Little Yellow Bicycle

Oasis

July 16, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

I swear I heard a rattlesnake while we were on this walk into hell.

To be fair, it was my idea for us to go for a hike on July 4th. There’s a trail running along Brushy Creek Road that I see lots of walkers, runners and cyclists using, but we had not tried it yet. So we agreed to go first thing in the morning to check it out. Then, first thing in the morning turned into noon, and I suggested we wait for another morning. But Matt insisted we’d be fine. So we slathered ourselves with sunscreen, filled our water bottles and headed out.

That path. Went on. Forever. And I swear that ninety percent of it was in full sun. Did I mention that it got to nearly 100 degrees? And there were vultures circling overhead? Yeah.

My repeated requests to turn back fell on deaf ears; Matt really wanted to see where that path led.

Just as I started feeling sick from all that heat, and we were about to run out of the water we had been rationing, it appeared. I actually asked Matt if it was a mirage or an oasis!

He said, “It must be an OASIS because I can see it, too!”

It was a lovely little community water park…with families picnicking, kids playing and squealing and wonderful, cold, restorative water spraying everywhere. We looked at each other in amazement. And then ran in.

What could have been better than to find this?

I think it's awesome that this free splash area is offered by the park system.

Product/technique notes: I saw this distress ink watercolor technique over at Kristina Werner’s card blog and decided I wanted to use it on this layout because of my water theme. I pulled out this piece of patterned paper from Little Yellow Bicycle (I’m using both sides of just one piece of paper on this page) and thought it would be a great way to represent both the searing sun and then the bright colors and fresh feeling of the splash park. So I chose colors of distress ink to match the stripes in the paper (wow, did they match well!) and created swatches of splotchy watercolored paper. Then I cut out each letter of my title from a different swatch.

Just look at how my swatches match the paper!

Day camp

April 17, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 10 Comments

The Little Yellow Bicycle Paradise collection was perfect to use with this 1976 photo.

There were a few summers when we were growing up that Mom and Dad signed us up to go to day camp. I think it was just for a week each summer, maybe two, but it left a big impression on me.

I remember being quite nervous to go, but I loved the adventure of it. We made candles in buckets of sand that we had hollowed out into shapes, tie dyed t-shirts, swam, fished, hiked…the usual activities. But the most important part that I can remember is that we got on a bus with kids we didn’t know and went somewhere new. It meant we were old enough to do this on our own—well, with lots of adult supervision, of course.

But these adults weren’t our parents or school teachers. They were mostly young adults (like the twin sisters in my photo) who were there with us as counselors. A counselor is, by definition, there to advise and guide. My apologies to any of my school teachers (many of them nuns) who may one day read this post, but in my nine-year-old brain a camp counselor was way cooler than a teacher. Teachers imparted math and history knowledge and then held us accountable with tests. Camp counselors showed us how to do things like tie knots. And there was nary a test in sight!

Way cooler.

So, here’s to my parents for giving us the opportunity to go on this type of adventure and to my camp counselors for teaching us the things we didn’t learn in school. And in case you can’t tell, this photo was taken on dress-up day (I think it was the last day of camp), and I am the little hobo with pigtails standing second from the right. 🙂

I based this layout on a nice sketch provided at the Artful Delight blog, and I am entering it into their April challenge. I am also entering this into Shimelle’s Online scrapbooking weekend challenge #8: Create a project featuring a stamp you should use more often.

The Artful Delight sketch I referenced while making this layout.

I used all Little Yellow Bicycle patterned papers from the “Paradise” collection and colored in that beautiful Hero Arts tree stamp with Copic markers to match the rest.

Tickling the ivories

March 1, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 5 Comments

The March Sketches with a Twist sketch and design team sample layouts are now live on their site. I am very proud to have created the sketch and really in love with all the design team’s samples based on it!

Sketches With a Twist is a new sketch challenge site where each comes with an extra requirement (for example, this month’s twist is to use 3 identical embellishments somewhere on your layout or card.

Here’s a little peek at my new sketch:
A peek of the new sketch

And below is my design team layout based on the sketch. Please head to their blog to get the printable version of the sketch and play along (there are two prizes available each month).

In this first photo I was 6 years old, and in the second I was not quite 10.

I was very fortunate that as a child I took piano lessons. My mother had always wanted to know how to play, and I think her enthusiasm for the idea must have made me want to do it, too. When I was really little my parents would walk into a room and find me sitting sideways in an overstuffed chair “playing” the arm. I think they must have told Santa Claus about this because in 1972 he left an electric organ (that’s what they were called then, instead of keyboards) under the tree! Boy howdy, was that a great gift.

The whole family played the organ, but perhaps I played it the most because when, in 1976, my parents finally fulfilled my mom’s dream of owning a piano, I was the first one to get lessons. Eventually Phil and Mom also took piano lessons from my teacher, Alice Shimmels, but I took lessons the longest (until I was 18, I think). Unfortunately, at that point in my life I didn’t think I had time in my busy teenager schedule to continue with lessons and practice, so I let them go.

It’s a lovely thing to have had music lessons in my past; it’s such a great skill to have and is a practice rich with opportunities for developing personal discipline. I now have that piano in my home, and I love to play carols in the winter on a cold evening when I’m full of Christmas spirit. So, another debt of gratitude is owed to my wonderful parents for filling my life with the ability to make my own music.

The one with no turkey

November 12, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

This has been two-page layout week on Sketch Support, and today my layout is live! Please head over to grab the sketch so you can use it in your own crafting, and while you’re there I would love it if you would leave a quick comment for me. 🙂

Here is a look at the layout I made.

This layout is based on a sketch from www.sketchsupport.com.

I loved this sketch and followed it quite closely. The only changes I made were to use a wider variety of patterned papers in the strips that form the background and to add a hand-crocheted edge at the bottom (for a cozy “sweater-weather” feel).

The journaling reads, “We had started a special diet in October and were doing well on it, so we agreed to forgo the traditional Thanksgiving dinner for a long walk around Town Lake. Although we missed the turkey and fixins, we spent a really lovely day together being thankful and healthy! 11-26-2009”

Here’s a closer look at a few of the details.

I punched evenly spaced holes along the bottom edge of the background and used cream crochet thread to add a simple border.

Be sure to visit the Sketch Support site to pick up this fabulous sketch to use in your own scrapping. 🙂

Dan & Leona, 50 years of marriage

August 22, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

My mother’s parents, Daniel and Leona, were married in 1939. This portrait was taken in 1989 to mark their 50th wedding anniversary. Isn’t it wonderful when we have special photos like this of the ones we love? I wish that my grandparents were around to ask them what 50 years of marriage is like, what it was like to be young newlyweds in 1939, and many more questions. Alas, I didn’t think about asking those types of questions when I was younger and they were alive.

My maternal grandparents had this portrait taken in 1989, the year of their golden anniversary.

This layout is based on a sketch I found at the Artful Delight blog. It’s their August layout challenge sketch.

Are you fortunate enough to have your grandparents around? If so, I would like to gently nudge you to ask questions about their lives now.

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