Blogtoberfest

Blogtoberfest Day 16

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

National Feral Cat Day

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 in residence

Purrsonality

"One cat just leads to another." Ernest Hemingway

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

Meow, purr, yawn

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

"Cats are the connoisseurs of comfort." James Herriot

I love you, purr & simple

Showing cattitude

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

Naptime

Blogtoberfest Day 15

October 15, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 11 Comments

Sketchabilities sketch #57

Sketchabilities has revealed its latest sketch, #57. Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch, then create something and link it up! 🙂

Here’s my Design Team layout inspired by the sketch.

Celebrating 14 wonderful years together

These photos were taken on the evening of our 14th wedding anniversary earlier in October. Matt and I really like to try to take a little trip for our anniversary, but when it occurs on a weekday that’s hard to do. There’s a fondue restaurant close to our house that I have been eyeing since it opened, but it’s the type of place one only goes to for special occasions. So we headed there to celebrate our 14 years of wedded bliss!

Matt had never had fondue before this, if you can believe it! I have had it a few times, and I loved it each one. We had a beautiful four-course meal, a great waiter and lovely conversation. So, even though these photos aren’t the best because they’re taken in a darkened restaurant with a flash, I wanted to remember this celebration with a layout.

I went a little wild with the patterned paper on this one. I decided to limit the color palette to black/grays and yellows/golds with a tiny hint of pink/red to highlight the strawberries in the main photo. This made me feel free to use a greater variety of patterns than my usual. I combined papers taken mostly from My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found Two collection and Authentique’s Blissful collection. They worked quite well together, in my opinion. The doilies and flower/swirl embellishments were cut with my Silhouette and highlighted with a bit of bling.

I am so pleased to be starting my Sketchabilities design team responsibilities! I hope you’ll check out the site and play along with us on the sketch challenges. 🙂

Blogtoberfest Day 14

October 14, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

A smattering of sketches that work well with square photos

Because I often use vintage photos in my scrapbooking, I keep a watchful eye out for sketches that work with the square photos that were so common in the 60s and 70s. Today I thought I would share a few of the really good square-photo sketches I’ve found recently. Click on each one to go to the originating site:

Blogtoberfest Day 13

October 13, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 6 Comments

Young Crafters Unite challenge #2 and Simon Says Stamp Challenge – Halloween/Goth

Young Crafters Unite posted their second challenge, which is to make an envelope that matches your card. I had a lot of fun with this one because I decided to make the card rely on the envelope in order to make sense.

Said another way, you have to read what’s on the envelope first to complete the card’s meaning. Fun, huh?

I’m also entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Challenge for the their Halloween/Goth week!

It's a matter of perspective, really ...

I used a shape cut a few times with my Silhouette as the base of the card. Then I added the colors with distress inks before stamping the images. I’m not sure if you’ll notice in the photo that the cobwebs have little hints of glitter pen to make them appear more like gossamer.

Your trick is my treat!

I limited the color palette to add to the stark, creepy effect. I also stamped and inked the flip side of the envelope.

I stamped the back of the envelope to complete the look.

There’s still another couple of days to enter the challenge if you like this idea of embellishing your envelope to match your card. I know I’ll be doing it again!

Blogtoberfest Day 12

October 12, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Enveloped in love + freebie

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #123, and the twist is “envelope.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch, then create something and link it up! 🙂

Here’s my Design Team layout inspired by the sketch.

This is Mom, Phil and me in October 1972 in front of our Willoughby, Ohio, home.

Before I begin work on one of the Twisted Sketches assignments I always spend a little time thinking about possible variations on the “twist.” In this case, the twist was “envelope,” so I knew I could use an actual envelope on the page to either house my journaling or just as a decorative element. But as I turned the word over in my mind I thought of the similar word, “envelop.” If I used the past tense of that word I could still satisfy the twist! The title “Enveloped in love” occurred to me soon after. Then I went on a hunt through my photo organizer for the perfect picture to use with it.

I don’t think I could have found a better photo to represent this idea. It’s of my mom, my brother and me in October 1972. We’re out in front of our house in Willoughby, Ohio. Mom’s arms are actually encircling us. She wrote on the back of the original snapshot, “Daddy’s family.” Everything about this photo speaks of love and being enfolded in it. Happy sigh.

There’s one extra little detail about this photo that tickles me (in addition to the 70s clothes and Phil’s glasses). If you squint you can see two little decals on the window behind us. They are a wee witch and jack-o’-lantern, stuck low on the window for our sakes, I imagine. Such a darling detail, don’t you think?

I created a Silhouette cut file to use for my title. If you think you could use this title on a project of your own and you have a Silhouette, I would be happy to email you the file if you send a request to janice at theconstantscrapper dot com.

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