Sketches

School picnic

August 31, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

Do you recognize the vintage Making Memories background papers I used?

My brother and I went to a Catholic grade school through eighth grade, which means that we wore uniforms every day of the school year, except on a few special days. The end-of-the-year picnic was one of those times. The school’s tradition was to take the upper classmen—the seventh and eighth graders—for a day of fresh air at nearby Daniels Park.

The picture in this layout is of me and my friends, Stephanie and Mike, in June 1980. I assume my brother took the photo, as he and Mike were best friends throughout grade school.

Product/technique notes:
I created most of this page using—do you recognize it—Making Memories’ Just Chillin’ line from 2008! It’s nice sometimes to dig deep and use the old supplies, isn’t it? You also see a little Simple Stories and Bella Boulevard on there.

The sketch I followed is from Club Creating Keepsakes’ August Sketch it out challenge.

Strawberry jam

August 26, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

This photo of Mom and me is from June 1989, right after Phil and I had graduated from college and moved back home.

One summer we decided we wanted to go strawberry picking, so we found out about Patterson Fruit Farm. Oh my, what a great time we had there. Out in the early morning sun, squatting down in among the rows of strawberry plants and finding the best ones to throw in our baskets.

The problem was that we didn’t really know anything about how to handle our strawberries once we got them home. So, we washed them all, put them back in the cardboard trays we brought them home in and then sat them aside. We happily skipped away with visions of yummy treats to come.

Then disaster struck. Any strawberry-picking veteran knows that you only give the berries a quick rinse in cool water and a swift pat with a paper towel to dry them off when, and only when, you’re ready to eat or cook with them. But we were no strawberry-picking veterans. I’m not going to sugarcoat this: we lost a lot of good berries that day. A lot of good berries.

Fortunately, we did not give up on our strawberry dreams. The next year we went picking with a plan. We looked up a freezer jam recipe and bought the ingredients before ever heading to the farm. It was that year that our berry-picking tradition was really born. The picking was fun, the cleaning happened as soon as we got home with the berries and then the jam turned out to be ridiculously easy and tasty!

In the June 1989 photo on this layout, Phil and Mom and I had gone out for our yearly strawberry excursion, and Mom and I were on the swing in our back yard cleaning the fruits of our labor. It was a really good summer day, and we had delicious strawberry jam for months. Mmmm…

Product/technique notes:
I used Creative Scrappers sketch #107 for inspiration and Jillibean Soup patterned papers (Coconut Lime and Macho Nacho lines) to pull this layout together.

Under the shade of the old oak tree

August 23, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

There's not a lot better in August than hanging out in the shade.

We grew up in a house with two big, beautiful trees in the front yard—a maple and an oak. In the fall, when we had to rake, I cursed their deep roots, sturdy limbs and plentiful leaves. But in the summer, their canopies combined to shade almost every inch of our yard, and I adored them.

In this August 1979 photo, Phil and I are under the shade of those trees, on an Indian blanket, playing a game of UNO. We actually spent a lot of quality time on that blanket, under those trees. We ate picnic lunches Mom made for us, drew, read books out loud to each other, played games and talked each other’s ears off.

I particularly remember Phil forcing me to slog through the entire 222 pages with him of Me & The Spitter: An Autobiographical Confession by Gaylord Perry. It was the Cleveland Indians pitcher’s account of how he cheated, doctoring baseballs with spit and Vaseline. It was truly thrilling.

What I also love about this photo are details like how each of us is wearing a matching tank-top-and-shorts set. And how tan we are. And our cute little haircuts. You get the idea: I think we’re darling! So, here’s to late summer and hanging out under a tree with your bestie!

I used Creative Scrappers sketch #222 for inspiration and Pebbles and Simple Stories patterned papers to pull this layout together.

Knave training

July 22, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

I am a total newbie to Renaissance festivals. It was such an interesting culture!

We spent a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon immersing ourselves in the sights and sounds of Sherwood Forest Faire, a Renaissance festival in McDade, Texas. We watched a jousting match and a magic show, threw axes and shot with a bow and arrows (my favorite!). Matt grew up attending Ren fests, but I didn’t, so this was all new to me. It was such an interesting culture! Everyone who worked the event was decked out in period wear, which I expected. But many of the attendees had even better costumes! It was a fun day.

Product/technique notes:
I used this fun sketch from Crafty Sketches:

The papers I used for the flags are from BasicGrey’s Oxford collection.

Fun and games

July 10, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 6 Comments

My first sketch for Creative Scrappers went live on their site on Sunday, and I was so excited to see how the design team used it. All their pages are just beautiful!

Here is a peak at the sketch, and I hope you’ll go grab the full-sized version at Creative Scrappers and use it to play along:

I decided to play along with my own sketch, so I created this page about a recent night out with some friends for BINGO! We were having a little going-away party for our friend, Sri (in the turquoise top), who was about to leave to spend the summer in the English countryside with her grandparents and then come back to the States to attend graduate school. Quite a nice new beginning, right?

The journaling reads, “If BINGO sounds like a game for geriatrics, try playing it at The Park Hotel with Sri, Deborah and Heather! They serve shots when certain numbers are called, hold dance-offs to break ties and give garden gnomes as prizes. What a good time.”

I’ll add this comment: This is not like the BINGO they played in the church I grew up in; in fact, it’s pretty irreverent. 😉

I was sorry to see my friend, Sri, leave, but I know she's starting a great new life.

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