Index-Card-A-Day (ICAD) 2022 challenge - Week 1

The Index-Card-a-Day challenge is on again.  I have taken part for the last two years and have enjoyed creating a small piece of art every day during June and July.  There are daily prompts, but it is up to you whether to use them, or whether to go your own way.  There are also guides to materials you may like to use.  The challenge is run by Daisy Yellow Art.  Above from the top are Asterisk; Peony; Maze or Labyrinth; Key.

Above are Flamingo or Pink; Daydream and Root.  I often seem to be quite literal with my interpretation, but again, this is up to you.  The cards to work on are index cards or pieces of card 6x4 inches in size. So far I have used inks, watercolours, stamps, stencils, dies and images from the internet.  This challenge is also really good for making me use what I have.

 I will post weekly so that there aren't too many posts to wade through.  How about joining in?  It's not too late!

Index Card A Day (ICAD) - Week Eight

The penultimate week of ICAD brought some more interesting prompts to think about.  Above there are: Pinwheel; Blue or Blueberry and Orbit.  I do like the way Blue or Blueberry turned out - stencils and stamps with paint and ink created this.  Pinwheel involved me looking up how to make a paper windmill and Orbit was made by drawing round some oval dies on a painty and stamped background.

Above are: Garden Gate (probably my least favourite, but never mind - that one definitely looked better in my head than in reality); Outline; Paisley and Unfold.  In case you are curious about what Unfold looks like when unfolded...

...here it is.  I used some paper from my stash and then added some stamping - 'Note to self: This is your life, Do what you love and do it often' and 'Just Be Happy' both of which appealed to me.  

On to the final week of the challenge.

Index Card A Day (ICAD) - Week Seven

Here are my week seven ICADs.  Some of the prompts needed more consideration and the help of the internet.  I am still loving making these little pieces of art.  In the photo above there is Bloom; Unravel; Simplify.  Stencils and acrylic paint featured here, with inks and words.

Above there is Diagram; Pencil; Confetti or Glitter; Orchard.  Diagram was made using free graphic images from The Graphics Fairy, (this is a great resource for lots of vintage images that are useful for journaling or craft projects), inks and stamps. Pencil was Chris's idea and I used watercolour pencils for the background, then stamped B, 2B, 3B etc. on the top.  I couldn't possibly choose between confetti or glitter, so added them both onto that card. Orchard had me scratching my head, but with some help from the internet, I went for the names of trees usually to be found in an orchard.

Index Card A Day (ICAD) - Week Six

Here are my index cards from week six.  This challenge goes on until the end of July, so I shall have to find something else to challenge myself with after that!  Above is Ocean; Hydrangea and Rust.  Lots of fun was had with stamps, stencils, watercolour crayons and acrylic paint for these.

Here are Mirage; Gradient; Cinnamon or Spice and Knot.  I really like Cinnamon/Spice which was really relaxing to paint. I used a grid stamp and embossed it with white embossing powder, to create the raised lines.  Then I painted in the squares using gouache, in what I hope was a random pattern.  Knot was created using an embossing folder and then dry brushing with different shades of acrylic paint.

Just in case you needed a closer view to see what I had done for Mirage, here it is at a different angle.  I used black card and a unicorn stamp with clear embossing powder.  Now you see it, now you don't!

Index Card a Day (ICAD) - Week Five

 How quickly the time seems to be going as I continue this challenge.  I am starting to amass a nice little collection of cards now and just need to decide what to do with them once it is finished.  Above, you can see: Citrus; Arcade and Font.  Arcade had me thinking and in the end the image was quite simple - just arches drawn with a biro and then some distress ink smooshed on.

 The next photo shows Earrings; Periwinkle; Board Games and Lantern.  For the earrings, I looked at lots of earring images and decided to use the suffragette colours of white, green and purple.  White was for purity, green for hope and purple for loyalty and dignity. (Dignity and Hope are certainly things we could do with at the moment.  I was in the town centre this morning and it felt like social distancing had gone out of the window - all rather worrying.)

 I rather liked the earrings I had created for this Dina Wakley stamped face and decided to make some real ones, inspired by these.

Here they are  - white pearls, green fluorite hearts and amethyst rounds.  Women's voices are still not being heard around the world so this is my little token of support for them.

Index Card a Day (ICAD) - Week Four

Here we are at week four.  We are not quite half way through the ICAD challenge, but things are still going well and I have used all the word prompts so far.

The words were: Anchor; Terrarium; Emerald.
I was originally going down the ship anchor route, but then decided roots are anchors too, so went in a completely different direction.

Here are Cappuccino; Bougainvillea; Souvenir and Wind Chimes.  Again, a couple of these were going to be one thing and then I was hit by a different inspiration.  Originally, 'wind chimes' was going to be strips of different papers in a wind chime sort of pattern, but then, having looked at the definition of chime, I was reminded about clocks.  'Souvenir' started as a collection of different ephemera, but soon became all about Paris.  I have visited Paris twice and loved the museums and galleries, so this seemed very appropriate.  Paints, papers, stamps, stencils and texture paste have all featured in making these images this week.

Index Card a Day 2020 (ICAD) Week Three

The ICAD challenge is still going strong and I am managing to complete one a day.  Above are Dandelion; Robot and Mustard Yellow.  Stamps, stencils, paint and embossing folders have been used for these.

Here are Six Word Story (The sky brightened and she smiled); Pause (I cut the stamp from an eraser and it is based on the pause symbol in music - thanks to Chris for that idea); Birdhouse and Geode.  These are mainly paint and stamps, with a bit of glitter on the geode. 
I have had to buy some more index cards this morning as the second set I used had a blue line at the top and it was affected by water/paint (as you can see in the geode card).
On to week four...

Index Card a Day 2020 (ICAD) - Week Two

Here are the cards from the second week of ICAD.

The prompts were: Suzani patterns (I had to look this up - traditional embroidery from Uzbeckistan and Tajikistan); Bookshelf; David Bowie.

Tiramisu (featuring a photo of my Granny and her sisters when they were girls);  Brocade; Kite or Rhombus; Chamomile.  Just in case the Chamomile one doesn't make any sense, I used camomile tea leaves, which I added to texture paste and applied through a stencil and the tea bags were glued in strips.  I then added drips of acrylic paint and watercolour pencils for the colours, finishing with gold speckles and a bit of glitter. (I had this brainwave having watched a Youtube video where teabags were made into a mini journal.)
On to week three...

Index Card a Day (ICAD) 2020

I have enjoyed the doodle book and the 14 day journal projects, so when I saw the Index Card A Day challenge over at Daisy Yellow, I decided to join in. 
I like the idea of daily art prompts, which may push me to do something different.  However, there is no pressure - you can use the prompts or not, or use the themes or not, it is up to you.  Creating a piece of art a day on a small scale - 6 x 4 ins, sounded doable and enjoyable, so off I went.
Here are the results of the first week:

Just in case you'd like to know what the prompts were:  Hopscotch, Marigold, Album, Sequins, 1980s, Dreamcatcher, Highway.
I have really enjoyed it and found I could manage a piece per day as they are small and relatively quick to produce. I can also use all my different art and craft materials, which is a good thing.  So far, I have used paints, crayons, magazine collage, die cuts, stencils, stamps, sequins and inks. The most time consuming bit is the thinking!
There is a facebook group to join, should you wish to share your work and see what others are doing.  I'm not a facebooker, so haven't done that.  I am happy with my progress so far and have started the second week's prompts.
I will do a round-up each week in the hope that you find it interesting to see what I come up with...