ICAD 9: Stripes, ICAD 10: Corners, and 30-30-30: DAY 1

Hey all. I'm back with you guys again, this time with a bit of a catch up post. Even though I was still on here yesterday. I'm going to be sharing with you a few things today, and I hope you enjoy today's post. :) The first thing that I am going to share with you guys is my first page for the 30-30-30 Challenge. It is a challenge that prompts you to do 30 art journal pages in 30 days in 30 minutes. It is a little bit more difficult than I had originally thought, but that's okay. A challenge is always good. I did this page fairly quickly; it only took me about 20 minutes.

On this page I used a lot of random bits and pieces that I found on my desk. My desk looked (and still does look) like an extreme pile of crap. But that's okay. It is kind of an interesting way to work, and a lot of people wouldn't be able to do it. I don't know why, but I seem to be encouraged by that type of environment. Unfortunately, my mom doesn't really feel the same way about it. So I do have to clean up sometimes.

Overall, I think I had a pretty good time with Day 1 of today's challenge.

Now HERE is that card that I was telling you about yesterday! I think that I told you guys that I based my card around the prompt "stripes". This card was extremely basic in nature. Really, all I did was to take my Portfolio oil pastels that I purchased at Staples. And then, I just picked up random colors and drew lines on the card. Then I just blended it with my fingers. 

Though the Portfolio oil pastels are water soluble, on this particular card I did not wet them. I kind of wanted the texture and the bold, bright colors that came from going through the process without any water. Then I simply pasted the little piece in the corner. And the card was done!

Now let's get on to TODAY'S index card. The prompt that I used today was "decorate the corners". The instant I read this prompt, this was what came to my mind. Instantly, I thought of something extremely simple, with no complexity to it at all. And I LOVE the way this card came out! I used the Portfolio oil pastels again today as well. Again, I didn't use any water, as I loved the way that yesterday's card came out. So I wanted to replicate this effect.

Once again, I would like to make the statement that, to me, this challenge has absolutely nothing to do with how good the work looks; how complex it is, or how much work I put into it. It has everything to do with the process, and how it is that the work makes me feel. I think I have said before that ICAD is kind of like a warm up to me; it tests my creative muscles and has me thinking in ways that I wouldn't normally think in. Normally, simple isn't my style at all. But I wanted to try it. And this is what the prompt inspired me to do. So I did it. And I love the way it turned out. Chill out. RELAX. It's an index card. It doesn't need to be perfect. It doesn't need to be complex. It just needs to be YOU.

A Jewelry Update

Okay guys. Here's the deal. Today I did do an ICAD card. I really did. It was inspired by the prompt "stripes". And I did it in pink and orange, in order to go along with another challenge that I was planning on participating in. But what ended up happening was just as I was going to try and take a picture, my camera batteries died. And we don't have any other ones in the house. We use them to the full extent of their abilities. And we need to get some new ones. Hopefully I will tomorrow. So as I was trying to decide what to do about this unfortunate situation, I decided to simply search my computer for something else that I could share with you. And what I found were some pictures that I had taken of some jewelry that I had made. I just made another one, and I uploaded the photos earlier today. Before my camera batteries died. They are actually going to be sold in my Etsy shop. That I now have an official partner for. And for making clothing as well. But that's beside the point. I thought that I would share this necklace here as a sort of teaser, to test the waters a little bit.

I don't necessarily remember if I have ever shown this particular piece on the blog, but if I have, it would have been a while ago. But this is a new picture at least. I came up with some nice props to put in the background to make it a little more interesting. The foreign looking coins are actually from Costa Rica; I got them as change when I went on a missions trip there with my school some odd weeks ago. It was a really cool experience, and I brought these home as souvenirs. As well as some bracelets. I just thought that it was cool as a prop. Let me know what you think. Anyways, I'm going to head on out, but I'll make sure to update tomorrow with a post on today's AND tomorrow's ICAD. I will make sure. I hope to see you then!

ICAD 8: Black and White

Hey everybody! Today was my last day of sports camp at my school; so my official first day of "break", otherwise known as having nothing to do, starts tomorrow. Today, I once again struggled to work in my art journal, but for a different reason today. Yesterday I slipped really badly when I was outside playing basketball. And I got a really deep wound on my hand. It's in an extremely awkward place on my hand, so I'm having difficulties doing anything, including doing art, or writing this blog post right now. But I did manage to push through to create this doodled ICAD. The prompt that I used today was "black and white". Tammy just released some new prompts today, so that's extremely inspiring. A fresh new start to the week!

So I created this card today with Pitt Artist Pens. I used a bunch of different brush tips, that were included in a Manga kit; lots of different grays and blacks in order to do that type of graphic drawings. Anyways. The background of this card is a little bit wonky and darker in some places than in others... I think that adds to the charm. When I was working on the card, I made the decision that I wasn't going to care about the direction of the marks. I could have made it a whole lot smoother if I would have desired to, but I decided that it would be a whole lot more me in this way. 

I hope to do a little bit more art tomorrow, since I won't have a whole lot to do, besides play basketball and read. And of course do art. Which I am sure I will try to do, even with this injury. :) Of course I could clean. I should clean. But there are so many other things to do... ANYWAYS. That's all I have for you guys today, and I'll talk to you later. See you tomorrow.

ICAD 7: Map

Hey everybody. My post for you guys today is going be a bit shorter than it normally is; I didn't have a chance to really work in my journal a whole lot today; at least not enough to show you guys. I was practicing basketball. I'm trying really hard to improve so that I don't completely suck when I join the team at my school next year. But I'm getting better. Earlier this week I played a one on one game with this kid from my school and lost 7:2. Today I lost 7:5. Not nearly as bad. But I did make a card for ICAD. I had to force myself to do that though. Today just wasn't really a crafty day. I don't know why. Hopefully I'll get a little bit more into it tomorrow. I still love art, I just have my moments. When I'd rather go for a swim or play basketball. I'm not sure why, it just happens.

Today's card prompt was "map". There were about a million different directions that I could have gone with this, but I decided to go with the first thing that came to my brain, which was to print a map off of the internet and used it as a piece of pattern paper for my card. Then I continued the collage with several other different pieces of paper ephemera. There's a border that is extremely similar to yesterday's card. But when I'm inspired by something, then it inspires me. And I'm not afraid to use it over and over again. I love that about my style. Anyways. That's what I've got for you guys today, and I'll see you tomorrow!

"Luggage" and ICAD #6: Dragonfly

I've got some more art to share with all of you! I really love the way that this feels; blogging and creating art every day; I think that this is my tenth day in a row, and I feel right now like I'm invincible; like I could go on forever. We'll see how it goes though. Today I decided to do an art journal SPREAD in my journal, instead of a single page. I've been doing these sporadically throughout this journal. I think that I've done a total of 15 prompts in this journal, and with only two of those prompts have given me a full two page spread. I don't know what it is about a prompt, but when I see it, I generally realize what it is that I'm going to do page wise. I think it has a lot to do with how much I want to write about the subject in the base layer of journaling. I think I'll do a post on that later on.

So today's prompt was #15 on the 5,000 Question Survey. At this rate, it's going to take me a while to complete the survey, but I don't really mind. I love the continuous feel of it, and it seems to work a lot better for me personally to work through it in an art journal format than it would to simply write about it in a journal. It's more artistic this way. More creative. For me at least. The prompt today seemed a little bit silly in comparison to some of the deeper thought processes that I've had to put into the other pages. Today's question was as follows. Which is worse, loosing your luggage or having to sort through tangled Christmas lights?

For me, the answer was almost instantaneous. Loosing your luggage is way, way, WAY worse than untangling Christmas lights. I'm pretty much a pro at untangling things anyways. I actually had a story to share in the base journaling about loosing my luggage;  I actually went on a missions trip just over a month ago, and we pretty much lost our luggage. It wasn't our fault though. We had to stay the night at the airport because our flight was canceled. And they didn't tell us where they were putting our luggage. We searched that place for a while before we finally found it.

Something that I really enjoyed about this page in general was the little piece of cream polka dotted paper in the upper right hand corner. There's a story behind that too. I was just looking at my page, trying to figure out what to do. I had finished the background; hadn't added a title or journaling yet, and not a single type of paper embellishment had touched the page. I wasn't really sure what it was that I wanted to do with the page yet, and was trying hard to think through it. I stared at the page for a few minutes, then looked up, just a little bit annoyed with it. And the answer was staring me right in the face.

You see, I have a corkboard on the wall facing me when I'm creating art. I got a bunch of little, round, colorful pins to inspire me when I create. And then I just pin tons of little things to the board. I'll have to post about the corkboard sometime too. Anyways, when I looked up, that little piece of paper was the first thing that I saw. I don't even remember how long it had been up on the board. I think it was probably one of the first things that I put up. Well, I took it off, and tried it out on the page, and I loved it! I let a little hang off the edge of the page to create a tab, then added the title and the journaling. The journaling was done on my typewriter. The paper was a piece of dictionary paper that I coated with paint and let dry. It was surprisingly nice to work with.

Now that we've covered that, let's move on, shall we? Though I'm fairly certain that most of you can guess what prompt I used for this ICAD, just in case, for those of you who haven't checked out the ICAD prompts yet, the prompt was "dragonfly". Like I said, it's pretty self explanatory. However, as simple as this card it, I really enjoyed the way that it turned out. I used a few different techniques to achieve the background effect, including spray inks and lifting some of the excess paint off of the card.

My first idea for the card was simply to use the colors blue and green, which are my favorite colors to see dragonflies in. They are just extremely cool, with their metallic colors and such. But almost as soon as I started, I got stuck as to where to go next. Then I saw the border strip lying on my desk, and I tried it on there. And I loved the way it looked. From there, I simply went online and found a picture of a blue dragonfly. And collaged it on. I still got to use the colors that I originally wanted to, just in a different way than I had thought. And that's okay.

"Well Rounded" and ICAD #5: Grid

Hey guys! I've got something just a little bit different for you today. A little. Not much. But a little. Today I mixed my prompt from the 5,000 Question Survey with another challenge at Balzer Designs. I loved the difficulty of this challenge, I really did. But I'll get to that in a moment. Let's focus on the prompt first and foremost.

My question today asked me what it was that I did with a rainy day. Well, I figured that there were several ways that this question could have been interpreted, but I decided to go with the firs thing that came to my mind, which was the literal version. What I literally do when it's raining. I listed a whole bunch of things in my base layer of journaling, but simplified it a lot when it came to the journaling on the actual page. That's partially because the base layer of journaling is more personal, while the journaling on the face of the project isn't so much. Which I like. It gives the whole thing more depth.

As you can see, I did a bunch of layering with a few different kinds of papers on this page; this is something that I tend to do on occasion, and will sometimes even force myself to do, because I honestly feel as if I need to do something at least a little bit different. Even if it is just doing a little bit of collage work instead of the paint stuff I normally do.

And that, in and of itself, is part of the challenge located right now at Balzer Designs. The challenge is called The Second Floor Challenge, and they are currently on their fifth one. I haven't been working on art journaling since they started them really, so that's why I'm just joining in now. The Second Floor Challenges are all about stepping outside of your comfort zone. And I did that with the collage.

The second part of the challenge is the actual "prompt" part. This one focused on found objects. I used a piece of paper from one of those bank account books; not the check ones, but the ones that come with a basic savings account. I used it for the space for my journaling on this page. That, combined with the collage, makes up my experimentation for this challenge.

The second thing that I want to share with you guys today is, of course, my daily ICAD. I've loved working on these; I think that they are really a good type of warm up to do before starting in my art journal, or even a good cool down afterwards. It's almost like stretching for art. :)

I based today's ICAD around the "grid" prompt. I've been loving using the prompts. It's been giving me a good amount of inspiration to use, and I love the way that they're affecting my art. They push me a little, which I love. Gives me new ideas. New things to try. It's cool.

I loved the colors of today's card as well. I don't really know where they came from. I was just looking at some of my paints and pulled these two out of the abyss. Sometimes that's where the best art comes from; the places where you aren't even aware of what you're doing! 

So that's all I have for you guys today, and I'll talk to you tomorrow!

"Time" and ICAD #4: Doodle Your Name

Hey everybody! I'm back with another art journal page for you guys today. :) Today I was working from yet ANOTHER prompt (I love the way these have been working for me - tons of inspiration) from the 5,000 Question Survey. Today's prompt was "Does time really heal all wounds?"

After the base layer of writing on this art journal page, I came to the conclusion that I don't think that this is so. Sure, I think that time can heal SOME wounds; some physical wounds and smaller emotion wounds, but I think that the biggest problem does come from the larger emotional scars that we develop throughout our lives.

Something that I have really enjoyed about using these prompts is the way that I've almost turned it into a process. When I start out a page, I start out with the base layer of journaling, then add the art on top. From there, I look for a key word that I used in the journaling. For this page, I realized that it was "time". It just seemed to be a good title. And then, I take that word and use that as a prompt for my journaling.

Single word prompts seem to inspire me a bit more than questions, and I really enjoy the way that my journaling turns out. It gives me a good base to work off of, and gives me some different ideas to work with.

As you can see, I tried another way of doing the title today; I was going to use the cut out letters, but I decided to use stamps instead. A foam stamp set. I love the way that these look, and it always seems to work out with any style of art page.

I decided to use some warmer colors for this page instead of the cool colors that I normally use, and I love. Seriously. I do. Even though my favorite colors are blue and green, I do like to use some other colors on occasion. And I normally am pretty pleased with the outcome.

I also love the way that the photo that I collaged onto this page near the beginning really blended into the background. I just like the effect that it gave. I just did a bunch of layers, one after another on the page, and that was the result that I got. Pretty interesting in my opinion. But, of course, I'm biased.

The last thing that I have to share with you guys today is my daily index card for ICAD2. I love the way these prompts are as well, and I seem to be doing good in keeping up with this project. Let's just hope that I keep it up. Today's prompt was "Doodle Your Name". And so that's just what I did. I used a bunch of different Crayola markers and just wrote my name over and over again on the lined side of this index card. I just have to say, after you've written your name this many times, it does start to look kind of weird.

Hopefully I'll be back with you guys tomorrow; today was the first day of a sports camp that I went to, plus I went to Starbucks with one of my good friends. So I had kind of a busy day. And yet, I was still able to make it on here. So I think it'll probably be safe to say I'll be back tomorrow! See you then!