ICAD: The Last Round-Up

How is it possible that it's ALREADY July 31st and thus the final day of ICAD2024?! I'm pretty sure that no summer has ever flown past as quickly as this one. Many thanks to everyone who has played along, followed along, left comments, etc; it's always so much more fun to share ICAD with others. Of course, as always, the biggest and heartiest THANK YOU has to go to Tammy G aka @gypsy999 for devising, hosting, inspiring and cheering us on for another 61 days of creativity and friendship; I don't have enough words to praise a most artful and heartful friend! 

ICAD24-61: Diorama

How do you make a diorama using only index cards? Ummmm... very carefully? No srsly, I wanted to make something three dimensional but using two dimensional supplies (index cards and pens) so I decided the solution was layers. In this case the layers consist of the non-lined sides of four neon index cards, each carrying one component of a jungle scene and each popped up on a layer of foam tape for more height. Starting from the very back we have... the blue sky; then pink flowers (with orange Posca detailing); then green leaves and finally smaller yellow flowers encased in a frame around the edges to literally hold it together. This took a bit of time to construct and involved using the dreaded Xacto Knife BUT... this looks exactly like the picture that was in my head, which always feels like a win, doesn't it? Especially on the 61st and FINAL day of ICAD2024!

ICAD24-60: Planetarium

One last card featuring scraps of patterned paper, handcut shapes, doodles, and machine stitching.

ICAD24-59: Circle

Super-excited that today's prompt serendipitously coincides with my Mandala Monday strand. In my (VAST!) collection of funky vintage things to use in art, I found a few of the old-school 3.5 x 5.5 black and white postcards I'm guessing are from the 1930's or 40's, which happen to be from a collection of Bucks County, Pennsylvania images, which is where I grew up. My mandala is drawn with Posca Pens atop a pc of the northern portion of the Delaware River. I've done a few previous mandalas on postcards or photographs, but usually I feel that I've either covered the original image up too much or not enough... this time I think I hit the Goldilocks Zone (aka "just right"!)

ICAD24-28: Tessellation

I had a general idea of what "tessellation" meant... basically it's a geometric or semi-geometric regular repeating pattern; I didn't realize that technically, to be specifically designated as a tessellation, the pattern needs to have NO spaces and no overlaps! This is what is great about ICAD, you learn so much! I'd love to tell you that I came up with this funky fish pattern on my own but NOOOOOOOO; I did a Google Image Search and this one was a kid's art lesson on Faber-Cassell's website. I used a graphed index card and pre-drew every single one of the fish shapes in pencil, and it still took an embarrassingly long time and a fair amount of erasing but I DID IT! If you want to see really cool, beautiful, effortless-looking  Zentangles (both tessellating and non-tessellating) you should check out my friend and fellow Jersey Girl @Lorraine303 who has MAD SKILLZ in this (and many other) areas of art!

ICAD24-57: Garden

A simple collage consisting of a garden plan illustration and some other vintage paper that is largely hidden by the giant tulip; all atop one of the many cool library checkout cards that my friend Mary aka @millwoodstudioart shared with me. She shared some awesome catalog cards too, such as the one from last week about gardening with children... Thanks, Missus!

ICAD24-56: Playing Cards

Ok go with me on this one, it's a little tangential: doodley diamonds and hearts (or spades) in a wonkily repeating pattern. 

ICAD24-55: Off-Prompt One Staple Collage

Will this be my last #OneStapleCollage of #dyicad2024? Who can say? But it's Day 55 and we're coming down to the wire, so if not the last, probably the penultimate or the antepenultimate. From the bottom working upward, this one consists of: a yellow repro library checkout card; half a Mille Bornes scoresheet; a torn section of a European map (featuring northern Spain); an exotic belly dancer; a sepia-toned cluster of flowering dogwood, and finally a phrase from a Russian-English dictionary. All held together by the eponymous single staple.

ICAD24-54: Off-Prompt

Somewhat revisiting the #RANUNCULUS prompt from weeks and weeks ago; this time as an extra-doodley version in Macro mode. Tombow Dual Brush Pens and Ranger's Letter It Fineliners on an index card divider. Not sure what the "W" stands for... Wonky? Wednesday? Without a clue? 

ICAD24-53: Off-Prompt

Handcut clouds made of layered patterned paper scraps. With lots and lots of doodles on top. 

Index Card a Day (Week 7)

We're rounding the corner into the second half of July (already?!) and here's my own output of Index Card Art from this past week:

ICAD24-45: Mandala Monday

Wouldja believe... It's a Marvin Mandel Mandala Monday?! In perhaps the most stunning case of vintage-paper-related serendipity EVER, I found this business card stuck into one book, and the illustration of this (completely unrelated) gentleman in another book about ten minutes later. I went looking for the name "Mandel" in an old telephone book I rescued to use in collages and did NOT find a Marvin, but there were half a dozen others which are partially obscured by the mandala petals. I used a combination of Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks, a white Posca pen and Prismacolor Pencils to add color; and Ranger's Letter It Fineliners for all the shapes. As always, my Helix Circle Maker Tool was invaluable.

ICAD24-44: Seashell

Super-literal take on the prompt: I white-embossed a set of HoneyBee Seashell stamps; blended some of my favorite Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks on top; then splattered and outlined and played with the results.

ICAD24-43: Fragile

 My collage admittedly has a #FRAGILE connection to both the prompt and to reality. But… you know… in a good way! I am especially proud of the way most of the design is built around a similar color palette; AND, especially the fact that the banana, the ballet dancer and the Chinese character for banana all have a similar shape to them. 

ICAD24-42: Off Prompt OSC

And here we have world’s most random One Staple Collage! FYI, One Staple Collage is an ICAD tradition; the brief is to create a collage which is held together with… wait for it… one staple! Slightly trickier than it sounds but a lot of fun!

ICAD24-41: Forest Green

I set out with the intention of working on today’s prompt of #FORESTGREEN and thus handcut some beautiful wonky leafy shapes from every green EXCEPT forest green… then branched off into altered/doodled patterned paper scraps in various shades of blue. But that’s why they’re called “prompts” rather than assignments… they’re meant to get you started and you can go in any direction from there! 

ICAD24-40: Off-Prompt

Today's is actually not my favorite card, although I love the funky ink-splotch colors; and stand by my decision to cut around the flower edge on the right hand side. Plus… to enjoy and learn from the process rather than focusing purely on outcome is (to me!) the true spirit of ICAD, so woohoo!

ICAD24-39: Off-Prompt

Yes, I do tend to save my scraps of patterned paper, even quite small ones that I probably shouldn't bother with, but they're excellent for stamping and paper-piecing, not to mention for those nights when I just feel like cutting out random shapes, stacking them, and arranging the result into a funky pattern. 

ICAD2024: Week 1

Only a partial Index Card a Day round-up, because this year June first fell on a Saturday; so there are just three index cards to show so far, but I'm already having fun and today is Mandala Monday, so let's get this 3x5" show on the road!

ICAD24-03: Mandala Monday

In my ICAD box, I found an index card that I'd apparently used, at some point, to blot up miscellaneous watercolor, and even though some of the colors were a bit muddy, I decided it would make a nice mandala. I added semi-symmetrical lines with black Letter It Fineliners from Ranger; white paint pen highlights; and, since it was very funky and wrinkly at the edges, I trimmed it down and sewed it to an index card divider with an appropriate tab.

ICAD24-02: Zinnia

Zinnias are a flower I enjoy doodling, so that's what I've done using my Tombows and some Letter It Fineliners on a gridded index card. I sliiiiightly ran out of room for my lettering, so let's pretend the bold blooms grew so quickly and exuberantly that they covered up my perfectly thought-out title! 😉

ICAD24-01: Door or Portal

Coming straight in with a One Staple Collage for the optional Day 1 prompt of Portal or Door. What’s a One Staple Collage? It’s an Index Card a Day tradition, and, as the name implies, the brief is to create a collage which is held together with… wait for it… one staple! In this case, the layers consist of (from the bottom up) a yellow index card; a topographical map of the moon; a scrap of Kannada text; a cluster of daisies; a Georgian facade (with door/portico) and a word cut from a children’s dictionary, having left juuuuust enough space for the staple!

♥♥♥

I'm posting my index cards daily on my Instagram account @llaurenb@llaurenb and planning to do blog  round-ups weekly. More info about Index Card a Day on the Daisy Yellow Art Website and/or the @indexcardaday Instagram page!

Week Six: Index Card a Day

Summer always seems to fly by at record speed, especially in June and July when we ICAD-ians are knee-deep in index cards and inspiration! Here's what I made this week:

Day 33: Mandala Monday

This weekend, Tammy G reminded me how much I love One Staple Collages, so I decided to celebrate Mandala Monday with a One Staple Mandala! My mandala layers are constructed of a library catalog card painted by my friend Mary and gelprints made by Gina and Linda (which they used to wrap some pretty fab birthday presents) enhanced with the newest set of Dina Wakley Collage Papers, Jumbled Letters, from Ranger and the dragonfly is from the biggest and coolest sticker book that Stephanie gave me. 

(Of which more later...) 

Day 34: Summer

Fresh strawberries are one of my very favorite summertime treats; I don't think I could even count how many of them I ate during the month of June. So when I found this cool pattern for adding an appliqued berry to knitwear, I couldn't resist a strawberrycentric collage.

Day 35: Astronomy

Inspired by today's prompt, I was randomly blending some of my new Simon Hurley create. Inks from Ranger, going for a sort of Aurora Borealis effect... and then... it turned into an abstract doodle. 'Cause that's the way I roll! 

Day 36: Imaginary

I'm taking an #IMAGINARY trip to Oahu, thanks to this fun hibiscus doodle, painted with some of my favorite Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks... Peachy Keen and Rosey Posey; with a little Viridian added in on the foliage. Did you know that the official State Flower of Hawaii is specifically the yellow hibiscus? So these are just "backup blossoms" then, but they were fun to paint and doodle! 

Day 37: Off-Prompt

Would you believe I had already made this torn paper collage background BEFORE Stephanie gave me the Botanists Sticker Anthology, the amazing book I referred to on Mandala Monday, which has hundreds and hundreds of gorgeous realistic plant and flower stickers.  

Day 38: Zodiac

My western Zodiac sign is Cancer and it's not that I have anything against crabs, but I confess I prefer my Chinese Zodiac sign, the dragon! This one came from the amazing Pearl River Emporium in NYC's Chinatown, he... (or she? it's hard to tell with dragons!) ...is perched atop a repro library card, adorned with a page from a Chinese zodiac calendar, and a little postage on the side.

Day 39: Levels

Funky (dotty!) flower doodles, made with my Zig Clean Color Dot Markers, from that late great bastion of NYC crafting... The Ink Pad! I like that the gridded card makes them sort of look like the coolest bar graph EVER!

ICAD week2

Wrapping up the first FULL week of Index Card a Day and if you're not on Instagram, you are missing out; there are soooooo many amazingly creative people making art on index cards in every style imaginable; and this year I'm especially excited that my craft bestie, Stephanie, is participating as well!

Day 5: Mandala Monday

It's hard to see the magical sparkle on this card, but trust me, it's there, thanks to golden star stickers and little hits of a clear glitter pen over some of the petals. I scribed the central circles for this mandala with my old-school compass; watercolored pink, orange and yellow Tombow Dual Brush Pens picked up with a waterbrush; then outlined the result (when dry!) with a Ranger Letter It Fineliner. Text added with my 1930's Olympic Elite typewriter.

Day 6: Wildflowers

A bunch of smaller scale collage elements including a Sewing Pattern Lady, glossy wildflowers, a reproduction vintage bus ticket, and part of an illustration (with caption) from a somewhat worse-for-wear collage fodder book, Georgian Architecture. On a pale pink, vertically oriented index card.

Day 7: Zebra or Stripes

Flashing back to a prompt I skipped last week, but then I suddenly wondered if it'd be cool to TEAR one index card (blue) into zebra-ish stripes and glue the pieces onto another (white) card... YEP, it's pretty cool! Remember that the prompts are there to inspire and assist you; use them whenever and however you'd like; or even not at all if you're having fun doing your own thing! 

Day 8: Butterfly

Being a "more is more" maximalist kind of gal, I am quite surprised to have made this collage which has only FOUR elements...?! But it feels balanced and complete, so who am I to argue with the serendipity of two German scrap butterflies and a photo of knitting instruction on top of a gorgeous gifted Swedish library card. 

Day 9: Magenta or Fuchsia

The infamous One Staple Collage* is a beloved ICAD tradition, and thus I am excited to display my first of the #dyicad2023 season; embracing today's optional prompt of "Magenta or Fuchsia" which I somewhat expanded to embrace a bunch of shades of my favorite color... PINK! 

*The One Staple Collage is, as the name implies, a collage in which all of the items are held together with ONE STAPLE. It's slightly harder than you might think, as it depends on clever and creative stacking of elements. I would gently suggest NOT choosing your most beloved and rare items for this exercise, but if you love traditional collage, you might want to try this!

Day 10: Off-Prompt (or Wildflowers, Part 2)

Wendy Vecchi has been drawing the coolest doodle flowers, which she then paints with her signature Archival Ink palette and a waterbrush filled with Isopropyl Alcohol. I did the same thing, but in reverse: I painted all the shapes first, then added doodley outlines on top after they were dry. Which... when painting with rubbing alcohol instead of water... is FAST! Also, it's hard to tell from a photo, but painting with Archivals and alcohol literally NEVER warps or wrinkles your paper, which is a considerable advantage when you're working on index cards!

 Day 11: Off-Prompt

Whenever I need to trim up a lot of edges, especially of mandalas or other watercolory things, I kinda hate to throw all the pretty scraps away, so sometimes I save them, glue them randomly to something and make a quilt-like pattern or a background. Like this one! 

(PS: Yet another reason I love keeping my ICADs together on a book ring is the ability to sprawl out the cards for a funky group shot of what I've made so far!)

♥♥♥

ICAD Recap and Mandala Monday

Just another manic Mandala Monday, followed by the rest of last week's Index Card a Day artworks, in reverse order. Hope you'll find time to do something fun and creative today! ♥

Day 41: Magic Pencil Mandala

This set of Yoobi multicolor pencils came from Miss Stephanie and has a great combination of multicolor leads that make everything you color a bit of a surprise... in a really good way!

Day 40: Verdant

Only as I loaded this one onto Instagram did I realize that it was on the wrong day... but hey... there no BAD time for handcut Green Stamp foliage, is there?

Day 39: Geometric

Quilt-ish triangles are fun to arrange. Hence the TWO cards! :)

Day 38: Turquoise

A one staple collage featuring a sewing pattern lady, some green stamps and cool ticket stickers that Stephanie sent me, with bits of map, interesting wall paper and a fractal background.

(Technically only the index card itself is turquoise, but still...)

Day 37: Mysterious

This card has nothing really to do with the prompt, although it is a bit mysterious that I can't seem to stop cutting out little shapes, smacking them on index cards and stitching on top!

Day 36: Quatrefoil or Ogee (again!)

A more traditional ogee pattern, with punched hearts and hand cut teardrops on a repro library card.

Day 35: Yellow

I had intended for my doodley watercolored flowers be almost entirely yellow, with green foliage and maybe a little orange; but it seemed unfair to exclude all the other colors...

It's a Fourth of July Mandala Monday...

...and here's an ICAD round up as we hit the midpoint of our 61-day index card art journey. Here are the week's cards, in reverse order:

Day 34: Mandala Monday

Three or four older gel prints, cut into mandala-friendly shapes, stuck together, outlined and doodled upon; with a background of torn and inked vintage paper.

Day 33: Quatrefoil or Ogee

I thought this pattern of punched circles and hearts would assemble into a more traditional quatrefoil pattern, but... not so much, lol. But ICAD is about experiments, so I'm rollin' with it!

Day 32: Sky

At first glance, the connection to the prompt is not blindingly obvious; until you realize that I was going for a sort of Zendoodle Kite type of thing. Ok, as it turns out, even at second glance, the connection to the prompt isn't blindingly obvious! :)

Day 31: Postmark

Stephanie found the most remarkable and lovely collection of vintage trading stamps and sent me a whooooooole bunnnnnnnnnnch! I'm in collage heaven!

Day 30: Magical

Does a rainbow whirlpool swirl qualify as magical? Well, it does to me, lol!

Day 29: Neon

Remembering my brother's tropical fishtank years, I recalled a fish called a Neon Tetra. Went looking for a pic and didn't find one; ...but... there were lots of other tropical fish in neon colors, some of whom appear in this funky fish collage!

Day 28: Off-Prompt

Inspired by my friend Mary (aka @millwoodstudioart) who had just posted some awesome florals over watercolor on library catalog cards. Also flashing back to last week's #PLAID prompt.

I post my ICADs in my Instagram feed @llaurenb each evening and then collect them up right here on Mondays. If you'd like to know more about ICAD check out Daisy Yellow Art!

Week 2: ICAD 2022

It's Day 13 of #dyicad2022 and also Mandala Monday, so here's a round-up of the past week's index card art, working backwards from today!

Day 13: Mandala Monday

It's a paper-pieced version, this week, using up some blue scraps that were sitting on my worktable; enhanced with a few outlines, faux-stitches, and Posca pen dots.

Day 12: Blueprint or Cyanotype

Super-super-loose version of the prompt! I started out intending to make something closer to the mark, but when it morphed into doodles around the patterned paper clouds, I just rolled with it...

Day 11: Rainbow

Deconstructed pastel doodle rainbows. 

Day 10: Off-Prompt

I had been using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Rainbow dies and wound up with quite a few colorful leftovers, so I glued them into circles and added dots with pens and a hole punch.

Day 9: Off-Prompt

Pointy crocodile stitch doodles in funky pastel shades.

Day 8: Pictogram

Again a situation when the prompt got me started, and I intended to use a bunch of aeornautic-related pictograms from an old falling-apart book about the history of flight. 

But then I found the cool seaplane... :)

Day 7: Root

Scribbly Tombow daisies with dotty centers. Clearly they must HAVE roots, 

but I elected to show the petals instead.