ICAD is Nearly Over? Already?!

It seems like every year of the Index Card a Day Creative Challenge goes by a little bit faster, and this year is no exception. I'm planning to savor the remaining time... one 3x5 card at a time! Here are the most recent seven:

Day 50: Off-Prompt (Mandala Monday)

Layers cut from scraps of patterned paper, with minimal outlining, on my last red index card.

  Day49: Street

Possibly the most literal collage I've ever made! I love how this came out, but my one regret is that the four different street maps I pieced together very carefully, so that the big routes joined up with each other, can literally not be seen AT ALL after I layered the car, index, compass, etc, on top. Ah, well. 

Day 48: Margin

Admittedly a very tangential take on #dyicad2026 Day 48's prompt of #margin in that really only a thicker black line forms the margin between each of my layered, rainbow doodle circles.

Day 47: Backgammon

Circling back to the prompt I skipped on Mandala Monday, with a funky, hand-cut, rainbow version of a backgammon board.

Day 46: Farmer's Market

Technically speaking, I've never seen any PLAID flowers at any Farmer's Market I've ever attended but... a girl can dream, right? Brush markers and Letter It Fineliners on the unlined back of an index card.

Day 45: Thunderstorm

This card has all the ingredients I love: hand-cutting, hand-stitching, and a whimsical approach to the prompt. That said, I can't say I love the finished product very much; but it was fun to make and tomorrow is another #dyicad2026 day!

Day 44: Pewter or Steel

I started out with the pocket watch, the sundial and some of the cogs; thinking, basically "metal circles". Then I found other circles (blackwork lace, celtic knots, horoscope wheels, stylized flowers, geometric patterns, etc) at which time it kind of morphed into "circles of various origin" and I'm fine with that. Let's call this one, "Pewter OR Steel... and Friends"!

JB2615: Unicorn Holiday

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're asking you to create a card that is made using at least three of the colors from this fun Unicorn Christmas color palette from Artsy Fartsy Life. Remember, your card does not have to be inspired by the image, but certainly can be as long as it includes at least three of the five colors. Additional neutrals are allowed.

Here's my card:

I was excited to find this ancient piece of SEI "Twitterpated" striped paper which had all of the colors in the palette! Then I pulled out some pale green paper to coordinate and grabbed some diecuts and stickers from the serendipitously matching Simple Stories' Snow Pine Lodge collection. Finally I added Eyelet Outlet Poinsettia and Holly Brads for a little extra texture. Et voila!

JB2615: Unicorn Holiday runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, July 29th. Link your magical cards on the Unicorn Holiday post at Jingle Belles!

Bold and Bubbly Enamel Accents Card

What's black and white and dimensional all over? Ranger's Glossy Accents! I'd love for you to hop over to my latest Ranger Project Tutorial and see how I've used them with Make-It Stencils and Stamps, plus bold pops of Archival Ink to add texture and shine to this bold and bubbly greeting.

Dark Matter

If coffee is an important part of your day, Eyelet Outlet Coffee Brads are an excellent addition to your cardmaking embellishments! They come in original (shown here) plus Holiday Coffee and Iced Coffee Brads. Need some food to go with? There are Donut Brads; not to mention our Bacon, Egg and Toast set. 

Check out ALL the EO Food Brads... they've got their own section on the website, which also includes drinks; plus cooking and baking implements!

SOS578: Popsicle Colors

There's a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash! For "Popsicle Colors" we'd like to see cards made using this bold and beautiful Summer Color Palette; OR you can make a card inspired by the pretty popsicle photo from which we took the colors:

I did both... sort of...

I used Distress Oxide Inks in Kitsch Flamingo, Shaded Lilac and Salvaged Patina over a resist of text that I white-embossed. The ink colors are stacked, a bit like the layers of the popsicles, but I let them blend at the joins. For the focal point, I added paper flowers to which I applied the same three inks to the centers, then topped with some Eyelet Outlet Round Brads in coordinating shades. Deep, deeeeep in my stash I found a pink and blue pastel "Say it in Pearls" flourish from Prima, which needed to be trimmed and repositioned to fit on the cardfront. A teal mat and some machine stitching complete the design.

Be sure to visit SOS to the the rest of the Crew cards; then start planning what you will make using these deliciously cool Popsicle Colors. This challenge runs until the evening of Monday, July 27th.

I Can, Therefore ICAD

Another week of July has FLOWN past like... a thing that flies past really quickly! Thus, it is time for another Index Card a Day update. And here it comes............ riiiiiiiiight NOW!

Day 43: Off-Prompt

It's a black and white Mandala Monday with lots of detailing and a largely symmetrical design. If you're wondering why I usually start in a corner or otherwise let most of my mandalas go "off the page" it's because I admire symmetry, but don't particularly enjoy drawing it. Also, I think that on anything except a square or round substrate, a complete 360 mandala just doesn't fill the page as interestingly. 

BTW, my very favorite mandala making accessory is the aqua-colored round thing in the background of this photo. It's official name is the Helix Circle and Angle Maker and @smilynstef found this one when we were in a cool stationery shop on the Upper East Side of NYC... but they sell them at other art supply and office supply stores and That Big Online Store, too.

The pens are Letter It Fineliners from @Ranger_Ink and they're my go-to pens. They come in a few different sets of colors, but the set of three black pens with different sized nibs are my most used. I believe they might be the only brand of fineliners I've used where I've never once killed a nib. (This is a Big Deal in my world!!!) 

Day 42: Casino

Some years ago visited the Neon Museum and Boneyard in Las Vegas and it was absolutely amazing. No disrespect to the functioning casinos on the Old Strip and the New Strip; but whenever anyone says "Las Vegas" or "Casino" I think of all the fabulous, colorful-but-rusty, de-commissioned neon signs on that property; and the wonderful storeies the guide told on the tour. Rather than try to reproduce a single sign, I've done a sort of macro mashup of the colors and shapes from the Stardust, the Dunes and the Golden Nugget... with some Laureny imagination added in for good measure.

Day 41: Favorite _______

Having utterly failed in an attempt to pick ONE favorite thing, I decided to do a bit of a mash-up of some current faves. So here's my favorite backyard animal, the fox; sitting on a background of my favorite art form, collage; there are some roses (my favorite flower); and a butterfly (my favorite insect) sticker (my favorite embellishment); the texty sky and cloud backdrop is from one of my favorite digital collages; I used it to fill up the sheet while printing graduation photos of some of my favorite people, my nieces and nephew. I photographed the card against a vintage needlepoint picture my aunt gave me, because interesting/ unusual staging is also my favorite.

Day 40: Frost

It's been very hot and humid here in NJ, which is absolutely the only time I ever think fondly about SNOW!!! I made an inky. blendy background with a few shades of Archival Ink and some rubbing alcohol; let it dry; then used several sizes of white Posca pens to draw stylized flakes. I tried very very hard NOT to outline everything with a black Letter It Fineliner, but at the last minute I caved, lol.

Day 39: Harmony

 Here's a collage card that I started with the "harmony" prompt at the forefront of my mind; but it doesn't show up very much in the finished collage. Which is fine... I like how it turned out... I suppose the design is fairly "harmonious"? ICAD is about exploration and having fun sooooo... MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Day 38: Blue

Sometimes I just want to cut out shapes from patterned paper, stack them, and maybe outline some of the design elements. If loving that is wrong... I don't wanna be right.

Day 37: Origami

It's my first One Staple Collage of July... and already one of my favorites! I've stacked some torn metallic origami paper; the copyright page from a Japanese language book; the label from the metallic origami paper; a pagoda and crane fan from some fancy Japanese-themed origami paper; and the diagram of an origami crane from yet another set of origami paper; all on top of a yellow index card to which I applied some ancient and imperfect rub-on transfers. As usual, I've made the single staple which holds everything together nearly impossible to see (sorry!) but it's just about in the center of the crane diagram.

Stars or Stripes (Week 2)

At Jingle Belles, it's our second week of Stars or Stripes, Forever; plus we are also the "Twisted Sister" option on the Double Trouble Challenge Blog's Christmas in July event, where there is a basic recipe: (three colors + two layers + one holiday image) required for all entries at Double Trouble. Then there's a TWIST: to add Stars and/or Stripes and also link with us at Jingle Belles. Then there's a DARE: to use one of two sketches from Try a Sketch on Tuesday.

Remember, you only need Stars or Stripes for Jingle Belles, but if you're up for a bigger challenge, consider hopping over to Double Trouble for all the details!

My card has ALL of the above:

I used one of the sketches from Try a Sketch on Tuesday (see below); I also incorporated the basic recipe from Double Trouble: three colors (red, green and blue); two layers (blue and striped papers from Basic Grey) and one or more holiday images (a cluster of MME diecuts). And of course I've got stripes and stars (admittedly just two stars lol) for our own Jingle Belles challenge. Woohoo!

Do hop over and check out Double Trouble's Christmas in July event, as well as Try a Sketch on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, at Jingle Belles, JB2614: Stars OR Stripes, Forever (for which you need only... as the title says... stars OR stripes!) runs until next Wednesday evening, July 15th.

Always Be Yourself

Eyelet Outlet Unicorn and Rainbow Brads have always been awesome, but they're even better on sale! Here they're paired with our tiniest (1/16") Round Brads to enhance a big chunky sentiment.

Enchanted Unicorn Shopping List:

Unicorn and Rainbow Brads

 1/16" Round Brads

Just a reminder that the Eyelet Outlet Online Store is going to close on December 31, 2026, so if you haven't checked out the inventory lately, this is the ideal time: loads of brad styles are on sale, but so far only a few have sold out completely. Stock up on your favorites now!

This Was the Week That Was (aka ICAD Round-Up)

We've passed the halfway point of @indexcardaday and here are my ICADs from the first full week of July:

Day 36: Biomorphic Shapes

(also Mandala Monday)

My first attempt at a mandala using only biomorphic shapes is... semi-successful? It's not what I envisioned, but it is an interesting mash-up of mandala... microscope slide... and Keith Haring mural. So I'm gonna call it a win and move on to the next thing.

Day 35: Seaweed

I'm definitely into handcutting again this year; and also I keep seeing really cute ceramics projects with funky, adorable fish. When I made this last week, it just had fish on a wavy-water background and I felt like it needed "one more thing" but I didn't know what. When I saw the #seaweed prompt it all fell into place!

Day 34: Picnic

It’s a very silly take on picnic for featuring handcut letters (from my first attempt at stenciling "gingham" via my last Ranger Tutorial) and Eyelet Outlet Ant Brads.

Day 33: Off-Prompt

When I started this, I thought it was going to be a mandala... and then it sort of morphed into a modified 1960's-inspired paisley(ish) Pucci(ish) extravaganza of handcutting. 

Potato, Po-TAH-to.

Day 32: Tetris

I went at the "Tetris" theme a bit tangentially by making a colorful mosaic effect with rainbow scraps of patterned paper. It was surprisingly fun to make and thus I wouldn't rule out another version coming along later!

 

Day 31: Change

I had the idea of coinage, expressed as circles stenciled in neutral tones of Archival Inks. I added hand-stitching with silver embroidery floss. I feel like it needs more? or less? or… something… but I have no idea what. So I decided to leave it here and move on to the next idea. That’s the great thing about #ICAD there’s always tomorrow!

Day 30: Pistachio or Green

Technically, this was yesterday's prompt, but since yesterday was Mandala Monday, I slid it over for a day. I had so much fun with the #scarlet prompt a few weeks ago, that I decided to do a similar version of a grid collage; this time with all things green. As you can see, I had a few leftovers!

JB2614: Stars and/or Stripes, Forever

It's July third, which sets the stage for the new challenge at Jingle Belles, Stars and/or Stripes, Forever. So I'm pretty sure you've already guessed that we'd like to see holiday cards which feature stars and/or stipes, lol; but in case there was any doubt, now you know. They don't have to be red, white and blue of course; any color you love will do just fine. The first time we did this theme, I confess I was nervous, but as a matter of fact there are LOTS of holiday papers, stamps and stencils with stripes; and stars are quite prominent for Christmas, too. There's actually quite a lot of choice. And now, without further ado, here's my starry, stripey card:

My stars and my stripes are in the form of two different (ancient!) patterned papers, the red is DCWV and the green is Carta Bella. I found half a pack of Pebbles' diecuts and made them into a cluster that connects the four background panels. There are a few elderly chipboard stars courtesy of Echo Park and the sentiment sticker is from Doodlebug.

Be sure to hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and start planning what you'll link up with us this fortnight. JB2614: Stars and/or Stripes, Forever runs until 6pm (Eastern) on July, 15th.

NEW Holiday Jumpstart Kit

There's a brand new Holiday Jumpstart Kit in the Paper Anthology Etsy Shop! It's called Holiday Jumpstart: A Sequence of Deer and Doilies and it looks a bit like this:

Hop over to the PA Blog to read all about it, or visit Paper Anthology Design to get your own copy of Holiday Jumpstart: A Sequence of Deer and Doilies today! 

Good Advice

Good advice is always welcome, and these sweet mini cards definitely deliver. There are eighteen garden-themed Eyelet Outlet Brads used here, from ten different sets; all of which are listed and linked below.

Garden Goodness Shopping List:

Ladybug Brads

Mini Ladybug Brads

Leaf Brads

Mini Leaf Brads

Stitched Flower Brads

White Daisy Brads

Colored Daisy Brads

Gnome 2 Brads

Girl Gnome Brads

Garden Tools Brads

Remember that, with retirement approaching at the end of 2026, items that sell out in the Eyelet Outlet Store are NOT being restocked; so be sure to stock up on your favorite brads today!

SOS577: You're So Sweet

It's time for a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash and this fortnight we're embracing all the SWEET things in life. Thus, we'd like to see something sweet on your project: it could be a sweet treat, a cute baby card, however you interpret it. As you can see, I went with "sweet treats". Of course.

Ninety percent of this card is composed of stickers; and ninety percent of the stickers are ancient, making this especially stashy, woohoo! The cake, balloons and cupcakes are Susan Branch; I couldn't tell you exactly what age they are, but they had a price tag from a craft store that closed like fifteen years ago so... old, lol. The calendar is Echo Park's Victoria Garden... not quite as old, but still quite classic. There are three styles of washi tape (kind of old); and all of the flower stickers came from a Mambi planner sticker book, circa 2022. The ledger paper background is from Crate Paper and not very old.  

SOS577: You're So Sweet runs until the evening of Monday, July 13th. Check out the other awesome Crew cards at Shopping Our Stash, and start planning what you'll link up with us this fortnight!

Make-It Stamps: Fun with Fruit Card

What's fun, fresh and full of summer flavor? Make-It's Fun with Fruit Stamp Set! I'd love for you to visit the Ranger Project Tutorials Page and follow along as I pair the fabulous fruit with seven (7!) shades of Ranger's colorful Embossing Powder (there are over 50 in total); then create a dynamic gingham background using the Make-It Slanted Stencil with bold Archival Inks on this super summery card. ♥

ICAD

Another week has passed, June is just about over, so here are the seven Index Cards I've made since the last ICAD round-up:

Day 29: Shibori/ Mandala Monday

Shibori was a prompt I originally skipped over, but this week I had an idea for a shibori-inspired Mandala Monday, so I've circled back. I used Archival Inks to make a rich blue background, then added all my petals and lines with a white Posca Pen. 

Day 28: Coastline

This is what I love about prompts, you can follow them wherever they lead, however tangential. Case in point: Today's #dyicad2026 prompt is #COASTLINE from which my mind drifted to BEACH... and then BOARDWALK... and then (obviously!) CONEY ISLAND! (Best not to think about it too hard, lol!)  I had a lot of fun using ALL my colors of Posca Pens and I love how this turned out. The only problem is, now that I have Coney Island inside my head I *really* want a Clam Roll from Nathan's!

Day 27: Crane

Cranes cut from an old, falling apart bird book. "Habitat" made of hexagons punched from various scraps of book paper, sheet music, etc. and edged with green ink. Even I don't really think these two concepts "go" together... and yet... I really love how this came out. So there.

Day 26: Parterre

A very very funky take on #parterre; really just an excuse to cut somewhat shrub-shaped pieces out of green patterned paper scraps. Non, je ne regrette rien.

Day 25: Penguin

Penguins cannot fly.

I cannot fly.

Therefore... I am a penguin.

Additional evidence: I wear A LOT of black, have a tendency towards embonpoint, love fish and have a rock collection. Yep. Penguin!

Penguin illustration, Archival Ink background, manual typewriting and machine stitching on the unlined back of an index card from the dollar store. Bonus points: This is a KING penguin on a ROYAL typewriter, wahey!!!

Day 24: Atrium

Flashing back to the #atrium prompt, which I skipped the week before last. Admittedly a tangential take but... you know... it's ICAD; and there's no better time in the whole creative year to be tangential, imo!

Day 23: Pomegranate

I skipped over #pomegranate yesterday in #dyicad2026 in favor of Mandala Monday, but then I did think of a fun take, and decided to circle back. One of my favorite things about @indexcardaday is that each year, there's at least one prompt I have to Google to find out what it is. A few years ago, @gypsy999 came up with #ogee and I became obsessed with elongated, repeating S-curve patterns. I confess that it never occurred to me to add stylized pomegranates to the mix... until now, lol!

Sketchy (Week 2)

It's the second week of our festive sketch challenge at Jingle Belles, so here's a reminder of the beautiful sketch Stephanie has devised to inspired us. Remember you can stretch, compress, flip or rotate the sketch; just make sure we can still see the bones of it! 

Here's my card:

I only have a couple of Penny Black's pre-printed Masterpieces Made Simple journal cards left, but luckily one of them was landscape oriented, because I wanted to rotate the sketch this time. I found this stencil-printed piece of white on dark blue cardstock in my "ufo" box and loved the way the colors and branches sort of echoed the background of the deer illustration. I added a strip of glitter silver tape to serve as the strong line inside the sketch, and a small glittery snowflake is swapping in for the circle piece. The tiny white pearls get a little bit lost in the white branches at the bottom left, but the ones on the top right show up well. Finally I chose a Tim Holtz Idea-Ology wordfetti sticker as my sentiment, and placed it towards the top of the snowscape scene.

JB2613: 'Twas the Sketch Before Christmas runs until next Wednesday evening, July 1st. Details and Linky Tool are over at Jingle Belles.

Garden Scene

Journal cards are a fantastic shortcut for cardmakers and Eyelet Outlet Brads make them even more beautiful. This card has twelve brads from six different sets... can you spot them all? (Hint: there are examples below the card to help you!) Check out the Handy Shopping List, below, to see if you're right.

Handy Shopping List:

Rose Brads

Colored Daisy Brads

Garden Tools Brads

Rabbit Brads

Dragonfly Brads

Female Cardinal Brads

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Online Store to find all of these selections... and so much more!

More Index Cards? Yup.

Time for the past week's ICAD, in reverse order, starting with today... aka... Mandala Monday!

Day 22: Off-Prompt

I haven't made a sticker mandala in a bit, so this was a lot of fun. For the limited space of an index card, it's definitely better to choose smaller stickers; luckily, I can never resist those sheets of tiny kawaii stickers, and these little puffy unicorns were perfect. I also used some rainbows, and a cute donut for the center; but for every "themed" sticker, there are a bunch of circles, triangles and hearts filling in the spaces and creating a nice base for the fancier ones to shine!

Day 21: Moon

I've gone very literal this time and combined part of a moon map… an astrological calendar… a moonflower… and my new favorite quote.

Day 20: Strata or Stripes

Or, in this case, Strata WITH Stripes... and Stitching!

Day 19: Liminal Space

From Merriam-Webster: Liminal is a word for the in-between. It describes states, times, spaces, etc., that exist at a point of change—a metaphorical threshold—as in “the liminal zone between sleep and wakefulness.” The idea of a threshold is at the word’s root; it comes from Latin limen, meaning “threshold.” Limen has served as the basis for a number of other English words, including eliminate (“to cast out”), sublime (“lofty in conception or expression”), preliminary (“introductory”), and the woefully underused postliminary (“subsequent”).

Woohoo, here's my third (so far!) and favorite (so far!) One-Staple Collage of #dyicad2026 and I'm pretty pleased with how many (admittedly loose) interpretations of liminal space I've built into it; and also with the shapes of my stacked items, which have managed to use the physical space of the index card pretty well. 

Day 18: L'Elephante (Bon Jour!)

Apparently, it's my week to paperpiece cute animals? I hadn't planned to do two in a row, but that's what happened, and since a big part of the @indexcardaday fun for me is letting myself explore whatever appealing rabbit holes present themselves... I'm just going with it.  

Animal Safety Tip: IRL, it's probably a bad idea to allow elephants, however adorable, near rabbit holes, as this could be dangerous to the rabbits. (This is my attempt at a National Park Service style of funny animal caption... I think I need more practice. In the meantime, if you're not following @nationalparkservice you are not only missing really fun captions, but also great photography and loads of fascinating nature facts. So now you know.) 

Day 17: Off-Prompt

This is Francis the Fanciful Fox; handcut and pieced from scraps of patterned paper. He and I are off-prompt on Day 17 of #diycad2026 and you can find out more about the Index Card a Day Creative Challenge at @indexcardaday or @gypsy999 or both!

Day 16: Fig

Last year, our kind neighbor gave us a sprouted cutting from her fig tree (the fruit of which she generously shares with us each year) and we tended it all summer; cut it back in the fall; put it in the cool, dark cellar all winter; then brought it out in the Spring. And whaddaya know? Newton (the only name for a pet fig, imo!) survived and started getting leaves right away this Spring; he’s already grown bigger than last year and has lots more leaves, as you can see in the photo. We’re hoping to plant him outdoors at the end of the summer, then cover and wrap when the temps go down in the fall.