Bella Blvd

Totally crazy nuts about you: DT layout for Stuck?! Sketches

November 1, 2016 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

Today Stuck?! Sketches launches our first challenge of November! Grab the sketch and play along for a $25.00 gift certificate to The Kreative Korner store or a $20.00 gift certificate to The ScrapRoom store.

The story

These stick-your-head-and-hands-through-the-holes photo boards aren’t only for children, right? Good, because while we were pumpkin patching this year, Matt and I traded off embarrassing ourselves by popping our body parts through the holes! Now we are officially country folk. And 100% nuts.

Product/technique notes

I used patterned papers from Bella Blvd’s Finally Fall collection and Simple Stories’ Harvest Lane collection. They went together so well!
I was also inspired by this fall hues mood board:

Thankful: Thanksgiving 1969

November 29, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

This is a photo from our family Thanksgiving celebration in 1969. My parents hosted the dinner, and we were joined by my father’s parents (left side of the table) and my mother’s aunt and uncle (right side). You can just see the yarn bow on the top of my little head at the bottom of this shot. It’s so hard to believe, as I look at this gathering, that Mom and I are the only ones still around.

I hope all my American friends have had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration this year.

Product/technique notes

I really liked a recent layout by Veera Saarivuo on the Paper Camellia blog, so I lifted her design idea for the angled strips for my page. This whole page required only one piece of patterned paper because I chose to use a borders sheet from the Thankful collection by Bella Blvd. I cut the title on my Silhouette and die cut the leaves with an ancient die from Cuttlebug.

Superhero nerds: DT layout for Stuck?! Sketches

August 15, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

Today Stuck?! Sketches is revealing the August 15th sketch challenge. Isn’t this a great sketch? And you just have to check out the design team layouts for it. Please join us over at the blog and allow the sketch and the design team inspire you to play along. We have great sponsor prizes up for grabs.

Matt is a Marvel devotee from way back. He and his brother, Tom, collected comic books when they were boys, but while Matt’s allegiance was to Marvel, Tom loved DC Comics. Each month when the new issues came out they would go down to the hobby store to make their purchase. Even though he loved his collection, Matt tells me that when the price went up to 55 cents a piece it became too rich for his blood and he gave up on it (funny detail).

Now as an adult Matt has shared his love of superheroes with me. We don’t read comic books together, but who needs to with all the comics-based movies that have come out in recent years? And I admit that I love them and look forward to them as much as Matt does, even though I don’t know as much about their origin stories as he does. I just love to root for a hero on his/her journey.

In this photo we are at the Alamo Drafthouse theater in Austin awaiting the start of Ant-Man on its opening day, July 17th.

Product/technique notes

I used some older Bella Blvd (Mr.Boy) and BasicGrey papers and designed and cut the burst shapes and title on my Silhouette.

I heart dandelions

August 8, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

I consider myself quite good at turning a frown upside down, such as by liking the existence of weeds in my yard!

Seriously? It sounds weird, I know. But I really have always liked dandelions. Of course if stems from childhood. Instead of having the adult reaction of annoyance at seeing them in my yard, I think of being a kid and feel an impulse to run over, pluck them and blow their fuzzies off!

But there’s more than that. Dandelions are rather cool, really versatile plants. The University of Maryland Medical Center website says:

While many people think of the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) as a pesky weed, it’s chock full of vitamins A, B, C, and D, as well as minerals such as iron, potassium, and zinc. Dandelion leaves are used to add flavor to salads, sandwiches, and teas. The roots are used in some coffee substitutes, and the flowers are used to make wines.

Product/technique notes

The papers I used for this page all come from different companies. From the background up: Bella Blvd, Little Yellow Bicycle, Studio Calico and BasicGrey. The washi tape is WRMK, the 3×4 card is Simple Stories and the stars stamp is Shimelle Laine for Two Peas in a Bucket. I designed and cut the title with the Silhouette Cameo.

Ghouls just want to have fun

November 7, 2013 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

The fairy princess and the wizard are ready to party!

I met Joanie in grade school at Immaculate Conception. She was the older sister of my classmate, Matt, and our friendship began not long before she graduated from eighth grade and moved on to junior high/high school. When I graduated and began high school elsewhere, that seems to be when our friendship really took off!

It was wonderful having a good friend outside of my high school circle. It meant that when we got together we could really catch up on what had been happening in our individual lives. I particularly remember enjoying the times Joanie had me over to her house to spend the night. I loved the contrast of spending time in her larger family (5 kids as compared to the 2 in my family), and they always made me feel quite at home. One time we even got snowed in while I was staying over (awesome).

In this photo I was about to turn 17, Joanie would have been 18, and we were heading out to a Halloween party. I don’t remember who threw the party, but I do remember us planning our costumes and getting excited together. What a good time that was, and what an important friendship hers was to me.

Product/technique notes

I followed this Creative Scrappers sketch #254 as inspiration for my page. the patterned paper is from Bella Blvd’s “Trick or treat” and “Too cute to spook” collections, an ancient paper from 2006 by KI Memories (the orange background with the text) and some random patterns not related to Halloween. I designed the title using the Nightmare Before Christmas font and also used the witch boots file (Design ID #12941) on my Silhouette.