Echo Park

Blogtoberfest sketch contest

October 10, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

I’m quite excited to announce my first sketch contest! I hope you’ll join me in some scrapping fun and that this sketch will inspire you to create a layout then come back to share it with me for the opportunity to win the prize shown below.

The sketch

This sketch is simple and celebratory, with room for one 4×6 photo (or two 4x3s) and a banner running down the side. If you make a layout based on this sketch, please link it up at the end of this post by October 31st and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a great prize that’s perfect for the upcoming holiday season.

My sample

My sample page is all about celebrating this fabulous photo of my dad as a boy. He’s showing off his muscles with his dad by his side. What a gem! I used papers from Echo Park and a banner from BasicGrey.

I followed this Constant Scrapper sketch to create a layout celebrating a wonderful black-and-white photo of my dad as a boy with his father.

The prize

Are you thinking about documenting your holiday fun this December? Well this prize package includes holiday-themed items to get your project going! Or you could use this kit to create your Christmas cards. Either way, it’s a fun, color-coordinated collection of yummy supplies.

This sketch contest prize package includes: 6x6 Hot Cocoa paper pad, glittered dimensional stars, rub-ons, page pockets, fabric labels, ribbon, Christmas phrases stamp, washi tape and a clear stamp set!

Enter the contest

[inlinkz_linkup id=455311 mode=1]

I welcome all to participate, no matter from where you hail. However, with international shipping rates what they are, an international winner will receive a gift card instead of the pictured prize package.

Old friends

May 9, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

That's Kerbey Lane Cafe in the background. We had just eaten brunch together.

Matt met Jeremy in 1998, when the two of them were the first full-time employees hired by the founders of a start-up called TManage. Jeremy lived in Austin, TX, where the three founders were basing their new company, and Matt and I still lived in Chapel Hill, NC. But it was a company focused on helping other companies roll out telework programs, so they were pretty OK with having Matt work remotely (and me too, soon after). For a while.

Matt and Jeremy worked together quite a lot in the early days. Matt was in charge of software development, and Jeremy was in charge of building out the IT infrastructure. So they became friends through this shared experience in the trenches.

The short version of the story is that eventually, as the company quickly grew, having Matt work from North Carolina became too difficult. He was always flying back and forth and started staying longer than he was home. So we finally moved to Austin. And then we became friends with Jeremy and his wife. The four of us had so many good times together, full of lots of laughing.

Fast forward maybe four years, and when it was time for us to leave TManage (it was acquired and we wanted to try something new), the three of us started a business together. That business is the one that Matt and I still own and run together.

Several years ago Jeremy and his family moved from Austin to be closer to family, and Jeremy has started his own company there. But they were recently in town and we all got together for brunch. This photo of the first two employees 16 years later makes me very happy because it reminds me of some really good times and big dreams.

Product/technique notes

Almost everything on this page is from Echo Park’s “This & That Charming” collection.

You belong with me

January 26, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

I belong with you. You belong with me. You're my sweetheart.

The 20th sketch challenge has been posted at the SCRAP & MUSIC challenge blog! Head over to the site to grab the sketch, which I’m proud to have designed, and play along. This sketch came with the song “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers.

Product/technique notes

I used papers from Echo Park’s “Here &Now” collection and created/cut the title on my Silhouette Cameo.

The challenge

The challenges on this blog involve following the sketch and using a title on your layout with a line from the provided music. Below I’ve included the video as well as the lyrics for this song:

“Ho Hey” by The Lumineers

I’ve been trying to do it right
I’ve been living a lonely life
I’ve been sleepin here instead
I’ve been sleepin in my bed
Sleepin in my bed

So show me family
All the blood that I will bleed
I don’t know where I belong
I don’t know where I went wrong
But I can write a song

I belong with you, you belong with me
You’re my sweetheart
I belong with you, you belong with me
You’re my sweet

I don’t think you’re right for him
Think of what it might have been if we
Took a bus to chinatown
I’d be standin on canal and bowery
And she’d be standin next to me

I belong with you, you belong with me
You’re my sweetheart
I belong with you, you belong with me
You’re my sweetheart

Love we need it now
Let’s hope for some
Cause oh, we’re bleedin out

I belong with you, you belong with me
You’re my sweetheart
I belong with you, you belong with me
You’re my sweet
I belong with you, you belong with me
You’re my sweet

Blessed

November 23, 2013 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Me and my paternal grandparents: Thanksgiving 1987

That’s me with my Nana and Papa on Thanksgiving Day in 1987. Our extended family in Pennsylvania always used to gather together for Thanksgiving at Aunt Doo Doo and Uncle Ron’s house, and when this photo was taken we had just cleared away the dishes after a fabulous feast.

I will always hold dear my memories from those years when we spent Thanksgiving with Nana and Papa at the head of our big happy family. We were truly blessed to have them and each other.

Product/technique notes

I created this page using Echo Park’s “Reflections” collection and a few stickers from their “Reflections Fall” collection. I designed the title and cut it on my Cameo.

More than words

November 3, 2013 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

On the gorgeous UNC-Chapel Hill campus

The 14th sketch challenge has been posted at the SCRAP & MUSIC challenge blog! Head over to the site to grab the sketch and play along. This 14th sketch came with the song “More than words” by Extreme.

My layout

One day this summer my mom, brother and I took a walk around the gorgeous UNC-Chapel Hill campus where Phil went to grad school and now works. It was a great day for photos. I especially liked this one of them with South Building (the university’s main administrative building, built in 1814) in the background.

I paired this photo with the challenge song, “More than words,” simply because I love these two more than words.

Product/technique notes

The patterned papers on this page are from Echo Park’s “Beautiful life” collection. Because of all that great open space in my photo I decided to add my title right on the photo with Photoshop before printing it.

The challenge

The challenges on this blog involve following the sketch and using a title on your layout with a line from the provided music. Below I’ve included the video as well as the lyrics for this song:

“More than words” by Extreme
Saying ‘I Love you’
Is not the words I want to hear from you
It’s not that I want you not to say
But if you only know
How easy it would be to show me how you feel

More than words
Is all you have to do to make it real
Then you wouldn’t have to say
That you love me ’cause I’d already know

What would you do if my heart was torn in two?

More than words to show you feel
That your love for me is real

What would you say if I took those words away?

Then you couldn’t make things new
Just by saying ‘I love you’

More than words

Now that I’ve tried to
Talk to you and make you understand
All you have to do is
Close your eyes and just reach out your hands
And touch me, hold me close
Don’t ever let me go

More than words
Is all I ever needed you to show
Then you wouldn’t have to say
That you love me ’cause I’d already know

What would you do if my heart was torn in two?

More than words to show you feel
That your love for me is real

What would you say if I took those words away?

Then you couldn’t make things new
Just by saying ‘I love you’

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