In the Heat of the Summer

I can't really complain. The weather has been fairly mild here. We are normally in the 90s by now but not this year. Of course, I am having a yard sale tomorrow (I prefer shopping at them than running them lol) so we will probably have a record heat wave lol

The ICAD challenge is still going strong.
Some of these prompts are really testing my creativity haha

Day 39: Lens

I immediately thought....Camera

Here is my antique Baby Brownie camera. Isn't it cute?

Here is my drawing....drawn from a slightly different angle. The perspective is a bit off but everyone could tell exactly which camera it was so that works for me.  :-)


 Day 40: Surfboard

My first idea was a VW bus with a surfboard on top. But that seemed more like the focus was the vehicle not the surfboard. So I changed the focus.

Inktense pencils, watercolor pencils, white acrylic paint (for surf) and Sharpie pen



Day 41: Longitude and Latitude

I opted for Ohio Stadium. I don't draw buildings very often, especially not real ones or fancy ones and never a stadium. I love the front of this stadium with the beautiful arches. It is really pretty in person.

This was done with Derwent Graphitint pencils and a Sharpie pen.


Day 42: Yellow

If you know me you know how much I hated this prompt. I cannot stand the color yellow!

I painted the entire card with bright yellow acrylic paint. I then proceeded to try and cover most of it lol
I used a palette knife for the black paint, a brush for the blue (which took on a green color as it blended into the still wet yellow) and then let the red dribble down from the top. (hubby says it looks like blood lol)

I still hate yellow but I really like how this turned out.


Day 43: Mint

I didn't want to go with just the color mint as a lot of people were doing. I thought.....hmm.....Mint. Starlight mints popped into my head. I wanted to do a play on 'starlight' and remembered I had this wonderful moon. Unfortunately I have no idea where he came from. He is unmounted and I didn't write the company name on the back (which I normally do so this has me baffled)

The background is black acrylic paint which I then splattered white paint on with a tooth brush to create a starry field. I stamped the moon on a new card with black StazOn ink, colored him with Inktense pencils and cut him out. The mint was hand drawn on a separate card then painted with Inktense pencils and highlighted with white acrylic paint.


Day 44: Rainbow Making Machine

This one came to me as I was falling asleep the night before.

In case you didn't know, rainbows are made from Kitten Whiskers and Flower Petals which are lovingly hand-cranked through the machine by tiny fairies.

The machine is drawn with Sharpie pen and shaded with a #4B graphite drawing pencil, The fairy was painted with Twinkling H2Os (her skin was colored with Prismacolor pencil) and the rainbow is Inktense pencils.


Day 45: Play on Words

This one is a little hard to see. I drew it with my soft blue Pilot Color Eno pencil. I love how smooth the color glides onto the paper.

Anyway, I loved how it looked and decided I didn't want to go over it with anything else to darken the image.


And as for non-ICAD related projects...

My sister has a birthday coming up soon. I found this pop-up card at Lori Whitlock's site a few months ago and thought it would make a cute birthday card.
Every time I go there I find the most adorable files!

This is the front (not part of Lori's file) I would go into Design Space and tell you where I got the 'Happy Birthday" and the cake but DS is acting up and won't let me open the file. A quirk that happens sometimes. :-(

And this is the inside (the file from Lori Whitlock). I added the decoration to the utensil crock and the little rug on the floor.

I embossed the floor piece to look like a tile floor using Close To My Heart Quatrefoil folder.

The rug says "Let someone else bake the cake this year".

That about covers it for my week. Tomorrow is my yard sale. I am unloading a lot of stuff that was taking up valuable real estate in my craft room. Fingers crossed that I make some money (so I can go buy more crafting goodies lol)

Happy Crafting!

Time Flies when you are having Fun

I can't believe that I have already completed 38 days of the ICAD challenge. 

Then again I can't believe 2016 is more than half way over. My parents always said that time flies the older you get but this is just crazy.  And why does it happen???

Well, here are my cards from the past week. And let me tell you, some of these prompts did absolutely NOTHING for me!!!

Like this one...

Day 32: Zodiac

It took me most of the day to force myself to sit down and do something. (and I didn't do much lol)

The goat is drawn with pencil and colored Inktense pencil. 
Capricorn is stamped with black StazOn ink using the Close To My Heart Circus Alphabet set.


Day 33: Magic

The rabbit, hat, cards and wand were colored with Inktense pencils. The table and background were watercolor pencil.

I like this one. As soon as I saw the prompt I knew I wanted to draw a bunny. :-)


Day 34: Statue of Liberty

Since I am still trying to teach myself how to draw chibi characters Lady Liberty just came out that way lol

The outlines are Sharpie fine point pen (not the markers, these have a slim body and super fine point). 
Color was added with Inktense pencils.


Day 35: Sunflower

Drawn with Sharpie black pen. Colored with Inktense pencils. Sunflower was written with a Cricut calligraphy pen.


Day 36: Prism  (another boring prompt lol)

I had no idea what to do so went very literal (and boring). I have to say I do like the vibrant colors. I used Cray-Pas oil pastels and blended them with my fingers. Very messing, very pretty lol


Day 37: Meditation

I don't meditate and this card shows why. 
I start out with good intentions everything as it should be and soon my mood goes to black as the cat is howling out in the kitchen, I am thinking I need to get dinner on the stove or I start thinking about work....  I am much better off locking myself in my art room and grabbing a pencil or some paint! lol



Day 38: Folk Art

Wow! I thought I would just whip out a folk art flower in a couple minutes and be done. They used to take me no time at all. BUT that was over 30 years ago!

It is hard to believe that this was the craft painting style of the 80s. I don't think I have seen it since. But I still have a couple painting books on my shelf so I hauled one down and gave it a go. 

It isn't great (after 3 attempts! lol) but it will do.

Painted with acrylics (that I still have from the 80s lol)

So that covers all my cards for the week.

But I also did a vinyl project this week.  :-)

I love yard sales, You can find the oddest things. Like a couple months ago I scored a box of at least 50 glass baby food jars with metal lids for $1.

I had no use in mind other than maybe sorting and storing beads or something but everyone on the Let's Learn Cricut Explore facebook group has been making fairy jars.

I am not into fairies, although I do like Tinkerbell, so I hadn't jumped on that bandwagon.
Not until someone posted a Mermaid jar. Now there is something I can get into :-)

I cut the vinyl pieces with my Explore. A mermaid lounging on the sea floor, a couple fish, a sea shell and a sea star. They were applied to the inside of the jar.

I did not have any colored tissue paper so I made my own. I spritzed some tissue paper with water and then with Dylusions Ink spray. Voila! Colored tissue paper. I then dried with it my heat gun and then sprayed it with Krylon Workable Fixatif so the color wouldn't bleed when I glued the tissue to the jar.

I used Mod Podge to glue the tissue.
I then sprayed the metal lid with Rustoleum white metal primer, let it dry then dabbed on alcohol inks.

Just a piece of jute tied around the top and some sand glued to the bottom with Tacky glue.

I have a tiny battery tea light inside.  I think it turned out cute. 

That about covers it for this week.

Stay cool and dry. Happy Crafting!!!

Half Way!

I can't believe it! We are already half way through the Index Card a Day challenge!

I am still on track and having fun.  :-)

Here the my cards from this past week.

Day 26: Space Invaders

I have to admit, I played a lot of video games as a kid. Atari had just come out and my dad was just as hooked as us kids so we had ALL the games!  Space Invaders was NOT one of my favorites. I always lost...and the sound was so annoying!!! lol  I didn't even like it in the arcade! 

I had to really think about what I would do for this card (since the prompt was a game I thoroughly disliked lol)

So I created a real space invasion. The landscape is the Table Rocks in southern Oregon. :-)

This was done with a mix of watercolor, Inktense and Prismacolor pencils.


Day 27: Motel

Sheesh!  I told you last week we had some real duds coming up lol

Talk about zero motivation.....that is what this prompt was doing for me. 
I normally work on my cards right after I get off work. Not this one, I was scrambling right before I went to bed trying to come up with something!

I have no idea where in my brain this crawled out of but here it is! lol

A mix of Inktense and watercolor pencils.


Day 28: Dog and/or Cat

Well duh! CAT!

I love when I have a reason to use Tucker as my model (not that I really need a reason) :-)

Inktense pencils.

I always say Tucker was incredibly intelligent. When the temperatures began creeping up we would always find him lounging on the hearth. One foot draped over the edge looking very nonchalant.

His face isn't exactly how I would like but the card was beginning to disintegrate so I had to stop lol

See, just lounging and keeping cool.  Kitty never understood it. He would give Tucker the funniest looks like "what the heck dude, those bricks are hard" as he was panting and drooling lol


Day 29: Aqua or Pool

Ok, Aqua is one of my favorite colors....but to just create 'aqua'? Nothing was coming to mind so I went another direction.

Pool! lol

This was done with Prismacolor pencils.


Day 30: Trivial Pursuit

Ok, hubby did not 'get' this one at all.  Now I have to say, somewhere out in storage, I have one of the first Trivial Pursuit games. We played it all the time. And I know it referenced the game pieces as 'pie'. But when you view the current rules online they refer to them as 'wedges'. How boring is that?

Anyway, I still call them pie....thus my card lol

This was done with Inktense and watercolor pencils.


Day 31: (July 1st)  One Hundred

I have a feeling that the general idea was to have a hundred of something but that just isn't me. 

I read the prompt and immediately thought Winnie the Pooh.
I went for the classic Pooh and Piglet using Inktense pencils. I laid down so many layers of color that the index card is pilling up and disintegrating in spots...too bad, I would have liked to add more to some areas. 

Prompt 32? Zodiac....yuk! Thankfully I don't have to think about that until tomorrow. :-)

And believe it or I did something besides index cards this week! lol

I have gone back to trying to learn how to draw Chibis and Manga.
I found some awesome videos on YouTube by Mark Crilley. 
I like his style and find his sense of humor hilarious.

Have a fabulous weekend and a safe and Happy 4th! 

More ICADs

I am still on track and all caught up on my ICADs. You can view the challenge here.

If you haven't been following me the last couple weeks you can see all my cards for 2016 on Pinterest in my Index Card a Day 2016 folder.

And if you are interested, I have a folder for 2015 as well. 

I have now completed 25 days of the 61 day challenge. Yay me!

Day 22: Neon Sign

I had no idea what to do with this prompt so I Googled 'neon', saw a bunch of "Open" signs and decided to try and recreate that glow that neon has.

I used acrylic paints for the actual neon and Inktense pencils to create the glow.


Day 23: Winter

Again, another prompt that didn't really speak to me (and we just had Snowflake as a prompt a couple days prior!)

I grabbed my Inktense pencils, did a quick sketch of some mittens, added water to soften the color and called it good.


Day 24: Magenta

I am really not crazy about most of the prompts this week! (and we have a couple more later in the week that really don't appeal to me!)

I have nothing that I would classify as the color Magenta (which made the challenge even harder) lol  
I painted everything with acrylic paints. The petals are Black Cherry Delta Ceramcoat.
I stenciled the white flowers (it was the closest stencil I had to clouds lol)

The stamp is actually cut from a Gelli print using a Cuttlebug cutting die from the new Lost and Found die set. The button is die cut (from the same set) from a scrap of blue/gray scrapbook paper.


Day 25: Song

This idea came to me as I was falling asleep last night. I am very happy that I remembered it this morning. :-)

I love Disney movies and Cinderella is my favorite. I think the song 'A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes' is beautiful.

This may not be exactly what the song was about but it works for me.  

The bed/sleep section is drawn and colored with Prismacolor pencils...black and cool gray.

The dream is drawn with black Prismacolor pencil and colored with Inktense pencils.

I think I like the gray section better....mostly because the dream girl's eyes are a bit wonky lol

I hope you all have an awesome weekend and I will be back with more ICADs sometime next week. :-)

Art is what keeps me going

Today is not a great day. I am feeling very achy. Thank goodness I work from home and can stop for a few hours and go create something. It is the best medicine in the world!


Today is the last day of week 3 of the Index Card a Day challenge. I can't believe how fast it is flying by. Then again I can't believe we are half way through 2016 either!  Geez, before you know it it will be Christmas....I better get started with my shopping!!!!!  ;-)


Day 18: Orange

I stamped the pumpkins. If you have been here before then you know this is one of my all time favorite stamps. It comes from Graphic Rubber Stamp in N. Hollywood CA. The number stamped on the side of the block (yes this is so old it is mounted on a wood block) 844-1 H.  I have no idea if this company is even around any more. I have had this stamp for at least 20 years, probably more.

Anyway, I colored the pumpkins, as well as the floor, with Prismacolor pencils. I then inked up one of my embossing folders (Henna by Darice) with Stormy Sky Distress Ink and pressed it onto my card. I then chalked over it with PanPastel Ultramarine Blue Tint.

But I got done and though.....Eh.

So I made another card for the Orange prompt.

The sun was painted with white acrylic paint. Everything else is Inktense pencils.

I am still thinking ...Eh. But it's time to move on.


Day 19: Snowflake

I inked up my Swirled Snowflakes embossing folder from Darice with Distress Ink Stormy Sky and embossed my 3x5 index card.

I then drew the girl on a separate card, colored her with Inktense pencils, cut her out and glued her onto the snowstorm.

I think it turned out pretty cute.  It might even make a cute Christmas card. :-)


Day 20: The 1960s

Again, if you have been on this journey with me over the years then you know how much I love this cat stamp! He comes from Mars Tokyo.
I thought he would enjoy becoming part of my ode to Warhol.  :-)

The background was colored with Sharpie markers.
The cats were stamped with black Staz-On ink and then colored with Inktense pencils.
I then cut them out and glued them onto the background.


Day 21: Invent a Prompt

I really did not have anything in mind. I asked hubby last night for some prompt ideas....he has horrible prompt ideas lol

So, I began looking through my Pinterest boards just to see if something would jump start my muse. I found a Halloween card with a fat toad. And then I started thinking that I want to work on drawing Chibis again and that lead to this....

Crazy how the mind works isn't it? lol

Everything was drawn with a Sharpie fine line pen and then colored with Inktense pencils.

We'll just say my prompt was 'green' LOL

Have a wonderful week!

Moving Right Along

I cannot believe that we are already into week 3 in the ICAD challenge. If you don't know what that is you can take a look here. 

I am right on track and just finished my card for today (Day 17!)

I don't think I mentioned before....all my cards are plain (unlined) 3x5 index cards. Not the greatest medium to use but that is the point....try new things, do whatever you want....it is a disposable medium with no pressure. (if you are like me you have supplies in your stash that you are afraid to use because you spent a lot or they are such nice quality that you are afraid of messing them up and 'wasting' them).

So let me get you caught up with all my new cards I created since my last post.  :-)

Day 12: TV

My brother, as a small child, was always glued to the TV. He had to be told all the time to move back or it would damage his eyes. Funny thing though, he was far more interested in the commercials than the programs lol

I drew everything with a Sharpie fine line pen. I colored the wall stripes with a Prismacolor pencil then washed Intense pencil over it. And colored everything else with Inktense pencils. (how on earth did I survive without these fabulous pencils???)

Day 13: Playground

I hated this thing! My friends would tease me until I relented and jumped on then endured the spinning until I thought I was going to lose my lunch. And then having to jump off!!! I was a year younger than my friends and thus smaller. I was scared to death to jump off when it was moving so of course they would spin it faster as I was trying to dismount. Kids are so mean! 

Again I drew it with a Sharpie and colored it with Inktense pencils.

Day 14: Venn Diagram

I admit it, I had to Google it to see what it was.  And then didn't really want to make one lol

I swirled acrylic paints in circular patterns. I then dipped a jar lid into black paint to create the circle on the right and then into white for the left circle....Voila! A crappy Venn Diagram! LOL

Even my camera didn't like it! It kept refusing to focus on the card and once it finally did the colors were WAY off. I tried to fix it in Photoshop....but I think it would take a miracle to fix this card haha

Day 15: Bouquet

A simple vase with tulips. Drawn with Sharpie, colored with Inktense pencils and then Pan Pastels sponged onto the background.

Day 16: Wallpaper

I Googled "Vintage Wallpaper" to find one I liked. 

I then attempted to recreate a small portion.

I used only Prismacolor pencils, and since I do not own every color, it gave me a very limited palette. But I am happy with the results.

And finally.....

Day 17: Landscape

This is Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Newport, OR.

The sky is watercolor pencil, the white lighthouse and sea foam are acrylic paint, the rest is Inktense pencil.

I am very please with this one. I try to spend less than an hour working on my cards and this one came in at about 45 minutes. Considering how easily an index card ripples and begins to disintegrate with water I am happy that it is still intact lol

So now you are all caught up with me! Tomorrow's prompt is Orange. I am not sure if I will go literal and dig an orange out of the fridge or if I will just focus on the color....I do love pumpkins! Maybe I need to pull out some pumpkin rubber stamps for this one. Stayed tuned and find out! ;-)

Almost caught up!

I spent a lot of time yesterday getting caught up on my Index Card a Day challenge. But I had skipped over Day 8.

Well, I got up bright and early this morning and got that done.

As I stated yesterday (or at least I think I did lol) I went to visit my parents this past week. We live on opposite sides of the country so that doesn't happen very often.

While I was there we spent many hours going through a box of old family photos that had been in the possession of my great uncle. We found photos of relatives from several generations and lots of pictures of people that no one knows who they are (am I the only one that finds that sad?)

But we also found my uncle's photo album from his army days. He was an army photographer stationed in Hawaii at the end of WWII.  These were his private photos and you can tell that he enjoyed Hawaii, his friends and the local culture.  He has several portraits of beautiful hula girls (that is how he labeled them "Hula girl".

With Day 8 having the prompt of Island I thought I would try to draw this lovely lady.

Now, let me say upfront.....I only draw portraits during ICAD (because I am horrible at it! lol) And I know this one is awful!!!  But at least I tried. 

So here she is. I think the shape of the face is close but the eyes and mouth are definitely off.

But I can say that Day 8 is officially done!  :-)

Now I need to get to work on the prompt for today (Day 12) which is TV......no clue what I am going to do yet but I am sure something will come to me.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Thanks, I needed that!

I just returned from a much needed vacation. It has been over a year since we have had a chance to get away.

I took a week and headed back east to celebrate my Mom's 75th birthday!

We spent some time sorting through old family photos dating back through several generations. We found this adorable pic of Mom celebrating her 4th birthday. :-)

But, remember, the Index Card a Day challenge is going on (and I didn't keep up lol)

I completed days 2 and 3 before I left.

Day 2 was Pyramid. I sponged on Distress Inks working from lightest to darkest and then splattered white acrylic paint to create the stars.  I then painted on the pyramids and sand.

Day 3 was Snoopy. He was the perfect expression of my emotions the day before I left on vacation. Snoopy was drawn in pencil then outlined with a fine line Sharpie and filled in with acrylic paint. Everything else was lined with Sharpie and painted with Inktense pencils.

And now we start heading downhill lol

Even on the smoothest of flights there is still a vibration....which made it very difficult for me to draw. I ended up going for a very quick sketch to capture my ideas.

Day 4: Typewriter

Not actually a typewriter but the suggestion of one. It was a bit better before I spilled my water on it....those darn teeny tray tables!!!  I smeared the pencil a bit trying to dab up some of the water. :-(

And since I already had out my supplies and an idea came to me, I went ahead and did day 5 (on day 4) I am such a radical lol

Day 5: Cloud

So, you have to realize I was on a plane at the time and looking out the window at the clouds. And you have to have an odd sense of humor like me lol

Once I was at my parents house I was not in the mood to work on my cards. I spent each morning chatting one on one with my mom.....working on an index card seemed like an interruption so I tried to just get them done as quickly as possible....and it shows.

Day 6: Top 10

This prompt didn't thrill me in the first place and to then have it take time away from being with my mom didn't make me happy so there you have it. lol  BTW it is my top 10 list of art supplies.

Day 7: Pinball or Bowling
As you can see I was not into this one at all.....which is sad because I really like playing pinball. Maybe I will revisit this later on.

As for Day 8, I have an idea, I just have to work my way up to making it....I will get to it eventually.

But I am home now so I spent today working on getting caught up and completed days 9, 10 and 11.

Day 9: Compass. 
I stamped the background with a map stamp, I 'very' roughly drew the states of Oregon (my home) and North Carolina (my parents home) and stamped the compass. Simple but I like it.

Day 10: Cobalt
I dribbled Alcohol Inks on a scrap piece of clear plastic (all the Cricut cartridge packages do not go to waste). I glued a snippet of newspaper onto my index card and then stamped and attached the woman to the top.

It is very hard to get a decent picture of shiny plastic!

And finally Day 11

Today's prompt is baseball.
I am not a sports fan although I have been to several major league baseball games and had a good time.
This is drawn with Sharpie and colored with Inktense pencils.

Hopefully I will now stay caught up (and finish day 8 too) and have not bored you too much.

Guess What?!

Today is the first day of the 2016 Index Card a Day challenge!!!

I have been waiting months for this to start (and then almost forgot to make my card today lol)

You can find all the info here if you want to play along.

When I saw the prompt I really had no idea what I wanted to do but when you forget until the last minute.....well I went literal. lol

The rest of the prompts for week 1 are:

Pyramid
Snoopy
Typewriter
Cloud
Top Ten list
Pinball or Bowling

Hmm, good thing I am on vacation soon. I will need all my brain cells to come up with something. :-)