The Finale

I got a lot of flack and warnings when I tried to down load Picasa onto my computer last night. Yes, Robin, you were right. I knew it was a "P" word but I just couldn't think of the word. I wanted to try a mosaic layout with all of the icads but decided to forgo it and just laid them out on the floor instead. Here are all of my 61 days. Here's a couple of close ups. It looks pretty cool to see them all together. It was rally a lot of fun and kept my creative juices flowing even if I wasn't always in the mood. Little pieces of art that can spark other, sometimes, bigger things. Thank you Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow for hosting yet another year of the icad challenge.

The End of the Challenge

This is the third year for me participating in Tammy Garcia's the ICAD challenge. I have made 61 pieces of art on a 4x6 index card, to be finished on the last day of the month. I am showing you the remaining ones in case I am too tired to post on that day. And that would be kind of a bummer, you see, as I would be a bit annoyed with myself if I didn't show you on the "due date." lol. I have to laugh at myself. So, I am showing you this before the due date. So, here are the last 3 (if I counted right. ha ha ha ) At some point in the next two days I will lay them all out and see if I can get a picture of all of them. I remember someone one year had displayed her ICADS so beautifully in a mosaic kind of lay out. I wish I could remember the name of the program. It's on the tip of my tongue but I am having a brain fart. If you've been reading my posts you know I had my first two art journaling workshops at the local AC Moore craft store last week. It was fun. Tiring but fun. I have scheduled 3 more back to back in August. I am looking forward to it.Also thank you to those who have been to my Society6 site and have become followers there. Your support is much appreciated. Thanks for visiting and your comments mean you support me and that feels very good. Thank you......

Happy Paint Party Friday and Other Stuff

A new piece.......... gesso and watercolor crayons, paint and paint markers. The thin, gridded lines are made with the bottom of an old pair of sandals. I just had to see what it would look like on a pillow at Society6. LOoks pretty cool if you ask me. And we're on the home stretch of the ICAD challenge. Here are a few more which makes me up to date. Wonderful to be off from work today and to spend some of it with my daughter. Tomorrow I am off to AC Moore to do a demo and try and spark some interest in some art journaling workshops. Wishing you a wonderful, creative weekend. Thanks for stopping by. I am going to the party here and here where this month's theme is flowers.

5 Days

Here are 5 days of art on an index card. Yes! I'm caught up! Have you checked out the ICAD challenge Flickr page? There's a lot of cool art there. I have learned to be very resourceful in making these. I always have some index cards laying nearby where ever I am working. I can prep a lot at one time on the gelli plate or simply by throwing some paint and gesso down or using scraps of stuff laying around on the table (or the floor) and then raiding the scrap bin of torn papers etc. Adding some home made stamps and then sometimes taking them in the car before work I can add the doodling or last minute gluing with my glue stick. I have to remember to take my bag of markers and gel pens in to work since it's a about 100 degrees lately. Yes, I do art work in my car before work and it's sometimes very hard to leave the car, but it makes me a bit less cranky having taken the time for me to create at the beginning of the day rather than waiting until the end of a work day, when much of my energy has been used up. So, finding time for art can be done if you really want to do it. Thanks for visiting here.........Jo

More In the Garden

I seem to be creating a lot of art with flowers. I have decided to call it my "In the Garden" series. I like that you can use gesso and crayon as resist with water color and spray inks. Sometimes I do a bunch of throwing stuff down on lots of card stock at one time and forget about them. I'll forget what I have done. I'll come back to it at another time and it's sometimes pleasantly surprising. Like here. And here. I thought I had just picked up a plain white piece of cardstock because at first I didn't see the white gesso where I'd smeared and scraped in to it, nor the white crayon. I love the results when "slathered" with water color on top. In this ICAD I knowingly used the white crayon and water color. Started doodling some flowers and then left it. Declared it finished. Go here if you'd like to see more of my In the Garden Series. Thanks for stopping in.

Power Surges and Blue Bell Ice Cream

Right now I hear the tinkling, music box version of Yankee Doodle Dandy and Ten Little Indians as the ice cream truck moves slowly past the house. I thought for a split second of going out to see exactly what he had on his truck before I remembered I had some mint chocolate chip ice cream that needed to be eaten. I have no patience with summer this year. Truly. I used to be pretty tolerant of these Virginia summers. Not this year. I am already having my own power surges and so I don't like it when mine mix with the normal outside heat. I don't like it when I'm talking to someone at work and all of a sudden I want to start taking off my clothes and I'd swear my forehead has sweat beads. Ah. One of the joys of life. I had been behind on the icad challenge but was delighted to have lots of quiet peaceful time this weekend to hang out in summer pjs and play. In fact, I enjoyed my time so much I partook in pizza and ice cream, which I don't ordinarily eat. After listening to nearly 15 minutes worth of conversation by my coworkers about Blue Bell ice cream and how utterly wonderful it was, and how they could not believe I'd never had it, I had to seek it out at my grocery store only to stand there in front of 4 freezer sections devoted only to Blue Bell ice cream and sherbet and I was totally overwhelmed. I came home with mint chocolate chip which I love so I knew I couldn't go wrong. It was good. Here are a few more ICADs. One month gone. One to go. You know I spent a long time on this one. Just drop your tea bag on an index card and see what you can do with it. Ha ha ha!! Did you know that needle point canvases make great stencils? They show up a lot in my work. I think I own 4 or 5 Copic markers and that's what I used to color in this doodling. Yes, this one took so much time to make. I simply glued down a painty baby wipe, doodled and added a torn paper with my home made stamp. The last one was the sweetest thing because I didn't really do anything. It's a gelli printed index card with a torn piece of my art with some found words. How sweet is that? Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned for more little simple "stuff." Now, I've gotta go see about this Blue Bell ice cream.

Add Peace to the World

Work has totally wiped me out this week. I cannot remember it being this bad. Thank goodness for art. Art saves me, calms and grounds me, brings me back to me. Here are my last few days of art on an index card, most of which I did in the front seat of my car in the morning before I went in to work. You know it's never to late to join in the fun of creating art on an index card. You can go here to find out more. I am going share this with the folks over at Paint Party Friday to check out all the wonderful stuff they have been creating. I hope you've had a good week where ever you are.

Playing and Working Hard

I have a few things to share with you. Still playing with art on index cards. Tammy Garcia hosts this challenge every day until the last day of July. You can still jump in and you can learn more about it here. Here are a couple more. Both were done pretty rapidly actually, making more mess in my already messy studio. Seriously, I hate to admit it. My studio is much like my house sometimes. I would rather be making messes in my studio than cleaning up messes in the rest of the house. It gets to a point and I cannot stand it and the mess becomes too distracting and I cannot focus. I think it's coming soon, like this weekend. The first one was made with acrylic glaze shimmering paints (from DreamingInColor.com and a few stencils. The second one is acrylic paint on top of gessoed stencils and a face was drawn with a water color pencil. I am also plugging a long with some art journaling pages, filling up an old sketchbook I turned in to an art journal. I add something every so often and those every so oftens add up. I can see my growth because the journal pages are mixed with old and more recent additions. I'm getting a bit better at drawing. Here are a few pages. And now I have a surprise. I've been working hard at my art and working hard to get this finished. While it's not finished, it's a good beginning. I am excited to show you my art like this. And this. And I love the way my art looks here. I want to buy them all. lolAnd lastly, If you'd like to check out more of my art please do go here. It would be wonderful to have your support if only to add your name to "+follow." Also, please do note that the cost of each item is not what goes in the artist pocket. In fact, it's only about 3% in most cases, maybe less that actually goes in mine. But, it's a pretty wonderful feeling seeing it out there in frames and other items. Please go there and check it out. This was a long one tonight. Thanks for sticking around. Thanks for supporting me with kind words. I'm linking today to the wonderful people and artists here. Happy Paint Party Friday!!

Dragging

I don't like this sudden change in weather. This heat is wiping me out. It was nearly 80 degrees on my way to work at 6:30 this morning and the heat index was over 100 by early afternoon. I guess I'm just not tolerating it very well this summer. Thank goodness for a bit of "manageable coolness" 30 minutes in my car before work to play with iCADs. By the time I am home from work I am totally wiped. Here are two more. Is it just me or are you having trouble with this heat as well? Thanks for stopping in.

The Heat is On!!

I know it's summer time but geesh, it was in the mid 90's here in Virginia today. Yuck!! Sometimes I wish I was back in the north. I have been very busy in preparation for my demo/possible workshop the same day at my local AC Moore store for mid July. I'll keep you posted on that. IN the meantime, this is short and sweet. I think it's the heat that's gotten to me today. I feel like my brain is fried. Here's a few ICADS which makes me caught up once again. Thanks for visiting. Where ever you are, I hope you are cool.

ICADS #4 and 5 and Thinking about Christmas

Here's another ICAD. I scraped some gesso on a bunch of index cards last weekend and then scraped and made marks in to the gesso, then had some fun with some spray inks. I saw another little scene. I think I will add some birds. It's funny what things you see after you take the picture and upload it.I think why did I not see that before? And I've been thinking about Christmas. Not in a materialistic-let's-go- buy- gifts kind of way, but in my continuation of making home made ornaments. I want to make a bunch for my tree and for gifts, and I told myself I wasn't going to wait until the last minute this year. So, when ever I want to get rid of scraps and stuff, I get out my ornament box. Since I had some glitter out I made this ICAD. The tree was drawn on top of a painty piece of waxed paper which was glued down onto the index card. Thanks for visiting here.

Icad #3

I'm having fun!! Are you?

ICAD CHALLENGE 2014

The ICAD challenge began again yesterday June 1st and will continue until July 31st. This is my third year participating. The very inspirational and creative host, Tammy Garcia, has lots of ideas and prompts to get your juices flowing if need be. It's totally optional to do them. Do check it out here and do come and join the fun. Seriously, all you need is some index cards and what ever else you want to put on them. Anything goes. Well, almost anything. As long as it's clean. Here are my first two days of art on an index card. I have some other things to share with you tomorrow along with icad #3. Thanks for visiting here.

The Time for Singing ...................

The Time for Singing of Birds is come.............. ~Song of Solomon I received some lovely flowers from my daughter on Mother's Day. She knows my favorite color palette so well. Are those not gorgeous? I went to work on Monday morning and left three hours later with a fever and generally feeling like you know what. Paid my doctor a visit, came home with a Z pack, and crashed. That I didn't do any art for 2 days told me I really wasn't feeling well. Today is the first day I feel I am on the mend. I'm showing you the last two pages of my Smash Book Overhaul. It's time to lay it down and close the cover..... for now. I pasted down an index card on top of a pretty "grunged up" painted page. A catch- all piece of waxed paper was pasted down on the index card with home made stenciling. The bird on top of that. I think I was really in to red the night I did that page. I found some torn red paper from a home decor magazine and managed to catch the light on the glossy while photographing this page. (Not my intention.) Speaking of index card. It's nearly time for The ICAD challenge again. For those who have been following my blog for a while you may remember my participation in creating art on an index card for 60 days. This will be the third year for me, and while I am usually pretty enthusiastic in the beginning, I often go through a whiny stage of "Why did I commit to doing this?," because I know I will not be ok if I start it and do not finish it. I remember that I can cut myself some slack. It's ok. I can catch up. It's just a simple index card. Create something on an index card for 2 months. Sometimes you want to follow the prompts. Sometimes you don't. For me, this is an exercise for seeing something through. Of committing, of showing up. I cannot tell you how many of my ICADS I really liked and were the inspiration for something larger. There were also plenty I didn't like at all. Here is what one month of last year's ICADS looked like. In the end I am glad I have participated in this challenge. It gets my juices flowing and if I have created no other art every day but this, it's good. Check it out. The last page of my overhauled Smash Book is yet another grunged- up -paint- on- top -of- paint-page with my own art photocopied and cut up. Lot's of black paint speckles and some miscellaneous doodling. Thanks for coming on this ride with me. It feels good to have finished it. So, here's the front cover again. And the back. Talk abut a very old attempt at a face... more like an alien. But it's mine. And look how far I've come. Isn't it funny to look back at the early stuff you did? I've come to the end but I will not stop. Thank you also for so many supportive comments. I am joining the party here and here