vintage photos

Raindrops keep falling on my head

June 19, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Mom has always told me that “my song” was Raindrops keep falling on my head because when I was little I got excited every time it played on the radio. I don’t have any photos of me grooving to the strains of BJ Thomas from back then, so I chose these two shots of me at about the right age for the topic. Even now when I hear that song I get a little giddy! I’m very pleased to have this memory scrapped. 🙂

I’m entering this layout into My Mind’s Eye blog challenge #24, which means I had to base it on their provided sketch, follow the theme of “lyrics” and make sure that at least 80% of the products I used on my page are from their company.

Enjoy your Father’s Day celebrations today!

Raindrops keep falling on my head was my favorite song when I was a little girl.

This is the layout from the My Mind's Eye blog that I used for my layout.

Sketches for Scraps: Blossom

June 9, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Do you love to buy the 6×6 paper pads that many companies are issuing when they come out with a new line? Me too! They’re much less expensive than a full 12×12 kit, and I usually like the patterns in the reduced scale.

So I am always on the hunt for ways to use pieces of patterned paper that are 6×6 or smaller on my 12×12 layouts. When I find good ways to do this I will share them here as “Sketches for Scraps” in case you, like me, have several 6×6 paper pads or a bin full of scraps waiting to make it into your designs.

This week’s Sketches for Scraps is just so simple. It will take you no time at all to complete a design using your scraps and this sketch:

Sketches for Scraps sketch #2

A simple design can be so effective.

Beach babe

June 8, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Twisted Sketches has a new sketch available today (#105), and the twist is “summer.” You can use that twist any way it inspires you to create.

I thought right away of a photo I’ve had printed for a while; it’s of Matt’s younger sister, Thyia, on a beach in Florida. As far as Matt and I can figure it was probably taken in 1985, after their oldest brother, Tom, had graduated from high school and moved to Florida. The rest of the family went to visit him the following summer. Thyia would have been 9 that summer. Isn’t she adorable?

I decided to use a few patterned papers from the new Fancy Pants line, Beach Bum, because they go so well with Thyia’s bathing suit. I fussy cut the waves from one of the papers and used a few cutting files with my Silhouette to create the sun and the title. What do you think of this cute little beach babe?

My sister-in-law, Thyia, when she was 9 years old

This is sketch #105 from http://www.twistedsketches.org

Celebrating National Donut Day my way

June 3, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

I heard several times today (through Twitter and on the radio) that it was National Donut Day. Who knew? Frankly, I had never heard of this special day before, but it was obviously promoted quite well this year. Well, I decided to forgo the free donut at participating donut shops and celebrate in my own way…with a layout!

My parents met in a little college town in Pennsylvania called Beaver Falls. My mother had moved there from California to attend college and lived with her Aunt Mary Lou, Uncle Joe and their three little boys. To earn her keep she worked at their donut shop, which was just down the block from their home and just a short walk from the campus. It was a perfect situation, and she loved living and working with them.

When my parents got married and had me and my brother, they moved to Ohio. But we visited all the Beaver Falls relatives very often (I would guess about monthly). One of the most fun parts of visiting was going down the street to the donut shop. Uncle Joe made wonderful donuts and cream puffs (my favorite), and all the regular customers were very sweet to Phil and me as we sipped hot chocolate, ate pastries and twirled incessantly on the stools at the counter.

And so, on this special national holiday 😉 I created a layout to commemorate another sweet part of my childhood.

DeAngelis' Delightfully Different Donuts

In case you want to read the journaling and can’t: Whenever we visited relatives in Beaver Falls we always made at least one stop at Uncle Joe and Aunt Mary Lou’s donut shop. No donut I’ve tasted since has ever been as good as Uncle Joe’s. Mom worked there throughout college, and it figures in many of my childhood memories. Although this original location closed some years ago, their son, Dicky, still runs the remaining shop.

Study shows high levels of versatility in scrapbook sketches

May 25, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

I want to let you in on a little secret. I am not only a scrapbook artist but also a scrapbook scientist.

When I don my lab coat (in a flattering shade of aqua and sporting The Constant Scrapper logo), it’s time to put some aspect of our beloved craft under the microscope. I want to understand either what makes a layout really work, what slight adjustments to the formula make the most difference or what makes this hobby so enjoyable. Please join me on this voyage of discovery. 🙂

First I thought it would be ~~fun~~ (ahem) scientifically relevant to test the effect that different product choices have on multiple layouts using the same sketch. Following scientific method, I will hypothesize, test and analyze three scrapbook layouts based on the same sketch and report the results here.

1. Define the question

It has been stated many times in the scrapbooking literature (add references here ;-)) that sketches add versatility and endless possibility to our crafting process. Yet, during interviews with scrappers who don’t use sketches in their design process I found that the most common objection was that their layouts would look too similar to other layouts completed based on the same sketch. This points to our main question for this experiment:

Do the products used on various layouts that all follow the same sketch introduce enough difference for each design to be seen by the community as unique?

2. Gather information and resources

I have chosen the following sketch and scrapbook products for this test. The sketch is one I drew after seeing a layout I liked in the Scrapbook Trends Quick & Easy special edition a few years ago.

This sketch is from a layout I saw in a Scrapbook Trends magazine.

To further limit the variables in this experiment, I chose to work exclusively (except for just a few bits and bobs) with products from Echo Park (the Little Boy, Walk in the Park, Springtime and For the Record collections):

3. Form hypothesis

I predict that the difference in the products chosen will be sufficient to make each of the layouts look unique and not directly connected to the beginning sketch.

4. Perform experiment and collect data

Excuse me while I go to my craft lab and conduct the design portion of this experiment. I’ll be back with the results!

5. Analyze data

For this first layout about our cat, Oliver, I used mostly products from the Walk in the Park collection because of its bright but not primary color scheme and its sweetly simple patterns. The light in the photo was warm, so I played that up with the brown and gold cardstock I chose to use with the patterned papers. The button and sock monkey embellishments are meant to highlight the laundry theme and the comfort Oliver takes in curling up on a fresh pile of clean towels. I give you sample #1:

This design uses mainly papers from Echo Park's A Walk in the Park collection.

For specimen #2 about all the men in my husband’s family working together to renovate his mother’s house, I selected most of my products from the Little Boy collection because I wanted a bright and playful, obviously boyish feel for the layout. I added some Bazzill and Coredinations cardstock, a paper-pieced house and die-cut frame and clouds.

In this layout I used mostly pieces from the Echo Park Little Boy collection.

For the vintage photo in sample #3 I chose to work with the patterned papers in the sophisticated For the Record collection. I thought the vintage yet slightly modern feel of these papers worked well with this one-time-event photo (my grandparents getting together to meet my new baby brother). The simple embellishments I used were stickers from the collection, a “family tree” die cut from paper from the Walk in the Park collection and polka dot letter stickers from Hobby Lobby. Again, I followed the same sketch as in the other two examples.

This layout uses mainly the For the Record collection by Echo Park.

6. Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis

The look and feel of these three final projects is measurably different, based on the products chosen for each theme. I submit that even the well-trained eye of a scrapbook artist would not pick up on the fact that these layouts shared a common sketch (and certainly our non-scrappy friends and family won’t notice). My conclusion is that scrapbookers should find sketches that really work for them and then call on them repeatedly to help turn out designs they’ll love. No one will know they came from the same sketch but us. And really, we should feel more clever about that than guilty!

7. Publish results

Done here!

8. Retest (frequently done by other scientists)

Would you be interested in conducting a similar experiment and sharing your results? I ask only in the interest of furthering our scientific understanding of our hobby, of course. If you do repeat this experiment, please leave a comment so I can read your test results!

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