Index Card A Day - my June collection

I know it's July already (July! How did that happen??) but here is my June collection of Index Cards I've done for the ICAD-challenge. I have to be honest, most were done in sets, but I still managed to come up with 30 cards for the month which is what I was aiming for. These are two of my favourite cards:

Gelatine printing

I know I'm late to the party, but I spent the afternoon gelating printing and had so much fun I had to share it here!


Yesterday I made a gelatine plate (please watch Linda Germain's videos on how to do that! She's got amazing tips and tricks, I learned a lot from her!) and then I got into a bit of a panic: I couldn't find my brayer. It wasn't with my other art stuff that was still in boxes since our move in December, but thankfully today I found it hidden away in box in the bottom of the wardrobe. Yeah, no idea either... But at least I could start playing! Within minutes, my testle table looked like this: And my hands looked like this: but it was so much fun!


Here are the results of my first go at gelatine printing: Lessons learned:
* Make masks out of thicker paper. Printing paper doesn't hold up and doesn't always show up.
* Hunt down more objects to make marks on the plate, although sequin waste is fun!
* Have thicker paper at the ready for printing. I now used printing paper, envelopes and index cards, next time I want to make paper I can use for collage.
* For best result, use ligher colours on the first layer, and darker on the layers after that. Not the other way around, unless you're using white.


Sadly I had to cut my plate down as it broke early on in the process, but that will not stop me playing again within the next few days. I have a couple of cards and tags that are begging for a second layer....

Some random pictures of the last couple of days

Makes you think the pilot was going 'Yeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!'

I've suddenly got varnishable nails! And I like dots...

First full moon in ages that didn't cause a sleepless night...

These American types ain't scared!

What a difference a bit of colour makes

Strawberries, or: an Inspiring Breakfast.

Breakfast can be so inspiring, especially when you're having strawberries. I had to draw them...

But why stop with just one drawing in your sketchbook? I decided to also do my Index Card for today on strawberries...

Strawberries on their own are delicious of course, but I prefer them on 'beschuitjes', sold here in the UK as 'Dutch crisp bakes' and available in most supermarkets. Butter your beschuit, cut up your strawberries and sprinkle a little bit of sugar on top. Yummmm!!

And of course I had to get my Colour Journal out and record the colours I had used.

And then it was fiiiiinally time to have breakfast. I hope you enjoyed yours as much as I did mine!

Vlog - getting the 'blah blah blah' out...

I was filming my intro to my month on Summerlong, but was making no sense at all... so I decided to do a little vlog to get all that blah blah out... Did it work? Well, if you've signed up for Summerlong you'll see!

The ugly page

The other day, I was going through my Flickr account and stumbled across the pictures I took at the petting zoo in the park. I decided to use them as reference photos for a page in my sketchbook.


I kind of fancied drawing the goose. Now, of course I could have picked this picture but instead I chose the one with the funny angle, this one:


I was going to make this beautiful sketch, use amazing colours, put a border around it and fill the rest of the page with text on what a lovely day it had been in the park and what an inspirational model this goose was... when...


Well, as you know I work in pen. Pen isn't very forgiving. A line that you put down is permanent, there's no going back. So when I drew the beak too small, all I could do was add a little more. And then more, and then some more. I did what I could to try and indicate the back of the head, to do something about that eye that I had made to look possessed.


It did not help. The goose still looked like a penguin on speed. It was a disaster.


I could have ripped the page out, I could have scribbled all over the silly looking goose, I could have simply turned the page and started again. Instead, I used my watercolours best I could, and then got my pen out again. I wrote, 'And here it is, the Ugly Page.' I filled the rest of the page writing about the goose, and how the drawing came out a disaster. And guess what... I kinda like it now.


Embrace your Ugly Page, even if you do a whole sketchbook full of them.