Fancy Pants

Sunshine Equals Happiness: DT layout for Stuck?! Sketches

June 15, 2017 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

Today Stuck?! Sketches launches our second challenge of June! Grab the sketch and play along for prizes from ScrapMatts and Lindy’s Stamp Gang.

The story

A bright sunshiny day in Ohio: My mom’s aunt and uncle came for a visit from California in the summer of 1970 (or maybe 1971—the date was unfortunately not on the back of the photo). That’s Uncle Vic talking to my dad in the background and me and Phil posing for the camera in the foreground. From the looks of it, they have their huge station wagon packed up in readiness to head home.

Product/technique notes

I used papers from Pink Paislee’s Citrus Twist collection and die cuts from Dear Lizzy’s Happy Place. The flair is from an ancient pack of American Crafts pieces.

Good times: DT layout for Stuck?! Sketches

February 1, 2017 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Today Stuck?! Sketches launches our first challenge of February. Grab the sketch and play along for prizes from Charms Creations and Cuts2Luv.

The story

In the early 90s my brother was living in a borough near Pittsburgh called Wilkinsburg. On a pretty weekend sometime in 1992 (not sure what time of year, but our clothes make me think it was early spring), our family went by to pick up Mom’s Aunt Mary Lou and made a road trip to visit him there. We snapped these photos at a park near his apartment.

#goodtimes

Product/technique notes

All the products I used were from the Fancy Pants Millie and June collection, except for the title, which is composed of American Crafts Thickers.

Niagara Falls 1982

April 26, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

In mid-August 1982 our family took a short vacation to see the Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. It was our last fun little jaunt of the summer before the new school year was to begin.

Did you know?
According to the Wikipedia article on the falls, the three waterfalls known collectively as the Niagara Falls are the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. The combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world, with a vertical drop of more than 165 feet. Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall in North America, as measured by vertical height and also by flow rate.

They are glorious, aren’t they?

Product/technique notes

I followed My Scraps and More sketch #104 and used supplies from the Fancy Pants “What a Wonderful Day” collection. Where there are stitching lines in the sketch I used various colors of twine to match the papers.

I was thrilled to have my page chosen by My Scraps & More as a top 3!

A perfect autumn day

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

In my opinion, there’s no better way to celebrate and appreciate the wonder of the fall season than to be out in nature.

In Austin, Texas, there are often whole autumn seasons that are rather colorless. We don’t have a lot of the types of trees that change color in a bold way. Add to that the fact that many of our summers are too dry to offer the right conditions for great color change in the ones that can.

But we are fortunate to be only a few hours from Lost Maples State Natural Area, where there is a combination of steep limestone canyons, springs, plateau grasslands, wooded slopes and clear streams. It features a large, isolated stand of uncommon Uvalde bigtooth maple, whose fall foliage can be spectacular.

Each fall I track the fall foliage reports offered on the park’s website, and Matt and I try to make the trip (thought it doesn’t always happen, as it is about three hours’ drive). The photos on this layout are from November 2013. It was a perfect day to go on the strenuous five-mile hike to see the colors and take photos. What a great way to get out of town and revel in the beauty of nature!

Product/technique notes

The background paper is from the Fancy Pants “Happy-Go-Lucky” collection, and the other patterns are from October Afternoon’s “Apple Cider.” I embellished with stickers from Echo Park’s “Reflections Fall” and “Fall Fever” collections and added some hand stitching to bring out the turquoise in the patterns.

Joshing around

January 18, 2014 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 7 Comments

You're not joshing me, are you?

Matt and I have known Josh for at least 10 years now. He’s a loving, fun and funny teddy bear, so I wanted to dedicate a page to our friendship with him. He’s a good guy and a good friend. These photos are from a lunch date we had with him back in November.

I knew what my title would be for this layout before I even began working on it because I’m a punny girl and I liked the play on Josh’s name too much not to use it. I did a little research to find out where the phrases “joshing around” or “just joshing you” came from, and what I learned is very interesting:

Josh Tatum was a deaf mute who was able to use an oversight of the US Mint to his advantage. In 1883, the Mint produced the newly designed Liberty nickel. On the reverse of the coin, the design featured a Roman numeral “V” but nowhere did the word “cents” appear. Realizing an opportunity, Mr. Tatum had several of the newly minted cents electroplated with a thin layer of gold. Tatum then traveled from town to town visiting stores and buying items with a value less than 5 cents. When the clerk rang the item up, Tatum handed over one of the gold-plated nickels. The store clerks usually assumed that the coin was a $5 gold piece and would give Mr. Tatum change. Tatum amassed quite a bit of money before being caught by police. He was found innocent of charges because as a mute, Tatum had never actually represented that the coin was a $5 gold piece! That same year, the US Mint added the word “cents” to the Liberty head nickel in an effort to bring this type of fraud to a halt. And the famous saying was born: “You’re not joshing me, are you?”

So now you know!

Product/technique notes

I just loved the “kitty” t-shirt that Josh was wearing in these photos, so I went in search of papers that had black, aqua and gray in them. Fancy Pants’ “Park Bench” collection fit the bill perfectly. I designed the title and cut it and the flourishes (Design ID #19030 in the Silhouette store) on my Cameo. I used Paper Bakery’s sketch #18 as inspiration for my design.