Showing posts with label ICAD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ICAD. Show all posts

Sunday, August 2, 2026

ICAD2026 Wrap-Up

Hard to believe the entire 61 days of the 2026 edition of the @IndexCardaDay Creative Challenge have already elapsed, but the calendar says August 2md, so I guess we have to believe it's true. I am so grateful to Tammy @gypsy999 for starting this inspiring shindig sixteen years ago; and I am proud to have completed the last fifteen years. But honestly, the numbers are really the least of it; the point is to co spend some time prioritizing process over outcome, experimenting, and just generally making art on a regular basis for oneself. So if you participated, whether you made 61 cards or 16 or 6... I salute you!

Many thanks to all who followed along, left comments, dropped hearts and generally acted as cheerleaders to your fellow ICADians and ICADettes. I didn't do as well at that part as I had hoped to, but I truly loved seeing all the cards that came up in my feed and interacting (however limitedly) with this fab community!

Here's my #icadeverything photo. Each year I like to make a small ring-bound mini-book, which I fill up with finished cards as the challenge progresses. I like this format because it allows me to keep my cards together and in order as I work; also, on days when my time or energy is limited, the thought of adding another card to the ring kind of keeps me going. Plus I confess I really love taking this "fan" photo of the finished book each year!

PS: I'm already looking forward to #dyicad2027 ♥♥♥


Here are the last few cards from the past not-quite-full week of ICAD2026!

Day 62: Bonus Card

I always like to finish the ICAD festivities with a big bold THANK YOU (on an index card, obvs) to Tammy @gypsy999 and all my fellow ICADians and ICADettes for making this June and July the best @indexcardaday event so far! ♥

Day 61: Off-Prompt

Could not resist making one more freestyle collage that combines ink, a little stamping, some ancient rub-on transfers and a few vintage goodies.

Day 60: Beatles' Song

Octopus' Garden is one of my favorite Beatles' songs, not just because it's one of a very few written by Ringo, although the older I get, the more I appreciate his sense of humor and whimsy. I made a "smooshed" background with Isopropyl Alcohol and some analogous shades of Stellar Ink, then added bubbles and ripples and coral and flowers. (The last is not technically correct, but if an Octopus had a garden, I think there'd be flowers in it. So there.)

Day 59: Cobblestones

There is something really soothing about filling an entire index card with a semi-realistic pattern, then adding depth and color and shadows, etc and these cobblestones were especially fun to draw!

Day 58: Off-Prompt

This card combines three different half-finished, temporarily abandoned pieces that serendipitously added up to more than the sum of their parts. The sewing pattern lady collage layer was part of a bigger piece that I didn't like much... so I tore away the "excess" and started over. The layer beneath that is a  flower(ish) illustration from a book of fabric designs that I had outlined but then got a bit stuck, and set aside. Oddly enough, the colors match the SPL's flower perfectly. The tabbed card has some Perfect Pearls doodles that (once again... almostly spookily!) match really really well. You can't see much of it, but both structurally and design-wise it makes a perfect base for the rest. 

Monday, July 20, 2026

ICAD is Nearly Over? Already?!

It seems like every year of the Index Card a Day Creative Challenge goes by a little bit faster, and this year is no exception. I'm planning to savor the remaining time... one 3x5 card at a time! Here are the most recent seven:

Day 50: Off-Prompt (Mandala Monday)

Layers cut from scraps of patterned paper, with minimal outlining, on my last red index card.

  Day49: Street

Possibly the most literal collage I've ever made! I love how this came out, but my one regret is that the four different street maps I pieced together very carefully, so that the big routes joined up with each other, can literally not be seen AT ALL after I layered the car, index, compass, etc, on top. Ah, well. 

Day 48: Margin

Admittedly a very tangential take on #dyicad2026 Day 48's prompt of #margin in that really only a thicker black line forms the margin between each of my layered, rainbow doodle circles.

Day 47: Backgammon

Circling back to the prompt I skipped on Mandala Monday, with a funky, hand-cut, rainbow version of a backgammon board.

Day 46: Farmer's Market

Technically speaking, I've never seen any PLAID flowers at any Farmer's Market I've ever attended but... a girl can dream, right? Brush markers and Letter It Fineliners on the unlined back of an index card.

Day 45: Thunderstorm

This card has all the ingredients I love: hand-cutting, hand-stitching, and a whimsical approach to the prompt. That said, I can't say I love the finished product very much; but it was fun to make and tomorrow is another #dyicad2026 day!

Day 44: Pewter or Steel

I started out with the pocket watch, the sundial and some of the cogs; thinking, basically "metal circles". Then I found other circles (blackwork lace, celtic knots, horoscope wheels, stylized flowers, geometric patterns, etc) at which time it kind of morphed into "circles of various origin" and I'm fine with that. Let's call this one, "Pewter OR Steel... and Friends"!

Monday, July 13, 2026

I Can, Therefore ICAD

Another week of July has FLOWN past like... a thing that flies past really quickly! Thus, it is time for another Index Card a Day update. And here it comes............ riiiiiiiiight NOW!

Day 43: Off-Prompt

It's a black and white Mandala Monday with lots of detailing and a largely symmetrical design. If you're wondering why I usually start in a corner or otherwise let most of my mandalas go "off the page" it's because I admire symmetry, but don't particularly enjoy drawing it. Also, I think that on anything except a square or round substrate, a complete 360 mandala just doesn't fill the page as interestingly. 

BTW, my very favorite mandala making accessory is the aqua-colored round thing in the background of this photo. It's official name is the Helix Circle and Angle Maker and @smilynstef found this one when we were in a cool stationery shop on the Upper East Side of NYC... but they sell them at other art supply and office supply stores and That Big Online Store, too.

The pens are Letter It Fineliners from @Ranger_Ink and they're my go-to pens. They come in a few different sets of colors, but the set of three black pens with different sized nibs are my most used. I believe they might be the only brand of fineliners I've used where I've never once killed a nib. (This is a Big Deal in my world!!!) 

Day 42: Casino

Some years ago visited the Neon Museum and Boneyard in Las Vegas and it was absolutely amazing. No disrespect to the functioning casinos on the Old Strip and the New Strip; but whenever anyone says "Las Vegas" or "Casino" I think of all the fabulous, colorful-but-rusty, de-commissioned neon signs on that property; and the wonderful storeies the guide told on the tour. Rather than try to reproduce a single sign, I've done a sort of macro mashup of the colors and shapes from the Stardust, the Dunes and the Golden Nugget... with some Laureny imagination added in for good measure.

Day 41: Favorite _______

Having utterly failed in an attempt to pick ONE favorite thing, I decided to do a bit of a mash-up of some current faves. So here's my favorite backyard animal, the fox; sitting on a background of my favorite art form, collage; there are some roses (my favorite flower); and a butterfly (my favorite insect) sticker (my favorite embellishment); the texty sky and cloud backdrop is from one of my favorite digital collages; I used it to fill up the sheet while printing graduation photos of some of my favorite people, my nieces and nephew. I photographed the card against a vintage needlepoint picture my aunt gave me, because interesting/ unusual staging is also my favorite.

Day 40: Frost

It's been very hot and humid here in NJ, which is absolutely the only time I ever think fondly about SNOW!!! I made an inky. blendy background with a few shades of Archival Ink and some rubbing alcohol; let it dry; then used several sizes of white Posca pens to draw stylized flakes. I tried very very hard NOT to outline everything with a black Letter It Fineliner, but at the last minute I caved, lol.

Day 39: Harmony

 Here's a collage card that I started with the "harmony" prompt at the forefront of my mind; but it doesn't show up very much in the finished collage. Which is fine... I like how it turned out... I suppose the design is fairly "harmonious"? ICAD is about exploration and having fun sooooo... MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Day 38: Blue

Sometimes I just want to cut out shapes from patterned paper, stack them, and maybe outline some of the design elements. If loving that is wrong... I don't wanna be right.

Day 37: Origami

It's my first One Staple Collage of July... and already one of my favorites! I've stacked some torn metallic origami paper; the copyright page from a Japanese language book; the label from the metallic origami paper; a pagoda and crane fan from some fancy Japanese-themed origami paper; and the diagram of an origami crane from yet another set of origami paper; all on top of a yellow index card to which I applied some ancient and imperfect rub-on transfers. As usual, I've made the single staple which holds everything together nearly impossible to see (sorry!) but it's just about in the center of the crane diagram.

Monday, July 6, 2026

This Was the Week That Was (aka ICAD Round-Up)

We've passed the halfway point of @indexcardaday and here are my ICADs from the first full week of July:

Day 36: Biomorphic Shapes
(also Mandala Monday)

My first attempt at a mandala using only biomorphic shapes is... semi-successful? It's not what I envisioned, but it is an interesting mash-up of mandala... microscope slide... and Keith Haring mural. So I'm gonna call it a win and move on to the next thing.

Day 35: Seaweed

I'm definitely into handcutting again this year; and also I keep seeing really cute ceramics projects with funky, adorable fish. When I made this last week, it just had fish on a wavy-water background and I felt like it needed "one more thing" but I didn't know what. When I saw the #seaweed prompt it all fell into place!

Day 34: Picnic

It’s a very silly take on picnic for featuring handcut letters (from my first attempt at stenciling "gingham" via my last Ranger Tutorial) and Eyelet Outlet Ant Brads.

Day 33: Off-Prompt

When I started this, I thought it was going to be a mandala... and then it sort of morphed into a modified 1960's-inspired paisley(ish) Pucci(ish) extravaganza of handcutting. 
Potato, Po-TAH-to.

Day 32: Tetris

I went at the "Tetris" theme a bit tangentially by making a colorful mosaic effect with rainbow scraps of patterned paper. It was surprisingly fun to make and thus I wouldn't rule out another version coming along later!
 
Day 31: Change

I had the idea of coinage, expressed as circles stenciled in neutral tones of Archival Inks. I added hand-stitching with silver embroidery floss. I feel like it needs more? or less? or… something… but I have no idea what. So I decided to leave it here and move on to the next idea. That’s the great thing about #ICAD there’s always tomorrow!

Day 30: Pistachio or Green

Technically, this was yesterday's prompt, but since yesterday was Mandala Monday, I slid it over for a day. I had so much fun with the #scarlet prompt a few weeks ago, that I decided to do a similar version of a grid collage; this time with all things green. As you can see, I had a few leftovers!

Monday, June 29, 2026

ICAD

Another week has passed, June is just about over, so here are the seven Index Cards I've made since the last ICAD round-up:

Day 29: Shibori/ Mandala Monday

Shibori was a prompt I originally skipped over, but this week I had an idea for a shibori-inspired Mandala Monday, so I've circled back. I used Archival Inks to make a rich blue background, then added all my petals and lines with a white Posca Pen. 

Day 28: Coastline

This is what I love about prompts, you can follow them wherever they lead, however tangential. Case in point: Today's #dyicad2026 prompt is #COASTLINE from which my mind drifted to BEACH... and then BOARDWALK... and then (obviously!) CONEY ISLAND! (Best not to think about it too hard, lol!)  I had a lot of fun using ALL my colors of Posca Pens and I love how this turned out. The only problem is, now that I have Coney Island inside my head I *really* want a Clam Roll from Nathan's!

Day 27: Crane

Cranes cut from an old, falling apart bird book. "Habitat" made of hexagons punched from various scraps of book paper, sheet music, etc. and edged with green ink. Even I don't really think these two concepts "go" together... and yet... I really love how this came out. So there.

Day 26: Parterre

A very very funky take on #parterre; really just an excuse to cut somewhat shrub-shaped pieces out of green patterned paper scraps. Non, je ne regrette rien.

Day 25: Penguin

Penguins cannot fly.
I cannot fly.
Therefore... I am a penguin.
Additional evidence: I wear A LOT of black, have a tendency towards embonpoint, love fish and have a rock collection. Yep. Penguin!

Penguin illustration, Archival Ink background, manual typewriting and machine stitching on the unlined back of an index card from the dollar store. Bonus points: This is a KING penguin on a ROYAL typewriter, wahey!!!

Day 24: Atrium

Flashing back to the #atrium prompt, which I skipped the week before last. Admittedly a tangential take but... you know... it's ICAD; and there's no better time in the whole creative year to be tangential, imo!

Day 23: Pomegranate

I skipped over #pomegranate yesterday in #dyicad2026 in favor of Mandala Monday, but then I did think of a fun take, and decided to circle back. One of my favorite things about @indexcardaday is that each year, there's at least one prompt I have to Google to find out what it is. A few years ago, @gypsy999 came up with #ogee and I became obsessed with elongated, repeating S-curve patterns. I confess that it never occurred to me to add stylized pomegranates to the mix... until now, lol!

Monday, June 22, 2026

More Index Cards? Yup.

Time for the past week's ICAD, in reverse order, starting with today... aka... Mandala Monday!

Day 22: Off-Prompt

I haven't made a sticker mandala in a bit, so this was a lot of fun. For the limited space of an index card, it's definitely better to choose smaller stickers; luckily, I can never resist those sheets of tiny kawaii stickers, and these little puffy unicorns were perfect. I also used some rainbows, and a cute donut for the center; but for every "themed" sticker, there are a bunch of circles, triangles and hearts filling in the spaces and creating a nice base for the fancier ones to shine!

Day 21: Moon

I've gone very literal this time and combined part of a moon map… an astrological calendar… a moonflower… and my new favorite quote.

Day 20: Strata or Stripes

Or, in this case, Strata WITH Stripes... and Stitching!

Day 19: Liminal Space

From Merriam-Webster: Liminal is a word for the in-between. It describes states, times, spaces, etc., that exist at a point of change—a metaphorical threshold—as in “the liminal zone between sleep and wakefulness.” The idea of a threshold is at the word’s root; it comes from Latin limen, meaning “threshold.” Limen has served as the basis for a number of other English words, including eliminate (“to cast out”), sublime (“lofty in conception or expression”), preliminary (“introductory”), and the woefully underused postliminary (“subsequent”).

Woohoo, here's my third (so far!) and favorite (so far!) One-Staple Collage of #dyicad2026 and I'm pretty pleased with how many (admittedly loose) interpretations of liminal space I've built into it; and also with the shapes of my stacked items, which have managed to use the physical space of the index card pretty well. 

Day 18: L'Elephante (Bon Jour!)

Apparently, it's my week to paperpiece cute animals? I hadn't planned to do two in a row, but that's what happened, and since a big part of the @indexcardaday fun for me is letting myself explore whatever appealing rabbit holes present themselves... I'm just going with it.  

Animal Safety Tip: IRL, it's probably a bad idea to allow elephants, however adorable, near rabbit holes, as this could be dangerous to the rabbits. (This is my attempt at a National Park Service style of funny animal caption... I think I need more practice. In the meantime, if you're not following @nationalparkservice you are not only missing really fun captions, but also great photography and loads of fascinating nature facts. So now you know.) 

Day 17: Off-Prompt

This is Francis the Fanciful Fox; handcut and pieced from scraps of patterned paper. He and I are off-prompt on Day 17 of #diycad2026 and you can find out more about the Index Card a Day Creative Challenge at @indexcardaday or @gypsy999 or both!

Day 16: Fig

Last year, our kind neighbor gave us a sprouted cutting from her fig tree (the fruit of which she generously shares with us each year) and we tended it all summer; cut it back in the fall; put it in the cool, dark cellar all winter; then brought it out in the Spring. And whaddaya know? Newton (the only name for a pet fig, imo!) survived and started getting leaves right away this Spring; he’s already grown bigger than last year and has lots more leaves, as you can see in the photo. We’re hoping to plant him outdoors at the end of the summer, then cover and wrap when the temps go down in the fall.

Monday, June 15, 2026

Index Card Round-Up

Another week of Index Card a Day (ICAD) has flown past and here are my cards, in reverse order:

Day 15: Triple Threat Mandala Monday (Off-Prompt)

This is the slowest "fast cheat" ever, lol. Lemme essplain; no there's too much... lemme sum up*: This mandala has three layers, each made on different index cards, from previous years. They were abandoned midway through due to some aspect to them I didn't love at the time. Sometimes I throw away such experiments; but sometimes I save them, because I like the basic idea and want to revisit it. In this case I like the round center "flower" with the stripey petals, but didn't like the next round of the original mandala. On the blue card, I loved the ruffles but not the original center, and I hadn't given it any background. On the bottom layer I liked the way my stencil-printed flowers kind of peter out, I like the colors... honestly I'm not sure why this didn't get posted when I made it, but whatever. So I cut away everything I didn't like and layered the rest together et voila! A two year + ten minute mandala!!!

*(Because who can resist a completely gratuitous/ random Inigo Montoya reference?! Not me.)

Day 14: Serene (One-Staple Collage)

Here's a collage that I intentionally built around the color blue. I mention "intentionally" because, as it turns out, a lot of my collages are subconsciously inspired by a color, but I'm not necessarily aware of that while working. This time I decided that blue was a #SERENE color and proceeded accordingly. All of the elements except the lotus-y flower were already cut or torn and laying on my work table or in my collage fodder box. This was going to be a regular collage and not a one-staple collage* because I honestly didn't think I could attach everything securely with a single staple but... as it turns out... I could! So here's my second OSC for 2026-- so far!

Day 13: Lucky

I had an entirely different idea in mind for the #LUCKY prompt, but when I stumbled upon this Cormac McCarthy quote, a day after randomly cutting out funky dice from an old, falling-apart book, it seemed pretty serendipitous. I genuinely believe that there are times when NOT getting what you want is the best thing that could possibly happen to you.

Day 12: Orchestra

Somewhere in the world, I'm sure there are folks who don't love the art of Richard Scarry and didn't have a childhood in which they adored books with worms driving apple-shaped cars and rabbits conducting piccolo-playing mice. But since I am definitely not that person, here is my unapologetically nostalgic card for the Day 12 #dyicad29026 (optional) prompt of ORCHESTRA. 

Day 11: Coneflower

The last few years of ICAD I've been very much into handcutting and paper-piecing... and apparently that trend continues. I think I may have given my coneflowers a few too many petals, and possibly only the colors and foliage are keeping them from looking like very fancy shuttlecocks... but... this was fun to make!

Day 10: Birch or Gingko

I just unearthed this cute little mermaid scale stamp and realized that it's pretty close to the shape of a gingko leaf; so I stamped the unlined back of a white index card with lots of beautiful green shades of  Simon Hurley Stellar Ink, drew a gingko-ish shape inside each, and decided to LEAF it at that!  (K sorry, but I can literally never resist a diabolical pun.)

Day 9: Charm

Reading the word, "charm" my first thought was of those little milagros that you find in California and Mexico, often studding a Sacred Heart, as tokens of prayers for healing or gratitude. So I decided to paper-piece my own colorful little version. I used silver metal brads instead of actual charms, for ease of attachment; and also to reduce weight. Additionally, I built the whole thing on an index card divider for extra strength.

♥♥♥

What exactly IS the Index Card a Day Creative Challenge? I'm so glad you asked! It's 61 consecutive days of making art on index cards. This is the 16th annual event, devised and hosted by the divine Tammy G aka @gypsy999 and a time of great inspiration and creativity for all, from June 1 to July 31. But honestly, there's NO bad time to ICAD, so if you're just seeing this now and think it sounds fun: JUMP IN, everyone is welcome! Check out @indexcardaday on Instagram for more info. 

Monday, June 8, 2026

First ICAD Round Up of 2026

The first full week of the Index Card a Day Creative Challenge is complete and here are my cards from the past seven days. For all the info about ICAD, visit the ICAD Base at Daisy Yellow Art or @indexcardaday on Instagram where you can find prompts, ideas, inspiration and more!

Day 8: Off-Prompt: Mandala Monday

This week I got some of the new Simon Hurley Stellar Ink shades from @ranger_ink so obviously, I had to test drive those babies, and Mandala Monday is always a good opportunity for that. On this card, I "smooshed" the new colors, one at a time, onto my craft sheet and used a waterbrush full of Isopropyl Alcohol to pick them up and paint the basic shapes onto my index card. 

WHY would I use rubbing alcohol instead of water to "watercolor"? Well, for reasons I'm not sciencey enough to understand, alcohol will not warp or pill cardstock or paper in the same way that water does. (For the record, this is one of the many, MANY cool things I've learned from @wendyvecchi who is brilliant as well as inspiring!) This is a valuable technique for any ink that is alcohol- or oil-based like Ranger Archivals (because water just doesn't work at all with those inks); but as it turns out, you can use it with any type of ink, including Simon's gorgeous water-based Stellars.

Once all the colorful shapes were in place I used a Letter It Fineliner and some Posca Paint Pens to add details and echo the various ink colors, which are: Buzzkill, Fruitcake, Ultraviolet, Siren Song, Cry Baby and Iced Out. And who can resist a little splatter on top?

Day 7: Seahorse

This is one of the fastest (& funnest if you'll pardon my syntax) ICADs I've ever made: I started out with the intention of drawing a stylized seahorse with brush markers... got obsessed with the colors and curly-up tails... et voila! As an absolute CHAMPION of overthinking, this feels like a huge win. Bonus celebration: if there's a "Rapunzel" prompt later this summer I can re-use it, lol! :) :) :)

Day 6: Scarlet

Is this an actual collage or just a wanna-be infographic? I don't actually know and I'm not sure it matters; because either way it does firmly encompass today's (optional) #dyicad2026 prompt of #scarlet. And I've given myself the bonus joy of staging the photo with a bunch of other gorgeous red things that didn't fit onto my gridded indexcard!

Day 5: Off-Prompt

Every year, I spend a proportion of ICAD either trying to disguise the ordinary index cards' lines or using the backs or divider cards to avoid them entirely; but once in a while, I embrace the lines and let them work for me!

Day 4: Yearbook

Weirdly enough, this yearbook photo of my Dad turned up in a box of paperwork my mom recently asked me to sort through. I say weirdly enough, because the box held mostly ancient financial and legal documents, the majority of which I shredded; but there were a few tiny treasures, including my grandfather's passport, some newspaper clippings, and this photo. So when I saw the word, "Yearbook" on the prompt list, I knew immediately what the centerpiece of my card would be. I've added part of an old map from the area where I grew up; the illustration of a slide rule (my father was an electrical engineer); a library checkout card with the name William and a bee (he went by Bill); plus a bit of foliage which honestly has no narrative significance, I just wanted some color and the map had lots of green.

Day 3: Magnolia

The One-Staple Collage (OSC) is a beloved (well by me, anyway) ICAD tradition, stretching back... gosh... maybe ten years? I'm honestly not sure when it happened, but at some point in the mists of ICAD history, Tammy G typed the words "stapled collage" and I saw them and somehow instantly determined that this would mean a collage held together by ONE STAPLE. Which, as it turns out, is harder than it sounds, lol! But... also a very interesting (again, to me) exercise in both selecting interesting elements; and then arranging them so you can see them distinctly, but still attach them at a single point. 

 In this case, the staple is right on top of the butterfly's body, and yes, it's hard to see, for which I apologize. There are only five elements. They are, from furthest back: A library catalog card; an illustration of Saturn; a Georgian building from an old architecture book; a pair of magnolia blossoms between which I deliberately left a "bridge" of paper for sturdiness; and finally the butterfly... angled so his body (and thus the staple) is positioned to be able to secure everything underneath. 

Whether or not you're a fan of traditional collage, I invite you to give this fun and challenging technique a try at some point during ICAD!

Day 2: Type

I couldn't wait to get out this ancient set of wood-mounted typewriter font alphabet stamps, I just wasn't quite sure what I would stamp, lol. One of the first things I stumbled upon (via Mr. Google) was this apt quote from Gustav Klimt. A bit of serendipity there, as I had just finished a novel in which said Austrian Symbolist painter and Vienna Secessionist was a character. So... job done!

If you're interested, the strange and wonderful book in question is Anima Rising by Christopher Moore. In addition to Klimt, the real-life figures of Egon Schiele, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung appear; as well as the fictional characters of Victor Frankenstein, his Monster and the Bride... (Klimt names her Judith) ...who is the protagonist of the book. If you've read anything by Moore, you'll know that he loves to combine well known historical figures and events with plots and characters from classic literature, drama and mythology. I enjoyed this title very much, though my top three Moore books are still: Serpent of Venice (mash up of Merchant of Venice and Othello; narrated by the Fool from King Lear... obvs...); Sacre Bleu (Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and pals, in Monmartre, late 19th century, just after the suicide --or possibly murder-- of Van Gogh); and A Dirty Job (average single dad in 20th century San Francisco somewhat unwillingly takes on a side-hustle as... wait for it... a Grim Reaper??!) BTW, all of Moore's stories are outstanding as audiobooks, which is the format I recommend for maximum enjoyment.

(NOTE: This author is definitely NOT to everyone's taste; apart from unusual plots with many literary and cultural allusions, there's generally quite a bit of hardcore cursing, as well as some sex and violence; if rated like films, Moore's books would get strong PG13 or mild R ratings.

Day 1: Mandala Monday (off-prompt)

Technically, this card was from last week, but as I wrote this post, it felt weird to start at Day 2, so... here it is again, lol! It's a mandala, since June first was a Monday; and it's done with Archival Ink shades and a Letter It Fineliner because those happened to be sitting out when I was ready to start. (Many of my art-making decisions are determined by what is to hand at any given time, especially ICADs which I tend to work on at 10pm; a time when "not getting up again" is, frankly, a priority.)

♥♥♥

To see my cards as the get posted each day, visit my Instagram feed, @llaurenb and while you're there, be sure to check out the official ICAD page, @indexcardaday and the official hashtag, #dyicad2026 for lots more ICAD inspo from artists all over.