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.

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.

Index Card Round-Up

Another week of Index Card a Day (ICAD) has flown past and here are my cards, in reverse order:

Day 15: Triple Threat Mandala Monday (Off-Prompt)

This is the slowest "fast cheat" ever, lol. Lemme essplain; no there's too much... lemme sum up*: This mandala has three layers, each made on different index cards, from previous years. They were abandoned midway through due to some aspect to them I didn't love at the time. Sometimes I throw away such experiments; but sometimes I save them, because I like the basic idea and want to revisit it. In this case I like the round center "flower" with the stripey petals, but didn't like the next round of the original mandala. On the blue card, I loved the ruffles but not the original center, and I hadn't given it any background. On the bottom layer I liked the way my stencil-printed flowers kind of peter out, I like the colors... honestly I'm not sure why this didn't get posted when I made it, but whatever. So I cut away everything I didn't like and layered the rest together et voila! A two year + ten minute mandala!!!

*(Because who can resist a completely gratuitous/ random Inigo Montoya reference?! Not me.)

Day 14: Serene (One-Staple Collage)

Here's a collage that I intentionally built around the color blue. I mention "intentionally" because, as it turns out, a lot of my collages are subconsciously inspired by a color, but I'm not necessarily aware of that while working. This time I decided that blue was a #SERENE color and proceeded accordingly. All of the elements except the lotus-y flower were already cut or torn and laying on my work table or in my collage fodder box. This was going to be a regular collage and not a one-staple collage* because I honestly didn't think I could attach everything securely with a single staple but... as it turns out... I could! So here's my second OSC for 2026-- so far!

Day 13: Lucky

I had an entirely different idea in mind for the #LUCKY prompt, but when I stumbled upon this Cormac McCarthy quote, a day after randomly cutting out funky dice from an old, falling-apart book, it seemed pretty serendipitous. I genuinely believe that there are times when NOT getting what you want is the best thing that could possibly happen to you.

Day 12: Orchestra

Somewhere in the world, I'm sure there are folks who don't love the art of Richard Scarry and didn't have a childhood in which they adored books with worms driving apple-shaped cars and rabbits conducting piccolo-playing mice. But since I am definitely not that person, here is my unapologetically nostalgic card for the Day 12 #dyicad29026 (optional) prompt of ORCHESTRA. 

Day 11: Coneflower

The last few years of ICAD I've been very much into handcutting and paper-piecing... and apparently that trend continues. I think I may have given my coneflowers a few too many petals, and possibly only the colors and foliage are keeping them from looking like very fancy shuttlecocks... but... this was fun to make!

Day 10: Birch or Gingko

I just unearthed this cute little mermaid scale stamp and realized that it's pretty close to the shape of a gingko leaf; so I stamped the unlined back of a white index card with lots of beautiful green shades of  Simon Hurley Stellar Ink, drew a gingko-ish shape inside each, and decided to LEAF it at that!  (K sorry, but I can literally never resist a diabolical pun.)

Day 9: Charm

Reading the word, "charm" my first thought was of those little milagros that you find in California and Mexico, often studding a Sacred Heart, as tokens of prayers for healing or gratitude. So I decided to paper-piece my own colorful little version. I used silver metal brads instead of actual charms, for ease of attachment; and also to reduce weight. Additionally, I built the whole thing on an index card divider for extra strength.

♥♥♥

What exactly IS the Index Card a Day Creative Challenge? I'm so glad you asked! It's 61 consecutive days of making art on index cards. This is the 16th annual event, devised and hosted by the divine Tammy G aka @gypsy999 and a time of great inspiration and creativity for all, from June 1 to July 31. But honestly, there's NO bad time to ICAD, so if you're just seeing this now and think it sounds fun: JUMP IN, everyone is welcome! Check out @indexcardaday on Instagram for more info. 

First ICAD Round Up of 2026

The first full week of the Index Card a Day Creative Challenge is complete and here are my cards from the past seven days. For all the info about ICAD, visit the ICAD Base at Daisy Yellow Art or @indexcardaday on Instagram where you can find prompts, ideas, inspiration and more!

Day 8: Off-Prompt: Mandala Monday

This week I got some of the new Simon Hurley Stellar Ink shades from @ranger_ink so obviously, I had to test drive those babies, and Mandala Monday is always a good opportunity for that. On this card, I "smooshed" the new colors, one at a time, onto my craft sheet and used a waterbrush full of Isopropyl Alcohol to pick them up and paint the basic shapes onto my index card. 

WHY would I use rubbing alcohol instead of water to "watercolor"? Well, for reasons I'm not sciencey enough to understand, alcohol will not warp or pill cardstock or paper in the same way that water does. (For the record, this is one of the many, MANY cool things I've learned from @wendyvecchi who is brilliant as well as inspiring!) This is a valuable technique for any ink that is alcohol- or oil-based like Ranger Archivals (because water just doesn't work at all with those inks); but as it turns out, you can use it with any type of ink, including Simon's gorgeous water-based Stellars.

Once all the colorful shapes were in place I used a Letter It Fineliner and some Posca Paint Pens to add details and echo the various ink colors, which are: Buzzkill, Fruitcake, Ultraviolet, Siren Song, Cry Baby and Iced Out. And who can resist a little splatter on top?

Day 7: Seahorse

This is one of the fastest (& funnest if you'll pardon my syntax) ICADs I've ever made: I started out with the intention of drawing a stylized seahorse with brush markers... got obsessed with the colors and curly-up tails... et voila! As an absolute CHAMPION of overthinking, this feels like a huge win. Bonus celebration: if there's a "Rapunzel" prompt later this summer I can re-use it, lol! :) :) :)

Day 6: Scarlet

Is this an actual collage or just a wanna-be infographic? I don't actually know and I'm not sure it matters; because either way it does firmly encompass today's (optional) #dyicad2026 prompt of #scarlet. And I've given myself the bonus joy of staging the photo with a bunch of other gorgeous red things that didn't fit onto my gridded indexcard!

Day 5: Off-Prompt

Every year, I spend a proportion of ICAD either trying to disguise the ordinary index cards' lines or using the backs or divider cards to avoid them entirely; but once in a while, I embrace the lines and let them work for me!

Day 4: Yearbook

Weirdly enough, this yearbook photo of my Dad turned up in a box of paperwork my mom recently asked me to sort through. I say weirdly enough, because the box held mostly ancient financial and legal documents, the majority of which I shredded; but there were a few tiny treasures, including my grandfather's passport, some newspaper clippings, and this photo. So when I saw the word, "Yearbook" on the prompt list, I knew immediately what the centerpiece of my card would be. I've added part of an old map from the area where I grew up; the illustration of a slide rule (my father was an electrical engineer); a library checkout card with the name William and a bee (he went by Bill); plus a bit of foliage which honestly has no narrative significance, I just wanted some color and the map had lots of green.

Day 3: Magnolia

The One-Staple Collage (OSC) is a beloved (well by me, anyway) ICAD tradition, stretching back... gosh... maybe ten years? I'm honestly not sure when it happened, but at some point in the mists of ICAD history, Tammy G typed the words "stapled collage" and I saw them and somehow instantly determined that this would mean a collage held together by ONE STAPLE. Which, as it turns out, is harder than it sounds, lol! But... also a very interesting (again, to me) exercise in both selecting interesting elements; and then arranging them so you can see them distinctly, but still attach them at a single point. 

 In this case, the staple is right on top of the butterfly's body, and yes, it's hard to see, for which I apologize. There are only five elements. They are, from furthest back: A library catalog card; an illustration of Saturn; a Georgian building from an old architecture book; a pair of magnolia blossoms between which I deliberately left a "bridge" of paper for sturdiness; and finally the butterfly... angled so his body (and thus the staple) is positioned to be able to secure everything underneath. 

Whether or not you're a fan of traditional collage, I invite you to give this fun and challenging technique a try at some point during ICAD!

Day 2: Type

I couldn't wait to get out this ancient set of wood-mounted typewriter font alphabet stamps, I just wasn't quite sure what I would stamp, lol. One of the first things I stumbled upon (via Mr. Google) was this apt quote from Gustav Klimt. A bit of serendipity there, as I had just finished a novel in which said Austrian Symbolist painter and Vienna Secessionist was a character. So... job done!

If you're interested, the strange and wonderful book in question is Anima Rising by Christopher Moore. In addition to Klimt, the real-life figures of Egon Schiele, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung appear; as well as the fictional characters of Victor Frankenstein, his Monster and the Bride... (Klimt names her Judith) ...who is the protagonist of the book. If you've read anything by Moore, you'll know that he loves to combine well known historical figures and events with plots and characters from classic literature, drama and mythology. I enjoyed this title very much, though my top three Moore books are still: Serpent of Venice (mash up of Merchant of Venice and Othello; narrated by the Fool from King Lear... obvs...); Sacre Bleu (Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and pals, in Monmartre, late 19th century, just after the suicide --or possibly murder-- of Van Gogh); and A Dirty Job (average single dad in 20th century San Francisco somewhat unwillingly takes on a side-hustle as... wait for it... a Grim Reaper??!) BTW, all of Moore's stories are outstanding as audiobooks, which is the format I recommend for maximum enjoyment.

(NOTE: This author is definitely NOT to everyone's taste; apart from unusual plots with many literary and cultural allusions, there's generally quite a bit of hardcore cursing, as well as some sex and violence; if rated like films, Moore's books would get strong PG13 or mild R ratings.) 

Day 1: Mandala Monday (off-prompt)

Technically, this card was from last week, but as I wrote this post, it felt weird to start at Day 2, so... here it is again, lol! It's a mandala, since June first was a Monday; and it's done with Archival Ink shades and a Letter It Fineliner because those happened to be sitting out when I was ready to start. (Many of my art-making decisions are determined by what is to hand at any given time, especially ICADs which I tend to work on at 10pm; a time when "not getting up again" is, frankly, a priority.)

♥♥♥

To see my cards as the get posted each day, visit my Instagram feed, @llaurenb and while you're there, be sure to check out the official ICAD page, @indexcardaday and the official hashtag, #dyicad2026 for lots more ICAD inspo from artists all over.

Last Week's ICAD Round-Up

Here are index cards from the last seven days of ICAD fun:

Day 37: Mandala Monday

Off-prompt in observance of Mandala Monday, for which I have delved into some very cool sticker books full of rainbows and hearts, which a Special Someone gifted to me! ♥

Day 36: Road

It's a modified take on One Staple Collage: all of the paper ephemera elements are attached with one staple, but I've set them on a background that features stamping, inking and washi tape.

Day 35: Vanishing Point

This card involved more precision and symmetry than I usually attempt; and more time and effort of rendering than I usually spend, but it was both challenging and interesting to try!

Day 34: Fireworks

It’s July 4th aka Day 34 of #dyicad2025 and the appropriately seasonal prompt was a "blast" (sorry, pun intended!) to make.

Day 33: Lace

Probably the densest collection of doodley lines I have ever fit onto one white index card, wahey!

Day 32: Distortion

 A totally tangential take on distortion, which was quite fun to doodle!

Day 31: Mint Green (and Parquetry)

I pretty much love any kind of paper-piecing or pattern-making, but I especially love cutting scraps into strips and building them into #parquetry especially when there's some #mintgreen in there too! 

♥♥♥♥♥

Wishing you a wonderful, fun, productive creative week ahead!

ICAD 2025: First Full Week

It's Mandala Monday and time for a round-up of the first full week of ICADs... (short for Index Card a Day <--click the bold italic text to read all about it!) and here they are right now!

Day 9: Embroidery

Most of the time I go off-prompt for Mandala Monday, but in this case the official prompt of #embroidery was quite an easy fit! Vintage embroidery diagrams + some coordinating crochet photos + hand stitching + additional line drawings = joy!

Day 8: Sorbet

In retrospect, this is probably a bit more "sherbet" than "sorbet" but it's still scoops of brightness... and a good excuse to blend some Distress Oxide inks through simple circle stencils.

Day 7: Midnight

I traced one of Dina Wakley's Old School Silhouette stencils on the back of a photo of the Rosette Nebula, cut it out, then layered it onto a photo of the moon. I had planned to add a lot more layers and details, but fell in love with just the stark outlines, so I put some text on and left it there. 

Day 6: Pretzel

I've done a surface pattern of sorts by drawing a wonky-but-recognizable* pretzel on a pink index card, cutting it out, tracing it onto scraps of tan and brown patterned papers, and gluing them to a gridded card. 

*rendering is my weakest skill; my highest drawing aspiration is basically just to end up with something recognizable!

Day 5: Hydrangea

I used a waterbrush to pick up ink from a few shades of purple and green Tombows and painted my stylized blooms on an extra sturdy index card divider… the H one; obviously!

Day 4: Iguana

Fanciful lizardy letters, clouds, ground and sky… all handcut from colorful index cards.

Day 3: Cobalt(ish)

Ok technically, I just went with lots of shades of blue, because I was more interested in constructing my first #OneStapleCollage of the 2025 ICAD season. What's a One Staple Collage? Well, it's an ICAD tradition that goes back at least a decade when Tammy G. posted a brainstorming list of collage styles and one of them was "Stapled Collage" which totally intrigued me and which, for some reason, I immediately interpreted as being a collage held together with ONE staple! It's one of my favorite styles to revisit and I'd invite all ICAD-ians to try it at least once. It's a bit different than a regular collage and possibly more challenging than you think. Since there is only ONE point of attachment, you basically need to construct a stack of items with interesting edges, and try not to bury the best bits under something larger lol. In case the staple blends in a bit too well here, I will disclose that it is placed vertically at the corner of the front window of the charming vintage Lancia motorcar.

♥♥♥

Check out @indexcardaday feed on Instagram for all the official news and prompts; while the hashtag #dyicad2025 will show you what all the ICADians and ICADettes have made so far!

ICAD: The Last Round-Up

How is it possible that it's ALREADY July 31st and thus the final day of ICAD2024?! I'm pretty sure that no summer has ever flown past as quickly as this one. Many thanks to everyone who has played along, followed along, left comments, etc; it's always so much more fun to share ICAD with others. Of course, as always, the biggest and heartiest THANK YOU has to go to Tammy G aka @gypsy999 for devising, hosting, inspiring and cheering us on for another 61 days of creativity and friendship; I don't have enough words to praise a most artful and heartful friend! 

ICAD24-61: Diorama

How do you make a diorama using only index cards? Ummmm... very carefully? No srsly, I wanted to make something three dimensional but using two dimensional supplies (index cards and pens) so I decided the solution was layers. In this case the layers consist of the non-lined sides of four neon index cards, each carrying one component of a jungle scene and each popped up on a layer of foam tape for more height. Starting from the very back we have... the blue sky; then pink flowers (with orange Posca detailing); then green leaves and finally smaller yellow flowers encased in a frame around the edges to literally hold it together. This took a bit of time to construct and involved using the dreaded Xacto Knife BUT... this looks exactly like the picture that was in my head, which always feels like a win, doesn't it? Especially on the 61st and FINAL day of ICAD2024!

ICAD24-60: Planetarium

One last card featuring scraps of patterned paper, handcut shapes, doodles, and machine stitching.

ICAD24-59: Circle

Super-excited that today's prompt serendipitously coincides with my Mandala Monday strand. In my (VAST!) collection of funky vintage things to use in art, I found a few of the old-school 3.5 x 5.5 black and white postcards I'm guessing are from the 1930's or 40's, which happen to be from a collection of Bucks County, Pennsylvania images, which is where I grew up. My mandala is drawn with Posca Pens atop a pc of the northern portion of the Delaware River. I've done a few previous mandalas on postcards or photographs, but usually I feel that I've either covered the original image up too much or not enough... this time I think I hit the Goldilocks Zone (aka "just right"!)

ICAD24-28: Tessellation

I had a general idea of what "tessellation" meant... basically it's a geometric or semi-geometric regular repeating pattern; I didn't realize that technically, to be specifically designated as a tessellation, the pattern needs to have NO spaces and no overlaps! This is what is great about ICAD, you learn so much! I'd love to tell you that I came up with this funky fish pattern on my own but NOOOOOOOO; I did a Google Image Search and this one was a kid's art lesson on Faber-Cassell's website. I used a graphed index card and pre-drew every single one of the fish shapes in pencil, and it still took an embarrassingly long time and a fair amount of erasing but I DID IT! If you want to see really cool, beautiful, effortless-looking  Zentangles (both tessellating and non-tessellating) you should check out my friend and fellow Jersey Girl @Lorraine303 who has MAD SKILLZ in this (and many other) areas of art!

ICAD24-57: Garden

A simple collage consisting of a garden plan illustration and some other vintage paper that is largely hidden by the giant tulip; all atop one of the many cool library checkout cards that my friend Mary aka @millwoodstudioart shared with me. She shared some awesome catalog cards too, such as the one from last week about gardening with children... Thanks, Missus!

ICAD24-56: Playing Cards

Ok go with me on this one, it's a little tangential: doodley diamonds and hearts (or spades) in a wonkily repeating pattern. 

ICAD24-55: Off-Prompt One Staple Collage

Will this be my last #OneStapleCollage of #dyicad2024? Who can say? But it's Day 55 and we're coming down to the wire, so if not the last, probably the penultimate or the antepenultimate. From the bottom working upward, this one consists of: a yellow repro library checkout card; half a Mille Bornes scoresheet; a torn section of a European map (featuring northern Spain); an exotic belly dancer; a sepia-toned cluster of flowering dogwood, and finally a phrase from a Russian-English dictionary. All held together by the eponymous single staple.

ICAD24-54: Off-Prompt

Somewhat revisiting the #RANUNCULUS prompt from weeks and weeks ago; this time as an extra-doodley version in Macro mode. Tombow Dual Brush Pens and Ranger's Letter It Fineliners on an index card divider. Not sure what the "W" stands for... Wonky? Wednesday? Without a clue? 

ICAD24-53: Off-Prompt

Handcut clouds made of layered patterned paper scraps. With lots and lots of doodles on top.