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Kate Hadfield Designs

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Index Card A Day Project

25 June 2016 by Kate

My daughter and I are playing along with a new (to me!) creative challenge at the moment: Index Card a Day. As the name suggests, the premise is to create something (a drawing, doodle, painting, poem, calligraphy, art journaling, collage – anything goes!) on an index card everyday during June and July. ICAD is hosted by the fabulous Tammy from Daisy Yellow Art. There are both weekly and daily prompts, the weekly prompts are broad (encouraging specific techniques or mediums for example) and the daily prompts are more specific but still very open to personal interpretation (cobalt blue, playground, bouquet etc).

pink floral drawing on an index card

Playing along with the prompts is totally optional, so far I have created a grand total of one index card based on the daily prompt! The very first prompt was “Mix Tape”:

mix tape drawing on an index card

As the days have gone on I have surprised myself by choosing to play with colour and pattern more and more rather than working on small scale drawings as I had initially planned. I’m finding that losing myself in drawing abstract patterns at the end of the day is much more relaxing!

abstract geometric pattern drawing on an index card
green and yellow floral abstract pattern drawings on index cards

I also expected to get frustrated with the poor quality paper of the cards (they are just cheap and cheerful 6×4 record cards) but they haven’t performed as badly as I thought they would and I find that I don’t care at all if the surface gets a bit torn up using layers of colour. It’s all part of the process!

blue and green geometric pattern drawings on index cards
pink and orange floral pattern drawings on index cards
red white and blue geometric pattern drawing on index card
blue and green floral pattern drawing
colourful geometric pattern drawn on an index card

If you’re interested in playing along with ICAD (you can jump in at any time!) head over to Daisy Yellow Art for all the information on the challenge. There is also a kid’s version of ICAD – perfect for those lucky kids who have already finished school for the summer! My daughter and I have been working on our cards together in the evenings as we still have three weeks left of school. Boo.

If you’d like to follow along with my ICAD cards, I’m posting them over on Instagram, on my Pinterest board and in the ICAD Facebook group. Happy ICADing!

*Materials Used:

  • Silvine 6×4 plain white index cards – any index or record cards will work (whether they’re coloured, white, ruled, plain or tabbed) I just happened to pick up a pack of these ones! I will be using these until I run out of cards and then I might try something different.

Colour:

  • Posca Paint pens – opaque paint pens that I don’t get the chance to use very often in my day-to-day work but that I LOVE to play with! Amazon UK | Amazon USA
  • Koi Brush pens – water-based pens that give a lovely textured colour Amazon UK | Amazon USA
  • Promarker pens – my go-to markers for my design work, great for creating both flat washes of colour and textured / layered effects Amazon UK | Amazon USA
  • Staedtler Triplus fineliners – great for adding tiny bits of detail here and there over other layers of colour Amazon UK | Amazon USA

Black and white :

  • Sakura Gelly Roll medium gel pen (white) Amazon UK | Amazon – USA
  • Uni-ball Signo pen (white) Amazon UK | Amazon USA
  • Pigma Micron fine liners (black) Amazon – UK | Amazon – USA
  • Uni-Pin fineliners (black) Amazon – UK | Amazon – USA
  • Rotring ArtPen (black) Amazon – UK | Amazon USA

Useful links:

  • ICAD FAQ – Daisy Yellow Art
  • Index Card a Day Index – Daisy Yellow Art
  • My Index Card a Day Roundup

* Please note there are affiliate links in this blog post. If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!

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About Kate

Hello, I’m Kate, nice to meet you! I create fun and funky hand-drawn graphics to help you make beautifully illustrated scrapbook pages, craft projects and teaching resources – and have fun while you do it!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tess Dillenberger

    18 April 2020 at 10:14 pm

    Wonderful idea for this time of self-quarantine! I’m a small format artist, and these cards will be perfect to play on! Thanks for a fun idea!

    Reply
    • Kate

      21 April 2020 at 4:14 pm

      It really is a fun project! Check out the ICAD home base for more info: https://daisyyellowart.com/icad-base

      Reply
  2. Aldene

    14 June 2017 at 7:06 pm

    What a wonderful idea! I’m definitely going to try this. Thank you!

    Reply
  3. mvruscher

    12 May 2017 at 1:58 pm

    I’ve been ready to start and collecting ideas. Love the idea of index cards as a medium. Not too permanent of a commitment if I decide to trash it. What I would like to know is recommendations for pens, pencils, etc.
    Thank you! Thanks for the inspiration.

    Reply
    • Kate

      12 May 2017 at 6:55 pm

      Hi! It’s a really fun project, I’m looking forward to tackling it again this year! I used all sorts of media on my cards, but mainly Koi Brush pens, Posca paint pens, various black fine liners and some Derwent Coloursoft pencils. I think I’m going to experiment more with watercolour this year! I hope you enjoy ICAD this year, please feel free to share some of your cards with me if you would like to – I’d love to see!

      Reply
      • Jmarie

        31 August 2017 at 3:43 pm

        I just found you on Pintrest. As a former teacher u are inspiring me to draw more. I make handmade cards. I like the doodles u make. Thanks for the tips.

        Reply
        • Kate

          3 September 2017 at 2:09 pm

          You’re very welcome! I would really recommend the Sketchbook Explorations classes over on Creative Bug, I really enjoyed them and they helped me to fall in love with using a sketchbook to play in again! Here’s a post I wrote about one of the courses: https://katehadfielddesigns.com/blog/sketchbook-explorations/ HTH!

          Reply
  4. Sarah

    19 November 2016 at 1:24 pm

    Please could you tell me which pens you use? They are really bright and vibrant and I would like to buy some. Thank you in advance, I love your patterns and am eager to try this activity.

    Reply
    • Kate

      19 November 2016 at 5:37 pm

      I’ve used a mixture of Koi Brush pens, Posca Paint pens and various black fine liners for these cards Sarah! I also use ProMarkers a lot. I hope that helps! 🙂

      Reply
  5. Michele

    9 August 2016 at 1:50 am

    Thanks for the inspiration! I love to doodle and am starting to incorporate hand lettering into my doodles. I love the idea of doing an index card a day because after teaching by day it is my favorite de-stresser! While I like to put them on FB or Instagram I am amazed by the comments or enjoyment that THEY get! Looking forward to trying to do one each day…knowing myself I will be amazed if I do it for 365 days but consistency would be FUN!! I love the patterns and colors you have shared…I am taking the easy way out using 3 x 5 cards! Yesterday was day one and since I doodle in church I gave it to the minister on the way out. Thanks again!!

    Reply
  6. vintagewithlaces

    3 July 2016 at 8:30 am

    Gorgeous ICADs, Kate! I love the repetitive patterns and the use of just a few colors. It makes your cards very striking.

    Reply
    • Kate

      4 July 2016 at 10:23 am

      Thank you so much! I’ve surprised myself with how much I have enjoyed making the patterns, I’ve found it to be nice and relaxing after a busy day!

      Reply
  7. iHanna

    2 July 2016 at 9:41 am

    Your index cards are so cool Kate, awesome happy colors and vibrant colors that makes them pop! They make me happy, so thanks for sharing! Would love to see some of your daughters creations too, I think it’s cool you’re doing the challenge together!

    Happy ICADing!

    Reply
    • Kate

      4 July 2016 at 10:22 am

      Thank you! I’ll post some of my daughter’s cards next time! She’s really enjoying the project too!

      Reply
  8. Kate fern

    30 June 2016 at 6:51 pm

    Your cards are so great! It’s amazing how different each artists work is some are grungy and messy, yours are clean and bright, very lovely!

    Reply
    • Kate

      1 July 2016 at 2:00 pm

      Thank you so much! I do sometimes wish I could be a bit freer and looser with my work, but I love my pencils and markers too much I think! Maybe I’ll get my paints out and try something more messy one day!

      Reply
  9. Sheri Whitfield

    27 June 2016 at 4:56 pm

    Your cards are beautiful!!

    Reply
  10. alicia - one mother hen

    27 June 2016 at 1:29 pm

    Love this artwork. I also love how you photograph your cards with the pens too.

    Reply
    • Kate

      27 June 2016 at 2:41 pm

      Thank you! I decided to photograph the cards with the pens to show the small scale of the cards, and also because I’m always curious as to what materials others use and so I thought it would be fun to share what I created the patterns with!

      Reply
  11. Cindy McMath

    26 June 2016 at 9:04 am

    Wow I love your vibrant colours and bold designs – a lot of them would make great fabric or china patterns!

    Reply
    • Kate

      26 June 2016 at 3:05 pm

      Thank you so much! I’ve really been enjoying making these patterns!

      Reply

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