waiting for the grass to grow!

our path is complete, the dumpster full of concrete for recycling has been hauled away, the side yard has been re-seeded, and even as i type, mother nature is obligingly providing a light but steady rain to water everything in. can't ask for much more than that, eh? here's a new pic, bear in mind that (with a little luck!) all of the naked-brown-dirt areas will be grass in a few weeks, and the path will get another sanding (to fill in the little gaps between bricks) after it has settled. we want to replant some bushes and things against the house, as well, but that will take place at a later date. meanwhile, we're pretty happy with how this has turned out!

here's a reverse view taken from the little porch, so you can see the arched "landing" we created to visually anchor the whole thing to the house. that might be my favorite part!

meanwhile, the end of july signaled the end of ICAD, and here are my last couple of cards, but first a few interesting (ok, arguably interesting) (well, ok, possibly only interesting if you're ME) ICAD statistics. bear in mind that my goals for this project were to work pretty flat, to try new things-- especially wet media and pens, and to keep up better with timely posting:

total cards: 61

flat cards: 50 (wahey!)

cards with hand-drawing or lettering: 11 (pretty respectable)

cards using wet media: 14 (not bad)

collage cards: 45 (hello, comfort zone)

thematically, a few trends emerged:

rainbow cards: 14

cards with repeating circles: 14

cards with doilies: 12

sewn cards: 25 (ok, yeah, not a surprise)

cards with sparkly bits: 8 (holy wow, that's LOW for me!)

finally, the highs and lows:

cards i really really DO NOT like at all: 7 (just over 10%... not bad)

cards i absolutely totally love: 18 (YOWZA!)

060: ink blots

in its blank state i used this card to blot up the excess of a couple of last week's inky/painty/watery crayon essperiments... and it started looking cool enough that i filled in the rest with a blending sponge and then added on some little bits of leftover chinese newspaper. (apologies to chinese speakers if i've unwittingly used strips that say anything unpleasant; i THINK the more colorful bits are adverts.) 

061: rainbow heart

here's a shocking true confession: i made this card earlier in the week and deliberately saved it because i thought it would sum up my ICAD book-- and experience-- perfectly! colorful, vivid and fun... yep... that pretty much says it all! :) :) :)

moving into august, lest any of us start suffering from index card withdrawal, the lovely miss tammy, creator of ICAD (whose blog, daisy yellow, is a must-read!) will be hosting the daily paper prompt* so if you're an art journaler, or you'd LIKE to be... this is a fabulous way to start, re-start, or solidify a daily art habit! ♥♥♥

*i've made a start but not yet photographed, will post in a day or two.

landscaping (& icad-ing) update

i'm sure everyone is positively dying to see a picture of the new path, and i'm here for you, darlings! :) it still needs to be trimmed and sanded (i have very professionally used the yellow extension cord to show where the finished left edge will be) then the adjacent area gets filled in with dirt to make the correct grade, and finally the side yard will be re-seeded with grass. but i think you can see the basic size and shape. my cousin greg, who is an amazing landscaper, is doing the work, and he's been reallllllllllly (really, REALLY!) nice* about "collaborating"... which, in this context, of course means patiently letting me try out a million ideas until i figure out what i want, and then translating that into something that will actually WORK in terms of construction!!! after playing around with various scenarios, we've settled on a 38" width and switched from a horizontal edging to a vertical one, on the grounds that it shows off the herringbone pattern better. i think it's going to be pretty fab when completed, and it's almost exactly like the picture i had in my head, maybe better! :)

and now the ICADs... we're in the home stretch on that, as well, which is equally exciting!

054: cactus collage

not much explanation necessary; my mom gave me some vintage nature stamps recently and i'm fairly well smitten.

055: jerry garcia tribute card

playing around with water soluble wax crayons and stitching. it's a good combo, though in this case donning protective eyewear is recommended.

056: texy new york skyline

inspired by some amazing tape on a package the lovely amy t (♥♥♥!) sent me; my version's a little overcrowded for an index card, but i still kinda like it.

057: rainbow arcs

we spent a couple of days this week (intermittently) working on the arc for the top of the path; clearly i had that shape burned onto my brain!!! :)

058: inky embossed doilies

there are only a few ICADs i made this year that really just do not like at all... and this is one of them. there are a couple of pretty good ideas here, but they don't gel into anything. and i'm 100% ok with that, failure should always an option for creative pursuits, imo!

059: red collage

again, i think the title and the card sort of speak for themselves. one thing they are definitely saying, "i ♥LOVE♥ collage!"

*i should also mention, once again, that i am married to the nicest man in the entire universe; and i'm not just saying that because he gives me a free hand to do whatever i want in terms of decor and landscaping... although he does! :) :) :)

ep henry, coventry brickstone, harvest blend

that's our choice of pavers. because i'm sure the suspense has been killing you since last week! :) the bond will be a 45 degree herringbone pattern with a horizontal brick border. bonus points have been awarded to me for having instinctively picked the most expensive way to do this! because a herringbone pattern uses the most bricks, since you waste part of the ones that need to be trimmed along the edge; and the most labor, because the trimming gets done by hand. so given this information and the opportunity to switch to something a little less costly, have i changed my mind? ummmmm... nope. as sally so wisely said to harry, "i want what i want." even if it means we won't be doing much planting until next spring? yeah, i'm ok with that. we've had a couple of delays in the last year to various household projects in which the extra time resulted in an entirely new-- and much better-- idea that evolved during the waiting period. so i'm willing to roll the dice in hopes of a similar epiphany. plus, in the meantime, we'll be getting the result we really want. here's how it's going so far:

from a lovely green side yard...

...to a whole lotta dirt!

now is probably a good time to mention that the walkway project is actually secondary to the fact that we needed to tear up the whole side yard in order to re-grade around the basement window that's just below foundation level on this side of the house. so on the one hand, this isn't quite as frivolous as it seems. on the other hand, it's going to get considerably messier before it looks nice again. ah well. that pretty much sums up most things in life, doesn't it?

meanwhile, there are more ICADs, woohoo!

051: chinese sewn collage

this was going to be a stapled collage, but i thought some lumpy bumpy stitches and dangly threads might be even more fun. i stand by that decision!

052: mehndi rainbow

the base of this was an ad for fiesta-ware-like plates in a catalog. i thought they looked like a rainbow. so i decided to go crazy with a sharpie ...like ya do... :)

053: vintage owl collage

the owl is one of those old school, pre-rub-on-style transfers that you soak in warm water and then slide caaaaaaaaaaaarefully onto your target. this one was on a very eldery sheet that my aunt found at a garage sale. i was actually pretty sure it would disintegrate the moment water hit it, but decided to give it a try anyway. i now feel i owe the meyrcord company of carol stream, illinois, a bit of an apology, since their 40+ year old product worked better than some of the brand new fancy craft supplies i've bought recently. go figure!

ok, so, now that we're caught up, does anybody wanna come outside with me and play in the dirt pile? no? i bet nephew matthew will be up for it, excuse me whilst i phone to enquire, darlings! :) :) :)

running around in circles

but you know, in a ♥GOOD♥ way... and mostly on index cards! to tell the truth, the memory of shari carroll's interlocking rings card (CASE study #199) has given me a bit of an obsession with circles that overlap, interlock, and just generally interact with each other. if you scroll down a little, you'll see what i mean:

047: rings and a rainbow

rainbows seem to be a recurring mini-theme of my ICAD cards this summer. i'm not sure why, exactly, but i kind of like it. this background was made by placing a tiny drop of acrylic paint in each color of the rainbow side by side, then scraping the paint out over the surface with an old giftcard.

048: citrus and circles

the same idea, but different. i wish i'd done the stitching in white or yellow and then added one more tone-on-tone element. but i didn't. ah well. maybe next time.

049: watercolor lillies

couldn't resist going back to watercolor flowers with stitched outlines. lillies this time, inspired by an anuschka bag i saw in a magazine. pretty sure i'm gonna try hibiscus next! :)

050: circles under tissue

this is a fairly cool jane maxwell-ish background that i THOUGHT was finished until i photographed it. now i wonder if it needs one more thing. i could stitch on top... or add a sewing pattern lady... or even some more of those rings? hmmmmmm... can we call this one a work in progress?

hope you are having the most awesome of weekends!

♥♥♥

who knew it would be so difficult to choose PAVERS?!

do you have any idea just how many brands of engineered stone there are for making patios and walkways? ok, neither do i, but i can tell you it's A LOT, and they vary considerably as to price* and availability! then you have to choose a shape, a size, a finish, a colorway**, the pattern in which you want to place them (this, i now know, is called "the bond") and any borders or trim you need to finish the design. if you managed to deduce from all of this that we are doing a bit of hardscaping around our lovely chateau, you are quite correct. if you're wondering why i'm telling you all this, i'm not really sure except it's pretty much all i've thought about this week, so please bear with me. hey, i know, want to see some ICAD's?! :)

043: like a dream

your basic magazine/book collage, but kinda fun, right?

044: watercolor leaves

still experimenting with paints and markers; still quite clearly in love with alisa burke!

045: strips and circles

remember the stitched circles card from the other day? behold: the leftovers!!!

046: jane maxwell-ish... again!

what can i say? i♥ silhouettes and funky backgrounds. and PINK! :)

*when i say "vary" i mean that they  range from expensive... to REALLY expensive... yikes! :0

**if you ever embark on such a project be sure to drive however far you have to in order to find a dealer who has samples arrayed outdoors, so that you can see what they really look like. because i assure you, you really cannot tell at all from photos in a catalog or even three little stones in a showroom! tip for the day, darlings! you're welcome, lol. ♥

more ICADdery!

have i mentioned how much i ♥LOVE♥ this project? ok, yeah, like elebenty million times over the last three summers. but every year the index card a day project totally sparks my love of making "pointless" art that is only for me, and generally reinvigorates my creative energy. so yeah, i'm probably going to continue to enthuse about it publicly. anyway, here are a few more cards:

040: torn layers collage

for me ICAD is roughly divided between adventurously trying NEW stuff (particularly using paint and other wet media) ...OR... rewarding myself by making tiny little collages that don't make any sense, but do make me really really happy. obviously, this is one of the latter. :)

041: watercolor + pattern

i spend a fair amount of time trying to disguise or ignore the lines on most of my index cards, but every once in a while it's fun to embrace them!

042: plotting and skulduggery

the text and photo came from two different magazines, plus i'm pretty sure the japanese text is upside down; but i still really LOVE this one!

what are you doing this weekend? whatever it is, i hope it's fun, and creative, and maybe involves a tiny bit of plotting and skulduggery. but... you know... in a good way, darlings! ♥♥♥

brand new art crush!

this time i'm captivated by watercolors, specifically the whimsical, colorful, doodle-y flowers of alisa burke! if you want to see some totally drool-worthy examples, click this link! meanwhile, here's my ICAD tribute:

036: inspired by alisa burke

i'm determined to practice more with my watercolors. specifically, i'd like to be better at blending!

037: je connais tiny stapled collage

(posted on monday to go with my daisy yellow guest spot!)

038: collage of leftovers

this was most of the stuff left on my worktable the other night: paper strips, a dina wakley stamped bird, scraps of lace and ribbon and tape, and a little bit of magazine text.

039: doily collage

yep, i'm still totally obsessed with both overlapping layers and using even the tiniest scraps of doily, so clearly this one was just a matter of time! :)

speaking of time, i'm trying to blog more regularly and avoid loading an entire week's worth of index cards into one post. it's hard to believe that ICAD is more than half over already, this summer is just totally flying by!!! ♥

"je connais" tiny stapled collage

i'm super-excited to be the guest ICAD artist on the daisy yellow blog today. thank you very much, tammy, for inviting me! when i started thinking about making this card, i knew immediately that i wanted to make a stapled collage. i also thought it would probably a neatly stacked one, as inspired by this gorgeousness; but lately i've been realllllllllly into torn layers, too. then it occurred to me to wonder, "wouldn't both of those ideas work pretty well together?!" ummm... YEAH!!! see?

this card has a little bit of pretty much EVERYTHING i love! well, ok, it isn't pink, which is obviously a drawback, lol. but other than that it's got all my faves: vintage sheet music, torn layers, foreign text, doily scraps, a butterfly diecut from an old book of green stamps that stephanie shared with me... and it's all held together with a staple. ok, technically, there are in fact two staples, but the second one is just decorative! :)

i heartily recommend that you check out daisy yellow generally, the index card a day project in particular, and the flickr group especially! ciao, darlings, you can thank me later! ♥

have i mentioned how much i ♥LOVE♥ jane maxwell?

i'm sure i have; i've been lucky enough to see a few of her one-woman shows at the campton gallery in new york, and her large scale collages just totally blow my mind; especially when she combines vintage paper with really clean, modern silhouettes. why am i telling you all this? because the other night it occurred to me that i could try making something inspired by jane maxwell for one of my ICAD's... so i did:

031: inspired by jane maxwell

i found an index-card-sized lady in a magazine with a nice silhouette... stapled her to a couple of nice contrasting layers... and cut the whole thing out. then i layered her on top of punched circles covered with transparent sewing pattern to get an appropriately maxwellian background. i have to tell you that making this was soooooooooo much fun, i guarantee there will be 

MORE OF THESE!!! :)

032: namaste collage

if you ever make inkjet image transfers, you know that sometimes they come out well and sometimes they just don't, for no reason you can fathom. this one of pink waterlillies came off in irregular strips, so i decided to fool around with tearing some hindi newspaper bits to fill in the blank spaces. and it worked! (ok yeah, it's odd looking... but in a good way, imo!)

033: rainbow lei

here's an idea that didn't work out the way i wanted. at all. but the best part of ICAD is you can try new things every single day! (actually, if i don't produce at least a few total clunkers, i start feeling like i'm playing it way too safe. so this card makes me oddly happy!)

034: rainbow strips

conversely, this came out even better than i expected. go figure!

035: denim stapled collage

remember the card from last week with the denim panel? well, there was some extra denim! also a bit of vintage doily, a tag from japanese yarn, and some very small sequins that i painstakingly tacked into place with a small amount of gluestick and then machine stitched over. fussy to do, but i love how it looks!

if you're not checking out daisy yellow and the flickr group during ICAD, you are missing some spectacularly creative art! off you go, darlings! ♥

motherload of ICAD!

it's been a heck of a week, which involved an emergency trip to the dentist*, an emergency trip to the chiropractor**, and a birthday with a zero in it.*** there were ICADs made, but not posted. and there still are. but this is how many are ready to go right now, so as cathy zielske wisely said, "sometimes good enough is good enough". words to live by, no?! here are the cards:

023: mehndi doodles

i wanted to see if i could draw some stylized, indian-inspired, 

tattoo-like graphics... and i could! score!

024: m is for marilyn

strangely enough, all of these little bits and bobs were "leftovers" on my worktable one night. 

025: scrappy rainbow with stitched circles

i traced a few of the circle outlines before i started machine stitching; i freehanded a few more when i got going.

026: pink transparency layers

the weird thing about the FIVE (!) layers i've assembled here... (magazine lady's face, fussy-cut flamingos, the word "city", my own photoshopped and tinted statue of liberty photo, fussy cut pink flower) ...is that they almost blend together too well, become visual mush. also, i forgot to print the transparency in reverse, so lady liberty is holding the torch in the wrong hand. ah well, all's fair in love and ICAD! :)

027: rose collage

more random layers. what can i say? i like random layers. 'specially vintagey ones!

028: mehndi doodles and spray ink

one of these cards had random inks on it before i started, the other i painted and sprayed and smooshed around with different colors afterwards. i was not intentionally creating a pair... but that's what happened!

 

029: collage of stitched squares

i was inspired by tammy, who's been making some amazing collages that are basically squares and stitching (and magic! and awesomeness!); this is why i never worry about "copying"... my stuff NEVER looks like the thing i'm trying to re-create anyway, lol. which is a good thing, i suppose.

030: "etuden" collage

more random but serendipitous paper scraps; but this time... with WORDS!

*one of my (many, expensive) crowns fell out. fortunately, i didn't swallow it. even better, the dentist decided the tooth underneath didn't need anything else done to it and he just glued it back in there. as dental emergencies go, this was mercifully minor.

**for the first time in a (happy, grateful) long time, my back went totally out. luckily i had a comfortably carpeted floor, a backlog of netflix, and a very sweet husband on hand to help me cope. also, a great chiropractor, who's got me-- knock wood-- on the mend!

***rhymes with "nifty"! i thought i might be really freaked out, but as it turns out, not so much. of course, i did spend pretty nearly the entire month of june scoopin' up lovely birthday treats, which HELPS!! :)

now even ICAD-ier!

more index cards, woohoo!

018: vive la difference!

still playing with torn layers... sheet music, this time.

019: chandelier

spray ink + scraps of paper + a piece of (hard to photograph!) ink jet transparency.

020: flowery mandalas

blending prismacolor pencils with odorless mineral spirits.

021: punched layers

this one was totally UN-interesting, until i outlined all the punched edges with a sharpie. who knew?!

022: happiness always

this might be my favorite of the group. i printed my own waterlillies photo onto an inkjet transparency, layered it over japanese text paper, then put a fussy-cut magazine flower-- and the best fortune ever-- on top!

be sure to check out tammy's cards and the FAQ at daisy yellow, not to mention the flickr group of gorgeous index card creations... which is where i'm off too RIGHT NOW! :)

"i ♥LOVE♥ this one!" she said, modestly

i've mentioned before that what i love most about ICAD is that it embraces process, rather than outcome. when you sit down with your index card each night there is ZERO pressure to come away with a gorgeous or usable finished product. for me that translates into working a lot more loosely, not having a plan, using my underemployed pencils and paints, trying out stuff i've never done before, experimenting with ideas that might not work. it's a sort of art lab. the point is to be... well... pointless! i know it may seem like a "waste" of time and supplies, but believe me when i say to you, the whole "pointlessness" part is the key. because i promise... you work differently when you don't care about results. you take more risks, you do WEIRD stuff, and sometimes, just once in a while, something awesome happens and you think, "AHA!" i was lucky enough for that to happen on saturday, and it made my whole week!

014: watercolors and pencils and stitching

i wish i had taken photos of this as it evolved because it totally illustrates the "trying out things that probably won't work just for fun" premise really REALLY well. i painted a heart and swirls with watercolors. they looked ok, but not that interesting. i stitched around each swirl, and the white thread hardly showed up. i thought about switching to black, but decided that maybe a second layer of white would work. it didn't, really. the whole thing was frankly pretty "meh" and i was ok with that. how and when i decided to fill in the whole rest of the card with white stitching i have no idea, but the next thing i knew, that's what i was doing. 

i almost like the back even more than the front. and the photos hardly do it justice, this thing is all about TEXTURE, baby! 

015: musical grid

i had some scraps of sheet music and embroidery illustrations leftover from something else. i was playing with the grid idea. it didn't quite "gel" yet, but i think you'll see more.

016: a mandala kind of like tammy's

another thing to love about ICAD: it made me realize i like to draw and doodle! i'm not good at it, in the sense that i can't render on a page what my eye sees, so i've always found drawing a frustration. but it turns out that if you don't NEED to come away with something that looks a particular way, the frustration evaporates... and it's replaced with FUN! 

017: torn layers

another card that doesn't really look like much, but was another big lightbulb moment! torn textural layers of whisper-thin chinese text paper and a cut-to-pieces doily. there's no focal point or anything, but again, the texture is awesome, and i think i'll be looking for a way to make this idea into something more substantial. in the meantime... it was ♥FUN♥!

go and have some art-related ♥FUN♥ darlings!!!!!!!!!!

xoxox

lauren