ICAD Challenge Week 1

Hi Everyone! 

Last Saturday was the beginning of the Daisy Yellow Index Card A Day challenge. I thought you might enjoy seeing the weeks work as a collection rather than individually, beginning next week I will be posting them under the ICAD tab on the right.  Just click on the tab and you'll get to see the entire collection each week with the "behind the card" commentary on how they were made. Today I have posted them below. 

DAY 1: Rainbows

My first index card I used an opaque watercolor (gouache) by dabbing a bit of each color on the edges. Just a little water to disperse the paint, making a wash and learning about the stability of index card. When the colors were completely dry, I doodled around the borders, drew the flowers and little angels. I added the black and white stripes in the flower stems and the text.  

Later I learned the prompt over on Daisy Yellow was Rainbow & Zebra. Hmmm. I had the rainbow part down and guess you could consider the black & white to represent zebra....the pattern in the number 1 was inspired by a coloring book design I spotted while coloring with my two little angels, Sunshine (Lyla) and Lollipop (Brianne)!

Day 2: Candy Land 
Continuing with Rainbow colors, black and white stripes and the prompt Candy Land. This is my version of Candy Land. I drew my favorite candy corn and lollipops, candy canes and gum drops with a black Micron pen, colored in with Inktense and Twinkling H2O's to add the sparkle effect and deepen the colors. 

Day 2 Candy Land

Day 3: Vintage Love 

Found our Wedding Guest Book crumbling and falling apart in a drawer and was able to rescue a few bits from the front cover. The paper was very brittle, breaking off into small pieces which made it easy to use for collage.  We had  traditional scalloped edge cocktail napkins with golden wedding bells and our names printed on them for our wedding in 1975. I used the scalloped border on the edges of the card and our names (the are barely visible) and the wedding bells which are painted yellow with a glitter pen. Spritzed (orange & teal) Dylusion ink over the card, added black stitching to edges. 

Vintage Love

 Day 4: Mama said there'd be days like this. It's a Hair on Fire Kinda Day! 

This piece started with orange acrylic paint applied with credit card and the  image of sunglasses and checkerboard I cut from an old piece of stationary. When I laid the sunglasses down, I saw the face.  Continuing the black & white theme along the edges.

Mama said there'd be day's like this! 

Day 5: A Daisy Day
I love cutting images from magazines to use for collage. Going with a Red theme today and only natural (to me!) to add black and white. I drew the background grid of lines and stamped daisies over them and added the black and white checkerboard to mimic the red squares. 

Daisy Day

DAY 6: Dreaming of Blue Skies

After a week of rain every day I am longing for blue skies! I used leftover circles punched from scrapbook paper for the flower designs, shadowing them with circle punches of orange, purple and lime. The background is another yellow floral paper design painted with raindrops using a bit of twinkling H2o's. Rhinestones in the center of each flower for sparkle. Again, I'm continuing to use the black and white stripe them to ground the piece.

Dreaming of Blue Skies

DAY 7: Lifetime Friends
 I received a lovely Stash Giveaway from Tabitha Lenox last week and with a package of pink tissues in it among other goodness you can check it out here.  The napkin design inspired me to use a black and white photo of my grandmother (middle) and great aunt (left) and a friend taken in 1927 to super impose and give the illusion they are dreaming of a lifetime journey. I used acrylic and gouache paints for the highlights on the side of the card, added cream colored floral tape (from TL giveaway) and black and white diamond washi tape. 

Lifetime Friends

It's been a great week making index cards! Here are a few of my observations and promises I made from the week:

• They don't make index cards like they used to, they are quite thin &   rather flimsy.
• It is challenging to work in a small format.
• It is hard not to compare your work with others.
• To be honest after Day 1, I almost quit the challenge when I saw the incredible work posted.
• I'm not a quitter.

After a good talking to (as we say in the South), I promised myself I wasn't going to look and compare my work to others.

• I will be happy creating whatever each day brings. 
•  As promised, I create my daily index card and post to Facebook & Flickr before I look at any posts! 
• So far, I'm pleased with what I have done.

It is what it is and that is a good thing. 

Thanks for stopping by! Look forward to sharing more Index Cards with you soon! 

Happy Doodles!
Suzy

Linking to: Daisy Yellow; Paint Party Friday; Art Journal Everyday