Friday, July 25, 2014

WHITE SPACES


ICAD - was JUST WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR - last year when I joined the Facebook group over at Daisy Yellow. Last year doing art on a small 3 x 5 inch index card every day for 61 days made a huge difference to my enjoyment of life, to my mood, to my being present in the moment, to my happiness with myself and my life and my lot in life!

 It was the push I needed to be creative EVERY day - and explore the world of Art Journalling.

When Tammy Garcia invited me to design a card as a Guest contributor on Daisy Yellow  and the ICAD (Index Card a Day 2014). I felt very honoured and very apprehensive! What to do? How to do it? Has it been done before?

I use a lot of recycled and repurposed objects in my art practices so I decided to follow that path and have the theme - Reuse, Reduce, Recycle - and design an easy technique able to be quickly done by others. Then a quote I found among my text collection also inspired me!

 "White clarifies space and accentuates form".

 I set out to design a 3 x 5 card,  exploring the quote with index cards, thinly smearing acrylic paint with used plastic store/credit cards and stamping marks with black acrylic paint. I chose some interesting pieces of "junk" from my recycling box and stated experimenting. I made a few cards and added words from my text collection. It was fun to do, very easy and quick - but you need to wait for the paint to dry or use a heat gun.

The quote that started it all - deserved a card of its own! 

 Cards ready for words. 

 
One completed.

 One or two colours can be smeared with plastic
cards.

 
Plastic biscuit tray packaging makes great
stamp marks with acrylic paint.

Text collection.
Choosing words that appeal.

Paper torn from corrugated cardboard exposes a
 rippled area. Can be use flat or on the edge for
stamping with acrylic paint.

Circles from bottle tops, pencil rubbers, tape rolls.

Dragging paint with home made "combs".

Stamping with corrugated cardboard inner layers.

Plastic cards for smearing paint.

Things that are normally designated "rubbish"
can be recycled into great stamps.
AND ...
My card collection - some text has been outlined
for definition, and smudged to 'age' it,
some left with the clear cut edge. I like both.







I love my collection of cards - the white spaces especially and I love doing ICAD! Thank you
Tammy for all you do to facilitate this challenge.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

LOVE THE 2014 ICAD CHALLENGE

Once again I am participating in ICAD - Tammy Garcia's Daisy Yellow Index-Card-a-Day challenge.
And I love it! Tammy provides themes and prompts and I've religiously stuck to this - and that in itself is a challenge - a bit like doing what I'm told! (Which I'm not good at - so I can learn that too)
There are well over 1100 members and the inspiration is never-ending. My ideas file is growing daily!
These 5 cards were the "warm-up" cards before the challenge started on June 1st. I'm most proud of my lettering.
Week 1 - all backgrounds are text - and various prompts my favourite is the Circus tent.
Week 2 - Collage backgrounds and prompts - my favourite is the Alphabet one.

Week 3 - Maps were the backgrounds here - weather, and road - and my favourite card was the orange prompt.
Week 4 - and Rainbow gelli prints formed my backgrounds - with the Maple leaves being my favourite.

WHY AM I DOING IT?
It's a great challenge on many levels - setting aside the time, planning and thinking (better than doing crosswords fro the brain cells), doing the art, following the prompts, taking a photo and uploading to FaceBook, and so much fun meeting like minded arty friends in the group!