My friend, Katie, told me about a challenge called Index Card a Day (ICAD) by Daisy Yellow. This challenge goes from June 1-July 31, 2015 and encourages daily creativity by offering themes and prompts. Those who join the challenge use index cards as their substrate. You can choose to be challenged by the given prompts or choose to do your own thing if you are wanting to work on something in particular. The main thing is to create and use index cards so we are free to experiment without fear of ruining good canvas, paper, etc.

In my blog post earlier this week, I talked about reclaiming my creativity. Learning about the ICAD challenge felt like perfect timing since I was getting myself back on the creative track. It is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of life, especially when your responsibilites are more than just yourself. Joining this group with my friend is helping to hold me accountable and not let a busy day escape without being creative in some way.

The theme for week one is drawing and doodling using pens, markers, and/or ink. Since my artistic area of emphasis is painting, I do not have much of a selection in markers. I received a set of different colored fine tip sharpie markers a few years ago and have a few ultra fine tip black sharpie markers. I also have a set of Faber Castell Pitt artist pens and a white Gelly Roll pen. These are my tools for this first week of index cards.

ICAD Day 1: Chevron

When I saw that the prompt was chevron, I had no idea what I would do. As I thought about it and pictured the chevron shape in my mind, I could picture them as leaves to flowers and so my flower garden began. Because of my husband's militray time, I picture the chevron shapes on uniform sleeves that show the rank of the military member so I used clean lines when drawing my chevrons. However, one area in which I would like to improve is being more loose with my sketching to show expression so I tried to be more relaxed when drawing my flowers.

ICAD Day 2: Carnival

Oh boy. So many images came to mind when thinking about a carnival. Elephants, clowns, rides, cotton candy, peanuts, acrobats, the big top, daring acts... how to decide what to put on a small 3x5 index card. I decided to keep it simple by having a background of the stripes associated with the carnival tents. I wanted to add a silhouette of a ferris wheel because that is usually the first thing one can see due to its height. Then I wanted to add the word carnival. Tied to the stem of the "i" floats a helium balloon representing the dot.

For some reason my markers tried to bleed on this card, but that's ok. The point is the process of doing... creating. I like it anyway.

Even though I have the freedom to be creative in any way I choose, I have decided to go along with the themes and prompts to challenge myself. In this first week's theme, my markers stash is slim pickings. Does that mean I will need to be more creative for these daily prompts? Time will tell. I will give periodic updates on the blog with how I am doing at this challenge. I would love for you to follow along at my artist Facebook page or instagram to see my index cards as I finish them and tell me what you think.

Have you ever participated in this challenge or something similar? If so, what did you think? How did you grow and/or improve? Do you have an image of a favorite piece to share from your challenge?