ICAD 2023 Weeks 2 & 3 (and now 4)

This month has been rather topsy-turvy for us with a lot of little things going on.  Even so, I've managed to stay up-to-date with completing these cards, I've just been neglectful in posting them here.  So let me apologize in advance for the lengthy post...... and here I go.

Day 8 - Butterfly

What does one do with beautiful gift that's full of gorgeous butterflies?  When you have the time, you fussy cut them and stash them away for possible use on a project which so happens to be this one.  I used the butterflies to make a kaleidoscopic collage.  

Day 9 - Magenta or Fuschia

Three of these things seemed to come together as I was sorting through my scraps making me think of the foil folk art under glass that my grandmother had in her kitchen.  The glass on that one was clear where the foil lay underneath and painted yellow, I think, in the area surrounding that, not like the black of mine.  I'm going to have to ask my mother if she still has that in the house.  So you see here the teal tissue paper, the brightest pink is foil from a flower pot cover, and the lighter pink is from an envelope from a card.  The design was cut out with an exacto knife (circles were punched) on the black top card and the colored pieces were glued between.

Day 10 - Sign Post

This is mostly saved package motifs, including that fairy crossing sign. The chicken is from a jar of gravy and the clouds and background are security envelopes.  I captioned this as "The snail and the rabbit were watching the parade of Things With Wings waiting for the fairy to come by. (Oh, and the "grass" was sent to me by my cousin Barb - thanks!)

Day 11 - Glyph

This is not a glyph in the true sense of the word but one that I created for myself out of my initials.

Day 12 - Moonlight

I had this full moon chart in my stash and added some other bits from my stash.

Day 13 - Superstition

That strip that's colored is the inside of a security envelope that I used to try out some new Zebra pens.  I haven't met a Zebra pen I didn't like yet.  I think this has to be one of the first superstitions you hear about as a child.  

Day 14 - Typewriter

This was a fail in my mind.  I used some tissue paper strips that had holographic bits in it that barely show up in the picture and the stickers that might be typewriter keys.  The background is a piece of pattern tissue.

Day 15 - Sea Glass

I was looking for a quote about sea glass and came across an article about the writer of this poem "I Want To Age Like Sea Glass".  Her name is Bernadette Noll and it was interesting to find out that she spent summers at the Jersey shore much like I did.  The poem is dedicated to her older sister who she lost about a decade ago, but who played a significant role in her life.  This stanza was particularly meaningful.  You can read the rest of it here.  The sea glass was created using alcohol markers, white pastel pencil, and watercolor pencils.  The writing was meant to be messy, but this is a bit too messy I'm afraid.

Day 16 - Alphabet

I had some instructions from something that we bought at IKEA which has a plethora of languages and different examples of alphabets.  I just added them to some geometric, black, gray, and white pieces.

Day 17 - Sunflower

The background is a saved envelope with some scrap paper stripes.  The sunflower is made from paint chips, a strip of pattern tissue, and a candy wrapper.

Day 18 - Xylophone

The elusive xylophone fish swimming through some tangle seaweed.  Watercolor pencils.  This was inspired by the wooden fish that GS1 painted (colored with markers) when we had him which I forgot to take a picture of.  

Day 19 - Violet

When I can't come up with something I usually revert to tangling which I did in the prompt color of violet this time.

Day 20 - Tranquility

I saw this quick demonstration on IG on how to draw those people in the circle and had to give it a try.  It is really very simple - you lightly draw the circle and then use a fat marker to make lines that touch the circle keeping them all in the same direction - up and down - which means the sides are almost on top of each other.  The heads are just dots added to the top of those lines and the lines/arms are connected by adding "v's" in a skinny marker.  The feet are skinny marker "L's and J's".  Peace is a synonym for tranquility so I made the circle a peace sign with metallic silver and gold markers.  (Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold.)

Day 21 - Postage Stamp

The stamp in the corner comes on presorted advertising and I just love it and wish it was something that could be used on everyday regular mail.  I tried my hand at drawing the flowers similarly with watercolor pencils.

Day 22 - Unexpected

I was aiming for more of an iris fold but came away with this crazy quilt looking card using scrapbook paper scraps.  Very unexpected.

Day 23 - Enchanted Forest

The Frog Prince and the Swan King liked to play hide-n-seek in the enchanted Lollipop Forest.  I think this has to be one of my favorites.  The "lollipop" flower paper is actually saved from a tissue box.  The frog was stamped for some cards years ago and in the scrap box.  The swan was printed along with a bevy of 9 more for some long-forgotten project.  The water is green foil wrapping paper, the crowns gold foil wrapping paper.  The lettering was cut from a catalog.

Day 24 -Bubble 

I watched a Youtube short that showed how to draw bubbles on a dark background.  I had this mop up card (using up the paint from the black card above) and I wanted to give it a try.  It's not as hard as it looks.  The bubbles are draw and color added with my Prismacolor pencils.  Highlights are white gel pen and a white metallic marker.  I asked HWNSNBP if he knew what they were and his answer was "crabs".  I've never been concerned with what he sees in me, but this got me a little concerned.  The next morning, after he had looked at it again, and perhaps "seen the light", he told me that he could see that they were bubbles now.  Apparently he was trying to discern was was in the bubbles and did not see them as reflections.  I have to give him the benefit of the doubt because he is, afterall, color blind.  

Day 25 - Dictionary

I used some of the folding dictionary circles that I had leftover from the ornaments that I had made from them.  I outlined them with silver marker and added some graphite pencil shading.  They are arranged on another piece of security envelope.

Day 26 - Pinball

I fell down the rabbit hole (or rat hole as HWNSNBP refers to it) recently and made one of those late- night purchases of a new "retractable" fountain pen.  I ordered the peacock blue ink with it (as it didn't come with ink.....go figure).  It took me about 20 mins to figure out how to add the ink cartridge because there weren't any instructions that came with it.  I managed to find something on Google after a bit of searching.  It works pretty well.  I think the ink will bleed through thinner paper and it does bleed a little when I added the waterbrush to the pencil highlights. Of course, the next day we were at $Tree and I found a similar pen they were calling a "calligraphy" pen that just had a larger cap and wasn't retractable (with 2 ink cartridges) for $1.25.   

Day 27 - Indigo

I have only seen an Indigo Bunting IRL once in our yard (or anywhere for that matter). I must admit when I first saw it I thought it was a bluebird with different coloring until it dawned on me that it wasn't a bluebird at all.  Maybe I'll be lucky to see one again some day.  This was done in watercolor pencils.

Day 28 - Asanoha Pattern

At least once during the 61 days of prompts Daisy Yellow throws one of these pattern prompts in there that need a little research.  This is a traditional pattern based on a hemp leaf.  I was lucky to have these hexie index cards to use as a base to follow the pattern.  Here I used some new markers that came in sets of 3 at $Tree (3 shades of blue, pink, and purple).  Admittedly this had me a little bug-eyed by the time I finished it.  

Well, there you have the last three weeks of ICAD.  I'm currently trying to work ahead a little with the holiday coming up and some family commitments. I have to catch up on my blogging friends also and see what they've been up to.  Enjoy these last few days of June.