ICAD Week 9 and Round-UP

Well, July has come and gone and so has ICAD.  These are the last few days and my round-up picture.

Day 57 - Sea Anemone

Watercolor Pencils, Microns

Day 58 - Improvise

I improvised by using one of the pre-made acrylic background cards and gluing on the torn of ends of the strips I've been using to make origami wish stars.  (Future post.)

Day 59 - Pocket

I used pieces from audition cards to make a pocket full of rainbows and added it to one of the last acrylic background cards.  The lyrics are from an Elvis Presley song "Pocketful of Rainbows".

Acrylics, Markers, Gel Markers, Potted Paint

Day 60 - Mixed Tape

I know what a mixed tape is and this is not it, but rather a twist on the words.  I enlarged the pattern from the fabric tape as the background (therefore mixing it).

Potted paint, Gel Sticks, Fabric Tape

Day 61 - Forward

Looking forward to filling our lives with more joy.  Winning the lottery would obviously be a plus.

Gel Stick background and various collage pieces.

And here is the whole collection.  Stacked one on top of the other they approach 1 3/4 inches.  I have been purchasing vinyl zippered pencil cases (the kind you can put into a 3-ring binder) that have minimal decoration on them (only polka dots) to store my cards yearly.  I just stocked up on a bunch of them at the Dollar Tree.  This allows me to keep them sorted as I go along as well as being able to keep extra cards in the pouch if I'm travelling.  It's nice to revisit each collection before ICAD begins each year to remind me of what I have done.  I also go through my previous year's posts.  In either case, it has been helpful to note the materials that I used on the back along with the year, the date, and the prompt.  Next year I will be adding check boxes on the back so I can make physical note if I've posted to 1)my blog, 2)Instagram, and 3)Facebook.  I fell behind on that this year and I'd like to do a better job of that.  Call it my personal improvement plan.  

I can't lie, I kind of ran out of steam for this towards the end.  I'm not exactly sure why, but I'm sure I'll be gung ho with it again next year.  Perhaps it was having done the 100 Day project not so long ago.  I've been hesitant to jump right into another challenge right now.  Christmas card making has been non-existent in July and I must catch up on that soon.  

To anyone out there reading this, I hope you enjoyed seeing this artistic endeavor and again I would like to encourage you to give it a try yourself next year.  I know that you would be surprised as to what you could accomplish on an index card.  They're cheap and very forgiving and you don't need a ton of other art supplies.  You might have noticed that the ingredients for a lot of these cards came from the dollar store.  Yes, I do have good art supplies and I do use them sometimes, but this is proof that you don't have to to get pretty good results.  (Or maybe there are some closet ICADian's out there who have given this a try and just haven't shared yet.  If there are, I applaud you.)

ICAD Weeks Seven and Eight

With July winding down it also means that ICAD is winding down.  A few days more and August will be here.  It seems to have gone by quickly.  Here are Weeks 7 and 8.

Day 43 - Lilac

Paint Pens, Watercolor Pencils, Micron

Day 44 - Roundabout 

(There is a difference between a Roundabout, a Rotary, and a Circle which I didn't know.  I thought they were just names for the same thing.)

Micron, Paint Pens

Day 45 - Kaleidoscope

This looks like it took a long time, but once I got into the flow of making those squares it seemed to go quickly.  

Stabilo Markers

Day 46 - Pond

Do you call these cattails or punks?  I asked HWNSNBP to get us some so we could burn them while we're working outside as a way to deter some of the bugs.  He reminded me that he tried to get some a few years ago and got wet feet.  

General's Watercolor Pencils

Day 47 - Record Player (Off prompt unless you equate the grooves of the marker and the vinyl circles with a record.)

Markers, Vinyl punch outs from some new pencil cases

Day 48 - Cupcake (Off prompt)

I was playing around with my Zig Metallic Dot Markers and these birds showed up.

Day 49 - Tropical

I had done something similar in a sketch book last year.

Microns, Generals Watercolor Pencils

Week 8

Day 50 - Typography (Off Prompt)

My hand just wanted to make these scribbled circles.

Stabilo and Micron Markers, Graphite Pencil

Day 51 - Blur

Zig Clean Color Dot Markers

Day 52 - Ice Cream

Some fruity ice cream cones.

Dollar Store potted paint, Micron and Stabilo Markers, Watercolor Pencils

Day 53 - Botanical

Micron and Watercolor Pencils

Day 54 - Translucent

This was an experiment that didn't work out as well as I pictured it would.  I used a piece of white tissue paper for the sun hoping that it would be translucent.  The writing was on the card already but it wasn't readable so I traced it on the top of the tissue paper.  (For a couple of days last week we actually had a lot of smoke here on the east coast from the fires on the west coast.  It really did make the sun look like a red ball in the sky.

Acrylics, Micron, Tissue Paper

Day 55 - Tendril

This was a font I found online.  

Microns and Stabilos

Day 56 - Encyclopedia

Who else learned how to spell ENCYCLOPEDIA from Jiminy Cricket?

Micron, Derwent Inktense Pencils, Gel Stick

So the final stretch is here and although I enjoy doing these cards I am looking forward to taking a break from challenges for a while.  I have to get back to my card making as I'm falling a little behind on my Christmas cards, and I have so many ideas that I want to try with some things that have accumulated on my work table.  

ICAD - Weeks Five and Six

Day 29 - Quilt

Stabilo Markers and a Watercolor Pencil

Drawing those circles was hard enough, I don't think I could sew them!

Day 30 - Pastel

Zig Dot Markers, Watercolor Pencils, Washi Tape Butterflies

Day 31 - Vine

Dollar Store Heart Stickers, Micron, Watercolor Pencils

Day 32 - Talavera

One of the things that I like about ICAD is the new things you learn.  I had never heard this term before and had to look it up.  It turns out to be a kind of elaborate Mexican pottery.

Paint pens, Micron, and Gel pen

Day 33 - Feather

Acrylic background and Feathers from Kirby

Day 34 - Gingham

Stabilo markers and Flag cutout

Day 35 - Dahlia

Potted paint background, Cuttlelola 

Day 36 - Tree House

Acrylic background, Stabilo and Micron Markers, Gel Pen

Day 37 a & b - Oasis (off prompt)

Shuttle Art Gel Crayons activated with water

Day 38 - Postcard

Dollar Store potted paint, Micron, Die cut letters and leaves

Day 39 - Nautical

Dollar Store Potted Paint, Micron

Day 40 - Train or Train Set

Micron, Stabilo Markers, Uniball Gel Pen

Day 41 - Message in a Bottle

These are Genie bottles.  You have to rub them to get your message or your task.  Choose your color wisely.

Day 42 - Silver

Crafter's Choice Metallic Marker, Uniball Metallic Gel Pen, Micron

Still playing catch up.

ICAD - Weeks Three and Four

We had been very busy for the last week and a half getting ready for the kids to come with the littles.  I managed to keep up with my daily index cards right up to last Friday and the last two days I've been playing a game of catch up.  I try to work at least a day in advance with the prompts but never got to plan ahead for the family weekend.  I also neglected to post the cards from the previous week so this post is a little lengthy.  Sorry.

Day 15 - Chartreuse

The apple has shades of chartreuse in it.  It was one of the background cards I had done in advance with acrylics.  I just added it to another prepared card and added the wording.

Day 16 - Trinket

I was looking for the definition of TRINKET to see what it encompassed and was amazed to find so many synonyms for it.  This is a partial list.  Those chevron shapes are filled in with the $Tree potted paint and the words are added with a Micron.

Day 17 - Color Wheel

Sometimes it helps to not clean up.  As I was thinking of what to do for this prompt my eye caught the bag of felt that I had from the fairy project in a box of things that were going back up to the craft room.  I decided to cut a piece from each color and then, since I did not have black, I had the brainstorm to use the dark blue and cover it in French knots with embroidery floss.  It worked fine, but I have to remember not to have these brainstorms at 11:30 at night.  It becomes like doing a jigsaw puzzle where I want to keep going until I'm finished.  An hour and a half later............

Day 18 - Parallel

This was inspired by a shirt that I have.  I used Kingart gel sticks and a Micron.

Day 19 - Sand or Sand Castle

I chose to use two tangles that had "Sand" in their name - SandS S+S/Damy and SAND/Adele Bruno

Done in Micron markers and shaded with watercolor pencil.  (Could also be a beach towel to lay on the sand.)

Day 20 - Bridge

Most people know that HWNSNBP is "bridge challenged" - the technical term being gephyrophobia.  I was looking for alternatives to road/rail bridges and was inspired to use a pool bridge as a base for some linear drawings of types of bridges.  Done in Micron, metallic marker, and watercolor pencil.

Day 21 - Inkwell

Again, having "stuff" on the table brought me to this idea.  The bottle is made from the window of a security envelope with felt squares in it.  The ink spilled out is made with Posca pain pens.  I changed that childhood rhyme to better fit the prompt.

Week 4

Day 22 - Meadow

This is a meadowlark.  I had actually done a meadowlark as a warm up before ICAD started but never posted it because it looked more like a yellow penguin to me so I was glad for the opportunity to give it another try.  Done in watercolor pencils.

Day 23 - Margarita

Did you know that the Spanish word for daisy is Margarita?

Watercolor pencils, Micron marker

Day 24 - Maroon

In Southeast Asia and on the Indian subcontinent you can find the Maroon Oriole with it's blue-tinted beak.  General's Watercolor pencils, Derwent Inktense pencils

 

Day 25 - Maple 

I have a tiny maple leaf punch that I used on some cardstock and glued them to the card.  Then I drew auras around them and filled in the extra space with black.

Day 26 - Matelasse - This is not that.

Done with Micron marker and graphite pencil.

Day 27 - Marble

Another acrylic background with some dot stickers that I turned into marbles with my Sharpies.

Day 28 - Magician

What do you see in that magical blue smoke?  It is called pareidolia - seeing faces/animals/objects in randomness - like when people see the Man in the Moon, or clouds that look like bunnies or other animals.  Not to be confused with apophenia which is seeing connections and patterns that aren't there (like conspiracy theories).  So I took this prepared acrylic background and looked for things in it and outlined them with a very fine Micron.

ICAD 2021 - Week Two

 Another eclectic set of cards for the second week of ICAD.

Day 8 - Umbrella

I had these felt circles left over from the fairy project I did a couple of months ago.  They reminded me a little of beach umbrellas.  I slit them, wove them together, and added some embroidery floss French knots to keep them in place.

Day 9 - Ampersand

I created an "ampersandala" as coined by my blogging buddy Lauren.

Posca Paint Pens, Micron

Day 10 - Ribbon (off-prompt) - These are some Telephone Doodles

Stabilo marker and highlighters.

Day 11 - Library

Thanks to my blogging buddy Lauren who recently shared with me a stack of colorful index cards, library cards, and index tabs I had the perfect addition to this collage.  I did stitch the feather with single-ply floss, but I can see now that it needs a lot more stitches to not appear as a leaf.

Day 12 - Fairytale

We were away from home and I was lucky to find these gold rub-ons at the Dollar Tree.

Day 13 - Dice

Who knew there were such colorful names for dice combinations.

Day 14 - Word Cloud

I admit that when I saw this prompt I was thinking mostly of word bubbles that you would see in cartoons.  But after I was seeing some of the creations of others for this prompt on the ICAD FB page I realized that I needed to investigate this more.  There are programs where you can create all kinds of word clouds but I didn't choose to use any.  Instead, I gave it a little spin and made my word cloud into a small family tree.  HWNSNBP wants me to enlarge this.

So there's another week in the books.