one-page layouts

Celebrating life

June 2, 2018 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

The story

This photo marked the end of a long, difficult day.

That morning (Thursday, November 18, 2004) we laid my father to rest after he lost a short, intense battle with cancer. We followed the beautiful funeral Mass with friends, family, and food back at Mom and Dad’s house. It was sad and surreal and comforting and all the feelings that kind of day usually holds.

These are the family members who stayed to the very end of the day with us. Matt took a group photo to mark the occasion of our being together to celebrate Daddy’s life. I am particularly grateful to have this considering that we have since lost four more in this party (Mary Lou first, then Bubbles, Duffy, and recently Earl).

Product/technique notes

I created this page with products from the Carta Bella Moments & Memories collection and designed/cut the title with my Silhouette.

Love you

May 25, 2018 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

The story

I have always really loved this photo of my mom and dad from Easter 1983, but it had terrible color and extreme shadows and highlights. I have color corrected and tweaked it a few times over the years, but I had not printed it to scrap because I was never happy with the results.

Then I recently realized that converting it to black-and-white might camouflage some of those problems, making it good enough to print. BINGO!

Product/technique notes

I created this page with three of the patterns from the AdornIt Chamberry collection, which I have been hoarding for too many years awaiting the right photo. The glitter Thickers title, hand sewing, and punched butterflies are all I thought it needed to complete the look.

Plan on being my favorite always

May 21, 2018 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

The story

This is my mom and dad celebrating their first Easter as a married couple in 1966. They were pregnant with me and spent the day with family in Pennsylvania. In this shot they had just finished dinner at Nana and Papa’s house. I love their sweet faces.

Product/technique notes

Several years ago I made a layout using a folding technique taken from a Cathedral Window quilt design. The page is called “The Lord God made them all,” and I loved it enough that I decided to scraplift myself for this one. I wanted to let the folded design steal the show, so I kept the rest simple—just a stamped title and a tiny blue butterfly. The patterned paper is from the DCWV Spring Bloom stack.

Tahitian Terrace

May 16, 2018 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

The story

In 1968 Mom got on a plane with two babies in tow and flew to California to visit family. I was 19 months, and Phil was 5 months, so that must have been fun.

One of the excursions the family took was to Disneyland, where Mom posed for this photo outside one of its many restaurants.

Product/technique notes

Most of the products for this page came from the Simple Stories’ You Are Here collection, with a few diecuts thrown in from Dear Lizzy’s Happy Place. I created the title on my Silhouette.

I followed this sketch by Laura Whitaker from Stuck?! Sketches:

Easter together 1983

May 7, 2018 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

The story

Aunt Mary Lou and Earl lived only two hours away in Pennsylvania, so we had many happy visits from them over the years. But my maternal grandparents lived far away in California, which meant we saw them but rarely over the years. That makes this 1983 photo op, just after we had all returned from Easter Mass, pretty special.

Also worth noting is that Mom sewed my darling two-piece outfit.

Product/technique notes

I created this page for the “Frost the Cake” Paper Issues spring crop challenge, which required that we use stripes of either patterned paper or paint for the page’s background.

I used papers from the Simple Stories Faith and American Crafts Welcome Spring collections.