ICAD 2022 - Week 5

This is the second post for today as I realized when I was typing it up that last week's was still in my draft folder. 

We've had two multi-day visits from our daughter and her family at the condo the past two weeks so life has been a little topsy-turvy.  GS2 is a very early riser and rising early is not in my wheelhouse so I've been both elated to have them and exhausted at the same time.  I haven't posted much because I've also been trying to catch up on a few of these cards...... which I finally did thank goodness.  I'll share some pictures from our visits in a later post.  But now, on with ICAD Week 4.

Day 29/61 - Neon

I don't remember the name of the tangle that I used on this, I just know that I used a selection of neon highlighters and Stabilo markers.  

30/61 - Magicial

There are two cards for this prompt because I was using the first one as an audition card to see what each kaleidoscope pencil would give me in the form of a tree.  Then I couldn't decide which one looked more magical - all the colorful trees, or the forest scene.  

31/61 - Postmark

I took a little liberty with the cancellation motif to create these using Crafter's Choice metallic markers that can be found at the Dollar Tree (which charges $1.25 now).  How did I get those lines to echo so well, I cut a pattern/stencil from another index card and added pencil lines at 12, 3, 6, and 9 first, and then evenly between those two more times.  The metallic markers completely covers the pencil marks.

32/61 - Sky

An acrylic blue sky with credit card smeared iridescent white clouds and some paint pen tree tops.

33/61 - Quatrefoil or Ogee

Well, this has both.  Micron marker and watercolor pencils.

34/61 - Rooster

I had the red, white, and blue background ready to go on Independence Day before I realized that the prompt was Rooster.  (Which we joked we were going to nickname Maverick because he rises so early and has not yet got the concept of quiet in the morning.)  The sun was cut from another card, painted with paint pen, and then I drew the rooster and added the lettering before gluing to the background.

35/61 - Yellow

I saved a picture that my cousin Janis had taken at Assateague Island National Park which she posted on Facebook recently.  That became my inspiration for this card, but it doesn't come close to doing justice to her photograph.  She lives near Assateague and has shared countless beautiful photos of the wild horses there.  She, and the few ladies she hangs with, do not approach the horses and follow all the rules of the park.  Her camera lens is one of those very powerful (and large) ones that can get closer to the animals without getting physically close.  Apparently there is an app that helps them to identify the horses and their bands by name which is very interesting.  Recently one of the male horses on the island had to be relocated to Texas because he was deemed to be dangerous due to unfortunate human contact by those that do not know how to follow the rules.  People can use the beach there and if they don't follow protocol, like not feeding the horses and securing the food that they bring, the horses sometimes are able to get into coolers and bags and that's not good for them.  And people seem to forget that these are wild animals and can get spooked and will spin and kick to defend themselves if they feel threatened if you get too close.  The horse that had to be removed had kicked someone before and was getting more aggressive trying to protect his band.  Hopefully he will thrive in his new home, though he won't have the beach anymore to roam.

ICAD 2022 - Week 4

Ooops!  Apparently I had this in my draft folder and forgot to post so there'll be two posts today.  Not sure which order they'll be seen in.  Look for Week 5..... it's there somewhere.

22/61 - Pineapple

Zig Metallic Markers and Ooly Kaleidoscope Colored Pencils

23/61 - Purple

I got some help with the background on this and the next one from GS2.

24/61 - Print - a calico marker print.

25/61 - Portmanteau

Can you guess the word?

26/61 - Poem

An original.

27/61 - Plaid

Maybe not a true plaid, but this was fingerpainted with acrylics.

28/61 - Parachute

Paint Markers and Microns

ICAD 2022 - Week 3

 Day 15/61 - Mix & Match

Mixed Washi tape, matched - not so much

16/61 - Jukebox

This is screaming for color but it took so long to draw it I stopped listening

17/61 - Mango

Micron Pen and Watercolor Markers

18/61 - Bitmap or Halftone (or something somewhat)

Zig dot markers, Cuttlelola electric pen

19/61 - Selvedge

Selvedge is the the finished edge of fabric that keeps it from fraying and this is what I used to make those three white puffed rolls. All of this on the card comes from the waste that was created when I was making masks at the beginning of the pandemic. I took the cut threads that were trimmed off and since I didn't have the correct product, I sandwiched the threads between two sheets of wax paper and sewed through it to hold the thread together. Then I peeled off the wax paper - not easy, but a tweezer helped. I took the selvedge pieces from the fabric and rolled it up, taking hand stitches along the bottom as I did to keep it together. I had planned on taking some of these and making a shadowbox but never got around to it so they came in handy today.

20/61 - Ouija Board

I used a tangle called Contacted.  Colored with paint pens and watercolor pencils.

21/61 - Solstice

I used a tangle on this one called Soluna.  It's a combination of the sun and a sliver of moon on the left side.  Paint pens and Stabilo markers.

Happy Father's Day

 

ICAD 2022 - Week 2

 Day 8/61 - Pictogram

This is the universal symbol for "No" or "Not Allowed".  I originally wanted to do this in all red but decided to go the all color way in the end.  I used water color pencils. Circles were drawn with a Helix circle tool.

9/61 - Found

Items that were found in a basket on my craft table.  I don't remember if it was originally meant as a waste basket or a scrap basket.  Who saves snippets of ribbon this small?  Apparently me.

10/61 - Rubik's Cube 

Watercolor pencils and Micron marker

11/61 - Rainbow

Zig Dot Markers, Micron marker

12/61 - Blueprint and/or Cyanotype

I used Distress Oxide ink on the card first and then a blueprint background stamp from The Greetery which was embossed in white.  The butterfly is a sticker from the Dollar Tree and the white pieces were cut from another index card and outlined with colored pencil.

13/61 - Toy

I was coming up with a blank for this until I noticed a bread bag tag on my windowsill as I was doing the dishes.  I remembered I had a jar of them that I had started collecting for some reason not known to me now.  The openings in these tags reminded me of little bear faces and the colors reminded me of Care Bears.  I seem to remember reading that you could tell the day of the week the bread was baked by the color of the tag.  I didn't have many colored ones like this.  They're mostly white.  So it was nice to have a enough to make a nice little chorus line of Care Bears.

14/61 - Off Prompt (Mood Board) 

 Instead I went with honoring the Red, White, and Blue on Flag Day with some more of the bread bag tags.  The blue ones were light blue originally enhanced to royal with a Posca paint pen.

Just wanted to note that art doesn't have to be involved.  It can be as simple as gluing found objects to something else as I've done above.  There is nothing humbler than an index card as a base for art.  This is not meant to be a way to create sellable or museum quality artwork.  It's meant to reap the effects of creating something every day.  Here is a link to an article that MaryAnn of Magpie's Mumblings shared about The Healing Power of Stitch which I think relates to any art form as a creative practice.  

The takeaways that I got from the article are:

Creative Practice is therapy

Creative Practice is your safe space

Creative Practice is a way through dark times

You need to:

Stroke the lizard - the brain stem - to feel safe

Feed the mouse - the limbic system - for nourishment

Hug the monkey - the cortex - to feel connected

This is why I encourage you to buy a package of index cards and give it a try.

June - The Beginning

He brought me flowers for the 49th anniversary of our first date on June 1st.

A first June sunset.

Two ways.

A ride to search for turtles and birds.

And last Saturday night the sunset was visible in the distance while it was raining all around us.

 

ICAD 2022 - Week 1

June 1st means 61 days of Index Card art ahead.  I'm jumping in again for the 9th time.  Here's my cover card (which I think I gave a preview of already).

Day 1/61 - Asterisk

Sarasa Vintage Color Zebra Pens, Papermate Ink Joy, Watercolor pencils

The new Sarasa pen that I started with decided to crap out on me - plenty of ink in the barrel, but the roller ball seems to get stuck and stop working.  So I had to go with a second color.  

2/61 - Peony

Watercolor Pencils

3/61 - Maze or Labyrinth

I drew the labyrinth (could have gone with a simpler one, but I thought this would be a challenge and I was right).  Then, because the circular lines were a little shaky I thought adding the rainbow thread in the pathway would be a good idea.  Problem is that these ideas usually hit me after 10 pm.  Don't ask how long this took exactly.  Just know that the calendar page turned.  

I've been using my little portable light box and thought this resembled an eye through the top aperture.

A close up of the glued thread.  Tweezers and fast acting glue helped.

4/61 - Key

This is my key and keychain for most of our weekends in the summer.

5/61 - Pink

We planted pink and blue forget me nots on my father's grave when he died and the next year they appeared in our garden.  We did not plant them there.  They're mostly, if not all blue ones now.

6/61 - Daydream

"I could hide neath the wings of the bluebird as she sings, the 6 o'clock alarm would never ring......"

7/61 - Root

Do you like my clever carrot?

Bonus points if you know the 5 digit answer from the top down.

I've seen the prompts for next week and I'm not getting any good ideas right off the bat so I may be going off prompt for most of the week.  As you can see, I'm not spending a lot of time on backgrounds, at least now on this set of cards.  The important part for me is just getting something on the card on a daily basis.  That's the goal - to reinforce the habit of creating something every day.  No one said it had to be a finished product...... and who decides if it's finished or not?  Only me.