one-page layouts

My favorite things

December 10, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

My favorite things is a two-photo scrapbook page based on the song from The Sound of Music.

One of our family Christmas traditions happened a bit by accident. Over the years we noticed a pattern—on the night that we put up and decorated our Christmas tree, The Sound of Music very often also appeared on television. We all love that movie, so we would be half decorating and half standing with ornaments in our hands while zoned in one the film. Dad was the only one fully focused on the task of getting the tree finished, and did not at all appreciate our halfheartedness.

Nowadays, because you can just pop in the DVD or stream a movie whenever you want, it doesn’t seem like a big deal. But back in the day it was special serendipity to have it showing on our tree-decorating night. And so the accidental tradition was formed.

Based on the song My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music, I created this page of our sweet Lucy under our Christmas tree in 2008. Like most cats, she loves, loves, loves Christmas trees. And presents.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.
Brown paper packages tied up with strings,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Product/technique notes

The background paper is from Simple Stories December Documented collection, the patterns in the frames are from Pink Paislee’s Snow Village 6×6 pad, and the frames cut file is from the Silhouette store. I designed and cut the title on my Silhouette also.

Don’t quit your day job

December 5, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

I come from a family of highly talented gift wrappers. I would go so far as to call them gift-wrap artists. My mom and my dad each had their preferred way of measuring, creasing, taping and decorating the package, and my brother and I studied these methods at their elbows throughout our childhood years. We have always taken pride in the finished product and usually spent part of the gift-opening process on Christmas morning oohing and ahhing at each other’s efforts.

Then I married Matt. I would describe his gift-wrap aesthetic and skill as those of an angry spider monkey. There is no measuring, only guessing. There is no creasing, only crushing. There is no judicious use of tape to make it appear as if the wrapping is hanging together by magic, no strategic placement. And there is certainly no decorating of packages. Bows are thoroughly disdained in the Pardo tradition.

I am convinced at this point in our years together that Matt strives to make his packages look even worse than they have to, just to irk me. We laugh about it every Christmas, so I suppose it’s now one of our holiday traditions.

#santasmessyhelper

Product/technique notes

I wanted to include the blue and green from my photo in my color palette, but I didn’t want to be limited to only those two. So I ended up using these old patterned papers from The Paper Studio and K&Co. The chipboard elements are also from K&Co. I cut the lettering on my Silhouette and added a silver sequin to each Christmas tree and a few of the snowflakes in the paper.

Note: I’m submitting this to the Paper Issues Owl I Want for Christmas link party.

My 1st Christmas: DT layout for Stuck?! Sketches

December 1, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

Today Stuck?! Sketches launches our first challenge of December. The sketch is beautiful, and the prizes from May Arts ($25.00 gift certificate) and Evalicious ($20.00 gift certificate) are great. Why not play along with us?

Because I was born on Thanksgiving Day, when Christmas Eve came around I was exactly one month old. These photos were taken at my Nana and Papa’s house (Dad’s side), and I really love that Mom had already made me a stocking that matched hers and Daddy’s that was hanging in readiness for Santa Claus.

Product/technique notes

I used patterned papers and stickers from the old BasicGrey Figgy collection because the colors matched so well with these vintage photos. The die cuts are from Pink Paislee’s Snow Village collection.

Note: I’m submitting this to the Paper Issues Owl I Want for Christmas link party.

Thankful: Thanksgiving 1969

November 29, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

This is a photo from our family Thanksgiving celebration in 1969. My parents hosted the dinner, and we were joined by my father’s parents (left side of the table) and my mother’s aunt and uncle (right side). You can just see the yarn bow on the top of my little head at the bottom of this shot. It’s so hard to believe, as I look at this gathering, that Mom and I are the only ones still around.

I hope all my American friends have had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration this year.

Product/technique notes

I really liked a recent layout by Veera Saarivuo on the Paper Camellia blog, so I lifted her design idea for the angled strips for my page. This whole page required only one piece of patterned paper because I chose to use a borders sheet from the Thankful collection by Bella Blvd. I cut the title on my Silhouette and die cut the leaves with an ancient die from Cuttlebug.

Styling

November 18, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

While I was staying with Mom to help out after her knee-replacement surgery this summer, I washed and styled her hair (in a different way than she usually does it). She seemed to enjoy being pampered, and we really liked how her ‘do turned out.

Another little life moment captured.

Product/technique notes

I was inspired by the Paper Camellia November sketch and the Paper Issues mood board below. I used patterned papers from My Mind’s Eye Paper Cottage Collection and frames from We R Memory Keepers Indian Summer collection. It might be hard to tell in the photo, but I adhered gold sequins to the center of every doily in the patterned paper.

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