Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Cool Stuff, Organizing & A Little Blog Hop

Visiting a few of my favorite blogs and found this cool Card Generator while visiting at iHanna's blog.  She found it at Michelle Geller's Blog, Hold Dear from her post in 2007.  It does pay to troll through great blogs to find great things!  Well, of course I had to play with it and make a little card for myself for this week..... I'm already behind and it is only Tuesday.

The garden seems to eat up my day so this is a great way not to forget all the things I must accomplish this week.  My life is fairly routine with gardening, cooking, canning, and the most important part...my art and art journaling!

Using this card generator is simple.  You type in what you want, but you might want to fiddle with the scribbles.  You can also number them (2014-001).  Scribble #1 places it cross-ways on the card (see Sandra's Journal WIP);  Scribble #2 is placed right across the top of the card (Don't Forget); and Scribble #3 appears in the lower right corner (Dr's Appointment).  I maxxed out the typing space and it wrapped everything. Had to go back in and re-add some carriage returns (line breaks--"enter").  But overall, this is fabulous.  Just print out and voila! Instant journaling card.

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ICAD 2014 is well underway at Daisy Yellow!  This fabulous fun project for the summer is the brainchild of Tammy Garcia at Daisy Yellow and the ICAD Facebook group can be found here.  Opening day was officially June 1st here in the States, and will continue for 61 days through the end of July.  Tammy gives us themes and prompts every week and we make our art on the simple index card and then share in the FB group!  All skill levels are welcome and there's still time for you to come play with us!  Also check out Tammy's new Zine #11 that is chukker full of ideas, beautiful art and graphics and the wisdom of a great mentor and teacher. This is my second year to participate in ICAD and it is a much anticipated event by all of Tammy's friends and followers, myself included. I was ready months ahead (stocking up on index cards when all the school supplies were on sale).  Come join the fun.  Maybe you will learn something new and for sure Tammy will have us thinking outside the box all summer long!

I thought you might like to see my first two cards created for ICAD. Our first prompt was "prism" with the theme for the week of "text".  I tried, in vain, to draw a prism.  I can certainly draw a square one without any difficulty, but I was not happy with the end result and the triangular shaped one--well, it was a disaster.  I sketched this first with my trusty metal ruler, my 2B pencil, and completed with Copic Markers and my favorite Sakura Gelly Pen.

Our second prompt for the week was "circus tent".  When I was a kid, Dr. Seuss was just coming into vogue and I remembered the story of "If I Ran the Circus" and went in search of some graphics and images from the story.  The 'Circus McGurkus' was a natural fit for this challenge and I rather liked the idea of a tent that was not red and white.  This poor elephant is hiding from the dark rain cloud that approaches the tent (an accident turned into an element--ha).  Drawing the McGurkus elephant was a challenge, but I never claimed to be an "artist" or cartoonist.  And we're not creating art for any reason other than to please ourselves and it certainly isn't a contest.  I am fairly happy with this.  Sure it could be better, but I have to move on to the next challenge.


Challenge #3 is "Hello My Name Is".  Gosh.  I am called many things, actually including my name, but I wanted to take a different approach on this challenge.  My idea was first to list positive attributes I believe I have (or have been told I have) but then I knew that would not be the complete me, so some of my more ascerbic qualities were also included.  I could create pages of those attributes for sure, but since space was limited by the size of my card, a few would do.  And accenting the positive makes for a much happier day, right?  I found a coolio template by Googling "hello my name is" and tried to emulate it with my 2B pencil and again, my trusty Sakura Gelly pen.  I scanned it, then digitally added all the attributes since I am out of printer ink.  LOL.  I may do another for this challenge in my journal.  I kind of like where this took me emotionally, addressing really who I am and making me really think about what makes me, me.


So, I'm caught up until today's challenge, which is "Puzzle" and  on it goes for another 58 more days! 

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I've been following Carolyn Dube at A Colorful Journey for quite a while. I love her style, her tutes and how she approaches the world of mixed media and art journaling.  She made a wonderful post yesterday about using Encaustics and her results.  I haven't tried using encaustics yet, but this is definitely on my to-do art list. Have you tried this technique?  Tell us about it!




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ORGANIZE & BE ORDERLY.  And last, but certainly not least, I have been hanging onto this link from Mad In Crafts for quite a while as a way to better organize all my craft paints. 

I love this idea, and we all have more vertical space than horizontal.  Using every square inch of my crafting space to its maximum potential is the key to staying organized and efficient while having fun and making art.  I have one of those spinning wire holders that is overfull and still lots of bottles still in boxes and bins and not easily retrievable.  These will solve those issues for me.  How about you?   Now where is my "step-and-fetch" to put it all back up when I'm finished.


That's all my fun and news for today.  See you at the art table! ~~ Betty

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the link love, that post is oooold so glad the ic generator is still up. Happy ICAD!!

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