ICAD Roundup #1

The Index Card a Day project started Thursday, June 1st, so I don't have an entire week's worth of cards, but I'm sort of thinking that Sunday is a good off-peak blogging day for round-ups, so let's see how it goes!

Day 1: Sapling

Ok yeah... technically, this is a full-grown tree, but afterall the point of Tammy G's 100% optional prompt list is just to get us STARTED... so I try not to overthink too much. For technique, I've used one of my favorite collage exercises, "glue as you go"; which... as you may have surmised... is where you choose each collage element and glue it immediately, without selecting the next element or dry-fitting or indeed doing ANY of the typical collage techniques. This sounds (and is) simple... but... it's more challenging than you may think at first; and thus quite a valuable addition to one's ICAD arsenal. 

(Note to self: try not to put the tiny random text element directly where the hole gets punched!)

Day 2: Polka Dots or Graphic Dots

I love the idea of the two sizes of punched out "dots" being negative space and the color coming from a second card layered behind the first. There was A LOT of white space, so I added the handcut letters. This is one of those times when I found the process and the ideas more appealing than the finished artwork, which is basically the EXACT thing that I want to happen during ICAD! 

(This is also a case where you will, at some point this summer, see a much more polished version of the 

same idea turning up as a finished card... so act surprised, k?!)

Day 3: Map

I have A LOT of vintage maps and atlases that I use as wrapping paper, as backgrounds, and yes, they are amazing in collage. The flowers came from an old falling-apart children's story book, the car is from a garage-sale aquisition about vintage cars... pretty much everything I love (except chocolate) is right here, in a convenient 3x5" format! 

Day 4: Off-prompt

 One of Tammy G's warm up posts had a bunch of handlettering, which reminded me of yet another thing I have to thank ICAD for! When I'm not sure what to letter, I usually go with an alphabet... this is just colorful letters, consistent shadows and partial outlines; but the BIG SURPRISE was that I somehow fitted in all the letters despite not taking any time to plan out spacing etc!

♥♥♥

It's not too late to join the fun, ICAD2023 runs through July 31st. Worried about committing to sixty one days? Try it for a week. If you love it, keep going... if not, you'll have a week's worth of inspiration and ideas you might not have gotten any other way! 

First ICAD Wrap-Up of 2021

since the month only started on tuesday, it's quite a short week of Index Card a Day items, but nevertheless, here's a review of what i made and posted each day on instagram:

day 1: off prompt

the idea for this card literally came to me in a dream and thankfully i not only remembered it when i woke up, i sketched out the details while it was fresh in my mind. you can see the sketch in the 3rd frame of my "process" collage, below:

day 2: snapdragon

i don't always use the awesome prompts from tammy at daisy yellow, but i love that they are available whenever i want one. this week's "bonus" was one staple collage, a legendary ICAD tradition we re-visit each year, and i was excited to already sneak one in, on day two!

day 3: off-prompt

during last week's family art time, my sister had the brilliant idea to pay tribute to eric carle, so i made a Very Hungy Caterpillar using 22 hand-cut ovals of various green patterned paper. and of course he needed a home... 

day 4: off-prompt

speaking of hand-cutting, lol. i have a feeling that cut and pieced illustrations, doodles and fonts are going to be A Big Thing with me this summer during icad, so i figured i'd just warn you right now! :)

♥♥♥

if you'd like more information on the Index Card a Day challenge, check out the Daisy Yellow Blog. to see my individual cards each day, follow @llaurenb (that's me!) on instagram.

Something for Everyone

Travelers Notebooks are so much more than just calendars. In fact, many of the refills have no connection to time, like Lined Refills for notetaking and listmaking; Watercolor and Sketchbook Paper for drawing anywhere; Dot Grids for lettering practice, Blank Pages that can hold collages, poetry, haiku, photos or anything else you can figure out how to attach! Your TN or Planner can be whatever you want it to; especially a fun place to spark your creativity... I know mine is! Here's a look back on the first three and a half months of 2021 in my Traveler's Company Notebook from The Ink Pad. I've been using the Regular Sized TN (there's a Passport Size too) in a Binder (as opposed to a leather cover) to record my completed creative assignments Monthly; and a Weekly Diary to do some super casual memory-keeping (family milestones, the election, etc); and a little bit of list-making (tv shows we've binged, audiobooks I've devoured); but honestly, as much as anything, it's a great place to keep pretty papers, stickers and tapes that I'm not quite ready to part with. Here's a page that illustrates what I mean:

In the past few weeks, I've blogged about Hero Arts US Mailbox and Envelope Accessories Die Sets, and thus wound up with a bunch of extra postal-related diecuts in random colors. Time permitting, I could have made additional cards... but in this case, I just sort of collected them all into the "Cleanup Collage" you see above; which also makes use of an abandoned label I typed for National Card and Letter Writing Month, the MT for Pack Letters tape that was sitting on my worktable, and some of my fave Pepin Vintage Fashion Stickers.

This year I was lucky enough to grab a 2021 Monthly Diary before they sold out; but in some ways I miss the (undated) Free Monthly Diary I used last year, since the calendar pages had a little more room for embellishing. The other plus-side of the Free Monthly is that you can start and end with whatever months you choose! Rather than planning events forward, I use mine to make a little visual record of what I've done for each of my creative posts throughout the month. I always enjoy these in a nostalgic sense; but it's also practical, as it helps me see, at a glance, what products, colors and themes I've done recently. 

Technically I don't need to add the name of the months to my dated pages, but I have some excellent StencilGirl Alphabet Stencils that I love using and it lets me add another splash of color. "March" is done using Carolyn Dube's Vintage Typewriter Lowercase Stencil and February capitalized on the fact that the Emotions and Feelings Alphabet has both full-sized and tiny letters.

And of course I love to use my Karin Brushmarkers to do some handlettering. In January I paired them with some Pepin Art Forms in Nature Stickers and Tapes as well as some of the stamps, dies and stickers I used throughout the month; my MTA licensed Tape and Stickers being particular faves, but as you can see, there's a little bit of EVERYTHING! 

I hope you'll be inspired to start (or re-start!) a journaling habit and to tailor it to suit your life and creativity!!!

Don't Worry, Be CRAFTY!

There's a lot of worry about right now. Understandably so. Because let's face it, even the word "pandemic" is frightening. I (Lauren) think creative people might be particularly susceptible to anxiety, because our imagination didn't come with an off switch, did it? But... sometimes it's possible to change channels, and keeping busy helps with that. Keeping busy by playing with art supplies seems to especially help me, AND at the end of it I sometimes have something pretty or fun to share with my friends. Like this:

A couple of months ago, my friend, Anna Chiang, the owner of The Ink Pad, found some really cool word art that was done on top of vintage dictionary pages. And we've both been obsessed with it ever since. So of course when I had a lettering idea I had to get out my Karin Markers and Karin DecoBrush Metallic Pens and grab some dictionary paper! I decided to make the pivotal word, "Crafty" a bit stronger and more interesting by swapping out ordinary pen letters for mixed media.

The letters are as follows:

• C: handmade paper, vintage buttons and a sequin 
• R: an experiment blending Gansai Tambi Watercolors on Canson paper
• A: skinny washi tape and two sizes of Eyelet Outlet Bee Brads
• F: origami paper stitched with embroidery floss
• T: measuring tape washi
• Y: a scrap of pink burlap, a paper flower, Eyelet Outlet Flower Brad and sequins

The lettering was done with my Karin BrushMarkers and DecoBrush Metallic pens. The outlines are Pigma Micron pen in a nice fine tip. The shadows are grey brush pen. The little pink hearts (and a few other details) are Posca Paint Pen. There are Neat and Tangled Sequins scattered about, just because I will take any excuse to scatter some sequins!

I hope that you are having a happy, hopeful day already, but if not, why not spend some quality time with your art supplies? ♥

Lauren Bergold

finds rainbow shades of ANY

media immediately comforting!

BEE Mine!

It's February 13th, which seems like a good time for one last silly Valentine, don't you think? This one combines Michelle Ward's Hex Pattern Stencil, Eyelet Outlet Heart and Mini Bee Brads, plus a few of my favorite pens. All the details can be found on The Ink Pad Blog, of course!

The Write Stuff

Just in case you were wondering, I am still very much smitten with my Karin Brushmarkers from The Ink Pad! They have a beautiful brush, come in loads of colors and work wonderfully well on a variety of paper styles, including this page from an old dictionary! Hop over to The Ink Pad Blog to see this piece, finished:

happy lettering (part 1)

towards the beginning of the month i found the happy lettering challenge on instagram, and i've been playing along with their march prompts as time permits. this weekend seemed like a good time to round them up.

rainbow

all my standard lettering go-to's right here: a rainbow of tombow dualbrush pens, outlined with the skinniest (.1mm) pitt artist pen, and a shadow with my favorite grey, tombow's N60.

gold

i also like lettering with colorburst, or in this case, liquid metal... in yellow gold, with a coordinating marker outline and some stickles on top. 

lucky

very similar to rainbow, but with the blend across each letter (you need to leave quite a bit of room between!) a thicker outline and some posca paint pen dots.

spring

well obviously, i couldn't resist a few flower doodles! in order to cheat and not have to letter BEHIND the flowers, i wrote spring in a very light shade of chartreuse tombow, so that my flowers would cover it without getting too tinted; then did the black outline at the very very end.

kite

i had been wanting to try ecoline's brush pens and they do not disappoint... super juicy and a big tip that's exactly the right firmness! loads of funky/messy doodles on this one after i messed up the outline but didn't feel like starting over...

♥

stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion... tomorrow!

lettering: step-by-step

warning: if you're not into hand lettering, this post is probably waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too detailed for you, so feel free to skip it entirely OR catch the much faster flip-a-gram version on facebook or instagram! ♥

step 1: basic letters

i like tombow dualbrush pens for this, they have a brush tip on one end and a writing tip on the other, plus they come in like 90+ colors. here i've used a light green for "march" and for "hello" i used mint green, on which i picked up a little bit of dark green that i scribbled onto a piece of acrylic plastic. if you're concerned about super-neat spacing, you can measure or add guidelines. i'm a bit lazy about that so i tend to mostly wing it. sometimes, though, i will start at the edge of the page and spell a word like "march" BACKWARDS so it ends right at the edge like it does here. on these occasions, i generally take the precaution of writing the word on a piece of scrap paper, because trust me, it is not that natural to spell even common words backwards, and you can end up with MRACH much more easily than you might imagine. (ask me how i know!!!!!)

step 2: grey shadows

to decide where they go, you choose either the left or right of all the vertical lines, plus the top or bottom of all the horizontals. you can place them right next to the basic letters (as in "march") or with a small gap of white in between (as in "hello").

step 3: a little shading?

this step is completely optional, but you can use the next shade of green and either the brush tip ("march") or the writing tip ("hello") to add a little more shading. since this is related to the shadow, it's probably best to do it on the same side as your grey shadow. if the contrast is a bit too much, you can use the original shade of marker, or a blender pen, to downplay it a bit.

step 4: outline

i like faber-castell's pitt artist pens for this, in either the S (.3mm) or XS (.1mm) nibs. they are fairly permanent, but every once in a while i somehow manage to smear them, which is why i now do the shadows and shading BEFORE i outline. you'll notice there are some tiny gaps of white, don't worry, you just go back in with the original marker and a quick stroke along the white bits and VOILA... flawless! which means this is a great time to correct wonky lines or weird shapes; outline where the line SHOULD be, not necessarily where it is right now... if you see what i mean?

step 5: more about outlining

 i could write an entire post just about this subject, but the main things to know is: you get better at it by practicing and practicing; then practicing even more. outline your own lettering, outline lettering and pictures in magazines, outline anything and everything. also, for a really smooth line, you only want to move the pen in one direction... either you push it away from you, OR you pull it towards you, but not both. it turns out, i'm a "puller". and seriously, from the very second i figured that out, my outlining game improved by leaps and bounds! you may also want to turn the paper around as you work, so you can slide your hand along more smoothly. finally, before you start each section of outlining, you want to know where you're going to pick up your pen for a break. 

(i realize that when you're just reading this, it sounds very abstract, but hopefully, it'll come back to you when you're actually outlining something, and then it'll make sense!)

step 6: highlights

i like a white posca paint pen for this. the medium (used in "march") and fine points (in "hello") are my favorite sizes. as with the shadows, you kind of want to pick one area that the light would be hitting, and consistently place your highlights there on each letter. in this case, i'm up towards the top of each letter, and i've kind of echoed the curves a bit. 

 

step 7: enhanced shadow?

another entirely optional step. i used the writing tip of the same shade of grey tombow to add some motion lines in the original shadow, but you could use black, white, or a coordinating shade of green; and it could be dots or stitching instead of the parallel lines. i stayed just on the word "march" for this, since it has the chunkier letters and thus can stand more visual weight.

 

step 8: add some doodles?

again optional, but usually quite fun! in this case, both the shamrock and the scattered hearts are purely decorative, but i have been known to add hearts, stars or little dots to cover up smudges on my paper. in drastically mess cases, i've been known to splatter watercolor with a fan brush! ;)

♥

i hope you'll be inspired to try a bit of handlettering on your own. there are sooooooo many great examples on pinterest, instagram and youtube; whether you like videos, static pics or even examples of entire alphabets, you will be sure to find inspiration. also, magazines and websites with cool type and graphics are awesome; you can even mimic your favorite computer font or set of alphabet stamps. the possibilities are endless!

♥♥♥ 

a smattering of patterning

i haven't been able to participate every single day of pattern january on instagram, but i've still been jumping in here and there as time permits. and i continue to find anika starmer's prompts --not to mention the amazing variety of ways the other participants are interpreting them-- incredibly inspiring. here are a few more of mine:

day 10: beach

i confess i loved making this more than i love the finished product, but then, PROCESS is the main point of a daily sketchbook challenge, imo! it's a great time to practice, to brainstorm, to think of something you wouldn't normally have any reason to do. just stepping out of my normal, practical area of expertise can give me a whole new perspective. 

day 11: furniture

ok, yes, this one's a bit tangential: i painted some uber-bright madras plaid, of a sort you might see on patio furniture... you know... in the summer, when it's WARM OUT.

(ps: painting plaid... or stripes... or curvy lines... is a great way to build up your brush control, which is one of the most crucial skills for painting. outlining the results with a pen adds line control, which is equally important. and before you say, "i don't have a steady enough hand to paint straight lines" i should mention that NOBODY starts out with a steady enough hand to paint or free-draw straight lines; hence the need to practice!

day 12: fruit or veggie

i chose fruit, as you may have noticed. and i painted this last sunday, when i didn't have an idea for mandala monday the next day. because that's how scientific i am on these occasions, lol.

day 13: woodland

inspired by my fellow IG pattern enthusiast by aarup who posted her digital version of a gorgeous birch grove. i used an easy washi tape mask and two favorite shades of blue colorburst: cerulean and ultramarine. then outlined and added details with pen.

day 16: pen.man.ship

i somehow managed to post this on jan 23rd, which turned out to be national handwriting day. an attempt to seamlessly transition various rainbow shades using tombow dualbrush pens in about 14 colors! i'm somewhat proud that after practicing (and practicing... and practicing...) i now feel happy enough with my letterforms to not necessarily outline and touch them up.

day 17: weather

funky patterned clouds in a funky patterned sky. with tombow and posca pen details added last, when the watercolor was bone dry. inspired by the "no lines" watercolor method of stamping, i drew my basic cloud pattern using the lightest shade of blue tombow dualbrush i own, then painted the sky in cornflower and cerulean colorburst.

day 20: scallop

just a fabulously fun rainbow-fest here!

(ok seriously, this was really really fun to paint. but again, it's a brush control exercise in disguise. the point being to add successive rows of scallops, without waiting for the last to dry, by leaving a 1/16" gap of dry paper in between. using ten different, super-bright shades of colorburst, and turning it into an interesting-to-look-at pattern, is just a sweetener. like taking a fun, rowdy zumba class instead of slogging away on the treadmill by yourself!)

♥♥♥

hope you're having an awesome weekend and that

 you'll find time to do something fun and creative just for YOU!

♥♥♥

the pitter patter of pattern january

more fun sketchbook goodness, YAY! ♥

day 6: fair

i was thinking of a fun fair, so i went crazy with colorburst bunting. like ya do...

day 7: coral reef

this was a stumper because i decided i had to combine pattern january with mandala monday, which turned out to be harder than i thought. this doesn't entirely work (either as a mandala or a pattern, lol!) ...but... i definitely learned a lot AND got to use wisteria, cornflower and orchid colorburst!

day 8: kitchen

in a very verrrrrrrry tangential take, i painted some beuatiful arabesque tile i saw recently at home depot, that i would love to be our backsplash when we (eventually) re-do our kitchen. 

(technically, the tile i saw was neutral beige-on-beige, but that's not especially fun to paint, kwim?!)

day 9: starts with w

my "default mode" for pattern january is to go with very literal brush lettering whenever i can't decide what to do. this was one of those times. i cannot say i like this as a finished piece, but i had a lot of fun trying to make as many W color names as i could think of into visual patterns. i predict you might see some of my letter styles again, in something a little more finished looking.

(note: i've spelled "wedgwood" two different ways... BOTH are wrong...)

♥♥♥

pattern january is devised and hosted by anika starmer, aka a is for anika, on instagram and facebook. everyone who'd like to participate is welcome, in any media they enjoy!

♥♥♥

paints and inks and pens, oh my!

art supplies are awesome. fact. they're fun to shop for, fun to bring home, fun to look at and ESPECIALLY... they're fun to play with, ANY way you want! i hope you got to spend some quality time with your art supplies this week, but if not, try to squeeze a little art into today, k? even if it's just on an index card, like these:

card 40: surfboard

i know what you're thinking, you're thinking, "hey lauren! why is this called 'surfboard' when there's absolutely no surfboard in this (admittedly kinda cool) little color burst watercolor?" well, just look waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out into the ocean and maybe you will see it!

(ok, fine, yes, you've caught me, i got so involved in painting the beach, the ocean and the palm tree that i forgot the prompt was "surfboard"!!! sometimes it's very tiring to be me, lol!)

card 41: longitude and latitude

when i'm really stumped for an idea, i either jump waaaay out of the box, or climb in to its deepest depth. this is the latter. i googled latitude and longitude and got the numbers for our town, which clearly was of no use at all for making an ICAD... or... hey waittaminnit!!!

card 42: yellow

another idea for when you have no ideas: grab a random selection of stencils and one color of art supplies; keep adding layers until you like what you see or run out of time before bed, whichever comes first.

card 43: mint

feel free to use my color burst painting of mint leaves in your color burst painting of a mojito!!! :)

card 44: rainbow making machine

arguably the BEST PROMPT EVER, which is really saying something, since tammy garcia is awfully good at thinking up themes!!!

(ps: i'm happy with my "masheen" though the proud auntie in me feels i must tell you that my niece jillian drew the most amazing cannon with a very fancy control panel which shoots segments of rainbow and it's one of the coolest things i've ever seen in my life!!!!!)

card 45: play on words

i freely confess that i totally copied this, my all-time favorite visual pun, from an artist called jason bergsieker whose original was featured on i can has cheezeburger several years ago, and that it still makes me laugh really hard every time i see it!

card 46: off prompt

yet another idea for when you have no ideas: have a "default drawing" subject. pick something you never get tired of, and just keep doing different versions of it. mine-- as you know-- is the mandala. for this one i laid down the ink first (using sponge applicators), then drew in the lines, then added detail and shading with colored pens. 

i hope you're having a fabulous weekend, but if not, you're quite possibly the only person in the world looking forward to monday, so take a few minutes to revel in the uniqueness of that, won't you?! ♥♥♥