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Bicentennial

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

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #109, and the twist is “flowers.” 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…

July 4, 1976 was a huge day of celebration for our country and for the Daquila family.

Because I was working on this layout over the July 4th weekend, I was inspired to scrap these 1976 Bicentennial photos. On July 4th, 1976, our whole family donned red, white and blue outfits that Mom had carefully chosen for us and jumped on a plane from Cleveland to California (where my mom’s side of the family lived). It was the first time Phil and I had taken an airplane trip, and that alone was very exciting. But at school and at home we had been learning all about what the Bicentennial meant to our country, and so that celebration was also a big deal to us.

Once we arrived in California we spent that day catching up with our grandparents and our mom’s brother and his family (that’s our cousin, Lori, in the photos with us). We had a picnic and then ended the day writing our names in the dark with sparklers. It was a really big day.

The patterned papers I used are mostly from K&Company’s Americana line, and the background paper is from Basic Grey’s Basics line.

Young Crafters Unite blog hop!

July 1, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 81 Comments

Hi everyone, and welcome to the next stop on the Young Crafters Unite Blog Hop! If you’re following along the hop you should be arriving here from Chari Moss’ blog (She makes such adorable cards!). If you aren’t a hopper but want to join in the fun you can start at the beginning by visiting the Young Crafters Unite website.

Why do I consider myself a young crafter?

I always feel younger than the calendar says I am. I really believe that being “young” or “old” is up to us. So I act the way I want to feel. And crafting is one of the things I do that helps me stay young. Shopping for crafting supplies surely must reduce wrinkles because it makes me giddy like a little girl. And the feeling I get when I start to cut, stamp and glue things together…well, if my hair was longer I would put it up in pigtails! I suspect all crafters are young crafters. 🙂

My “favorite thing” project

We were asked to create a new project using our favorite things, and I chose to create a layout using two favorite things:

These photos are of my brother, Phil, and me at the baby pool in our hometown. I love everything about these photos: Phil’ls scrunchy smile, our darling bathing suits pushed low on our round bellies, our suntanned skin, our happy faces and my memories of many hours spent at that pool together with our mom. Wow, these are awesome photos!
I recently created a tutorial about crocheting on your scrapbook pages, so that’s my new favorite technique! I’ve used it on this layout to create the sun element. It takes some extra time, so I’ll probably save it for more special photos/memories, but I love the even more handmade and vintage feel it gives to my layouts. 🙂

At the Pool highlights a few special photos of me and my brother in the summer of 1970.

More of my personal favorites

I thought I would also share just a few more of my recent layouts and cards because they are all about being or staying young, and they make me happy to look at!

I think you are…
I made this little set of 2×3-inch cards so that I could occasionally pop a love note in my husband’s laptop bag before he leaves the house. Why does food with faces make us smile?

I think you are...hot, cool, sweet and cheesy!

I am I because my little dog knows me
I can’t help it—I love this layout. That photo of our precious family dog, Spenser, is from 1991 when he was only a few months old. We all adored him and he adored us. And I think this Gertrude Stein quote is awesome.

I think this Gertrude Stein quote is all this layout needed to capture my feeling.

He will go far
This is a photo from 2000, when our nephew Jerad was only 4. I thought this new October Afternoon line, Rocket Age, would work perfectly to highlight all the potential I see in his little face.

This outer space-themed paper just seemed like the perfect way to showcase a child's potential.

Thank you so much for hopping by today. Don’t forget to leave a comment on this post because there are prizes up for grabs for some lucky participants. Randomly selected commenters will have the opportunity to win prizes from Simon Says Stamp, Paper Smooches and Lawn Fawn! Comment by Monday, July 4th at 11:59PM CST to win; winners will be announced Wednesday, July 6th at noon CST.

The next young crafter on this hop is Kelly Latevola (This woman is a master with Distress Inks!). Thanks again for stopping by, and I do hope you’ll come back again soon.

Here’s to Pat

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

I’m sorry I’ve been absent lately, but I do have a good reason. I have been putting a good deal of crafty and blog-writing time into my first ever guest blog spot! I’m very excited to be appearing as a guest blogger this Wednesday on Live. Teach. Create. I’ve created a tutorial that I hope you’ll check out and use on a future layout.

Don’t worry; I’ll remind you again on Wednesday. 🙂

In the meantime, I’ll share a layout I did a while back about my husband’s stepfather, Pat. He came into Matt’s life when he was about 12 and did a lot to make his life more stable. Though Pat had never been married or a father before, he stepped into a family of five small children who were not happy about having him around and won them over one-by-one. Unfortunately, Pat’s and Sandie’s marriage ended after ten years, but Pat did leave his mark on the family.

I used some rather psychedelic paper for this layout, but I thought it worked well with both the style of the older photo on the left and the colors in the later photo on the right.

So, here’s to Pat.

This layout is in honor of my husband's stepfather, Pat.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

June 22, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #107, and the twist is “time.” 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…

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day.

And now a little background on this layout. When Phil and I started our sophomore year in high school in 1983 we decided to try out for the play and both were granted roles. The play was Charles Dickens’ “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.” It’s a great story, full of villainy and heroism and redemption.

While my role as Miss Ninetta Crummles, The “Infant Phenomenon,” (from Wikipedia: Mr. and Mrs. Crummles’ daughter. She is a very prominent member of the Crummles troupe, and a dancing part is written for her in every performance, even if there is no place for it. She is supposedly ten years old, but is actually closer to eighteen, having been kept on a steady diet of gin to keep her looking young.) was only a small one, I had the first lines of the play. I skipped onto stage and quoted Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day.”

Phil and I had such a great experience that year in the play. The months of after-school rehearsals led to great friendships and wonderful memories. And, in the end, our rendition of Nicholas Nickleby was brilliant!

Here’s a peek at the week’s sketch. I hope you’ll play along.

Here's a peek at the sketch from www.twistedsketches.org

Raindrops keep falling on my head

June 19, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Mom has always told me that “my song” was Raindrops keep falling on my head because when I was little I got excited every time it played on the radio. I don’t have any photos of me grooving to the strains of BJ Thomas from back then, so I chose these two shots of me at about the right age for the topic. Even now when I hear that song I get a little giddy! I’m very pleased to have this memory scrapped. 🙂

I’m entering this layout into My Mind’s Eye blog challenge #24, which means I had to base it on their provided sketch, follow the theme of “lyrics” and make sure that at least 80% of the products I used on my page are from their company.

Enjoy your Father’s Day celebrations today!

Raindrops keep falling on my head was my favorite song when I was a little girl.

This is the layout from the My Mind's Eye blog that I used for my layout.

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