Index Cards Always
ICAD and other delights
June and July mean one thing at our house: ICAD!
The idea is simple. Create something on an index card every day for 61 days. Easy supplies, small canvas, low stakes. This is a great way to add a bit of fun and structure right at the beginning of summer break when everyone might be feeling a little amped up but a little directionless.
We’ve participated since 2013, as long as my youngest child has been around! I am using my mass of cards to record the quotes for my zettelkasten.
These are a few cards that I created last year and turned into a set of One Word Writing Prompts.
Obviously, these are very simple cards. Just images from our daily art calendar pasted to an index card with a word added.
The words + images are only tangentially related. I mean, I picked them both. But the images are not primarily illustrative. Even so, I do hope that there’s some sort of spark between the two.
I posted these pictures as prompts to celebrate April’s Poetry Month, but wanted to gather them here so they don’t just disappear in Notes.
My ICAD project this year is very similar. I am making an Attention Oracle inspired by the read-along hosted by Amy Bowers of Jenny Odell’s How To Do Nothing.
The Oracle looks for
“a pattern that holds open contemplative space against the pressures of habit, familiarity, and distraction.”
Along with the images on index cards, I am writing a guidebook. A simple reflection describing each pattern and connecting it to other patterns. Think of it as A Pattern Language for creativity.
What creative plans are you making for summer?
Thanks for the inspiration. I'm gonna try this.
I think I might try for a card a day, but bending the rules a bit. I have a packet of watercolor postcards and I might use them rather than index cards. Or maybe a mix of the two.