ICAD Wrap-Up

How is it possible that ICAD2020 is over already? I'm pretty sure somebody is messing with the calendar and very likely has stolen part of July. Is there a CSI for Time Crime??! Meanwhile, here are my last few index cards, and the photo of my big sprawly book at the end. ♥

day 55: off prompt

on this day i took dina wakley's awesome "focus on gloss sprays" class via facebook live, so obviously i had to use something from the class and i chose this painted flower which i cut out and put against a random background i painted to use up one of my "puddles" of spray.

day 56: paisley

paisley doodle extravaganza with faber-castell pitt artist pens on a robin's egg blue index card.

day 57: mandala monday

i had cut this little sewing machine illustration out of a spanish language children's book a while ago, mostly because the soft green color reminded me of my own sewing machine, which once belonged to my mom mom. it seemed like a good centerpiece for a library card mandala.

day 58: billiards

various shades of green distress oxide applied through circle stencils, on a mint green index card. with pen doodles on top.

day 59: off-prompt

last week i assembled a bunch of handmade paper assortments for the ink pad and there were only the tiniest pieces of this super-sheer variety so... shhhhhhhhh... i "liberated" them because i thought they'd be pretty cool to layer in a collage. i stand by that hypothesis, actually!

day 60: bossa nova

technically i think these guys are doing something called the continental hustle; they're from the most amazing book i found at a sale some years ago called, "the official guide to disco dancing" which i chose entirely for these little line drawings which showed the steps to all the various dances. the background is a first draft of a stamped background for a paper anthology "class in a kit" i made called "big blooms"; it wasn't what i wanted at the time, but i still liked it, so it went into the collage fodder bin to become a fanciful dancing arena!

day 61: adventure

i will take literally ANY excuse to make a collage, especially a vintage travel collage. so i did!!!

and now the famous before and after pics of this year's ICAD book:

june 1st: skinny book

july 31st: not so skinny!!!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to Tammy Garcia, of Daisy Yellow Art, who created and has hostessed the awesome Index Card a Day Challenge for TEN (10!!!) years now, making everyone's June and July more creative and inspiring! Thanks also to everyone who played along or just followed along. And special thanks to those of you who have persevered on m'blog through 61 cards per year, times 9 years, for a total of 549 ICADs!!! ♥♥♥

The Penultimate Week of ICAD?

Already? It seems that July flew past even faster than June, which was already pretty quick. I don't want to wish the summer away, but I could *definitely* do without the oppressive humidity that central NJ is currently experiencing. It's normal for the time of year, but that doesn't mean I have to like it, lol. I do like making art on index cards, however; and here are the ones I made this week:

day 48: what the duck?

this is the world's fastest collage, made very late at night, using the tray of pre-cut-out collage bits that i save for emergencies. so yeah... it's a weird combo, but i kinda like it...

day 49: off-prompt cut-out window collage

i saw a cool collage... ummmm  somewhere... that had a window cut out, so the top layer was only a thin frame around the rest of the collage. i'm quite sure you'll be seeing additional versions of this idea!!!

day 50: international postage rainbow

yep, off-prompt again. and still totally in love with rainbows of any description...

day 51: flower doodle extravaganza

this background, as well as the one from the rose frame, and the next two upcoming cards; were all smooshed colorburst on thick divider cards that i made randomly, just because it's fun to smoosh colorburst. sometimes i have a specific idea in mind, sometimes i just play and see what happens. this was the latter, lol.

day 52: hopscotch, redux

the little girl was a pre-cut-out element; the dominoes were in a crossword/variety puzzle book. 

day 53: blue or blueberry

colorburst + doodles = joy ♥

day 54: outline

this is an older julie balzer stencil from TCW that my friend anna found in a box of miscellaneous stuff at the ink pad. of course, she had me at "hawaii" lol; but as it turns out, my favorite thing about this card is the idea of tracing the stencil design very neatly, coloring it, and then adding a SECOND, messier, outline. again... i feel quite certain this is an idea you'll be seeing more of!

♥♥♥

hope this week treated you well and that you'll have some fun and crafty time over the weekend!

Cavalcade of ICADs

Another week has marched its way past, I hope it was a good one for you! Here are my index cards for the week:

day 41: scribble stick rainbow

i spent the afternoon taking dina wakley's amazing "focus on scribble sticks" class via facebook so of course my ICAD had to reflect that fact!

day 42: gradient

blended oxides on a library card... avec vintage poisson from an old book!

day 43: octopus mandala monday

ok, it's definitely an octopus, just not that much of a mandala, lol.

day 44: life on mars

a one-staple collage based on the fact that our nightly viewing this week has been a re-watch of the bbc's awesome 1970's flashback crime drama, "life on mars".

day 45: off prompt

i had never heard of an "ogee" pattern until ICAD c. 2015, but now i love drawing them. this one is funky and floral.

day 46: diagram

a very loose and random collage of an electrical schematic and bits of map atop maria mcguire's "doodle it geometric landscape" stencil from stencilgirl!

day 47: off prompt collage

i realized at 11:45pm that i had not posted, or indeed MADE an index card for the day. hence i got out the tray with all the pre-cut collage bits and assembled this in literally 10 minutes. weirdly enough... i kinda love it! :)

I Can, Therefore ICAD

Another week of art (and, for that matter, life...) is behind us, I hope yours went well. Here are my index cards for the week:

day 34: arcade

i skipped this prompt last week; but then i found my stencilgirl "1700s building" stencil by caroyln dube and realized i could use it to create an architectural arcade. so i did!

day 35: lantern

if i could magically wish myself one attribute, it would be to draw objects realistically. i'm not complaining or being negative, and right here i've managed something that is fairly recognizable as a lantern dangling from a sakura branch, so i'm happy about that. but if i could magically wish myself one attribute... 

day 36: ocean

(mandala monday)

this was going to be a drawing of mostly ocean with small mandala-style sun in the corner, but the sun took over, lol; because climate change is REAL!!! :) 

day 37: hydrangea
the simplest ever collage: a soft background, text from a garden book and a sparkly sticker.

day 38: off-prompt
funky swirly zentangle pattern copied from my friend lorraine's awesome "OCEAN" card.

day 39: off-prompt again
a colored-in dictionary illustration, framed in a vintage slidemount; hand drawn foliage and torn paper. all my faves. :) 

day 40: another collage?
yep, i'm on a roll... strips and ruffles; torn and rolled; glued and sewn.

*****
hope you're having a wonderful, creative weekend!
♥

Another Week Flies Past...

...and it's time to celebrate Fourth of July already? Seriously, HOW did that happen?! Of course this also means that we are just a tiny smidge past the halfway point of ICAD's 61 glorious days. Here are this week's index cards:

day 27: cappuccino

i've always wanted to try drawing fancy coffee-top art and this seemed like the perfect occasion. i lightly sketched in pencil, added color with sepia, violet and prussian blue colorburst, then outlined with my faber-castell pitt artist pens.

day 28: off-prompt

test driving a new stencilgirl stencil called stepping stone #1 by maria mcguire. I used dry oxide inks in the background, then wet them and watercolored the design. then added lots of outlines and doodles.

day 29: citrus

combining the actual prompt of the day with mandala monday. this one is in citrus colors (WITHOUT any black outline... hard for me not to add that lol...) with some of my newer favorite pens from the ink pad. on a swedish library card that came from a swap with my IG friend, ellen.

day 30: souvenir

...or at least souvenir was my starting point; in the end, this became a sort of historical/travel themed collage... and i'm cool with that...

day 31: off-prompt

a somewhat vaguely nautical one-staple collage. with a manatee. and sequins.

(let's not analyse this too much lol...)

day 32: off-prompt

inspired by an amazing mosaic/wedge collage my friend cyndie reis made last week. mine uses the leftover papers that were sitting out from my manatee collage. the found text is from a spanish language childrens book and reads, "sometimes lightning jumps from a cloud to the earth".  

day 33: periwinkle

one of the few days i have done the prompt ON THE DAY; go, me! ok so, i started off with small funky periwinkles which promptly got overshadowed by large funky orange guys. it happens, lol; let's just go with it.

♥♥♥

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

to everyone who is celebrating!

(and Happy Weekend to everyone else!)

ICAD-ing Along

Here's this week's worth of conveniently-sized index card art from ICAD2020 which I've been sharing daily on my Instagram; if you'd like to check out the prompts or other info it's all here in the Blog section of  Daisy Yellow Art!

day 20: birdhouse

my SOS dt sister and ICAD buddy mimi shared a big, luscious stack of library catalog cards with me and a few she had even *watercolored* like this beautiful green one. it made the perfect home for a little collage inspired by the super-songful house wren whom i met at my friend anna's house! 

(because YES, i went OUT, to a place!) 

day 21: robot

i should probably mention that i've been doing whichever prompt appeals to me on whatever day i have an idea. so my numbering system is different than the official, 100% optional, list. this one features (surprise!) another awesome library card with a vintage illustration and some fun cloud doodles.

day 22: mandala monday

i was running out of tabbed index card dividers, but the only plain manilla ones on staples' website came in a box of 100. i hemmed and hawed, but since i do love them for watercoloring and i figured i could share a bunch with my nieces, i caved and got them. SO happy i did, because they are best ones i've ever found, they can be colorbursted to my heart's content without buckling! ♥

day 23: geode

or possibly "sparkly cabbage" would be a better name, lol? definitely a fun combination of  chartreuse, lime and turquoise colorburst, plus some verdigris liquid metal. outlined with a golden tinou glitter marker and my trusty faber-castell pitt pens.

day 24: terrarium

i based my drawing on artwork i found via google image search, which i somehow neglected to save, and now cannot re-find to give credit. (sorry!)

day 25: emerald

there are probably too many ideas here, lol. basically i had a FAB new stencil called "doodle it geometric landscape" by maria mcguire, for StencilGirl, and i couldn't wait to play with it! :)

day 26: bougainvillea

the old saying that you really haven't SEEN something properly until you've tried to draw it is definitely true! for example, bougainvillea have veined petals in clusters of threes, with a sort of center trough, and a tiny white flower center surrounding some yellow pollenny stuff. not sure i captured any of that... but thanks to ColorBurst in shades of peony, alizarin crimson and gamboge i think i managed the huge hit of color pretty accurately, at least. 

♥♥♥

hope you are having a fun and creative last saturday of june!

Index Cards EVERYWHERE

Ok, technically all of my many styles of index cards (I try to find a new variety each year, then share with my nieces) all live together in one little file box, but there are quite a few of them. Here are the ones I finished this week:

day 13: kite or rhombus

but a zen doodle kite, though, obviously! :)

(i wish i could TANGLE like my friends lorraine and cyndie!)

'

day 14: off prompt

we've had a tiny little chipmunk hanging around the yard for the last couple of weeks. so clearly i needed to make a one-staple collage in his honor!

day 15: chamomile

super minimal... it was hard to leave all that white space...

(i should point out that i'm numbering these by the day i do them, not by the official prompts list; i tend to jump around a bit...)

day 16: off prompt

on this day i got the set of 36 zig clean color realbrush markers from the ink pad. and since my life goal is #tryallthepens i obviously had to use as many as possible IMMEDIATELY.

day 17: dandelion

a space-age variety in blue... these only grew in palm springs in the late 1950's.

day 18: mustard yellow

the part of "mustard" is being played by squeezed lemonade and fossilized amber distress oxides; as ballpark and dijon mustards, respectively.

(experimenting with an awesome stencilgirl 6x6 stencil called four tribal patterns, designed by andrew borloz.)

day 19: six word story

i've always wanted to write a six word story, and someday i will, but on this day, i kind of went with six word self help book, instead!

♥♥♥

Hope you had a good week and that you have something fun planned today!