• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Home
  • About me

The Constant Scrapper

If I'm not scrapbooking I'm thinking about scrapbooking!

banner

Shades of green

January 31, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

The February Sketches with a Twist sketch and design team sample layouts are now live on their site. I am very proud to have created the sketch and really in love with all the design team’s samples based on it!

Sketches With a Twist is a new blog that debuted just last month—a sketch challenge site where each comes with an extra requirement (for example, this month’s twist is to include something green on your layout or card).

Here is my design team layout based on the sketch. Please head to their blog to get the sketch and play along (there are two prizes available each month).

ShadesOfGreen_Daquila-Pardo

Matt and I have been making a concerted effort to be more green in our daily lives.

When I read that the twist was to use something green on our layout, I decided to dedicate a page to the efforts Matt and I have been making toward being “greener” in our daily lives. We have always been passionate about living in a way that is good to the environment—recycling, consuming responsibly, rescuing animals in need/danger. However, in 2011 we recommitted to doing more. We are now recycling everything that our city allows, we have become vegetarians (it’s hard to love and rescue animals and then be completely comfortable eating meat) and we finally bought a hybrid car. We had been planning to go hybrid once it was time to replace our older car (it’s funny, I was still driving the first car we bought together when we got married in 1997!), and we were fortunate to need a new one just as the Prius V (the larger version of the Prius) was being released. Happy timing for us because we love it.

Because I was going for an earthy/environmental feel on this one, I turned to the American Crafts City Park and Hello Sunshine lines. I like the result because it’s bright and earthy at the same time.

Filed Under: Layouts based on sketches, My scrapbook layouts, Sketches Tagged With: 3 photos, American Crafts, banner, border punches, one-page layouts, Silhouette, Sketches with a Twist

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.

Merry_Daquila-Pardo

How do you like my little cap to match my nightgown? I really loved that set!

Filed Under: 12x12 layouts using 6x6 paper, Layouts based on sketches, My scrapbook layouts, Sketches Tagged With: 4 photos, banner, border punches, Christmas, Jillibean Soup, Martha Stewart Crafts, one-page layouts, Silhouette, Sketch Support, vintage photos, Webster's Pages

Blogtoberfest Day 16

October 16, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Celebrate Blogtoberfest with me all month!

National Feral Cat Day

National Feral Cat Day 2011 poster

Today is National Feral Cat Day! This annual event is coordinated by Alley Cat Allies as a way to raise awareness about feral cats, promote Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), and recognize the millions of compassionate Americans who care for feral cats. Each year cat welfare groups and cat lovers across the country plan events to help educate people in their communities about feral cats and TNR. This year there are over 300 events planned in all 50 states.

Matt and I are involved in feral cat rescue efforts in our local area. We take great pride and pleasure in helping improve/save the lives of cats without homes. In fact, layouts of cats that you may have seen or will see on my blog are of those we have trapped and fostered.

Our favorite local cat rescue organization is Shadow Cats, a group “dedicated to improving the lives of community cats through humane advocacy.” The reason we like them so much is that they are dedicated to the care of the current resident population of ill, immune compromised, injured and senior cats. In other words, they take the cats who would not otherwise have any hope.

So, when Shadow Cats recently held an art market fundraiser, I decided to use my craft supplies and creativity to make a scrapbook album for them to auction. I made the album in all one color palette, using a subtle cat theme (mostly through my titles and a few images) and with spaces for only 4×6 photos (so there would be no cropping needed by the person who ends up with it).

I had a great time creating this project and hope that someone who has a beloved cat or cats will enjoy it forever. Have you ever used your crafting habit to help an organization in whose work you believe? I can highly recommend it. It made me feel warm and fuzzy—like a cat! 🙂

Royalty_Daquila-Pardo

Royalty in residence

Purrsonality_Daquila-Pardo

Purrsonality

OneCat_Daquila-Pardo

"One cat just leads to another." Ernest Hemingway

SittingCat_Daquila-Pardo

"The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat." Jules Renard

Meow_Daquila-Pardo

Meow, purr, yawn

GreaterGift_Daquila-Pardo

"What greater gift than the love of a cat?" Charles Dickens

Connoisseurs_Daquila-Pardo

"Cats are the connoisseurs of comfort." James Herriot

Purr_Daquila-Pardo

I love you, purr & simple

Cattitude_Daquila-Pardo

Showing cattitude

TimeSpent_Daquila-Pardo

"Time spent with cats is never wasted." Sigmund Freud

Naptime_Daquila-Pardo

Naptime

Filed Under: My scrapbook layouts Tagged With: 1 photo, 2 photos, 3 photos, 4 photos, 5 photos, 6 photos, banner, Blogtoberfest, border punches, My Mind's Eye, one-page layouts, Silhouette, stamping, two-page layouts

Blogtoberfest Day 6

October 6, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Celebrate Blogtoberfest with me all month!

Happy birthday, Daddy

Today is the 78th anniversary of my dear father’s birth. We all miss him so. But today I want to celebrate his birth with a layout that uses a photo from his 65th birthday dinner in 1998.

At that time we were all living in Chapel Hill, NC, so we were able to celebrate together with dinner and cake at a nice local restaurant. We had a lovely time together, and then the waiter took this photo for us. Isn’t it amazing how sometimes that one shot you have taken by a stranger can become so important to you later? This is definitely one of those times.

65_Daquila-Pardo

Happy birthday dear Daddy. Happy birthday to you!

Happy National German-American Day

Today is also National German-American Day. My sweet mother is German-American, and it just so happens that she traveled to Germany for the first time last month! So I am posting a few photos from her wonderful trip as a way of celebrating this day. I will certainly do a layout to commemorate her trip soon and post it here, but I wanted to share a few photos of the old country to mark the day. “Ich liebe dich, Mama!”

DaquilaGermany1

Beautiful German countryside

DaquilaGermany2

DaquilaGermany3

DaquilaGermany4

This photo makes me want to climb inside!

DaquilaGermany5

Filed Under: 12x12 layouts using 6x6 paper, My scrapbook layouts Tagged With: 1 photo, banner, Blogtoberfest, Cosmo Cricket, one-page layouts, rosette, Silhouette, stamping

Soo cute! Using bright patterns with a black-and-white photo

September 8, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

How cute is this photo of me and my little brother from 1969? I know: we were cute, our outfits were cute, the expressions on our faces were cute, the way the photographer had us positioned was cute. Cute, cute, cute! Now I will attempt to write the rest of my post without using that word even one more time (for your sake as well as mine).

So how could I fail to use sweet, colorful patterned papers to highlight all this adorableness? I wanted this layout to feel bright and colorful and young and fresh, so I turned to some of the older lines (Family Dynamix, Tail Waggers & Cat Naps) as well as one new line (Making the Team) from Bella Blvd.

And I think this got the job done, don’t you? The bright colors show off the black-and-white photo rather than competing with it. Also, portraits can sometimes feel a little stale, so by surrounding this one with fun banners, butterflies and buttons I kept the eye hopping and happy. At least I think so! What do you think?

SoCute1969_Daquila-Pardo

I couldn't help myself from using lots of colorful patterns with this black-and-white photo.

Filed Under: My scrapbook layouts, Scrapbook products Tagged With: 1 photo, banner, Bella Blvd, border punches, color, one-page layouts, vintage photos

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Thanks for visiting!

Hi, I'm Janice.

Follow me

Follow on Bloglovin

My sketches on Pinterest

Design team

I am a proud Stuck?! Sketches designer!

Past design teams

Scrap & Music sketch designer

Creative Scrappers sketch designer

Sketches With a Twist sketch designer

Sketchabilities design team

Twisted Sketches design team

Secondary Sidebar

Topic categories

  • 12×12 layouts using 6×6 paper
  • Cards
  • Freebies/giveaways
  • Layouts based on sketches
  • Layouts using 3×4 journaling cards
  • My scrapbook layouts
  • Reviews
  • Scrapbook products
  • Sketches
    • My sketches
  • That redo that you do
  • Tips
  • Tutorials
  • Uncategorized

Archives

Tags

1 photo 2 photos 3 photos 4 photos American Crafts banner Basic Grey Bella Blvd Blogtoberfest border punches cards Christmas Copic coloring Crate Paper Creative Scrappers Echo Park emotional journaling Fancy Pants Halloween hand stitching Jillibean Soup Little Yellow Bicycle Making Memories Martha Stewart Crafts My Mind's Eye October Afternoon one-page layouts Pebbles Pink Paislee rosette Scrap & Music sketches scrapbook philosophy Silhouette Simple Stories Sketches with a Twist Sketch Support Spellbinders stamping Stuck?! Sketches Tim Holtz Distress Ink tutorial Twisted Sketches two-page layouts vintage photos We R Memory Keepers

Copyright © 2010-2018 The Constant Scrapper