ICAD Weeks 7, 8, & 9 to the End

 Yay!  Another year in the books.  I had some help towards the end you will see, and I did work ahead a little and actually finished up a few days earlier so I could have the time for the wedding prep.  Sorry that this is going to be long with 2+ weeks worth.  But here we go.......

Day 43 - Patina

I drew the pattern first in gold metallic marker and added the "patina" with my peacock blue fountain pen ink.  It's a stretch I know.

Day 44 - Wabi Sabi

I admit I have to look this word up each time I come across it.  Essentially it means finding beauty in the imperfect and I thought that this charred pine cone had that feel.  Done in watercolor pencil.

Day 45 - Repeat

The background pattern done in metallic dot markers is repeated and is the base to this one staple collage.  I also doodled the metallic flower and fussy cut around it for this.

Day 46 - Millefleur

The background on this was done previous to the beginning of this challenge and was in my stash.  I thought that it represented the millefleur theme.  I chose to add the punched circle and the pre-printed butterfly that I doctored up a bit with colored pencils to match the colors in the background.

Day 47 - Vermillion

I doodled those vermillion flowers that became water lillies in the pond for this turtle cut from a brochure.  The rest of the background was done in watercolor pencil with some actual watercolor paint added.

48 - Raindrops

It was Sunday morning on the weekend and we got up early to try to beat the forecasted heavy rains home.  We did manage to stay in front of the worst of it and I had the luxury of watching the rain on the windshield as HWNSNBP drove.  Watercolor pencils and Optimus marker.

Day 49 - Focus

I had two die cuts in a scrap pile that I thought would make a good aperture for the word focus and decided to overlap them and traced them onto the card.  After I colored them black I added some white gel pen to show how they could be layered.  I toyed with the idea of adding color in those shapes but felt I had already spent enough time on it this way. 

50 - Note To Self

It was a note to myself created with bits from the scrap box once again taking heed of what I had written to myself.  

Day 51 - Topiary

Once again relying on the scrap box and some washi tape for the background to complete this.  There was a 3-D element to this with the tissue paper that has become flattened in the pile now.

Day 52 - Weathervane

I wasn't going to do this prompt but strangely enough this ad from Home Depot for this witch weathervane showed up in my FB feed. Theirs is in copper and brass, mine is wrought iron because I didn't have any metallic markers with me at the time.  I decided to add the tangle Sand Swirl to the background to give the impression of wind.

I had some help with the next set of cards.  We had the grandsons with us on the weekend and I gave them blank cards and the choice of watercolor paint or markers to use so I could have some backgrounds ready.  They both chose the watercolors and were really into it.

Day 53 - Museum

We were putting together a 3D puzzle that my mother, their great-grandmother had given us for them.  There were two to choose from - a castle and a pirate ship.  I thought for certain they would choose the pirate ship first, but it was the castle.  There were parts of the puzzle that had to be punched out, like windows and doors, and all the little places where the tabs would be inserted so it would stand up.  I saved some of those pieces and used them on this card adding only the gel pen bricks around the openings and part of our conversation.  It could be the outside of some museum somewhere.

Day 54 - Yahtzee - Off Prompt - We didn't play Yahtzee, we played in the pool.

Day 55 - Lemon or Lime - Off Prompt

As I was cleaning up, I took some drops of the watercolors and put them on the plastic table covering and GS1 took a card and swiped them up.  He hasn't seen what I've found in those swipes yet, but you never know what you'll find in those random shapes.

Day 56 - Winter

I picked up a set of magnatiles during Prime Day to have for them to play with because I know they both love them at home.  This castle was one of the possibilities according to the directions.  Ours did not get so elaborate.  But the card holds another conversation.

Day 57 - Bird

After they were done with painting and had left the table there was one card left so I used up some of the paint.  I purposely didn't do anything while they were working because I wanted to see what they would come up with and not feel that they had to copy me.

Day 58 - Illustration

I had been saving a photo of a lace bug which is transparent, yet colorful at the same time.  The colors on this card seemed to compliment the iridescent colors of the scales.  Not every piece is colored because they all didn't have the same iridescence which I tried to capture.

Day 59 - Peaceful

I did not need to add anything to GS1's sunset to make it any more peaceful than it already is.  He told me he was going to paint a sunset and he explained every step of creating this to me.  First he was using light orange, and then he added some dark orange. Then a little red, and purple in the end.  I told him it was stunning.

Day 60 - Filigree

I used the tangle Oile to string these hearts across GS2's card, adding a little subtle shading where the lines overlap.  

Day 61 - Mosaic

I took two butterfly stickers and sliced them up before I added them to the index card leaving a grout gap between the pieces. Then drew in the other pieces of faux tile, outlined them with marker and added some watercolor pencil to each one.  

So here's the stack of all 61 cards.

And those for the month of June.

Finishing up with the month of July.

ICAD 2023 - Weeks 5 & 6

 We were having the kids up for the weekend before the 4th of July so I was trying to work ahead on some of these, it was finding the time to post that threw me off.  So we have two weeks together again.

Day 29 - Evergreen

Die cut paint chips in shades of green with some Micron line work in between.

Day 30 - Playground

I used a sheet from an old softball score book for this.  Colored the diamonds with my prismacolors and the lyrics are from Madonna's song heard at the end of "A League of Their Own".

Day 31 - Charcoal

The quote refers to how Halloween flowers surely would have charcoal black petals.  Done in watercolor pencils, Sharpie, and gel pen.

Day 32 - Cottage

I used a gingerbread house die cut and gave it a summer face lift to make a sweet little cottage.

Day 33 - Perspective (Off-prompt)

Dot markers and Micron

Day 34 - Summer

Patriotic holidays, sunshine and full moons, and a yard full of purple and pink flowers say summer for me.  Watercolor pencils and Micron.

Day 35 - Astronomy

Watercolor pencils based on the Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 31, 2015.

Day 36 - Imaginary 

I'm showing this in black and white and in color because I really didn't like the way the computer/phone depicted the colors.  I couldn't edit it to show what it looked like IRL.  But there are some imaginary plants and fairy bugs.

Day 37 - Metallic

I used my metallic dot markers to make this and could't decided whether the white background or the black background showed it off best.

Day 38 - Zodiac

This was created using zodiacal information on our immediate family members and includes the chocolate pairing for those signs as was featured in an article I saw for National Chocolate Day that same week.

Day 39 - Levels

I was going to go with the simple version of these levels and then.....

Decided to add the background with a marker that has a tip that makes the three lines side by side.

Day 40 - Chandelier

Maybe a view from beneath.  Done with those metallic markers again.

Day 41 - Float or Buoy

I used some neon flag stickers and cut them up to create these floats that HWNSNBP thought were bird houses.  I know they're not traditional colors for such floats but I think it looks summery.  I scored the card before adding them to look like siding and just drew in the ropes and nails.

Day 42 - Trivia

A little quiz with a little line work.  What's your guess?

More coming up soon.

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.