ICAD 2018 - 50-56/61

Tomorrow it will be August and I am done with this challenge, hooray!  I will post the last of it tomorrow as I play catch up with my posting.

50/61 - Radio

Zig Brush markers and Micron

51/61 - Mint

What's your favorite?  Peppermint or Wintergreen?

Posca Pens, Stabilo Markers, and Prismacolor pencils.

52/61- Postage

All recycled materials.  Stamp, inside of security envelope as background, portion of address label (smaller butterfly), flowers cut from the envelope flap of a recent thank you note, and grass cut from an audition card.

53/61 - Cassette Tape

Despite what HWNSNBP thought it said (he has seen the light) it's supposed to say MUSIC.

Derwent Inktense pencils, Micron

54/61 - Tide Pool

I really had fun with this one and only regret that it's on an index card which won't take that much water, but I loved a picture of an anemone that I found while googling tide pool and just had to give it a try.

Derwent Inktense pencils, gel pen

55/61 - Network or in this case Net Work

My initial idea was to try a schematic of a sharks brain as it was shark week, but in looking for an example, I kept coming up with a meme that compared what a shark's brain looked like to the internal female anatomy and decided not to go that way.  Since I was a couple days behind at this point, I thought this would be the easy route.  Needless to say, I have a newfound appreciated for macrame illustrators.  

Posca Pens, Stabilo markers

56/61 - Typewriter

I love to type, but I really didn't want to pay homage to a typewriter as typing is a big part of my job.  The quote is mine.  Years ago I made a necklace with keyboard keys for a fellow employee.

Stabilo Pens

I'll have my last 5 cards and a round up for you very soon.

Wedding Card #1

Rachel recently asked me to make her some cards.  She has 3 weddings and a shower to attend in the next couple of months.  This is the first of the wedding cards that I made for her.  I got my inspiration from a card that I saw on Pinterest made by Melodie Viljoen.  Hers was so pretty in pink, but I went the white and silver way for the occasion.

And inside I simply added................

Cardmakers, do you ever wonder about the amount of work that you put into a card for certain occasions?  I was going to make 3 of the same card for her, but she said they knew each other and I wondered that anyone else ever sees the cards that people get for weddings and would it matter.  I plan on trying 3 different ones but the question still sits in my mind.  

When you make or buy a sympathy card for someone, do they display it?  Weddings and showers - do people leave them out where others can see or are they tucked back into envelopes or bundled in ribbon and stashed away?

I'm not going to stop making cards because of the thought of someone tossing it away, but I'm rethinking simplicity.  I can make something simple and beautiful or elaborate and beautiful and maybe some occasions should be more on the simple side.  

What do you think?  

ICAD 2018 - 43-49/61

Hard to believe it's been 7 weeks already and a little more than a week to go.  Making time for these has suddenly become a challenge.  Some other things crept up on me including a little bit of a sideline for some dental surgery.  Still, I persist and will finish.

43/61 - Window

My rendition of part of a stained glass window.

Zig brush markers and Micron pen.

44/61 - Fringe

Using what I could find in the condo.  After a visit to AC Moore an idea struck me when I found this fabric for $1.  I knew at that point I was going to tear it to get fringe on the edges but I didn't quite know what I would use the strips for.  Looking around I found some cording and embroidery floss from a long ago project, and also some paint chips, and TA DA!

45/61 - Candyland

I kept thinking lollipops and they appeared.  Well, no they didn't just appear, but they were fun to do.  One is different than the others.  Can you tell which one?

Zig brush markers and Prismacolor pencils.

46/61 - Tie Dye

So I scribbled some brush marker on an index card, wet it with a paintbrush and then smashed that onto another index card.  I tried two different color palettes and in the end couldn't decide which one I liked best so I cut one up and added it over the other.

Zig brush markers.

47/61 - Love

I pondered this for a long time.   Whilst there are many things that I love, people are what I dearly love and I wasn't going that route.  Instead took a line from our wedding song and strung it with hearts.

Stabilo and Micron pens.

48/61 - Camera

I used the inside of a security envelope for the shutter.  The background was done previously as an experiment for another prompt that I didn't use. 

Zig brush markers, Micron pen, and pencil.

49/61 - Landscape

This was inspired by a photo I took back in May of a sunset looking down the street I live on.  Both the photo and the original of this are much more vibrant in real life.  And the trees had a lot more branches, but at this point I was playing catch up. Still, I think it came out well.

Derwent Inktense pencils, Micron Marker.

If you're wondering about my 365 day project, I haven't given up on it.  Goodness knows I have enough scraps for more than 365 days.  I've fallen behind on preparing the ovals what with summer activities and get togethers.  I will catch up with that too. Promise!

Things to Ponder and a Berry Little More

So, I'm not sure if these are considered cars or motorcycles with three wheels.  I've since found out that they're called Slingshot cars.  We were alongside a slew of these on the road home from our daughter's house in Delaware a couple of weeks ago quite by surprise.  You could hear all their music blasting, and at one point they slowed down to almost stopping in the left two lanes so that the slower ones could catch up.  We figured they were going to some kind of rally.

Whilst shopping at AC Moore this was spotted on one of a series of crates on their sidewalk in front of the store.

I bought this puzzle at the $Tree thinking it would be fun to put together - it proved to be a little challenging, but turned out to be very frustrating when I realized that there were pieces missing.  

One of our local grocery store chains had a good sale on blueberries.  A flat of 6 pints for $6.  A very good price.  So we picked up a flat.  Well, there are only two of us, so how to use all those blueberries.

Blueberry lemon bread (with 5 minute microwaved lemon curd)

Crustless blueberry pie.

And blueberry lemon scones.

Not only were the blueberries good and all the recipes were successful, this is the season for my favorite - Ranier cherries.  Yum!  

What's your favorite fruit of the season?

ICAD 2018 - 36-42/61

This week's prompts all begin with the letter P

36/61 - Pretzel

I wouldn't know about such things but it was fun to imagine little pretzel butterflies flitting about.

KOI watercolors, Zig brush markers, and Micron pen

37/61 - Poetry

This is only one verse, the last, from the e. e. cummings poem "i am" that I came across in high school and has always stuck in my head.  Don't ask me what it means because I think it has multiple meanings for me as I've grown older.

Stabilo and Pentel markers for colors, gel pen and Micron for writing

38/61 - Palette

My Cousin Janis posted a photo of this Lily in her garden the day of this prompt so I decided to do this card as a Nature Journal entry showing the palette

Zig brush markers, Posca paint pens, Micron marker

39/61 - Pixellated

The colored squares and rectangles were cut from an index card that I was using to audition my Magic pencils to which I added squares and rectangles with markers.  I glued a piece of origami paper to the index card as my background and then added the cut up "pixels" on top.

Origami paper and audition card

40/61 - Pinball ~ a variety of Globe Amaranth (straw flowers)

I went through a lot of "auditioning" to find an implement with the color of those flowers and finally remembered my Derwent Inktense pencils.  What was that old commercial that said "Shakes out white and turns blue"?  Well, the color change is not that drastic but there is an intensity that happens with these pencils when you activate them with water.  I am fairly thrilled with how this one came out and might try to duplicate it on a better grade of paper to frame for my desk at work. 

Derwent Inktense pencils

41/61 - Portrait

Kirby - our cockatiel.  Based on a picture that I took of him a few years back just before he tried to bite the cell phone camera as it came toward him.

Fantasia watercolor pencils with and without water

42/61 - Plate

I know I could have drawn a very elaborate china plate or home plate but you know I sometimes like to touch on the more obscure.  A turtle's shell is made up of plates that are called scutes.  And I've included a little video below of a little boy and a turtle.

Derwent Inktense pencils

Mini Scrap Collages 162-168/365

Jingle Belles - Stars and/or Stripes AND Scribble Picnic - STARS

Woohoo! I don't usually do a card for Scribble Picnic, but as the themes this fortnight was the same as Jingle Belles it seemed written in the STARS. 

 

When I saw the theme for Jingle Belles I thought I remembered having recently purchasing a star die with a scene in it.  But not being able to put my fingers on it quickly, and with time running out, I decided to go with another die, or dies.  I used my SU layered star, along with a Hero Arts star ornament die, and I'll have to look up that twig wreath die if you need to know.   The stamps on the top star and the sentiment also go along with the Hero Arts set.   

 

 

I wanted to stay away from a brown twiggy wreath and luckily found a matte gold piece of a fancy pastry box I had in my recycling stash.  The sentiment is embossed in gold and the secret I will divulge here is that it is covering the hole in the star point that makes that star an ornament. 

 

I've been in a card-making funk lately with some rather uninspired designs, but I'm very happy with this one.  Despite it having 6 layers, it came together pretty easily if you don't count the time I spent frantically searching for that little sentiment stamp which had attached itself to the die package.  HWNSNBP came up to ask me something whilst I was looking for it and quickly exited the room after asking me what I was doing.  But the good news was, while I was searching for that I found the new star die!  Well, maybe I might have time for one more Jingle Belle Star card.

 

In the meantime, I hope the Picnickers don't mind me sharing this at the picnic this week.  I'll come back to add the link to Scribble Picnic so you can visit along with me.  But now I need to see all the Stars and/or Strips over at Jingle Belles.

 

Edited to add the link to Scribble Picnic.  And next week the theme is HOT DOG. 

ICAD 2018 - 29-35/61

29/61 - Patisserie

I used my KOH-I-NOOR Magic Colored pencils to make the swirled tops of, let's say, cupcakes.

30/61 - Playing Card or Tarot Card

So, Go Fish is a card game, right?

Watercolor and Prismacolor pencils, Micron pen

31/61 - Curtain

With my apologies to Carol Burnett.  Her hilarious sketch based on the scene in Gone With the Wind where Scarlet O'Hara has a new dress made from the green velvet drapes.  This dress/costume was designed by Bob Mackie (complete with the drapery rod).

Prismacolor pencils, Micron pen

32/61 - Compass

Not quite a snowflake, but closer to a dandelion seed cluster, with the cardinal points.

Zig Brush Pens, gel pen, Posca paint pen

33/61 - Blue

I have something similar to this in one of my art journals.  It was fun the first time and still fun the second.  The quote is from one of the books in the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  There are some very good quotes in her works.  

KOI watercolors, blue ballpoint pen

34/61 - Picnic

I don't know what possessed me.  Drinking ice tea too late at night perhaps.  The picnic basket is woven from the strips of one index card and it's attached to the background of another.  

Zig Brush Markers, tape, glue

35/61 - Mosaic

Fun but not so easy.  It's much easier to smash plates into pieces.  I used an audition card for the "tiles".  Flowers that I had practiced for a previous card became flowers of another kind here.  Once they were glued down I used an Exacto knife to cut away the spaces in between.  Then I glue the whole of it to the green cardstock.

Mini Scrap Collages 155-161/365