Silhouette

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.

Long Branch Beach

June 25, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Most of my summer vacations as I grew up were sweet and simple and family-centered. They included playing tennis and reading and going to the city pool and on family trips. When I got older they also included part-time jobs so I could save up for college.

But the summer of 1988 was epic for me. And if I may speak for him, it was for my brother as well. That’s because we spent it living and working in New York City at magazines that participated in the American Society for Magazine Editors internship program. What an amazing opportunity to learn about our industry (we were both studying magazine journalism in college) and about ourselves.

I probably have more stories from that one summer than from all my other summers combined! The story told in these photos is one of new friends, warm sunshine and easy laughter. But most importantly for me, it’s a memory full of feelings of belonging.

Susan (on the far left in the left photo) was the older sister of a grade school classmate of ours. We found out that she was living in NYC, and motivated by the desire to have a connection with someone from our past in this vast newness around us, Phil and I called her. Rather than blow us off—which I think a lot of people might have done—Susan, her boyfriend and two of their friends made plans to pick us up on a Saturday morning and drive us out of the city for a day at Long Branch Beach on the Jersey Shore.

We had such a day—so fun and relaxing!

Some people just have a wonderful way about them. They make others feel like old, valued friends right away. And that’s a feeling that stays with you long after the sun goes down.

Product/technique notes

I created this page using patterns from the Crate Paper “The Pier” collection. The title is based on a Silhouette banner cut file to which I added the lettering. The flair is by American Crafts.

Half ours

June 22, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Barney officially belonged to our next-door neighbors, Tom and Clara Veit. But he spent so much time with us—begging for treats at our door, playing in our yard and walking us to school each morning—that we always said he was half ours. He was so intelligent, loyal and fun! We were quite fortunate to get even half of him. xoxo

In this June 1980 photo Phil is teaching Barney a new trick in his back yard.

Product/technique notes

I used all products from the Simple Stories Say Cheese II line on this page with a title I cut on my Silhouette.

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.

One for each arm: DT layout for Stuck?! Sketches

June 15, 2015 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Today Stuck?! Sketches is revealing its mid-month sketch challenge and design team layouts. The sketch features three small photos and lots of opportunity to let your patterned papers shine:

Please join us over at the blog and allow the sketch and the design team inspire you to play along and add another beautiful layout to your scrapbook. And don’t forget that we have great sponsor prizes up for grabs as well!

Because it’s so close to Father’s Day, I decided to use this sketch with two photos from 1968 that show my dad as a new father of two. In the photo on the left my brother is just home from the hospital in January, and the right one was taken in the same place four months later. Look how we’ve both changed in that short time!

Product/technique notes

I used patterned papers from the Echo Park “Sisters” mini theme, and the embellishments came from an old Girls’ Paperie collection. I designed the title on the Silhouette.

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