cavalcade of ICADs!

as with last year, i'm not having any trouble keeping up with the index card a day project... and i am love♥LOVE♥loving it again, too! but for some reason, i find it difficult to keep up with the photo-n-post part of the deal. it really shouldn't be hard, should it? i mean, it's only ONE extra pic per day. but somehow, i'm making it difficult. sooooooooo unlike me, lol! :) anyway, i did a big photo catch-up session and here they are, right up to last night's card! can i get a wahey?!

 017: stencils

my only rule for these cards is NOT to stop if i don't like how they're turning out. the first two rounds of stencilling were dull and weird, respectively, so i just kept layering stuff on top. finally, (perhaps in self-defense?) the card decided to start lookin' kinda cool!

018: postage stamp

i really like this one, i'm not sure why. well ok, it's got a vintage stamp, some hoarded ephemera, and i've used my beloved manual typewriter. mystery solved.

019: polka dots, take 1

some stencils, some marker, some patterned paper... nothing wrong with this, but i'm not in love

020: polka dots, take 2

my personal "just keep going" rule is a carry-over from last year; this year, tho, i've decided i can have a second go at any prompt that went awry. all the way up to the sewing, i was still on the fence, but to me it ties the whole thing together.

021: italy

multiple vintage travel book goodness, in all its splendor. and some felt thickers on top. va bene! :)

022: flat but layery collage

it's just paper and rub-ons. ok, a bunch of paper... and a lot of rub-ons, lol. too layery?? nahhhhhhh.

 023: summer

ok, yeah, i went a little mad with product here. but, you know, inna GOOD way! :) :) :)

024: quote

one of my art journaling mottoes: when in doubt, hand-stamp a buddha quote; in this case i wish i'd put the second "happiness" on the other side of the "is", because it'd be easier to read, but other than that, i like it. 

025: owl

i'm really really loving this sort of free-form paper-piecing type style, and this was fun to make. having said that, my owl (whom i modelled loosely after a hambly rub-on) kind of looks like a space alien. i think it's the eyes. yeah. it's the eyes. maybe i should rename this "U.F.Owl"? ok, see, now he looks kinda creepy cool. context, darlings! context!!! :)

it's not too late to ICAD with us... and it's sooooooooooooooo fun! think about it!!! ♥♥♥

SOS107: use your oldest embellishment

do you love these "blast from the past" challenges as much as i do? this week at shopping our stash, miss carla has asked us to think back to our very first embellies and then try to use them on a card or project. now i can't swear that any of these particular items will have been the actual first embellishment i bought, but i can tell you with confidence that it would've been prima's "got flowers" or patterned chipboard in some variation. so just to be fair, i've used some of each in my design!

patterned paper: mambi, creative imaginations, sei + a bit of pink packaging; chipboard pieces: sei, making memories, colorbok, heidi swapp, american crafts; chipboard letters: american crafts; flowers: prima; silver beads: recollections; ribbon: ki memories; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i've got several different chipboard bits here, as you can see, and a couple of them are SERIOUSLY old! i thought it would be fun to sort of stack them up, and as it turns out, i think i was right. :) something else i've never done... but will totally do again... (possibly over and over, lol!) ...is to line up the smaller paper flowers and then sew them on, like a ruffle. i really like how that looks, and i've still got quite a few "flat" flowers left, so i think this could be a fun way to deplete them a bit.

a few of my SOS teamies have also used flowers in interesting ways, and the rest have... well, no, i don't think i'm gonna tell you, actually. off you go, darlings, to see for yourselves! ♥

i have a bunch more ICADS done...

...but i haven't photographed them yet, and since another sunday is quickly slipping away, i've elected to post with fewer cards, but sooner. sound good? let's go!

013: super-fast collage
as a figure of some repute amongst overthinkers, one of my favorite (and proudest!) parts of the ICAD project is making a conscious effort to work more instinctively. which sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn't it, lol?! but for me it's harder NOT to plan, so this "glue-as-you-go" creation coming together in about 10 minutes was fairly awesome!

014: rainbow riot
another 10-minute collage. i don't love the finished product of this one as much... but that's ok... this exercise (for me!) is really waaaay more about process than outcome. plus... POPSICLES!!! :) :) :)

015: circus
speaking of process vs outcome: i saw a really cool idea on gina's blog (she made a background for a vintage illustration) and i had a shot at something similar. mine's NOTHING like gina's, and also, i really don't like how this looks AT ALL... but the exciting part is trying something completely new, regardless of what happens! you should try it!!! ♥

016: the other lady
when i cut things out, i rarely have just one layer. case in point: when i cut out the sewing pattern lady from the super-fast collage, i held a piece of magazine and some dictionary paper behind her. sometimes i use the silhouettes with the original; sometimes they go off and pursue solo projects. this is one of the latter, obviously.

ps: to read all about the index card a day project, 2013, check out the FAQ on the admirable and inspiring daisy yellow art blog! ♥

we wish you a digi christmas!

this week at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we are lucky enough to have one of my favorite lovely guest stars AND one of my favorite types of prompt, and they are BOTH in the same fortnight, so let's get right to it! our guest is the uber-talented gina cunningham, and the brief this time is near and dear to her heart... (and mine!) ...we're making holiday cards with at least one digital element involved, whether that be as simple as printing and coloring a digital stamp, or as complicated as making a multiple layered collage in photoshop that uses loads of actions, blending modes and digital elements. be as simple or as complicated as you like, just make sure to have some fun with it!

i've got LOADS of digital supplies, but sadly, i mostly use them only when i am making blog headers or other things that will be seen online. apparently, i'm slightly lazy when it comes to making hybrid cards, which is a shame. because they're fun to make, flexible, and so economical... since you can customize each bit, and you only ever need to print what you're actually going to use! for instance, i've been meaning since january to make a card that features the kit i used for this year's JB header, but it took a specifically digi-based prompt to make me actually DO IT. having said that, i really like how this came out:

(digital elements: christmas shopping kit by polka dot pixels + christmas postcard journalers no1 by katie pertiet, designer digitals; printed on plain paper, cardstock and kodak premium photo paper;  irl supplies: patterned paper: my mind's eye, cosmo cricket; deco tape: martha stewart, recollections; ribbon: october afternoon; other: distress inks, doily; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape)

you can see that in addition to using the same ingredients, i stuck pretty close to the layout of the blog header, too. well, i mean, i did DESIGN that, and i think it's pretty decent, and i sort of thought it'd make a nice card. i stand by that decision, lol! :)

when i'm doing a fully digital project (like the header) i spend a lot of time adding drop shadows to give the appearance of depth and texture. when i'm doing the hybrid version, i tend to want to cut things out and layer them loosely; sometimes with a bit of foam tape under the top edge, like this:

and now i bet you'd like to head over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see gina's and stephanie's hybrid masterpieces, right? then i hope you will start thinking what you can make when you JOIN US!!! ♥

SOS106: geometric shapes

i confess that i had a hard time getting started for this week's challenge at shopping our stash. the brief is to make a project that uses geometric shapes: hexagons, triangles, circles, rectangles... well, you get the idea! for some reason i just went completely blank, and could not think of an interesting way to incorporate such shapes into a card. at all. then suddenly it hit me, "of course!" i said to myself, "it's like quilting!" and then once i had that idea, i had a hard time STOPPING making quilty type cards. (and there you have *ME* in a nutshell, lol!) :)

so here's a set of notecards i made, each using the "geometric" idea:

ok, there are just TOO many patterned papers to list here, and every single one of them were scraps AND quite elderly, so i'm not even going to try. if you see something you loooooove, shoot me an email and i'll try to figure out who made it, k?! :) :) :)

to make these, i used punches and my handy guillotine chopper to make little squares, circles, triangles and rectangles out of approximately elebenty thousand different paper scraps. i inked the edges, tacked the shapes onto a white cardstock base with a gluetape runner, and then when each card was assembled i "quilted" around the shapes with my sewing machine and some nice sturdy white upholstery thread. i'm not actually sure it wouldn't be possible to have MADE A TINY FABRIC QUILT in the time i spent doing these, but they are the kind of fiddly-but-easy job i actually enjoy at the end of the day, so i found them quite relaxing. i think i'm going to give them to my mother-in-law for her birthday, as she is a handmade card fancier AND a quilter, too!

and now i recommend you make a trip to SOS and see the shapely designs of my design teammates! ♥

more (xmas) sketchy goodness!

because the best thing about a great sketch (like... say... the one stephanie drew for ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ last week!) is that you can use it over and over again! so we did! here's my second card:

(patterned paper--mostly scraps: love elsie, bo bunny, reminisce, my mind's eye, pink paislee; red cardstock: core'dinations; rub-ons and dimensional snow globe sticker: imaginisce; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape)

and here's a reminder of what that fabulous sketch looks like:

and now i hope you'll drop in and see us at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ because we'd loooooooooove for you to join our fun! ♥

more ICAD anyone?

because when you're making an index card a day, they kinda add up! :) 

008: random collage
this might be my favorite so far, it's just three pieces of b+w magazine glued together... (the face of one woman, the lips of another and the eyeglasses and hand of of a middle-aged man) ...with a caption glued on top, but it makes me laugh every time i see it! :)

009: city or map
i did a bit of both, as a way of declaring that i totally *NEED* a city day. and SOON!!!

010: camera
this one is free-hand paper-pieced, something i never tried before, but i definitely will again!!! i used the simple image of a camera from a sadly retired set of hambly rub-ons as a sort of jumping off point, and lots of little blue scraps.

011: ivy
copics and sharpie marker + an index card. = 20 totally satisfying minutes at the end of a long day!

012: sunshine
layers and layers of pencil, ink, crayon, marker, paper, ribbons, tape, tiny stickers... well you get the idea!

so how is your week going? if it's only been "ok" so far... maybe you should grab an index card or two?! ♥♥♥