Update: Index Card Collages

I’m making Index Card Collages this summer. What are you making?

Today it’s time for a index-card-a-day (ICAD) Update. We’ve already passed the middle of June 2017, and summer if flying by. Time to catch up.

For each day this summer I’m filling a pink index card with a little colorful collage. This year I’m taking a very laid-back approach to this art challenge (called ICAD with the official hashtag for instagram being #dyicad2017). I am making index card collages. Little vignettes of papers, using a lot of typography.

Typography was the official theme of the first week in June, and I like it a lot. It kind of stuck with me, the idea of using words on my index cards. Since then I haven’t checked the daily prompts or the weekly themes that Tammy of DaisyYellow shares freely on her blog…

I’m just doing my own thing and using some pretty papers, cut out magazine words, stickers, washi tape, pens and ephemera of the day.

Index Card Collages – ICAD June 1-8.

Index Card Collages with Pink Background

The pink background of my index cards lends themselves to a playful approach, because what serious art comes on pink background? You can’t really get the other colors to shine as much as they would on white here, so I’m just trying to let go of perfectionist inside, and go with the pink backdrop.

Maybe this is why they haven’t turned out as “artsy” as my square art collages – they are more playful and scrapbooky this year. I’m just noting that, not judging this style, or critizising the index cards I make.

I’m going with the flow. Summer flow, summer vibe, summer easy-going-art. No stress. Summer has finally arrived in Sweden, and in between rainy days we’ve had some more summerish ones – the hot kind that makes me a happy girl. I love summer.

Index Card Collages – ICAD June 9-17.

I date each index card on the back (and sometimes in the front too) and write a little blurb about my day, kind of like a poetry diary. Just a few short lines, since the lines are short, about the day. Sometimes it’s just a thought, sometimes it’s what I remember the clearest from the day, or something that has to do with what I’m feeling right when I sit down to write it out.

I journaled a bit last year on the back of a few of my abstractions, but on almost every one of the index cards I filled back in 2011 (that’s when I first joined this challenge). I love looking through those index cards now, with the journaling reminding me of some of that summer’s moments – so I thought I’d do it again this year.

[Tweet “Creativity thrives when you do something often (or daily if you can)! “]

I’ve also been trying to write more in my regular diary (a pink Moleskine notebook) this month, and after just three days I miss it when I skip a day. Creativity thrives when you do something often (or daily if you can), don’t you agree?