Circling Back

A lot of my collages are built around a particular color; but some are built around a shape... and as you can see, this is one of the latter. Dina Wakley has quite a few designs that feature circles, and the script transparencies from Pattern Play and some older Collage Paper icons that look a bit like extra large postmarks are two such, so I started with those; and then added circles of varying sizes cut from Typed Ledgers and dotty Chroma Transparencies from the Grunge Specimens pack. 

I don't always have a plan when I start a collage... (and I don't always follow the plan even when I have one, lol!) ...but in this case I had started out with the intention of combining the beautiful lady (from an older set of Transparencies that's, alas, out of print) and the multicolor butterflies from the Flutters Rub-On set, and that's exactly what I did.

I thought the collage was finished at that point, but when I came back to it later, the whole thing felt a bit "floaty" (super-precise collage term there) and so I anchored it with a few strips of Dina's Washi Tape (from an older pack; Set 2, probably) running vertically at the top of the page and horizontally at the bottom. Et Voila!  

It's a Big, BIG, Mixed Media Mandala Monday

After two months of index cards, working in my fabulous BIG (7x12") Dina Wakley MEdia Ledger Journal is quite a leap. Luckily I had some of Dina's new colorful Chroma Transparencies (this set is called Painted Elements) and Flutters Rub-On Transfers, which I couldn't wait to break open... so I did!

I used some older Dina goodies too, including an older set of her Washi Tape, my new favorite color of Acrylic Paint (Mineral), and Gloss Sprays in Fuchsia and Marine.

I had so much fun making this! I'd write more about it, but I think I'd prefer to go back and play with more of these amazing, colorful, exuberant elements! Meanwhile, I hope your week is off to a beautiful start!

ICAD2026 Wrap-Up

Hard to believe the entire 61 days of the 2026 edition of the @IndexCardaDay Creative Challenge have already elapsed, but the calendar says August 2md, so I guess we have to believe it's true. I am so grateful to Tammy @gypsy999 for starting this inspiring shindig sixteen years ago; and I am proud to have completed the last fifteen years. But honestly, the numbers are really the least of it; the point is to co spend some time prioritizing process over outcome, experimenting, and just generally making art on a regular basis for oneself. So if you participated, whether you made 61 cards or 16 or 6... I salute you!

Many thanks to all who followed along, left comments, dropped hearts and generally acted as cheerleaders to your fellow ICADians and ICADettes. I didn't do as well at that part as I had hoped to, but I truly loved seeing all the cards that came up in my feed and interacting (however limitedly) with this fab community!

Here's my #icadeverything photo. Each year I like to make a small ring-bound mini-book, which I fill up with finished cards as the challenge progresses. I like this format because it allows me to keep my cards together and in order as I work; also, on days when my time or energy is limited, the thought of adding another card to the ring kind of keeps me going. Plus I confess I really love taking this "fan" photo of the finished book each year!

PS: I'm already looking forward to #dyicad2027 ♥♥♥

Here are the last few cards from the past not-quite-full week of ICAD2026!

Day 62: Bonus Card

I always like to finish the ICAD festivities with a big bold THANK YOU (on an index card, obvs) to Tammy @gypsy999 and all my fellow ICADians and ICADettes for making this June and July the best @indexcardaday event so far! ♥

Day 61: Off-Prompt

Could not resist making one more freestyle collage that combines ink, a little stamping, some ancient rub-on transfers and a few vintage goodies.

Day 60: Beatles' Song

Octopus' Garden is one of my favorite Beatles' songs, not just because it's one of a very few written by Ringo, although the older I get, the more I appreciate his sense of humor and whimsy. I made a "smooshed" background with Isopropyl Alcohol and some analogous shades of Stellar Ink, then added bubbles and ripples and coral and flowers. (The last is not technically correct, but if an Octopus had a garden, I think there'd be flowers in it. So there.)

Day 59: Cobblestones

There is something really soothing about filling an entire index card with a semi-realistic pattern, then adding depth and color and shadows, etc and these cobblestones were especially fun to draw!

Day 58: Off-Prompt

This card combines three different half-finished, temporarily abandoned pieces that serendipitously added up to more than the sum of their parts. The sewing pattern lady collage layer was part of a bigger piece that I didn't like much... so I tore away the "excess" and started over. The layer beneath that is a  flower(ish) illustration from a book of fabric designs that I had outlined but then got a bit stuck, and set aside. Oddly enough, the colors match the SPL's flower perfectly. The tabbed card has some Perfect Pearls doodles that (once again... almostly spookily!) match really really well. You can't see much of it, but both structurally and design-wise it makes a perfect base for the rest. 

ICAD. (Again)

We've just completed the last *FULL* week of @indexcardaday (though the official wrap-up is not until Friday) so here are seven more cards from my own personal ICAD-iverse:

Day 57: Off-Prompt

(Mandala Monday)

I've had so much fun with my Posca pens this summer. One of my goals was to use them more often (check!) and... more difficult for me... NOT to outline all of the colors (also check!). This design made me think of a tagline Tammy G (aka @gypsy999 on IG) wrote for one of her mandalas early on in my ICAD participation. She called it a, "100% free-range, cruelty-free, organic mandala" and I think this fits that description pretty well!

Day 56: Board Game

When I read "Board Game" I flashed back to playing Candyland with my brother when we were very young. Something I didn't really notice or appreciate until I was much older, is the brilliance of Candyland's logistics: there's no reading; and you really don't even need to be able to count reliably, as the spinner and board direct you to advance to the next square on the board that is the correct color.  Whoever thought that up was both a genius, and a person who understood that kids will enjoy playing a board game together without adults, it's the reading and strategy that makes many games "too old" to play without a grown-up. I'm guessing a MOM invented Candyland?! 

My card is inspired by both Candyland and another game we (or possibly our neighbors) had, which I can only remember very vaguely; but I know you drew a card and then advanced to a place on the board which had the matching symbol. I have no idea what it was called... it's even possible I am retrospectively making it up, lol (But I THINK it was a real game; does anyone else remember it?!)

Day 55: Mirror(ball)

I made a nice dark inky background with three of my favorite shades of Simon Hurley's Stellar Inks, using Isopropyl Alcohol instead of water, so my flimsy index card would not get warped or pilled. When it was dry, I added slightly darker ink around the edges; then went wild with ancient white rub-on transfers. I cut that cool rose sticker into three parts for maximum coverage, then added a vintage ballerina and what I think might be the best caption ever. I generally try not to pick "favorite" ICADs based on the finished product, rather than process, but... I have to admit... I *really* like this one!

Day 54: Diagonal

Last year during ICAD, I made a bunch of pretty random backgrounds; some of which did not get used. Including this one that has skinny blue and green washi tapes arranged in a diagonal plaid pattern. Tonight I added some funky fruit illustrations and a daffodil. I feel like it needs one more thing, but since I have absolutely no idea WHAT that thing might be; for now, at least, I'm calling this (provisionally) done.

Day 53: Unwind

I glued the car, the flower, and the foliage to a plain white index card and then got stuck and set it aside. Later I thought, "Maybe the background should be zen doodles?" I'm still not sure if that was the right idea or if these are the right doodles but they were quite relaxing and fun to do; thus I count this as "Unwinding".

Day 52: Season

I think I've used my Posca Pens more consistently in the last two months than at any time previously, and it feels really good. I had intended to add all four seasons to this... but I got carried away with Spring and Summer, and ran out of room for Fall and Winter, lol. Maybe later I'll make a Part Two?!

Day 51: Off-Prompt

Here's another collage where the three background elements (a large photo of malachite, yellow flowers with stripey leaves, and green butterflies) almost blend together too well. But whenever Alice in Wonderland joins the convo, serendipity tends to reign, right?!

SOS575: KRAFT-astic

The new challenge at Shopping Our Stash is a celebration of KRAFT cardstock, woohoo! Since this is pretty self-explanatory, I'll get right to my card: 

As you can plainly see, my card base is kraft. Perhaps less obviously, the panel under the butterfly is also kraft, but since I adorned it very enthusiastically with white Vicki Boutin 49 and Market rub-on transfers and Apree floral stickers, it's slightly less prominent than I thought it would be, lol. But that was actually the start of my card and it inspired the stack of ancient diecut butterflies, as well as the addition of white doily pieces and a bit of machine stitching. The pink panel, btw, is part of the packaging from the rub-ons, I love the way it softly echoes some of the images I used on the kraft.

SOS575: KRAFT-astic runs until the evening of Monday, June 15th. Head on over to Shopping Our Stash to see the Crew cards and link up your own KRAFT-astic masterpiece.

SOS569: I'm COUNTING on You

If you've guessed from the title that this fortnight's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to make a card with at least one numeral on it, HOORAY, you're right! Here's my card:

Lots of seriously elderly stash usage here: my numerals are from this ancient set of Making Memories Alphabet Rub-ons; I've applied them to my well-hoarded Hambly Screenprints transparency card base, so that they peep out as mirror images from the under the corners of my funky collage. There are also numerals on the tickets, and some in the various text papers as well. That beautiful orchid sticker is from DK's Botanists' Sicker Anthology, a book that Stephanie gave me a couple of years ago and despite LOTS of use it still has hundreds of gorgeous stickers in it! Not to brag, but I really love how this came out AND it's a reminder of the fact that challenges often spur me on to make something I would not have thought of, otherwise.

SOS569: I'm COUNTING on You runs until the evening of Monday, March 23rd. Head over to Shopping Our Stash to read the details and check out the inspiring cards our Crew has made. Then root around for one or two neglected craft items and join the fun!

HOPPY Anniversary

Would this be a good time for another funny, punny, fanciful card made with my Gina is Arty Clipart? (Let's assume the answer to that was, "Yes" ok? Thanks.) I've made a few "HOPPY" cards using stamps or Eyelet Outlet Brads. The pun works excellently with frogs, beers and... as in this case... BUNNIES! 

This time I used two of Gina's whimsically colored rabbits, plus a bunch of her multicolor hearts. I added a Dymo sentiment and a gel print background that I adorned with a bunch of white 49 and Market rub-ons from the Ranger store.  I matted the design panel on black and then attached the whole thing to a black A7 card featuring another coordinating gelli.

Here's a reminder what the book cover looks like and HERE IS A LINK to the page on Amazon where you can purchase your very own copy. Want to see a Flip Through before you buy? Visit THIS POST on Gina's Instagram @ginaisarty where you'll also find lots more of G's beautiful art and merch! Want a chance to *WIN* a copy of the book? Check out THIS POST on Gina's Instagram! ♥

SOS559: Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice

Time for a brand new challenge at Shopping Our Stash and this one is super-seasonal! For Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice we'd like to see cards and projects which reflect however you interpret the changing Autumn Season: Pumpkin Spice Latte, Thanksgiving, Changing Leaves, etc; the choice is yours. I have to confess that irl, I don't care for anything with the pumpkin spice flavor profile, but... that didn't stop me from making a card I love:

This sweet fox journal card is from an autumn-themed paper collection we had at Paper Anthology a few years ago, from Photoplay, I think; but it had been cut out of the sheet and so I can't be absolutely sure. I know that I've looked at it and thought about using it quite a few times and (for mysterious reasons) it never happened until now. The background is a found piece of collaged vintage paper that I had watercolored with autumn-leafy shades and then (again, mysteriously) did not use. When I found it, I knew it was exactly the right thing, but to fancy it up even more, I had some brand new 49 and Market Irresistible Times white Rub-On Transfers from the Ranger Online Store that I've been dying for an excuse to open up, so I did. I used my ancient set of Cuttlebug Leaves Dies (possibly the first die set I ever purchased?) to cut out a few leaves from bright white text paper backed with cardstock and matted both the fox and the large background on rich brown self-adhesive felt sheets that I'm slightly obsessed with. I thought about adding a sentiment, but nothing I tried jumped out at me, so I decided to wait. (I have often found it helpful to have a few "uncommitted" cards in my stash... you never know what sort of card you might need at short notice and it's nice to have options.

SOS559: Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice will run until the evening of Monday, November 3rd. Check out the fabulous cards our talented Crew have made to inspire you at Shopping Our Stash.

Fur Babies and Rub-On Transfers

It's always fun to combine old and new supplies, right? This page in my Dina Wakley Ledger Journal features Dina's Circle Furbabies Stamp Set, stamped in rich brown Weeping Willow Stellar Ink from Simon Hurley; then adorned with every fall shade of ancient rub-on in my (considerable) collection!

The best part about a slightly messy collage format is that when using really old rub-on transfers you never quite know if they'll rub on perfectly, imperfectly or sometimes not at all... and this sort of configuration is quite forgiving no matter what happens.

For the record, most of these transfers were of the modestly priced, no-name variety; and yet, unlike some newer, higher-priced, fancier brands in my stash, they went on really nicely, with no flaking and very few imperfections!

ICAD Because I Can

Another week of making art on index cards looked a bit like this. Check out the ICAD Base Page on the Daisy Yellow website for prompts and info about this 61-day challenge; or visit @indexcardaday on Instagram. 

Day 51: Whole Lotta Lotus Mandala Monday

Not the fanciest mandala I've ever drawn but I definitely feel like I can now draw a lotus anytime, anyplace, for absolutely any reason... or no reason at all. Wahey!

Day 50: Clouds

 I adorned an unlined index card with loose random watercolor blotches by smooshing Simon Hurley’s luscious new Stellar Foam Ink Pads from Ranger onto my craft sheet, spritzing, dipping the card into the ink, and letting the colors dry. Later I went back with Letter It Fineliners to “find” the clouds and added lots of fun doodles with my Posca paint pens.

Day 49: Connection

It's a two-index-card layered collage creation in which each level is ok on its own… but they’re better (imo) together!

Day 48: Taxi 

I was thinking (again) about placing text on different angles and axises and had a bit of a play with some ancient vinyl letter stickers... which then essentially got completely covered up by the adorable children's dictionary #taxi illustration.

   

Day 47: Off-Prompt

This is my version of a cool flower zendoodle that I spotted online somewhere and apparently didn't save the info for (sorry!) There is quite a bit of pale pink shading IRL that doesn't show up in the pic and I am not sure about the vast amount of white space but... it was fun to draw and chalks off another day of ICAD!

Day 46: Pivot 

Here's a card that did not come out the way I thought it would; I was basically trying to #pivot the heart and background to be interestingly contrasting on each side and... well... it's definitely quite flowery, lol!!! :)

Day 45: Terra Cotta

I started out with the intention of finding/mixing the best/closest shade to a true terra cotta using my Tombow Dual Brush Pens and a waterbrush; but as I was playing with the colors I started being interested in all the variations and the way the component shades of orange, tan, pink, beige and brown worked together, so it veered a bit into Deconstructed Terra Cotta... with doodley flower(ish) shapes.

♥♥♥

Wishing you a wonderful, productive and creative week!

SOS550: A Stitch in Time

It's time for a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash and this one will keep you in stitches! As you've probably already guessed, we want to see stitching on your card or project: it can be done with a sewing machine, hand-stitching, cross stitch, faux stitching with a pen, a die, etc; the choice is yours.

 

I chose a 49 and Market patterned paper that already had some faux stitching detail as part of its pattern; to which I added additional stitched rub-on transfers and, finally, some actual machine stitching on top. I stacked several frames made with Memory Box's Nested Globes die set over 49 & Market tropical foliage; added a little collage of ephemera; and aged everything down a bit with raw edges and Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.

Visit Shopping Our Stash to see the gorgeous cards the Crew have made and to link up your Stitch-centric masterpieces! SOS550: A Stitch in Time runs until the evening of Monday, June 29th.

Bonnie Lassie

It's another cascade-style collage in my Dina Wakley MEdia Ledger Journal. The ingredients are (approximately) 1/3 actual vintage goodies; 1/3 vintage label repros from a collage ephemera book I got at a yard sale many moons ago; and 1/3 ancient rub-on transfers. I'm finding that collage is an awesome place to use up old rub-ons because it's win win: if they go on smoothly, woohoo! if they go on somewhat incompletely... still cool; sometimes even cooler like an instant distress effect! 

JB2507: Flat Feliz Navidad

This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're embarking upon that most challenging of challenges (at least for ME, lol!) that is generally called the One Layer Card; though some folks refer to it as the No Layer Card. What does that mean? It means your entire design is flat... your elements get stamped, drawn, embossed, etc directly onto the cardbase; so basically you're not taping or gluing ANY additional papers/diecuts/layers to that base. This is NOT my natural metier, but I'm always up for a challenge so here's what I made this time:

I started with a white 5.5" square card, taped off all four edges with some low-tack washi, then broke out the awesome Wendy Vecchi Build-a-Plaid Layered Stencil Set from Spellbinders and my MAKE ART Stay-tion to create a diagonal Christmassy plaid in Archival Inks of the red, green and gold variety. Then I added some of Hero Arts' Winter Foliage Rub-On Transfers, which are as wonderfully glitch-free as they are beautiful to look at. (I mention this because I know that some folks are nervous about rub-ons.) The sentiment is from another set of HA Rubs called Holiday Messages. I like the way you can very very faintly see the plaid inking underneath the transfers AND the fact that this baby is even flatter than the average credit card bill, which will be a great advantage when I hit the post office in December!

Head over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's fabulous card and to link your own One/Zero Layer card. Flat Feliz Navidad runs until the evening of Wednesday, April 9th. 

Oh Say, Can You Sepia?

Would this be a good time for a random collage card that's mostly tan, brown ecru and ivory? (Be a sport and say, "YES!" otherwise this post falls a bit flat, doesn't it?) Hope your weekend is off to a good start. Do something creative today if you possibly can! ♥

 

 

BLING on the Holidays

This fortnight at Jingle Belles, we're celebrating (...you guessed it...) BLING! So make a card featuring jewels, gems, beads, pearls, glitter, stickles, or anything sparkly and join the fun!

I've had these Bling Snowflakes from the big box store for aggggggggges, so I was determined to use them for this prompt. I found a funky gel print made (at some un-remembered time, lol) by using an ancient Darice snowflake embossing folder to remove paint from the plate. I added some older Tim Holtz metallic rub-on transfers to enhance the holiday theme. My sentiment and mat are white glitter cardstock and the finished card is an A6.

JB2505: BLING on the Holidays runs until the evening of Wednesday, March 12th. Visit Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful BLING-centric card and find all of the details (and the Linky tool) there!

MM06: Rub-on Transfers

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon the organizer containing what I thought were a few leftover packs of rub-on transfers (in fact A LOT of leftover rub-on transfers) and became utterly re-obsessed. Thus this is my first ever Rub-On Transfer Mandala Monday. (Probably not the last one lol!)

SOS540: Crafty Remnants

It's an extra-fun challenge this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, as we'd like to see you take something that is already out on your desk or workable, and use it on your card. I am nearly always spoiled for choice on these occasions, and this time was no exception. There was actually a bit of a pile on my worktable, but these are the remnants I decided to use:

There's a purple ombre Oxide Ink blended panel leftover from a kit I am working on; my last really big scrap of glossy black cardstock; a Tim Holtz floral diecut that I cut out of its background; a Simon Hurley Funky Chevron panel festuned with Perfect Pearls; plus a tag and panel featuring only partially successful versions of watercolor stenciling. NOT on the worktable, but possibly my favorite part and crucial for making everything work together: a truckload of ancient black and white rub-on transfers that I am now entirely re-obsessed with!

Visit SOS to see what the rest of the crew have made and then have a good look at your own crafty remnants so you can join the fun. This challenge runs until the evening of Monday, February 10th.