one-page layouts

2017 highlights: DT layout for Stuck?! Sketches

January 1, 2018 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Today Stuck?! Sketches launches our first challenge of 2018! Grab the sketch and play along for prizes from Scrapmatts and Spiegel Mom Scraps.

The story

I’m not gonna lie: I found 2017 to be extremely stressful. I am so ready to start a new year, even though I don’t think there’s much chance of the stressors abating, given our country’s leadership and direction…

No matter the difficulties life hands us, though, there are always things to celebrate. The four photos on this page represent some highlights in our lives in the past year (from left to right):

In February Cecilia burst into our lives and instantly made them more delightful. Matt opened our front door to go out to his car for something and saw this kitten running pel mel past our house toward the heavily trafficked street that intersects ours. He called out to her, and she miraculously turned and ran to him. He picked her up and carried her into our hearts.
Matt and I run a yearly computer security conference, and this year’s event was the largest ever with more than 600 attendees. We’re quite proud of this effort.
I flew to North Carolina in November to spend 10 days (including Thanksgiving and my birthday) with my mom and brother. So much fun.
On December 7th we had a beautiful Christmas snowfall. While this may not be a big deal to some, when you live in central Texas you count it as a highlight! I was just sad for Matt that he was out of town for work and had to miss it.

Of course, there were many other wonderful moments in our lives this year. And I am thankful for every one. Here’s (raising a glass) to so many more in 2018.

Happy new year, my friends!

Product/technique notes

All the patterned papers I used for this layout came from the Pink Paislee Moonstruck collection.

2017 top ten blog hop and giveaway

December 27, 2017 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 33 Comments

Well, this is fun! I’m delighted to be joining a group of like-minded scrapbook enthusiasts to review our ten favorite layouts from the year. And if you read through to the end of the post, you’ll find details about my giveaway (open until January 3 at midnight CST).

Here is the list of participants so you can hop along and see them all:

Christine Meyer
Kathy Skou
Kathleen Graumüller
Teri Anderson
Susie Bentz
Janice Daquila-Pardo > That’s me!
Giorgia Rossini
Laurel Seabrook
Aimee Kidd
Mary Ann Jenkins
Keren Tamir
Lee-Anne Thornton
Heather Leopard
Tifany DeGough
Sue Eldred
Melissa Elsner
Laura Whitaker
Anita Mulcahey
Ashley Smith
Simone Schermann
Shelly Kurth
Monique Liedtke
Suzanna Lee
Marcia Dehn-Nix
Laura Cox
Irit Shalom
Nicole Martel
Carolyn Johnson
Tenia Nelson
Samantha Taylor
Rebecca Keppel
Judy Hayes
Isha Gupta
Traci Penrod
Tracy McLennon
Karen Hunter
Lyne Blodgett
Anna Sigga
Lisa Moen
Kat Benjamin
Wendy Antenucci

And now here are my top ten favorite pages from the past year (in chronological order):

I love this one because even with all those beautiful patterns and colors, our girl’s eyes still steal the show. She’s a stunner.

This one was fun to make because I was able to work in so many references to Disney, including those Mickey ears in the top left.

Hector was a turtle we found strolling down our busy street and scooped up so we could take him to a nearby pond. I like the simplicity of this page, allowing the story to be told by the patterned papers.

This page makes me happy because of the cute picture of my hubby and how the patterns and embellishment clusters work together. It’s a little bit masculine (but not too much!).

Again, I think I like this page because of the interplay of patterns and colors, not to mention that super sweet photo of my cousins on Easter morning 1968.

I love using bright colors and modern patterns with vintage photos…like this one of my mom on her 1965 honeymoon.

This photo of me is one I’ve had printed for ages, awaiting the right inspiration to hit. Once I found the unusual and beautiful color combination in this collection, it came together easily. I’m so pleased to have it recorded.

If you’ve read this far, you may have noticed that I love to mix lots of patterns on my pages. That, and the fact that I fit four decent sized photos on it, makes me quite happy with this one.

This page turned out just as I imagined it, which is such a joy for a crafter, isnt’ it? It was so much fun to die cut all those leaves and arrange them.

This photo of my dad reading a Christmas story to us is of such a wonderful memory that I had to do something special to record it. I love how all these bits of patterned paper came together to create my diamond focal point.

And that’s my year in review

Thank you so much for stopping by my spot on the blog hop. If you would like to leave a comment and tell me if you have a favorite from my list, I would love to read it! Comments are always so appreciated.

Giveaway

I just created an Instagram account (I’m so late to the game, I know)! So, if you would like to be included in my drawing for a $15 GIFT CARD to the Paper Issues Store, please follow me on Instagram (@theconstantscrapper) and then leave me a comment on this post with your Insta account to let me know you did and so that I can follow you back. I will leave this giveaway open for one week (January 3) and announce a winner on January 4th!

Please note: I must approve comments for them to appear, so please don’t worry if your comment doesn’t post immediately. I will be checking and approving comments often.

To continue the blog hop in order, head over to Giorgia Rossini’s site.

Happy New Year!

Santa Claus is coming to town

December 22, 2017 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 7 Comments

The story

Every year on a Saturday morning before Christmas our neighborhood is treated to the strains of Santa Clause is Coming to Town blaring over the loudspeaker of a vintage fire truck with SANTA CLAUS sitting on top! It’s a sweet tradition.

Product/technique notes

I created this layout with products from the Echo Park Tis the Season collection and American Crafts Deck The Halls Joyful die-cuts. I also followed this sketch from Let’s Get Sketchy:

The Melodeon: DT layout for Stuck?! Sketches

December 15, 2017 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

Today Stuck?! Sketches launches our second challenge of December! Grab the sketch and play along for prizes from Creative Embellishments and Scrapbook Nerd.

The story

One of our family holiday traditions that I cherish was having Daddy select and read a Christmas story to us. He sat in a comfy chair, and we all piled near him on the couch to listen. It usually took a few nights to complete one, and he always tried to time it so the last installment fell on Christmas Eve.

Over the years we heard some delightful tales. But our favorite by far was The Melodeon by Glendon Swarthout. The description of this book on Amazon is so simple:

A youngster relates how his grandparents donated a valuable family heirloom, their melodeon, to the church in an unselfish act of giving one Christmas during the Depression when they had nothing to give each other.

The story is so beautifully told, detailed, and emotional that it made our hearts swell. We felt we were with them in the deep cold of winter during the Depression. And the feelings it evoked have stayed with me all these years.

Product/technique notes

I die cut diamonds from the Pink Paislee Snow Village 6×6 paper pad, inked the edges with iced spruce distress ink, and placed them against a background paper from the Bo Bunny Christmas Collage collection. The die cuts are from both the Snow Village and Simple Stories Classic Christmas collections. To create a cut file for the title, I found an image of the book cover and traced it in the Silhouette software.

Two birds one stone

November 6, 2017 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

The story

As additional motivation to go on my daily walk, I load an Audible book on my iPod and only allow myself to listen if I’m walking.

Product/technique notes

I used a smattering of papers, tags, stickers, and flair from Crate Paper, Echo Park, Fancy Pants, and We R Memory Keepers. Then I tried something I always want to do but rarely have the guts to try: I stamped my title using two alphabet sets and some distress oxide inks. It was fun to do, and I’m pretty pleased with the results. While I was feeling confident about trying things, I also splattered my page with gold mist.

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