Hello! It’s starting to feel like summer here in Portland. Sunny skies (sometimes), longer days, and farmers markets are some of my favorite parts of summer. I also love packing up a little bag and finding a sunny place outside to sketch. For the next two months, I’m going to be including a small stack of index cards in my bag.

I’ve been busy with school projects, but I haven’t been doing much personal work lately, so I’m excited to get into the Index Card a Day challenge, starting today. I can’t say enough good things about the content that Tammy puts out into the world, and I really admire the way that she organizes this challenge, and inspires so many people to start small, and build a consistent creative practice. You can find out more about the challenge at her FAQ page. Essentially, the idea is to create something out of an index card every day in June and July. Easy, right?

The index cards in this post are a few that I made last summer while I worked on this challenge. There are lots of reasons why I love working in this way.

• Index cards are CHEAP. Using index cards takes the intimidation factor out of creating art. Made a mistake? No big deal. Toss out your index card and start again. Or, cut it up and make something new out of it.
• 3 x 5 inch index cards are small. Five minutes is enough time to finish a card and feel good about spending part of your day being creative.
• Using cheap and small index cards is good for experimentation with other materials. I’ve wanted to work with gouache for a while, but haven’t put much effort into it. I’ve also had a Gel Printing plate that has gone unused for over a year. This will be a perfect time to experiment.
• A commitment to working on a daily project makes you feel motivated to make more work. I often find that a challenge like this creates a snowball effect, and I end up working on more projects.

I’ll be posting my cards on Instagram somewhat daily, and will do a weekly wrap up here on the blog. You can follow along or contribute on Instagram or Twitter using #icad.