Mandala Monday

Douglas Adams' fans will be (mildly) excited to learn that this is Mandala Monday number 42 for the year; and while it does not (as far as I know) solve the mysteries of life, the universe and everything, it's brightly colored and (mostly) symmetrical; as well as being contained in the tiny library catalog card journal that my friend Mary (@millwoodstudioart) made for me!

Stuck on Stickers

I haven't made a sticker mandala in ages, but I had so much fun with this, I predict you'll be seeing additional ones fairly soon! I used my Helix Circle Tool to draw some concentric circles and a Letter It Fineliner from Ranger for the smaller shapes that hold the puffy animal stickers. Reinforcement circles (cut in halves) and tiny triangles give the design more structure and tiny flowers have a bit of sparkle irl. In the center the sweet kitty from Dina Wakley's Pocket Circles Stamp Set is the perfect mascot!

 

MM40 (and 39!)

It's a Many Splendored Mandala Monday, once again working in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Journal* and letting the kraft pages shine. This time I did most of the basic shapes with a few different sizes and colors of Posca paint pens; then outlined everything with a Ranger Letter It Fineliner.

Last week's mandala was just lines, and a bit smaller, but probably as close to symmetrical as I'm ever going to get, so I was pretty pleased:

I hope your week is off to a good start and that you'll find time to do something creative and fun this week! ♥

*Sadly the Dina 6x6" Kraft Journal is discontinued, but you can still get a larger Dina kraft version; or an 8x8 Dylusions Journal in kraft, ledger or black; or lots of other cool journals and accessories from Ranger!

Diamonds (& Speckles) Are a Mandala's Best Friend

It's a 6x6... (plus a little bit extra!) ...Mandala Monday in my Dina Wakley Kraft Journal, with Letter It Fineliners laying down the basic shapes; a combination of inks, markers and paint pens adding color; and a finishing touch of splattered White Gloss Spray.

Wishing you a wonderful week ahead! ♥

MM37

It's a splishy splashy Mandala Monday featuring some of my favorite shades of Tombow Dual Brush Pens with linework by Ranger's Letter It Fineliners and a few Posca Paint Pen details in white.

Labor Day Mandala Monday

In honor of back-to-school week, this Mandala Monday is brought to you by a fab set of Faber Castell highlighters that I had somehow managed to forget I had; which is a pity because they're such beautiful, vivid colors! (No unicorn clicky pens were harmed... or indeed used... in the making of this mandala, but being such perfectly matching shades, it had to be featured in the photo, right?!)

Double Page Dina Wakley Journal

It's an extra-wide Mandala Monday, taking place across two pages of my Dina Wakley MEdia 6x6 Kraft Journal!

Basic shapes and black embellies drawn with my Letter It Fineliners, I love the set of three in black which are the perfect sizes (.1, .4 and .9) for a variety of line weights.

Colored lines and accents added with Posca Paint Pens in white, pale green, and metallic pink. Splattery bits are White Glossy Spray, flicked on with a wet paint brush.

Collagey corners composed of torn sections of Typed Ledgers, layered with Collage Paper and finally pieces of Dina's colorful Collage Sparks.

MM34

It's wet and wild Mandala Monday featuring watercolored shapes courtesy of my Tombows, lines by Letter It Fineliners and accents in a few shades of Posca pens.

It's a Manhole Cover Mandala Monday?

Yes! Well, sort of. Today's pair of mandala cards were built around a piece of carstock I had used to blot off one of the fun geometric Dina Wakley Coaster Stencils I used for my Ranger Liquid Pearls Tutorial last month, and though the shimmery, glittery pattern was not perfect, it was too pretty to throw away, so I decided to draw on top of it with my Letter It Fineliners. Then I smooshed some Archival Ink on top (Aubergine and Beach Cruiser, diluted with a spritz of rubbing alcohol) and finally I double matted both cards and sewed around the edges.

Watermelon Mandala?

It's a sweet summertime Mandala Monday with the simplest of mandalas, built from a cute patterned paper circle, punched hearts and tiny heart enamels, finished off by petals and embellishments drawn with a Letter It Fineliner and Posca paint pens.

Speaking of Watermelon: if it's as hot as New Jersey is right now where you are, like us, you are probably eating A LOT of salads? May I suggest adding this savory-sweet Watermelon Salad to your repertoire? We add tomatoes, as well... which sounds crazy... but trust me, if you even remotely enjoy watermelon and tomato separately, you'll love them together! :)

ICAD: The Last Round-Up

How is it possible that it's ALREADY July 31st and thus the final day of ICAD2024?! I'm pretty sure that no summer has ever flown past as quickly as this one. Many thanks to everyone who has played along, followed along, left comments, etc; it's always so much more fun to share ICAD with others. Of course, as always, the biggest and heartiest THANK YOU has to go to Tammy G aka @gypsy999 for devising, hosting, inspiring and cheering us on for another 61 days of creativity and friendship; I don't have enough words to praise a most artful and heartful friend! 

ICAD24-61: Diorama

How do you make a diorama using only index cards? Ummmm... very carefully? No srsly, I wanted to make something three dimensional but using two dimensional supplies (index cards and pens) so I decided the solution was layers. In this case the layers consist of the non-lined sides of four neon index cards, each carrying one component of a jungle scene and each popped up on a layer of foam tape for more height. Starting from the very back we have... the blue sky; then pink flowers (with orange Posca detailing); then green leaves and finally smaller yellow flowers encased in a frame around the edges to literally hold it together. This took a bit of time to construct and involved using the dreaded Xacto Knife BUT... this looks exactly like the picture that was in my head, which always feels like a win, doesn't it? Especially on the 61st and FINAL day of ICAD2024!

ICAD24-60: Planetarium

One last card featuring scraps of patterned paper, handcut shapes, doodles, and machine stitching.

ICAD24-59: Circle

Super-excited that today's prompt serendipitously coincides with my Mandala Monday strand. In my (VAST!) collection of funky vintage things to use in art, I found a few of the old-school 3.5 x 5.5 black and white postcards I'm guessing are from the 1930's or 40's, which happen to be from a collection of Bucks County, Pennsylvania images, which is where I grew up. My mandala is drawn with Posca Pens atop a pc of the northern portion of the Delaware River. I've done a few previous mandalas on postcards or photographs, but usually I feel that I've either covered the original image up too much or not enough... this time I think I hit the Goldilocks Zone (aka "just right"!)

ICAD24-28: Tessellation

I had a general idea of what "tessellation" meant... basically it's a geometric or semi-geometric regular repeating pattern; I didn't realize that technically, to be specifically designated as a tessellation, the pattern needs to have NO spaces and no overlaps! This is what is great about ICAD, you learn so much! I'd love to tell you that I came up with this funky fish pattern on my own but NOOOOOOOO; I did a Google Image Search and this one was a kid's art lesson on Faber-Cassell's website. I used a graphed index card and pre-drew every single one of the fish shapes in pencil, and it still took an embarrassingly long time and a fair amount of erasing but I DID IT! If you want to see really cool, beautiful, effortless-looking  Zentangles (both tessellating and non-tessellating) you should check out my friend and fellow Jersey Girl @Lorraine303 who has MAD SKILLZ in this (and many other) areas of art!

ICAD24-57: Garden

A simple collage consisting of a garden plan illustration and some other vintage paper that is largely hidden by the giant tulip; all atop one of the many cool library checkout cards that my friend Mary aka @millwoodstudioart shared with me. She shared some awesome catalog cards too, such as the one from last week about gardening with children... Thanks, Missus!

ICAD24-56: Playing Cards

Ok go with me on this one, it's a little tangential: doodley diamonds and hearts (or spades) in a wonkily repeating pattern. 

ICAD24-55: Off-Prompt One Staple Collage

Will this be my last #OneStapleCollage of #dyicad2024? Who can say? But it's Day 55 and we're coming down to the wire, so if not the last, probably the penultimate or the antepenultimate. From the bottom working upward, this one consists of: a yellow repro library checkout card; half a Mille Bornes scoresheet; a torn section of a European map (featuring northern Spain); an exotic belly dancer; a sepia-toned cluster of flowering dogwood, and finally a phrase from a Russian-English dictionary. All held together by the eponymous single staple.

ICAD24-54: Off-Prompt

Somewhat revisiting the #RANUNCULUS prompt from weeks and weeks ago; this time as an extra-doodley version in Macro mode. Tombow Dual Brush Pens and Ranger's Letter It Fineliners on an index card divider. Not sure what the "W" stands for... Wonky? Wednesday? Without a clue? 

ICAD24-53: Off-Prompt

Handcut clouds made of layered patterned paper scraps. With lots and lots of doodles on top. 

Yet Another ICAD Round-up

Another week has passed and thus seven new index card artworks have transpired:

ICAD24-22: Mandala Monday 

I'm off-prompt in favor of Mandala Monday, for which I've drawn a bunch of nested/clustered mandalas on a neon orange index card.

ICAD24-21: Off-Prompt

Definitely not the best hibiscus I've ever drawn, but I quite like my stripey leaves and I'm awarding myself bonus points because the whole thing takes place on a library catalog card for a book called, "A Backyard Flower Garden for Kids"!

ICAD24-20: Off-Prompt

Freeform curves made out of layered neon index cards. With plenty of machine-stitching on top!

ICAD24-19: Off-Prompt

Best Fishes on Day 49 of ICAD2024; for which I've made a super-random collage from some of the bits that were sitting on my worktable.

ICAD24-18: Off-Prompt

 A random collage in (mostly) pink and white. Vintage ticket background, washi strips, rub-on transfers and fussy-cut butterfly, horoscope wheel and rose... the latter from a book about Cath Kidston fabrics.

ICAD24-17: Plum

Flashing back to a prompt from earlier this week, for which I've doodled with black Letter It Fineliners and white Posca paint pens on a glossy plum/purple color swatch.

ICAD24-16: Calm

At first glance, this might look like a seriously tangential take on the prompt, but, as any oceanographer will tell you, there's literally NOTHING calmer than a squid playing solitaire in a mushroom garden. Obviously!

Index Card a Day (Week 7)

We're rounding the corner into the second half of July (already?!) and here's my own output of Index Card Art from this past week:

ICAD24-45: Mandala Monday

Wouldja believe... It's a Marvin Mandel Mandala Monday?! In perhaps the most stunning case of vintage-paper-related serendipity EVER, I found this business card stuck into one book, and the illustration of this (completely unrelated) gentleman in another book about ten minutes later. I went looking for the name "Mandel" in an old telephone book I rescued to use in collages and did NOT find a Marvin, but there were half a dozen others which are partially obscured by the mandala petals. I used a combination of Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks, a white Posca pen and Prismacolor Pencils to add color; and Ranger's Letter It Fineliners for all the shapes. As always, my Helix Circle Maker Tool was invaluable.

ICAD24-44: Seashell

Super-literal take on the prompt: I white-embossed a set of HoneyBee Seashell stamps; blended some of my favorite Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks on top; then splattered and outlined and played with the results.

ICAD24-43: Fragile

 My collage admittedly has a #FRAGILE connection to both the prompt and to reality. But… you know… in a good way! I am especially proud of the way most of the design is built around a similar color palette; AND, especially the fact that the banana, the ballet dancer and the Chinese character for banana all have a similar shape to them. 

ICAD24-42: Off Prompt OSC

And here we have world’s most random One Staple Collage! FYI, One Staple Collage is an ICAD tradition; the brief is to create a collage which is held together with… wait for it… one staple! Slightly trickier than it sounds but a lot of fun!

ICAD24-41: Forest Green

I set out with the intention of working on today’s prompt of #FORESTGREEN and thus handcut some beautiful wonky leafy shapes from every green EXCEPT forest green… then branched off into altered/doodled patterned paper scraps in various shades of blue. But that’s why they’re called “prompts” rather than assignments… they’re meant to get you started and you can go in any direction from there! 

ICAD24-40: Off-Prompt

Today's is actually not my favorite card, although I love the funky ink-splotch colors; and stand by my decision to cut around the flower edge on the right hand side. Plus… to enjoy and learn from the process rather than focusing purely on outcome is (to me!) the true spirit of ICAD, so woohoo!

ICAD24-39: Off-Prompt

Yes, I do tend to save my scraps of patterned paper, even quite small ones that I probably shouldn't bother with, but they're excellent for stamping and paper-piecing, not to mention for those nights when I just feel like cutting out random shapes, stacking them, and arranging the result into a funky pattern. 

Week 6: ICAD Roundup

Since the Index Card a Day project runs from June 1st to July 31st, we're now more than halfway through! Here are the cards I've made in the last seven days: 

ICAD24-38: Mandala Monday

It's a Mahalo Mandala Monday, celebrating the fact that I stumbled, almost simultaneously, upon both a library catalog card for a book about Hawaii AND some pre-stamped and already-colored yellow hibiscus... the state flower of Hawaii. You just cannot argue with that kind of serendipity, am I right?!

ICAD24-37: Dashboard

A tangential collage for #DASHBOARD; an antique car on a library card with trading stamps and vintage paper and some abstract rub-on transfers that kinda/sorta look like dashboard gauges...

ICAD24-36: Splash

Flashing back to yesterday’s #SPLASH prompt with a doodled version of one of those Lazy River pools they have at resorts; in this case some of the splashes are neon index cards glued on top

ICAD24-35: Castle

It’s a One Staple Collage featuring vintage paper and illustrations; flashing back to a prompt from a few days ago. Staged on my newest (and also oldest) vintage typewriter; a 1920ish Underwood of surpassing beauty.

ICAD24-34: Panorama

According to Vague Magazine, Panoramic Argyle might be the next big fashion trend... or possibly not; it's hard to tell. Ok, so... SUPER-loose take on today's optional #dyicad2024 prompt of #PANORAMA which is also (unintentionally!) a slightly tangential picture puzzle referencing a Beatles song; whilst also indulging my obsession with argyle. 

ICAD24-33: Off-Prompt

Apparently "Stripes with Doodles" is going to be my default mode this summer when I don't have another idea. And hey... I'm cool with that...

ICAD24-32: Off-Prompt

Not just off-prompt, but without any plan at all! I started out paper piecing… added pattern-enhancing doodles to my scraps of designer paper… and finally built out a weird sort semi-mandala in the leftover space. Not the best thing I've ever made but having started late in the evening of a tiring day with literally NO IDEA what I was going to do, I feel ok with just having made SOMETHING!

Week 5: Index Card a Day Round-Up

It's another week of Index Card goodness and a reminder that the Daisy Yellow Art Blog is a fine source of information and inspiration; as are a few selected Instagram accounts including mine (@llaurenb) and the official @indexcardaday feed!

ICAD24-31: Mandala Monday

It’s a loosey-goosey, wavy-gravy, somewhat deconstructed Mandala Monday; Tombows and Letter It Fineliners on an index card divider.

ICAD24-30: Sepia

A super fast One Staple Collage in (mostly) sepia!

ICAD24-29: Off-Prompt

The most random of all random collages everrrrrr?! Off-prompt and a bit fishy on Day 29.

ICAD24-28: Steampunk

A fairly tangential take on Steampunk, lots of vaguely wheel- and cog-ike shapes, glued on top of ink-blended circles of Distress Oxide Inks on a green index card. Not exactly where I thought this would be going when I started out, but that is the fun of ICAD you can take a left turn at any point and wait to see what happens next!

ICAD24-27: Ranunculus

Flashing back to a prompt I skipped last week; at the time I didn't have an interesting idea, but suddenly I thought that if I just kept cutting wonky flower layers and stacking them up, the result would be cool and possibly a bit ranunculus-like, which I think kinda worked! Also a fab use of quite a few patterned paper scraps although I still have PLENTY left... sigh...

ICAD24-26: Strawberry

Not my favorite card ever but... the pattern was fun to doodle and they are more or less recognizable as strawberries so my work here is through!

ICAD24-25-: Off-Prompt

Have already made several doodled cards involving strips or stripes, I decided to try my hand a collage of strips. I chose a few vintage book pages with similar colors, tore them vertically, glued them onto an index card, and added super-simple stitching.

♥♥♥