Bella Blvd

Friendship needs no words

January 14, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

This is a photo that just makes my heart smile.

I had flown home to North Carolina to spend a week of summer 2004 with my family. On this day Daddy was out in the front yard building a little brick border around a flower bed, and Mom and I were hanging out with him while he worked. We had Spenser out with us, and he was flitting about sniffing this and inspecting that. I was so fortunate that I had my camera on me for this shot when Spenser made his way over to Daddy and gave him a good long sniff. Dad sniffed back, and I caught their “kiss” forever.

Their friendship was extraordinary.

Halloweenies

October 27, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Blogtoberfest Day 27

Don’t miss out on my GIVEAWAY (closes 12:00 midnight EST on Sunday, October 30th)!

The costumes we saw that night were so fun!

Today’s layout uses photos from Halloween 2005, when Matt and I darkened the lights on our own house so we could help our neighbors hand out their treats. Norm and Linda, the neighbors right across the street from us, hosted their church’s Halloween outreach effort. From their driveway we served up more than 600 Halloweenies, otherwise known as hotdogs (and we ran out)! We also handed out lemonade, candy and children’s church stories. It was amazing to see so many people come out for this. It was a beautiful night full of fun.

Blogtoberfest Day 3

October 3, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Dressed to impress

Today I challenge you to pull out a few older Halloween photos and use some of the great new products that are available to scrap them. That’s what I’ve done here, using a photo of me and my brother in 1972 and new Bella Blvd supplies. Phil and I are all gussied up and ready to go trick-or-treating. Have you ever seen a cuter Superman and Tinkerbell?

Superman and Tinkerbell are ready to ring some doorbells!

If you do scrap some vintage Halloween photos, I would love to see them. Please leave a comment with a link to your layout here.

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?

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

The good kind of pride

September 2, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

I’ve been thinking lately about scrapbooking things that make me proud. Things I’ve done that I’m proud of, things family and friends have done that make me proud and things about the world that fill me with pride. I think focusing on this emotion in my pages will be uplifting, so I’m going to start a pride list and make an effort to scrap that list over time.

In fact, I just finished a page yesterday that fits this bill. Jim is my first and best friend from college. We were “thick as thieves” for four years at Ohio University, getting into and out of all kinds of adventures (in addition to studying) together. Twenty-six years after meeting (gulp) we remain great friends, although Jim still lives in Ohio and I am in Texas, so we spend hours on the phone instead of skulking about campus. Jim is fun, kind and generous, and on a normal day I’m proud of him because of who he is.

However, recent events spurred me to scrapbook my pride in Jim for a special reason. Sadly, Jim lost his father to cancer last year. I know from personal experience how that can leave you feeling. But among the other emotions Jim felt motivated to help in his way to find a cure. So this August he rode 102 miles from Columbus to Athens, Ohio, to raise money for cancer research (Ride Pelotonia)! What a great way to honor his father and help the cause at the same time. To show my pride in Jim’s achievement I created this layout:

So proud of my friend Jim, who made the 102-mile ride from Columbus to Athens, Ohio, to raise money for cancer research.

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