ICAD 2013 Finale

Today's the final wrap up of Index Card A Day at Daisy Yellow--what a fun challenge to play along with these past two months! I didn't complete sixty-one cards or get to play every day, but I really enjoyed the prompts and experimenting with different techniques and materials that otherwise I never would've tried! Some cards were great, a couple went to the trash, others just tucked in my box to hopefully find purpose somewhere else later on...And I still have a bunch of cards left to play with for whenever the whim hits me! Here's my latest set of cards:



Crayon resist and masking fluid with watercolor

Paint drip prompt--the top is acrylic, then I splattered watercolor EVERYWHERE!! Too fun!

A little Inapod tangle for the Ogee prompt and then the flowers came out of the concentric circle prompt.
I have fallen head over heels for doodle flowers!

 

Tammy posted a closing questionnaire for our challenge:

Index Card A Day: Questions Gallore

1. Have you tried new techniques, themes, mediums, materials, palettes, pens? Yes, I played with glue masks and different types of resists, experimented more with watercolors--fun!
2. Do you look forward to your creative time each day? Definitely and feel frustrated on days I don't get to play
3. Have you made a little time each day for the past two months for a bit of art? Not always--life sometimes gets in the way.
4. What did you change about your schedule to allow time for art? No changes but definitely looked forward to that time every day
5. How did you feel when you skipped a day? Frustrated, sort of felt cheated out of my play time
6. What was it like to make an extra card? Great--felt like I was a little ahead
7. Do you carry art materials in your backpack or purse for those little gaps in your day? I always have pens and paper to scribble on
8. Have your creative ideas bloomed or faded? Most certainly bloomed!
9. Are there any techniques or cards that you would like to create in a larger format? Oh yeah, already working on those!
10. What did you learn about yourself? It was fun to just play and not feel pressured to create a finished 'piece'--just let go and experiment and see what happened.
11. Will you continue your theme or series? Yes--exploring doodly flowers =0)
12. Are you ready for something fresh and new? Yes!! Daily Paper Prompts!!
13. Do you love flipping through your cards? Yeah, it's fun to see all that I did the past couple months.
14. Did you underestimate the impact of this simple challenge? Yes!
15. Did this inexpensive, flimsy canvas surprise you? Yes--who knew so much fun could hide in such a simple pack of index cards!
16. Do you adore that pile of blank cards, that stack of potential? Totally!
17. Did you surprise yourself? Definitely
18. Did you stick to the challenge? I did miss a chunk in there...
19. Did you have fun posting to the Flickr group or the FB group? The FB group was fantastic--so inspirational to see their amazing cards!
20. How many cards did you complete? 42

Thanks Tammy for such a fun summer challenge!!

Every time I put my memory card in the computer to upload my new pics, this is the first photo I always see--Baby Tucker the day we brought him home, almost two and a half years ago (and my Bugga! How cute are these two??) Tuck's well over 100 lbs now and every ounce full of love and silliness and every day I kiss him right between those sweet brown eyes...Just had to share!

 

So here ends ICAD for another year! Tomorrow begins Daily Paper Prompts for August and September--looking forward to that! Thanks for taking a peek--Ihope you have a great Wednesday!

 

 

Zentangle Tuezday

Switching it up again this week--since tomorrow is the last day of ICAD, I thought I'd do a final post of my cards on Thursday and then begin! Daily Paper Prompts! Oh, where would I be without Tammy this year?? Haha!

Anyway, so I've struggled a bit this week with tangling. I just wasn't feeling the groove at all and it really showed in my work, I think. The patterns weren't flowing, things just weren't jiving...eh...These are four more strings from Jane over at One Tangle:

Strings 5 & 6 with BB, Braze, Leaflet, and Msst--Fife, 'Nzeppel, Puf, and Quandary

I had picked up my Sharpies again on string 6 and immediately knew I'd rather keep with the sepia Microns on the tan background (Oh Sharpies--you must come out with some sepia tone pens!!) Strings 5 and 8 are both in sepia, shaded with Inktense blocks and highlighted with white Prismacolor pencil:


Strings 7 & 8 with a Puf monotangle--Caviar, Crescent Moon, and Hollibaugh

I totally think string 7's Puf would look a thousand times better if it had been done in the sepia tones rather than Sharpies and Aquarelle pencil. I also wasn't happy with the size of the blocks I'd been working with for these strings so I've broken the coming pages into quarters and did the week's Diva Challenge in the smaller block and was much happier with the result:

Ixorus monotangle

So, off and running way too early this morning...someone scheduled Bug's dentist appointment at 8:30?!! Craziness!! Clearly, I don't know what I was thinking....but at least we'll have the rest of the day to ourselves, right? The week's weather is totally shaping up to be GREAT--especially for company coming in for the weekend! Answered prayers!! And hoping for a play day at the beach tomorrow while hubby's home one last day before heading to NY--yay! Gotta enjoy all these little moments of summer while we can! So have a great day! Thanks for swingin' by!

 

Another Mail Art Monday

Summer is swiftly slipping away along with all the fun challenges...Summer of Color is over, Index Card a Day winds down this week...Whatever will I do with my time? Get ready for back to school, I suppose...and find more art challenges or classes to play in for the fall, right?

Our Random Acts of Mail group is also facing a lull...We seem to have run out of nominees to send happy mail to--so if anyone knows of somebody in need of a little cheering up, please leave a comment or email me and we'd be happy to cram their mailbox with a little letter love!

In the meantime, I decided to play along in Karen's mail art swap over at Mail Me Some Art and already received a super cool postcard from another participant! Yay! So, put together a little thank you note and postcard to send back, plus wrote a note to my friend, Jennz, and sending out a postcard to another mail swap player:

 

And this is just a little card I made for my sister-in-law who loves dragonflies:

 

 



So, enjoy your week--we have guitar lessons and dentist appointments, hubby's off to NY for a few days with his sisters, and then company coming up from VA for the weekend--really hoping we have nice beach weather at least one of those days! I'd like to take them on a harbor tour too, if the rain will cooperate and hold off while they're here...Maybe we'll get to see some seals or whales!!

Happy Arting!!

 

ICAD--Free Hot Dog--Tuesday

It's gently misting outside this morning, making a nice, muggy, sticky start to the day. Joy. The mosquitos are back as well. That was the one nice thing about the past two weeks of unrelenting heat and no rain--no mosquitos. But the slightest spritz of rain and those buggers are back in force. Fantastic.

So, I totally forgot that I had played with a few index cards last week...I went to pull out a new card to play with a crayon resist this morning and found these four waiting to be posted:

Some Inktense/Sharpie doodly flowers, a quick little mandala, and two attempts at clouds--one in watercolor, the other more Inktense play. Acrylic clouds are a whole lot easier for me...Still, it's always fun to play.

And TODAY! is National Hot Dog Day. I don't actually eat hot dogs myself but my guys love 'em--and 7-11 is offering a free hot dog to celebrate, but you have to have the app to get the mobile coupon--which you can find the app in the Play Store. I'm sure I'll be stopping there with Bug at some point today. Maybe I'll get myself a Slurpee--yum!

Looking ahead at the weather this week--the rain is disappearing from the forecast, making for some beautiful beach time!! Have to wait until Saturday to bring the hubster but hoping to sneak another day in in the meantime as well--one can never have too many beach days! Yay!

So--have a great Tuesday! Get yourself a hot dog and some ice cream (also National Ice Cream Week, by the by...) If you can, hit the beach! See you soon!

 

Mail Art/The Heat Wave is Gone/Hallelujah Monday

I know most folks are not big fans of Mondays, but--BUT!! Our two week heat wave has broken at last and I, for one, am seriously rejoicing! I don't do heat. And it has been absolutely unbearable here. I haven't cooked. I've barely cleaned. It's simply a miracle I haven't flat out died, it's been that bad. Now we're supposed to have rain showers and thunderstorms most of the coming week but if it doesn't get above 85 degrees--honey, I'm good. Rain away. Rain, rain, rain away...

Yesterday we had a fantastic time cruising along the coast exploring the South Coast Artists' Open Studio Tour. Artists all along the coast from Tiverton, Little Compton, Westport, and Dartmouth open their studios for the weekend and invite folks in to see their work. What a great excursion! Hubby's sister came along with us, and since they have a second weekend of this event coming up in August, we decided to split the tour and do half this time (Westport and Dartmouth) and then visit the others in Tiverton and Compton next month--which I just realized there are WAY more studios to come next month...We stopped at fourteen different studios yesterday--and there are over fifty studios that participate! Fortunately next month's are all a lot closer to each other (You can download a copy of the tour brochure and studio map here.) We met some crazy talented artists (and a bunch of cute little dogs!), saw some amazing, inspiring work, and I basically drooled over some of the studio spaces--wow....These three were by far my favorites (you can click on each name to go to their websites and see the amazing work they do):

Michele Bailey
Debra Lee Valeri of Meadowbrook Studio
Amy Thurber of Doves Foot Pottery

Michele plays with a bunch of different media from pastels and watercolors to oils and creates some beautiful pieces inspired by the pond where she lives. Debra's oils are breathtaking. She paints absolutely gorgeous land and seascapes from around Westport that you just have to see to appreciate--beautiful! And Amy--this was our favorite stop of the day. Our feet were barely on the ground, stepping out of the car, and her husband was offering samples of their wine--AND! Their twelve pet chickens were just running about here and there in the gorgeous backyard--so cool! But Amy creates this gorgeous, one-of-a-kind pottery with leaf impressions from their garden--just wow! Absolutely incredible pieces! They had a little tent set up with clay for the kids to play and experiment with, but Michael was having more fun feeding crackers to the chickens-gotta love it! Definitely looking forward to the second half of the tour next month!

So, hot as it's been here, I have to say it's not been my most productive week...Rather too awful to feel like doing much of anything. But, I did get to playing with a handful of recycled postcards for this week's Mail Art Monday:

 

The top four are all made with pages torn out of an old book--which seriously feels like blasphemy to me--it about rips my soul to tear a page out of a book, but I've loved seeing other people's work done on old book pages so I had to try it...The first three are simple doodles with Neocolor II's, then a little collage with Washi tape and an old photo from the same book. All were mounted onto cardboard from a Bush's Bake Beans box that was headed for the recycle bin. The last one was actually left over from National Letter Writing Month. Bug 'n I had made up a few recycled postcards (I can't remember what we used for the backing) but I've had this last card sitting around since April, so doodled it up, colored with Derwent Inktense and a little White Signo--tada! All ready to hit the mail!

This is just a little doodly envelope I did last week, too.

I had hoped for a beach day this afternoon, but rain showers are now in our forecast and beach+rain=not fun, so probably gonna try to catch up on the neglected cleaning here today and play with a bit of zentangle before we have to head to Bug Man's guitar lessons later this afternoon. At least we won't be melting--thank heavens!

So, have a great Monday! Hope to see you again soon! Thanks for stopping by!

 

Summer of Color & Paint Party Friday (a day early...)

This is the final week for the Summer of Color challenge--how fast six weeks has flown by! The color combo choice of the week was Sage and Sepia, which to me felt very earthy so I wanted to do a nature quote postcard with the Micron Sepia pens and painted with a Sage-y leaf green Derwent Inktense pencil:

 

And, another postcard I did earlier in the week--I wanted to save these for Mail Art Monday, but now I'll have an excuse to do more over the weekend, especially since we have three new Random Acts of Mail nominees this morning--gotta get busy! But this is a postcard version of the journal page I did last week:

 

The weather is already too hot for me this morning...How far north does one have to move to not suffer this miserable summer heat and humidity??? We have an air conditioning contractor coming tonight to give us an estimate on central air--that doesn't mean we'll actually have it installed any time soon, though...blah...So.Not.A.Fan.Of.Summer....Maybe I'll sit in the tub all day? Fill it with ice cubes. Think cool thoughts. This can't last forever....Hang in there, everyone!!

Completely Off Schedule Once Again...

So, what else is new, right? I don't even know why I try to keep a regular schedule since I always end up off track--but at least it gives me something to shoot for, maybe? Who knows...But, I'm happily playing in tangle land this week and yesterday I finished the week's Diva Challenge combined with another of Jane's strings over at One Tangle--woohoo!!

Jane's Day Four string and the Diva's Duo Challenge: Cirquital and Opus

I wanted to play two day's strings together on one page and this is how it came out...the page is curling a little from the humidity--makes it look warped...aahh, summer--you can't last forever!!

I also made up a quick little bookmark to send to the child I sponsor through World Vision since his birthday is next week:

Pitt pens, Derwent Inktense and Graphitone pencils, White Uniball Signo pen

Looking ahead at the week's forecast, we still have a few more days of sweltering misery to come but then--!! Next week, all week, is going to be gloriously in the seventies, barely the low eighties! Aaahh! Of course--the a/c guy is finally supposed to come tomorrow night...so our luck! Haha! Bug 'n I may have to go hide in the movies for a little bit today or tomorrow--check out Despicable Me 2...but I'll be packing that beach bag for next week for sure!! Yay!!

 

Have a fantastic Wednesday--get out your tangle toys and play along with Diva Laura and One Tangle's Jane! And just try to keep cool...

 

Zentangle Tuezday

Mixing it up a little today--since I don't have any index cards to show ya' for ICAD Tuesday...it's now Zentangle Tuezday (and I'll have to come up with something else for Thursday...hmmm...) But, Ms. Jane over at One Tangle has been putting up daily strings to play with and I've just enjoyed being back in Zentangle mode--thinking patterns and techniques and really soaking in the zen that comes from tangling. It works wonders for the soul.

Even so, I'm still fairly behind with her daily strings--she's just posted Day Seven and I only finished Day Three yesterday...But, no worry--I'm playing along at my own pace. It is summer after all--a time to play and create--not to fuss and fret.

I wasn't overly impressed with my Day Two string results-it just doesn't seem to have that 'flow' to me:

Bunzo, Cockles 'n Mussels, Onamato, Pokeroot

Day Three's I like a little better--just feels more dimensional and cohesive:

Façade, Florz, Flutterpie, Hekzee, Insydout, Mi2, Tripoli,

I'm hoping to get our other laptop back today. The virus did some pretty hefty damage apparently...I don't understand how you can pay for a good anti-virus program and still end up with such a severe virus--just what am I paying for then??

Anyways--have a great Tuesday, try to stay cool--and thanks so much for stopping by!

How My Hubby Rocks

Yesterday was just one of those days you wish you had stayed in bed. I spent most of my morning trying to get the old laptop to boot up, to no avail--thanks to Mr. Click Happy Bug who has a serious knack for finding viruses and killing computers...The weather's cranked back up into the nineties with a thousand percent humidity. I have a lovely (not) seepy and super itchy spider bite on my knee that was swollen to almost hard boiled egg size (fortunately it's gone down pretty quickly but just the thought of a spider bite gives me severe willies!) Got everybody up and mobile, hauled the defunct laptop to Office Max--where it's going to cost $180 to get the viruses cleaned out and everything running again (guess who's paying for it out of his X-Box money??) Thought we'd zip into the mall and get our wedding rings inspected (an every six month requirement to meet our warranty agreement and they were due last month...) Walked right past Kay's, all the way to the opposite end of the mall, found a directory only to realize we had to walk all the way back to where we'd come in (at least we'd be close to where we had parked, right? Little silver lining...sheesh!!) Tried to find a some solace in either a little chocolate or a sugary, fizzy pop, but absolutely nothing appealed to me at 7-11...I was beyond consolation (why the world needs to have great sympathy for my hubby and kiddo--those are not fun days to be around me...) *Sigh*...

Enter the only man on earth capable of making those days not just bearable, but all together wonderful--my hubby! We have these beautiful wood beams over the nook in our kitchen and I had decided I wanted a whale to hang up there--we are living in the nation's whaling capital, right? Gotta have a whale! But to buy one in a gift shop was more than I wanted to spend--the 'cheaper' ones started around $70 and went well above $100...So--hubby buys a perfect piece of wood at Home Depot yesterday for fifty cents--CENTS! Draws his own outline of the whale and cut it out, sanded, painted, and viola--my perfect whale!

It's exactly what I wanted and it looks great up on the beam!

Then...a little frosting for my cake...He took a trip out to one of our favorite antique shops with his sister and nephew later in the afternoon and brought home this lamp I had fallen in love with last year--I can't believe it was still there:

Isn't it cool? A perfect reading/work lamp--I love it!!

So my Mr. Right saved the day from being an utter disaster and turned it into a pretty great day after all...He really is awesome. And hoping for a much better week ahead, though the weather's not being agreeable--more nineties all week...meh. I just might move into the refrigerator until fall...Happy Monday, folks!

Paint Party Friday/Summer of Color

Well this week has just completely flown by--Friday already, and pretty much the middle of July...This morning is blissfully cool, barely seventy and not supposed to get more than a few degrees warmer than that for the rest of the day! Sweet!! If the rain will hold off I'm thinking Bug 'n I just might head to the beach. Yeah, I'm not a 'hot day beach person'--I really don't do well once it gets up into the eighties. I love a soft, cool breeze, fluffy clouds covering most of those burning UV rays, and the smaller crowds that come with cooler days at the beach--that's what works for me! So, fingers crossed, weather permitting, we just might high tail it out of here later today!

Yesterday I tried to play around with the week's Summer of Color theme: Candy Apple Red and Yellow and I came across a watercolor tulip tutorial from Pat Howard's blog, the Painted Prism and thought I'd give it a shot with my Inktense blocks:

 

Not great but it's fun practice, learning what each color can do, blending and shading...and the funky little dandelions were another Pinterest discovery that's given me thoughts for more doodle flowers to play with later on...Any bit of practice and growing is never a waste in my book! Especially if you're having fun, right?

 

Also linking up with Paint Party Friday this morning...Thanks for stopping by--have a great weekend!!

 

 

Zentangle Thurzday

I'm doing pretty good keeping up this week! I've not really enjoyed the housework in the midst of all this ridiculous humidity--okay, so I honestly don't really enjoy housework at all but the added sticky, sweatiness just makes it all the more unpleasant. But, nonetheless, taking care of what needs to be done has its own satisfaction, and lends to a happier playtime when you've finished all those tedious chores--am I right?

So my super wonderful hubby let me buy this very cool Toned Tan Sketchbook by Strathmore a little while back as we were browsing through Michaels one day, and it's sat all this time waiting to be used...I imagined my sepia Microns shaded and highlighted with sepia and white charcoal pencils would look amazing on the tan background and so finally broke out all these toys yesterday for a quick little tangle...A favorite zentangle artist, Jane Monk, has started a new little blog dedicated to a daily tangle and I thought it could be fun to play along--I really do need to get back into a regular tangle practice. So, I used her beginning string, which you can see here, and got to tangling:

'Nzeppel, Orbs-la-dee, Quabog, Scallops, Strircles, and Tagh

 

I'm not thrilled with the final result but I do like certain aspects--the Orbs-la-dee and Strircles in both lower corners...the rest?? I let it all get a little too busy, I think. Too much, too much...But, we live and learn and hopefully today's work will produce something a little better...

 

Thanks, as always, for visiting--have a great Thursday!!



Artist's Way Wednesday

Again, I rather slacked off last week with vacation and took a break from the Artist's Way, but am picking back up with chapter six this week. I've been keeping up with the morning pages but I'm not quite sure how or when I'll manage to get an artist date in now that I have Michael home every day unless I can sneak away for a little while over the weekend...We'll see--where there's a will, there's a way, right?

But, I came across this quote last week while searching for some words of encouragement to use on my Random Acts of Mail cards, and it really spoke to me:

"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."

~Lao Tzu

 

If that's not a picture perfect quote for an art journal page, I don't know what is! I did up a quick doodle sketch, then knew I had to do a finished page:

 

Rather free and playful, drawn in Pitt pens (I know--not Sharpies?! Right?) and a mix of Inktense blocks and Neocolor II's
 

The exposure has a bit to be desired--I thought I'd taken a shot yesterday but didn't and my flash mixed with the low morning light...bleh...It needs scanned, so will have to do that later today.

 

Anyway! Have a great Wednesday! Just a couple errands to run today, more cleaning chores, and hopefully time to create some pretties for tomorrow! Thanks so much for stopping by!

 



ICAD Tuesday

I don't know if it's necessary to confess that I'm way behind on my index cards. I did get a handful done over vacation--thank goodness they're small and quick, but I'm way off with the prompts, which I think is only a technicality, really...The point is more to do the cards, not necessarily fulfill the prompts. Which is good, because I can try to catch up on last week's and do some of this week's and, oh blah dee blah dah--life goes on...So here's my latest group of cards:

A couple lettered quotes, a doodle, and a couple tangles-one using the lime green/purple Summer of Color pick from (*sigh*) two weeks ago?? I really need to get back on top of things!!

I did get my car back yesterday, only $115 for a full tune up which it desperately needed--new plugs and filters and she's all set to go! Yay! My little Kia is thirteen years old-I've driven it for eight of those years and love it. I'm hoping to have her around for another eight or more years! So, a quick trip to the grocery store and a few cleaning chores to tackle before I can sit down to play today...Right now contemplating running in this humidity or possibly just going for a good eight mile ride on the bike instead...Poor Tuck is missing his running and it is at least cool enough this morning-I think that's what we'll do! So, happy Tuesday! Have a great day!

 

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Life

It's been quite a week with hubby home for vacation. We did a little bit of everything, from touring P-town and Chatham on the Cape, site seeing in Plymouth, gobbling up oysters and margaritas, sweltering in the awful July humidity, fireworks on the harbor, a big family party on the pond with more fireworks...Whew!! So much to see and do--I'm exhausted but so happy, this week has really been such a gift.

I did manage to get a little art done between all the running around, and so I have a few cards to post here for Mail Art Monday! I had to go back and look to see what I had posted last since I didn't get to blog at all this past week, and I apologize for the one repeat, but it's the only shot I have of a tangled card I had made grouped in with a card I posted a couple weeks back that I forgot to post for Zentangle Thurzday...I'm really hoping to get myself back on track here this week!!

Okay, so here's my cards for the week, going out to more nominees in our Random Acts of Mail group:

The middle card was more grid play on brown cardstock with Sharpie and a white colored pencil

 

I fell in love with these little birdies from Lori Vliegen's blog, Elvie Studio, and she found them over at another blog-Non-dairy Diary, just put her own little twist on them, and so I added some whimsy flowers I spied on Pinterest, and viola! Cute, right?

 

Sharpies and watercolor

And more doodle flowers I discovered on Pinterest--started to color with my Aquamarkers but it must've been the humidity that made the paper softer? Damp? But the markers were tearing up the paper--and this is good, heavyweight watercolor stock, so switched to my Inktense and I was much happier with the results:

 

So, there you have it--today I get to play catch up on cleaning since I totally slacked all week for vacation--hey, I get a break too, right? Haha! But I am homebound for a while since my car is at the shop...hopefully it won't be anything too serious and I'll have my wheels again in a day or two....So I hope you all had a super fantastic holiday and have a great Monday! See you back here again soon!