ICAD collage adventures

Last year I lurked a bit at ICAD - Index-Card-a-Day from Daisy Yellow.  This year I jumped right in - it's awesome, fun, and inspiring!  I'm loving it.  Tammy's prompts and weekly themes are optional but the week two theme - collage - was something I made a note to myself to learn during this adventure.  I remembered later that I used to do collage when I was in high school, in this style:

Random pictures cut from magazines and catalogs with the occasional word or phrase.  I have a box full of said random pictures and words/phrases - as I sorted through them, "summer" jumped out at me and became the theme of this card.  I had a little trouble working with the Mod Podge - the wrinkles and the transfer of ink from the rose onto the sky were unintentional - but I like the end result.  I especially like the book birds - reading was my favorite summer vacation activity - which came from the same book store flyer I used here.

For my next collage adventure I tightened up the parameters a bit by adding the Beatles prompt to the collage theme.  I did a Google image search and printed a page at a time to get small sizes.  I cut out several of my favorites and decided on a grid format, alternating black & white with color:

I stuck with tried & true and used my Stampin' Up!®  Anywhere Glue stick :) for this one.  I had so much fun (and so many leftover images) that I flipped the card over and collaged the back too:

My third attempt was lame.  So lame, not only will I not be sharing it here, but I also pulled it out of the collection, brushed some gesso over the top of it and left it to dry so it can be added to for a different day.  It will be #11/#16, I think.  I did post it on the Daisy Yellow Index-Card-a-Day 2014 Facebook page, where everyone is super supportive and it got some "Likes" and a few constructive and encouraging comments. 

But you know what they say about falling off your horse, or your bicycle, or whatever - get right back on and try it again.  I had been cogitating over the paisley prompt but was off on a mandala side-track (an earlier fail) when I found a paisley mandala at Don't Eat the Paste - I ♥love♥ serendipitous synchronicity!  I also went over to the house to pull a few more craft supplies out of the basement and found paisley-shape Nestabilities that I'd forgotten I own, so I used them on some paisley-pattern scrapbook paper from the bottom of my stash drawer, and I was in love with collage again!  I even did a little hand-cutting, and did quite a bit better with the Mod Podge, too:

For a complete switch-up of methods, to torn-paper collage, I worked from this Pinterest inspiration - a card (sadly no longer available, but she does have others) from aedesigns on Etsy:

Yesterday I was feeling very brave!  I had this Carl Sagan quote about books that I felt fit with the Book Review prompt.  My original intention was to find a book page (well, actually a scan of a book page, because I still can't tear apart books, even though I have one with a missing page and one old, but not antique, falling-apart book that I specifically bought for this purpose!) for a background and try a stapled collage.  I pulled out my box o' bits and bobs, where I found the leftover leaf, butterfly, and Top Note die off-cuts.  I saved a tea bag and tag last month for some now-forgotten project idea, and they seemed to be needed here, so it turned into another glued collage.  For some reason, the glued aspect made me think the background needed to be stamped instead of being another layer of paper - probably the Mod Podge/tea bag combination made me nervous - so I pulled out my Stampin' Up!® Dictionary stamp and Sahara Sand ink.  I used the same ink to tone down the stark white of the quote, too.

The optional suggested theme for next week is maps.  I love the things I've seen done with maps, but have never tried any myself, so I'm really looking forward to it, but I don't think I'll be able to give up the collage theme!

If you haven't seen or tried ICAD - go check it out right now, and jump in - it truly is fabulous!