Twisted Sketches

Leap

February 29, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Twisted Sketches has revealed sketch #141, and the twist is “leap.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch and see all the other design team members’ beautiful examples. Then create something of your own and link it up!

Here is what I created using this great new sketch:

These are photos of me (and friends) during college that illustrate the quote I used as my title.

I just love using short quotes as titles for layouts, so when I saw that the twist on this sketch was “leap,” I went in search of a good quote I could sink my teeth into. I found several that inspired me, but I chose to use this one by David Herbert Lawrence (English writer, 1885-1930) because it also made me think of some old photos I had.
“Life is a travelling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken.”

The photos this quote put me in mind of were from my college days. When else in our lives do we so often travel to the edge of knowledge and have to take a leap into our own unknown? The first photo is of my brother, Phil, me and my mom from freshman year. Mom was visiting us for Mother’s Weekend, and we had loads of fun. The second photo is of me with the three roommates I had during a wonderful summer internship program in New York City (lots of learning and leaping!). And the third photo is of me with some friends at the end of our junior year in college.

These are certainly not good photos; in fact they’re pretty terrible. But really, how many photos of you from the 1980s do you love? What’s important to me is that they represent memorable times of growth in my life and help me remember to travel to the edge as often as possible. The edge is uncomfortable and exciting. Sign me up for that!

So, this is my last layout as a design team member for Twisted Sketches. I have been enjoying the challenge of using Anam’s sketches and twists for a little over a year (you can see my very first DT layout here), and the time has just flown. I want to thank Anam for taking a chance on me. She was the first person to make me part of a design team, which means that she and her sketch site will always hold a special place for me. I thank her for believing in my design skills and adding to my confidence.

Old school

February 15, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Twisted Sketches has revealed sketch #139, and the twist is “old.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch and see all the other design team members’ beautiful examples. Then create something of your own and link it up!

Here is what I created using this great new sketch:

I saw this Hot Date collection by KI Memories and immediately wanted to use it to do a layout about my love of fountain pens.

Do you ever create a layout because a certain patterned paper triggers something in your brain? The background paper on my page above was the inspiration for this whole idea. It’s from a Valentine-themed collection called Hot Date by KI Memories, and as soon as I saw the little fountain pens in the design I was committed to creating an ode to fountain pens (mine in particular).

I have loved fountain pens for a very long time. Daddy had a few old ones in his valet tray on the chest of drawers in the bedroom, and I loved to take those out and turn them over in my fingers. They were made of various colored pearl laminates and had lever fillers. They fascinated me with their beauty and old-world functionality. What?! You use the lever to suction special ink into a bladder inside the pen before you can write with it? How could I think that was anything but awesome when all we ever used at school were Bic ballpoint stick pens?

So I carried my love for fountain pens into my adulthood. I even bought a few inexpensive vintage pens at flea markets, but they didn’t work very well. Then one day, in my very first job out of college, my office mate brought a rubber stamp catalog (from Rubba Dub Dub) to work and asked if I wanted to order anything from it. I pored over that book for a long time, loving the idea of rubber stamps but having no concept of how I would use them. But there was a beautiful vintage fountain pen image that won me over. It seemed so expensive to me at the time, but I had visions of using it to create my own stationery, so I bought it.

Fast forward a number of years, and I must have let slip to my new husband how much I loved fountain pens because for one of our first Christmases together (1999) he gave me a gorgeous Mont Blanc. It’s a special edition pen called Hommage à Fédéric Chopin, and it includes a CD of Chopin’s music. I adore writing with it. It feels like you really mean what you’re saying when you write it with this beauty.

As I say in my journaling: I love technology, but old school is so cool.

Promises to keep

February 1, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 3 Comments

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #137, and the twist is “promise.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch and see all the other design team members’ beautiful examples, then create something of your own and link it up!

Here is what I created using this great new sketch:

These random photos of my dad are from 1964, 1971, 1988 and 2003.

My father loved the English language and literature, which he studied in college so that he could teach. Although he did teach for a few years right out of college, he decided that after he and Mom married and had two children in quick succession, raising a new family on teachers’ salaries was just too difficult. So he found another career that could change their fortunes.

But Daddy was always my literature teacher. He loved to quote poetry and lines from plays. Some nights after dinner our family played a game where Phil and I would pull out the dictionary and try to find words that would stump him, but Dad’s vocabulary was exceptional, so it hardly ever happened.

My father instilled in me love for our language and awe in the effect good writing can have on our emotions, beliefs and dreams. It’s for this reason that I created this layout, and the line I used as the title comes from the following poem by Robert Frost, a favorite of Daddy’s:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Twinkle toes

January 18, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #135, and the twist is “sparkle.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch and see all the other design team members’ beautiful examples, then create something of your own and link it up!

Here is what I created using this great new sketch:

Matt is trying a style of running called barefoot running, and these are his new barefoot shoes.

Matt started running last spring. He has always wanted to be a runner, and now he’s really enjoying it (most of the time). When Matt gets into something, he really gets into it. He reads everything he can and becomes a bit of a home-grown expert on the topic.

In his effort to know more about running and how to do it safely (fully 80% of runners get injured each year!), he read the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall. In addition to going into the history of running, etc., McDougall explains the concept of barefoot running. The idea, simply put, is that wearing traditional running shoes sets up the body for injury because it forces you to run heel first. Slamming your foot into the ground like a club causes high-impact stress on the ankle, heel, knee and back. Barefoot running (wearing minimalist shoes that just provide protection from the ground) forces you to run and walk as your foot was built to be used. It allows you to use all the muscles and bones in your foot to carry you along, taking advantage of the natural shock absorbers of your feet, calves and legs.

Having read that you can’t just put on a pair of minimalist shoes and start running, Matt is wearing his new FiveFingers around the house to allow his feet to adjust. I’m more of the walking type, but I think I may get a pair of these shoes for myself if they make a real difference for Matt. The more natural the better!

Cookies made especially for Santa

December 21, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #133, and the twist is “jewel.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch and see all the other design team members’ beautiful examples, then create something of your own and link it up! 🙂

Here is what I created using this great new sketch:

That "Cookies for Santa" title came from the Silhouette store and is for decorating plates for Santa's cookies.

To make this layout I used a punch to create the decorative edge that I adhered to the circle. Then I used a craft knife to cut around the edges of the Christmas trees on the background paper so I could tuck the circle in behind them. The title is a cut file I purchased at the Silhouette store that is intended to be used to decorate a small plate that will hold cookies for Santa. I thought it was perfect with this sketch and my photo! Now the background circle resembles a cookie plate. The little gift bow element is made from another Silhouette file and is topped with a jewel (this sketch’s twist). All the patterned paper is from an older My Mind’s Eye Christmas collection.

The photo if of my brother and me on Christmas Eve 1973. I just adore that impish look on Phil’s sweet face. We’re in the basement, where we put our Christmas tree and hung our stockings (until several years later when my parents put an addition on our family room, and we moved the celebration up there). Wearing our pajamas and putting out Santa’s cookies means it was time for us to head to bed and visions of sugarplums. But you can see on our faces that we were much too excited for sleep!