created with the sketches. It was a good month of scrapping!

Then it became a great month of scrapping when I won the contest!

Yesterday the site named a few of their favorites from the 128 layouts, and my page “Sweet mother love” was in that list. Cool! But when I scrolled to the bottom of the post is when I received my big surprise—my “Bobcat mom squared” layout had been chosen as the sketch contest winner. What a thrill!

And now I have $50 to spend on scrap supplies to the store of my choice. Woot! Thanks for the inspiration and the shopping spree, Creative Scrappers!

Good help is hard to find

May 31, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Oliver, sensing that the work at hand is both urgent and important, gets right on it.

Oliver, like most cats, loves to curl up on the newest at least semi-horizontal addition to his environment. So when Matt set up our computers on the dining room table one evening to rebuild them, Ollie found one of the keyboards irresistible. Thankfully, Matt called me into the room to see it, and I snapped these photos.

Product/technique notes

I followed this sketch from the Creative Scrappers Birthday Bash and used papers from Simple Stories’ “24/Seven” collection. The embellishments are from BasicGrey, October Afternoon, Panda Eight, and Studio Calico. I created the title on my Silhouette and added some hand stitching on the diagonal seam.

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