vintage photos

All the way from California, August 1969

August 11, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

I was surfing the scrappy blogosphere the other day, and I came upon a site that was new to me called Back Porch Memories. It’s a community built around a monthly kit club, and it looks like a nice group of scrapaholics. 🙂

They posted a sketch challenge, which I find hard to resist, so here is what I posted based on the sketch by Becky Fleck:

These photos from 1969 capture my mother's parents' visit to our home in 1969.

The photos are from August 1969, when my mom’s parents flew in from California to spend a month with us in Ohio. I remember being really excited about having them come “all the way from California,” hence the layout’s title. I was about 2.5 years old, and Phil was about 1.5.

Do you journal the tough memories?

August 2, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

If you have visited my site even just a few times, you’ve likely noticed my penchant for scrapping photos from my own childhood. I love to scan in older faded and scratched photos so I can rehab them in Photoshop and scrap them. In addition to being enjoyable for me, it also feels like it’s important to do. I don’t think I need to convince you, gentle reader, about why I say that. It’s one of the main reasons we engage in this hobby…to remember and record.

But for me there’s also a cool byproduct of doing this kind of page: I get to have charming little conversations with my mother and brother about these photos and their memories. Sometimes while I’m working with a set of photos, if I don’t know enough about it I call my mom or bro to ask them for more details. Other times I complete the layout and put it online, after which my family members bring it up to talk about the next time we’re on the phone together. It’s really nice.

Here’s where I get to the reason for the question in my title, “Do you journal the tough memories?” I pulled out a darling photo of Phil and me during the first week of fourth grade in 1976. We had just walked home from school with our arms full of heavy books, and Mom snapped this photo. On the back she wrote, “How studious! September 1976.”

Now I considered, while planning this layout, just journaling the surface details. Something like the description I gave above. But what this photo really reminds me of is a much darker memory. Although I generally loved school, fourth grade was very hard for me; I couldn’t wait for it to end. My difficult times stemmed directly from my homeroom teacher, a nun with a cruel sense of right and wrong.

As I was contemplating how to handle writing about this memory, I grabbed the phone and called Phil for his advice:

Do I tell the whole truth?
Do I name her?
Do I write this differently because I know I’ll be posting it online?

Here’s what we concluded: Tell as much of the truth as you feel comfortable with because people understand that not every memory is rosy. Most won’t be that shocked. And because this teacher was a Catholic nun of a certain age, she was not known in the world by her given name. She was part of a religious community where sisters usually took the name of a saint. Phil and I decided that because I would only be calling her by her religious name, there was no possibility that I could do her reputation (if she is still alive) any true damage.

So I wrote about my real experience on this layout.

Phil observed, “This is really different because you usually just write about happy little memories.” I thought about it then explained that for many of the early photos I have, I was really too young to have a detailed memory about the moment. So I write the facts I know and call it done. But when I look at this photo, rather than remembering much about the day or the moment the shot was taken, I have a very particular feeling associated with the whole school year. So that’s what I felt compelled to write. Phil agreed that’s what I should do.

I wonder, what do you do when you’re faced with this situation? Do you tell the truth of how the photo makes you feel? Or do you just record the happier facts and leave the dark parts in the past?

In September 1976 Phil and I were starting fourth grade and had just walked home with all our books.

An important note: I loved my other years at grade school. Most of the teachers were really wonderful.

Talk to the animals

July 27, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #112, and the twist is “fun.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch, then create something and link it up! 🙂

Here’s my Design Team layout inspired by the sketch. The patterned papers I used on this very colorful layout are from Jillibean Soup. The colors just went so well with my vintage photo.

This photo is from August 1974, when we visited the Erie Zoo in Pennsylvania.

That’s Phil and me at the Erie Zoo in Pennsylvania in August 1974. There’s so much I love about this photo: the great outfits Mom always picked for us (I adored that quilted skirt and remember looking down at those sandals on my feet all summer), that we’re not cheesing for the camera but engrossed in a moment and the signs of 1974 hairstyles and clothes on the people in the background. It’s a great snapshot!

I cut those animal embellishments with my Silhouette using a free dingbat font called Zoologic. They cut out beautifully, and I really think they added a lot to the design.

Here’s a fun fact: I chose to include images of the giraffe, lion and camel for a reason. It’s because most mammals move both legs on one side and then both legs on the other side. The only mammals that walk by alternating their legs in sequence are…you guessed it…the giraffe, the cat and the camel! Cool, huh?

Easter chick

July 24, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 6 Comments

I scrapped more vintage photos this weekend, which is always lots of fun for me. These are from my first Easter. On Easter Sunday, March 26, 1967, Mom and Dad were 26 and 33 years old, respectively, and I was four months. My parents (when they were first married) and then our family (once they had us kids) always drove the two-hour trip to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, to spend holidays with relatives there. So these photos are taken with my Nana and Papa (on Dad’s side) in front of their home on Fourth Avenue. Don’t you just love Mom’s Easter hat?

I created this layout using the PageMaps sketch shown below and am entering it in their Freehand Scraps sketch contest. Please wish me luck, and I hope you have a lovely Sunday!

My Easter 1967 layout is based on a sketch from the PageMaps site.

This is the PageMaps sketch I based my layout on.

Six ways to combat a common crafting conundrum: How do you fight the post-holiday blahs?

July 7, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Are you like me? When a holiday is just around the corner, you feel like buying the newest seasonal products and scrapping your heart out? Note that this means we get the desire to scrap memories before they’ve actually been made. 😛 But once we’ve celebrated the holiday we feel less like working with those products, right?

Harumph!

I do believe it’s the scrapbook companies’ fault! 😉 I mean, they put untold effort into promoting seasonal products before the holiday—by showing off gorgeous design-team examples, hosting giveaways and blasting us with contests. And we fall in line and get completely carried away by the excitement of it all.

Yet once the holiday has come and gone and we’re armed with the photos and memories from the event, we’re also experiencing the post-holiday blahs…and we’ve sort of lost that lovin’ feeling. Not to mention the fact that the online world has now moved on…usually to focus on the next holiday!

So, what are we crafters to do? Well, I’ve put together a list of six ways to combat this common craft conundrum (say that as fast as you can):

Things to do before the holiday

Scrap past years’ photos. Most of us have at least a few photos from past holidays. Harness your pre-holiday mojo by getting out those older photos and pairing them with your new products.
Make holiday-themed home decor items. If you make decorations for your home with just-released hoiday products you’ll satisfy the itch to create as well as get to display them right away.
Create premade pages. While you’re feeling motivated (before the big day), make pages that are complete except for the photos. That way you can choose and print the needed number of photos right after the holiday, pop them on the page and add the journaling. Done and done!

Strategies to try after the holiday

Put yourself back in the mood. Media has a strong effect on our moods, so why not use it? Fire up “Elf” or “It’s a Wonderful Life” if you want to work on Christmas photos. Put on “Independence Day” or listen to some John Philip Sousa if you want to get into the patriotic mood again. Then craft the night away!
Get a holiday crafting buddy. In the weeks leading up to the holiday when you’re really excited about all the seasonal hoopla, make an appointment on your calendar to crop with some friends, and then scrap those photos. Make this appointment for as soon after the holiday as possible. Get your crafting buddies to agree to a theme-specific crop. You can all agree that you will only work on holiday projects so that you can keep each other motivated.
Host a holiday scrap night for one. Even if you’re just going to scrap at home, make an appointment on your calendar to do it. Make this appointment for as soon after the holiday as possible. Pull out all your special products and put them in a prominent spot in your crafting space to keep you fired up. And then keep that appointment. If you’ve planned ahead for it, you are more likely to look forward to it and be in the right mood when the time comes.

Yes, I took a little of my own advice. A few weeks ago I rode the patriotic wave and pulled out this July 4th photo from 1992. Then I put together the layout below, following tip #1 under the before-holiday list above. I had fun doing it because I wasn’t yet blah about red, white and blue.

This is just a simple layout about my family celebrating the 4th of July together in 1992.

If you have any other strategies for dealing with the problem of fading crafty enthusiasm after a holiday, please share it in the comments. I would love to add to this list.

And to the scrapbooking companies out there, would it kill you to give us a little bit of post-holiday inspirado?

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