Echo Park

I’d like to be out to sea: DT layout for Stuck?! Sketches

November 1, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 7 Comments

Happy November! Today Stuck?! Sketches launches our first challenge of the new month. Why not play along with us using our November 1st sketch for some wonderful prizes?

For this challenge we are partnering up with Scrap it with a Song, and they have chosen Octopus’ Garden by the Beatles as their inspiration song. You can find out all the details about how to play along with their challenge over on their blog.

I took a lot of inspiration from the song challenge on this page. My photos are from a Caribbean cruise we took in 2005. The products are water- and beach-themed. And my title is a variation on the first line of the song, which goes “I’d like to be under the sea, in an octopus’ garden in the shade.” This was fun!

Product/technique notes

The background paper on my layout is from Crate Paper’s The Pier collection, and the rest of the patterns and stickers are from Echo Park’s Walking on Sunshine collection.

Beauty school dropouts: DT layout for Stuck?! Sketches

September 1, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 12 Comments

Today Stuck?! Sketches is revealing the September 1st sketch challenge, and it’s a great one. For this challenge we are also partnering with the design team from Scrap Our Stash by including an item from our stash for each of the letters in the word L-A-Y-E-R-S! If you combine the sketch with the stash-busting challenge you can enter your page for prizes at both sites!

It was a real challenge for me to think this way, but these are the items I used:
L = label
A = arrows
Y = yellow cardstock and crochet thread
E = enamel dots
R = rubber charms
S = Silhouette, stamp, staples, stickers, stitches

The story of these photos is a recent one. In early August I flew to North Carolina, where my Mom and brother live, to be with my mom while she had knee-replacement surgery. When you have that surgery the doctors tell you that you must have round-the-clock care for the first two weeks! So we activated Wonder Twin powers to care for our mom. But we decided that taking care of our mom’s every want and need wasn’t enough; her adorable dog, Raleigh, needed a bath as well. (I guess once you get into caregiver mode, you can’t easily turn it off.) Phil took some photos of our dog-washing adventure, and then I took the “after” photo. Raleigh looked beautiful!

Product/technique notes

The papers and stickers I used are from Echo Park’s Walking on Sunshine collection. The swirls are ancient rubber charms from KI Memories. I designed and cut the title on my Silhouette and hand-stitched the circles

The boys of summer

August 12, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

My brother and I started college at the same time and lived in freshmen dorms that were situated next to each other, so we had a lot of friends in common. Rich lived in Phil’s dorm, and we both quickly became friends with him because he was smart, loyal and lots of fun.

As we were wrapping up our first year and packing to go home for the summer Phil invited Rich to come up to Willoughby for a visit; this photo is from that July 1986 visit.

Product/technique notes

I followed this Boys Rule sketch and used products from the Echo Park Walking on Sunshine collection for this page. I had a lot of fun with the hand stitching on this one, too.

Nothing beats a good book: DT layout for Stuck?! Sketches

July 15, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

Today Stuck?! Sketches is revealing its second sketch challenge of July, and you’re going to love the design team layouts for this one. 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.

Reading has always made me happy. What’s not to love about getting lost in a story or an idea?

I take great pleasure in holding a book and turning its pages. I rejoice when I can see and feel that I have passed the halfway point in the story. I get a giddy feeling when I pick up the book and find the bookmark holding my place so I can immerse myself again. I keenly feel that satisfying yet mournful moment when I close the book with a thump for the last time after reading the final words. I am a booklover…a bookworm.

When Kindles and other readers first came out, I had conversations with people who vowed not to even try to read with a device because they were certain they wouldn’t like it. I wasn’t sure if I could enjoy reading without all the tactile joys of a book, but I sure am glad I tried it! There are many reasons I love reading on devices: I almost always have one within reach, so I can read during any spare moments (including all those times I find myself waiting in lines). They’re lighter weight, so reading is often more comfortable (picture lying in bed while trying to hold an 850-page hardbound book like Outlander!). I can search the online store and download a book within moments of deciding which one I want to read next. I can sign up for notices when my favorite authors have new releases. You get the idea: it’s convenient!

But if you ask me whether I prefer one over the other, my answer would be electronic or printed doesn’t matter. Because nothing beats a good book!

Product/technique notes

I used patterned papers and a sticker from the Simple Life collection by Echo Park. Then I designed and cut the title on my Silhouette. The cute eyeglasses embellishment is from The Paper Studio; the yellow file tab is from Fancy Pants; the Tell my story die cut is from Shimelle; and the text paper in the scalloped border is from an American Crafts 6×6 paper pad.

Life moves pretty fast: Celebrating Ferris Bueller’s day off

June 18, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 6 Comments

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” came out in June 1986. However, a die hard baseball fan/blogger has done research on the Cubs game Bueller and his pals attended in the movie and determined that it was played against the Braves on June 5, 1985. That means this June 5th was the 30th anniversary of Bueller’s fictional yet famous day off!

Alas, Matt and I couldn’t take off the whole work day. But we did knock off early on that Friday afternoon to go out for happy hour drinks and appetizers at a nearby hangout of ours. I mean, Ferris Bueller may have been spoiled and snarky, but he did have a point:

Life moves pretty fast.
If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Product/technique notes

I was inspired by both this sketch from Let’s Get Sketchy as well as many aspects of the Paper Issues Pinspire Me image below:

Most of the patterned papers and stickers are from Echo Park’s “Creative Agenda” collection, and I hand stitched the colors around the inverted triangle element.

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