ICAD 2016 - #22-#28

Hard to believe we're just a couple of days from the end of June.  Another week that flew by.  Here is my prompt card for this past week. (You can find all the information on ICAD here.)

June 22 - neon sign.  I didn't realize, until I looked it up preparing for this card, that neon gas glows orange.  The other glowing colors you see on the signs are courtesy of other gases for those particular colors.  So a true neon sign would be an orange one.  But, since I had these highlighters in neon colors I used them for my card.  This looks tedious, but it was actually fun to do - even if it went wonky at one point which is apparent when you look at the writing that was added.

June 23 - winter - I just couldn't bring myself to do a winter scene, so instead I opted to draw something with the word "winter" in it.  Winter squash done with Prismacolor pencils.

June 24th - Magenta - This card took way longer than I had anticipated, and only because over the watercolored magenta base I used acrylic white paint for the birds which needed multiple coats and there was some seepage involved with those extra coats.  I should have practiced a little more drawing flamingo's!  

June 25th - Song - the base is another clean-off-your-brush card using up white and blue acrylics.

June 26th - Space Invaders - I had a pre-pared card with the yellow acrylics mottled background.  I used a graph paper index card to color the space invader emoji and then cut that out and glued it to the base.

June 27th - motel - off prompt - I had played with the Peerless watercolors on a gessoed card and used that as my background.  I added a tangle and some asemic writing to finish it up.

June 28th - cats and/or dogs.  Hit the scrap box again.  I used some ink and sponges for the background and then added the punched pieces.  The sentiment comes from a stamp set.

Being off this week has given me some time to get a little ahead with the next weeks' prompts and to prepare some backgrounds for future weeks.  I'm finding that that makes it both a little easier and a little more challenging.  It's much easier to go off prompt with pre-prepared cards and that's a good thing.  Actually doing this either way is a good thing.  

There's still the month of July if you're interested in challenging yourself.  Remember, you can personalize this any way you want.  You don't have to share if you don't want to, but getting some feedback on your work is always welcome in my opinion.  No index cards on hand?  I read a blog post by a woman who took some old manilla folders and cut them up into 3 x 5 pieces to use.  Got a little note pad?  Or even some post-it notes?  Use the prompts or try a series of things like a flower each day, or practice lettering, or just play with color.  The point is to exercise that creative side of your brain for brain health and maybe take your mind off the stresses of your day.  

Go ahead - jump in!