Hi there! I am Janice Daquila-Pardo, or The Constant Scrapper in the blogging world. I have lived in hip, happening Austin, Texas, since 2001. My husband, Matt, and I are celebrating our 15th anniversary this month, and I’m quite aware of how lucky I am to have landed the husband/bestie combo deal. We work together in our IT business, volunteer in animal rescue (one of the layouts I’m sharing today is about this) and at our church, and encourage each other in our hobbies/obsessions (Matt’s is obstacle racing, also the topic of a number of my layouts). I started playing with scrapbook supplies in 2004, but I have become an earnest scrapbook artist in the last four years. My style continues to evolve, but what I know about my designs is that:
• I like to scrap vintage photos just as much as current-day images.
• The story’s the thing. If there isn’t a story to tell, there isn’t much point in making the page.
• I love patterned paper (too much).
• On most of my pages I use files cut on my Silhouette (I use purchased cut files as well as design my own).
• I am a scrapbook sketch addict. They provide a wonderful way of organizing my thoughts for the page I want to create and allow me to focus on photo and product choices. I love to use others’ sketches as well as design my own.
There are just two things that I always use on my scrapbook layouts, no matter what the photos and stories are: 1) a sketch and 2) patterned paper. Beyond the photos and stories, they are what inspire me. Sketches help me “see” the possibilities in my supplies, and patterned paper is just…so…yummy.
The Lord God Made Them All
This is one of those layouts that took a little extra work to create, but it was so fun and worth it! I love the result because the story shines through the somewhat intricate design, the patterns are bold and beautiful together and the folding technique I used really catches the eye. My layout is based on a sketch I designed, and while crafting the page I also created a tutorial so that it would be easy for others to do. You can find both the sketch and the tutorial on my blog. I hope you try it!
materials patterned papers (BasicGrey, Lily Bee)
Did We Ever Love That Swing
This layout includes a lot of what I love about scrapbooking: telling a story about an important moment or event, marrying new products with old photos and then adding a few special details to keep the eye moving and enhance the overall meaning. This page features a darling photo of my brother and me on the swing in our back yard in 1971, and I used a great sketch from the PageMaps blog.
materials patterned papers (My Mind's Eye) + stamps (Hero Arts) + stickers (Basic Grey, Lily Bee, My Mind's Eye) + markers (Copic)
Would You Like Fries With That?
This page features a photo from my past that’s meaningful to me and also employs key elements that repeat often in my designs: vibrantly colored patterned papers, a title I designed and cut with my Silhouette, punch work, and my own handwriting. The sketch I used is from the Creative Scrappers blog.
materials patterned papers (Simple Stories)
That’s me and my brother in 1987, dressed in our restaurant uniforms and heading to our summer jobs (Bob Evans and Burger King!). I just love that my mom snapped pictures like this of moments that at the time seemed unremarkable but now make me laugh at the memories.
Thank you so much for letting me hang with you today. This site and its community really inspire me in my scrapbooking —a hobby I love more each day for the storytelling, creativity and good people that it brings to my life.
