Happy May Day! The May Sketches With a Twist sketch and design team sample layouts are now live on the blog. I am very proud to have created the sketch and really love all the design team’s samples based on it! Here’s a little peek at my new sketch:
The twist this month is to incorporate hand or machine stitching into your design. So I did a running stitch around the edge of my title treatment, which set it off nicely. You know, I don’t often use word/sentiment stamps on my layouts (like I mean to do when I buy the stamps), but as I was working on this page my glance just happened to fall on the Hello Friend stamp set from Lawn Fawn, and it really was perfect for my subject! So the lesson here, boys and girls, is that there are benefits to having a messy scrap space. 😉
Kathy was my best friend for several years in grade school. We were in classes together, in the same Girl Scout troop and spent nights over at each other’s houses. She was the kind of friend that I could be my nerdy self with and not feel nerdy. She was fun, kind, studious and athletic.
Out of all the time we spent around each other, it’s little tidbits that leap to mind when I think of her. Like the time we sat under a tree and drew our versions of our future dream homes. Or when we went shopping at the mall together, and even though she was a head taller than me (lucky girl), we insisted on buying the same exact outfit and wearing them on the same day. That had to have been hilarious to our families! Or when she showed me her new Loverboy Get Lucky album, (the one released in 1981 with the red leather pants and the crossed fingers) and that made her even cooler in my eyes.
Well, after grade school Kathy and I attended different high schools and then went off to different universities, so we didn’t see each other for years. We all know how that happens. But after college we reconnected by attending each other’s weddings, which was wonderful, and we send birthday and Christmas cards. But recently I had the opportunity to spend an entire day with Kathy and her family. Her younger sister, Jean, recently moved to San Antonio, which isn’t far from Austin. So when Kathy’s family flew in to spend spring break with Jean’s family, Matt and I made plans to head to San Antonio for a visit.
We had a wonderful day together. We all went to the Poteet Strawberry Festival, which is a huge event in the SA area. It was a hot, sweaty, windy day, which is why we look a bit disheveled in these photos. But it was just so nice to catch up! You know, a lot changes about people and their lives over the years, but a lot stays just as it is in grade school, too. Kathy is the same kind of person she was back when: she’s fun; it’s obvious she’s a kind and generous mother to her two girls and wife to Wray; and she cares passionately about doing her work well. She’s a very good person, and I am lucky to have a friend like her.
I hope you’ll head to the Sketches With a Twist blog to get the printable version of my sketch and play along (there are two prizes available each month).
laurie lariviere says
Janice your page is lovely and so is the story, I love it when friendships stand the test of time…your sketch is just amazing, this one is my fave of all the ones you’ve done, truly a work of art…there are going to be lots of people playing along with this one!
Janice Daquila-Pardo says
Thank you, Laurie! I’m so happy that you liked this sketch so much; I really enjoyed designing it and then using it, too. Thanks for your lovely comment. 🙂
Danie May says
Ditto Janice this sketch was a stunner, a big challenge to turn into a card, but a stunner all the same! The twist was also another challenge, I so don’t sew! How lovely a day you must have had catching up with your dear school friend. I have reconnected with a few of mine on face book and its great to see what they are up to now in their lives. I really love the bright colours you have used for your layout as they compliment and pop your photos beautifully, and I particularly love the way you have used the various punched circles to add this color to the strip down the center. Wonderfully Done! 🙂