hand stitching

El Niño layout and card using leftover scraps

June 29, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

2015 is an El Niño year, and boy, have we felt its effects in Texas! We have seen far more rain than usual so far, but May and June have had epic rainfall numbers (and lots of flooding).

We took these post-thunderstorm photos down at Rattan Creek Park at the end of our street on June 14th. In other summers this creek has been just about nonexistent because we get so little rain here.

I’ve heard a lot of people grumbling about “too much rain,” but I really don’t understand that mentality. When you live through several years of extreme drought conditions, how can you “get sick” of rain? Believe me when I say that we are truly grateful for every raindrop.

I am participating in the Scrap Our Stash sketch challenge #27, which requires you to follow the sketch and then create a card out of the scraps from your layout project. Here is my card, which I will be sending to a college friend of mine:

Product/technique notes

LAYOUT: Following is the Scrap Our Stash sketch #27. I used patterns from the BasicGrey Kelly Purkey Mon Ami 6×6 paper pad, cut the clouds with my Silhouette and hand-stitched the circle.
CARD: The stamps are Hero Arts, and I hand-stitched the edges.

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.

Kiss kiss layout and string art tutorial

June 10, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

I’m so excited about today’s project because 1) I tried something new and 2) liked how it turned out, so 3) I want to share the idea with you! Do you remember doing string art projects as a kid? That’s what I incorporated on my layout as a frame for my small photo of Grandma helping me kiss my brand new brother in January 1968. Mom says I called him “B” (for baby).

My thought process

This idea came to me because of a sketch (as most of my scrappy ideas do). I was referencing this My Scraps and More sketch below, and I started thinking about how I wanted to create the central “tic-tac-toe” area of the page. I ticked off my options (get it?): strips of patterned paper, strips of washi tape, strips of ribbon, lines of stitching. Lines of stitching made me picture creating an elaborate hand stitched grid area to frame the photo. And then it hit me: string art!

I went to Pinterest and perused other artists’ string art in search of some ideas for making a square frame (as represented in the sketch). After successfully incorporating this technique into my page design, I thought I should share my process in case you like the look as much as I do.

String art tutorial

After deciding to make the string art area take up 8×8 inches in the center of the 12×12 page, I created a quick template for myself in my Silhouette Designer software. If you have a Silhouette and want to recreate this, draw an 8×8 square, center it on the page, open the rhinestones window and follow the settings below. If you don’t have a cutting machine, just measure and mark equidistant holes (perhaps 1/2 inch apart) with a ruler.

I cut out my simple template on a scrap piece of paper, lined it up over my background paper and poked the holes. Then the fun began!

I double matted the 3×3 photo with white cardstock and patterned paper so it would pop better off the background. Then I mounted that onto another pattern that was 6.25 square. Following the numbering system in the diagram below (up at 1, down at 2, up at 3, down at 4, etc.), I stitched away with two colors of embroidery thread to create the four corners of my square frame.

I do hope this tutorial was helpful to you. If you decide to try this technique on a page, I would LOVE to see it, so please come back and leave me a comment on this post. I will leave you kindly comments in return, I promise!

Sweet is the memory of distant friends

May 29, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

My brother and I had the wonderful experience of attending college at the same time and place. This meant that we shared many of the same friends while we were there. Rich was one of the earliest friendships we developed—he was a resident in the same freshman dorm as Phil, and I lived in the girls’ dorm right next door. He was fun and studious and up for adventure, just like us!

We became fast friends as freshmen. Then, in our senior year Rich started dating Lisa, who was fun, bubbly and smart to boot. When Rich and Lisa got married not long after we all graduated in 1989, Phil and I were there to witness and celebrate with them.

In the summer of 1994, while I was still in graduate school and Phil was living/working in Pittsburgh, we all gathered together for a day at my parents’ house to catch up. We had a lovely time, including this backyard barbecue. The next time I saw them was at my own wedding in 1997.

Since then we have stayed in touch (much more frequently now through the use of social media), and Rich and Lisa still mean so much to me. We knew each other back when we were all doing our best to figure out just who and what we wanted to be in the world, and those are the kinds of friendships that remain sweet in memory no matter how far the distance.

I took my title from this quote:

“Sweet is the memory of distant friends!
Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.”
Washington Irving

Product/technique notes

I created this page using patterns from the Pebbles “Family Ties” collection and this ScrapMuch? May sketch.

The reception

May 25, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

My mom’s cousin, Tom, was married in September 1977, and these photos are from his wedding reception. I seem to remember that Phil and I were looking forward to being old enough to really participate in the celebratory atmosphere (because 9- and 10-year olds are such party animals). 😉

I love Phil’s 70s style and my long dress (which Mom sewed). And I particularly remember wanting to touch the ribbons on Aunt Mary Lou’s dress. It’s all quite groovy.

Product/technique notes

I followed this sketch from Stuck?! Sketches and used patterned papers from the Basic Grey “Curio” collection. I created the title on the Silhouette and hand stitched several times around the background circle.

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