Sketches

A beautiful mess

April 30, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

When new collections come out by my favorite scrap companies I am always tempted to buy. But I rarely get the whole collection because no matter how much I like (even love) it, I just can’t imagine wanting to create that many layouts out of the same look. Add to that the fact that collections have become so expensive. So I have been for some time buying the 6×6 paper pads that many companies are issuing. They have long been favored by card makers because of their smaller-sized patterns, and I quite like the lower price tag as well.

So I am always on the hunt for ways to use pieces of patterned paper that are 6×6 or smaller on my 12×12 layouts. When I find good ways to do this I will share them here in case you, like me, have several 6×6 paper pads or a bin full of scraps waiting to make it into your designs.

I really love the bright, happy feeling I achieved on this baby-themed layout without using any baby-themed papers.

Yup, another layout of me as an adorable baby. 😉 I have a few photos from Mom of me in my high chair, but this one really makes me laugh. How great is life when the likelihood that you’re wearing more food than you ate makes you this happy?

I based this layout on sketch #205 from the Creative Scrappers blog, and I’m entering it into their challenge. I really enjoyed working with this sketch; it’s right up my design alley.

Product/technique notes: I had fun blending companies’ products here, with background paper from American Crafts’ new Amy Tangerine Sketchbook line, accent papers from My Mind’s Eye’s Lime Twist line and shapes from the Silhouette store.

Last year at ICS

April 28, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 3 Comments

That redo that you do

Are there any layouts in your albums that you would like to do over? Maybe you thought you were done with it, but when you looked at it later you weren’t thrilled. Or you put it aside unfinished because you just couldn’t make it come together to your liking.

I know I do.

And while I don’t think we should go through our albums and redo all the layouts on which we used older products or techniques that we’re no longer in love with (there are way too many new layouts to create), every so often I do think it’s worth pulling out an unsatisfactory page and “tweaking” it. Or outright starting over. In my mind, the ones that qualify for this treatment are the special photos—the one-time events and images of times past that can’t be recreated.

Version 1: Bleck!

Here is a layout I started a few years ago but never finished. It’s a 5×7 portrait of me from eighth grade, and nothing I was trying to do with it worked for me. So I set it aside thinking that I would pull it out on another day and that the best way to finish it would just occur to me. It never did.

This is my first try at a design with this photo. Wasn't working for me.

When I recently saw this sketch on the Designs by Ashley Rock blog, it made me think of my long-forgotten layout, and I decided to let my first version go into the darkness and start over with it.

The Ashley Rock sketch I referenced while making this layout.

Version 2: So much better!

This is the layout I came up with using the sketch. I’m so much happier with the final product than I would have been if I had insisted on finishing my first version!

I don't know about you, but I like this version a lot better!

So, what do you think? Should I have left well enough alone, or do you think my redo was worth it? Do you ever tweak or redo your pages?

Product/technique notes: Most of the papers and elements on this page came from the Simple Stories Elementary collection. I also used doily stamps from Studio Calico and Inkadinkado.

Food coma

April 21, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

I kept this page simple because I just wanted to highlight the photo and the papers.

When it’s time to be fed Liam just about ricochets off the walls in anticipation. And once we dish up his vittles for him he sort of attacks his bowl. I think it’s safe to say this boy likes to eat a little too much!

But once he’s plowed through his meal and cleaned all the gravy off his face (are you getting the barbaric image I’m trying to paint here?), he turns into this sweet little sleepy baby. He finds a comfy spot and crashes hard. It’s at this point one day that I took this photo of him.

I based this layout on sketch #202 from the Creative Scrappers blog, and I am entering it into their April challenge. I am also entering this into Shimelle’s Online scrapbooking weekend challenge #4: Create a project using yellow, grey and one other color. It’s rather obvious, I’m sure, but I chose to mix yellow and grey with blue.

The Creative Scrappers sketch I referenced while making this layout.

Product/technique notes: I just love the boyish colors and images in the October Afternoon Sasparilla line, so I thought it would work perfectly with this photo of Liam because of his grey markings. I cut the title banner on my Silhouette.

Day camp

April 17, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 10 Comments

The Little Yellow Bicycle Paradise collection was perfect to use with this 1976 photo.

There were a few summers when we were growing up that Mom and Dad signed us up to go to day camp. I think it was just for a week each summer, maybe two, but it left a big impression on me.

I remember being quite nervous to go, but I loved the adventure of it. We made candles in buckets of sand that we had hollowed out into shapes, tie dyed t-shirts, swam, fished, hiked…the usual activities. But the most important part that I can remember is that we got on a bus with kids we didn’t know and went somewhere new. It meant we were old enough to do this on our own—well, with lots of adult supervision, of course.

But these adults weren’t our parents or school teachers. They were mostly young adults (like the twin sisters in my photo) who were there with us as counselors. A counselor is, by definition, there to advise and guide. My apologies to any of my school teachers (many of them nuns) who may one day read this post, but in my nine-year-old brain a camp counselor was way cooler than a teacher. Teachers imparted math and history knowledge and then held us accountable with tests. Camp counselors showed us how to do things like tie knots. And there was nary a test in sight!

Way cooler.

So, here’s to my parents for giving us the opportunity to go on this type of adventure and to my camp counselors for teaching us the things we didn’t learn in school. And in case you can’t tell, this photo was taken on dress-up day (I think it was the last day of camp), and I am the little hobo with pigtails standing second from the right. 🙂

I based this layout on a nice sketch provided at the Artful Delight blog, and I am entering it into their April challenge. I am also entering this into Shimelle’s Online scrapbooking weekend challenge #8: Create a project featuring a stamp you should use more often.

The Artful Delight sketch I referenced while making this layout.

I used all Little Yellow Bicycle patterned papers from the “Paradise” collection and colored in that beautiful Hero Arts tree stamp with Copic markers to match the rest.

For the love of the game

April 4, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 5 Comments

These photos of me in my softball uniform are from 1977 and 1978.

As a kid I was always very athletic…in my head. In my mind’s eye I made dazzling shoe-top catches and hit long shots over the fence, but in reality I was pretty awkward. I tried really hard, don’t mistake me, but my efforts usually produced boringly average results.

Even so, most of the time (except for the occasional bouts of ennui I experienced at softball practices) I loved being involved in the Willoughby Baseball League. For one thing, my brother was on a boys’ team during that same time, and I liked that we both had WBL uniforms, practices and games down at Todd Fields. I also loved having my family come to my games. If I close my eyes and really put myself back…in my uniform and mitt, hands on my knees in the outfield, sun on my back and feeling silly chanting “Hey, batter batter!”…I can still feel a little of that nervous aliveness that comes from performing in front of loved ones. That feeling that, even though you know they will tell you how well you did no matter what happens, you yearn to do something spectacular for them to see.

I don’t remember how many years I played in the league (these photos are from 1977 and 1978), but I do know that I gained a lot by being part of it. I learned to get along with a different group of girls than those I went to school with, to practice even when I didn’t feel like it, to care about contributing to the team’s success and to overcome my nervousness enough to play my part in that success. Yup, team sports can do all that!

I based this layout on the following PageMaps sketch from February and used papers from the BasicGrey “Oliver” 6×6 pad:

The PageMaps sketch I referenced while making this layout.

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