Series 5 ~ 3 ways I'm staying creative this summer (and you can join me)

One of the things that's important to me is to stay creative over the summer. I've got three things I'm planning this summer and you're welcome to join me if you like.

The First Creative Thing I'm Doing is Online (and Free!). Every summer Tammy Garcia runs her Index Card a Day project through June and July. It's as simple as it sounds ~ she provides a creative prompt for each day and you create a quick piece of art on an ordinary index card. The goal is to make each card without overthinking, enjoying the process and not focusing on the result.

Some people use this project to explore new themes or learn to work with new materials. This is the eighth year she's been ICAD (as Index Card a Day is affectionately known by its participants), and thousands and thousands of people all around the world continue to take part. I've discovered many new art friends (near and far!) through ICAD.

Not only is it inspiring to see everyone else's take on the same prompt, but I found the process of doing such a large volume of work over a short period of time was very instructive. Here are a few of my ICADs from last year to give you some idea of how wide-ranging the results can be:

The prompts for these ICADS from last year were:
Top row: Title Card, Ombre, Alphabet
Middle row: Starburst, Rainbow, Sprout
Bottom row: Detour, Vintage, Paint Chips.

I didn't start with a theme last year, but over the course of the project, I started challenging myself to incorporate the lines on the index card as part of the design. This worked really well for some cards, not so much for others, but the point of the project was to experiment, so I didn't stress over it.

If you want to find out more about Tammy's Index Card a Day project, check out her stunningly colourful website about the project and join in.

If the idea of doing 61 (!) index cards is too daunting, I've come up with a little similar project just for us. I'm calling it Once-a-Week Wednesdays. It'll be 15 weeks till our classes start up again in September, and I've created a prompt for every Wednesday evening (which is when we normally meet). You don't have to work on index cards, but they are easy to find ~ and cheap! I sent everyone home at the end of class with their own set of index cards as well, so hopefully, enough of us will do this over the summer that we can have a show and tell of all our fabulous cards when classes start up again in the fall. My favourite part of ICAD is seeing what everyone else does! Here's your prompt list if you want to join in our Once-a-Week Wednesday project over the summer:

You'll need:  15 3x5 index cards, your art materials, and these prompts:

The Second Creative Thing I'm Doing This Summer is something I do every month and have done for almost 18 years! I organize a group of artists who meet once a month to trade Artist Trading Cards, which as small pieces of handmade art the same size as hockey or baseball trading cards (2.5" x 3.5"). We meet on the third Sunday of each month from noon to 4 pm. Although the original purpose of the group was to make and trade ATCs (as we call them), because we have 4 hours together, we spend the first three hours playing with whatever portable art project we have on the go, and then at 3 pm we put all our art away and trade our cards with each other. This is an incredibly fun, relaxed, creative event that I look forward to EVERY month. Our group is warm and friendly, and you can even come without any cards to trade the first time and I guarantee you will leave with some lovely little art treasures. Other bonuses of our little group is the "sharing table" where we bring art supplies that we have too much of, or haven't used and there's always something fun to create with. And cookies have been showing up as well. Here are some ATCs to give you an idea of the diveristy of the Artist Trading Cards that can be created:

And here our schedule and (always optional) prompt list, so you can see if we fit in your schedule:

The Third Thing I'm Doing This Summer is the same thing I did last summer: on Canada Day Monday (July 2), I'll be renting one of the party tables at the Burnaby Central Railway (Willingdon at Penzance, in Burnaby). I'll be there from opening time (11:00 am) to closing time (5 pm) with pretty much as many art supplies as I can pack in the rolling cart and you are very welcome to come play. You don't need to bring anything artwise, but a little finger food to share would be nice if you really want to bring something. I'll also have tokens for rides on the miniature trains (and yes! adults go them, too!). If you're interested and you need more info, please let me know.

Here's page 3 of the class handouts, in case you need to print all this out: 

Just one more post to go and then we are done done done for the summer ~ unless I see you at one of my events.