50+ Things to Create With Index Cards
Index cards invite creative exploration — you can construct collages, paint abstracts with acrylics, draw portraits, practice hand-lettering, play with mark-making, make gelatin/jelly prints, and even construct mini handmade books. I’ve been making small format art on index cards for over a decade (the possibilities are endless). I love them so much that every June & July since 2011, I’ve facilitated the annual Daisy Yellow Index-Card-a-Day (ICAD) Challenge!
Ahead, a list of starting points for creative projects & explorations. Experiments, techniques, and series with index cards, rolodex cards, shipping tags, or blank note cards.
More index card art & ideas in my index card art zines!
52 Ideas for Index Card Art and The Simple Beauty of Small Format Art: Sparking Creativity With Index Cards.
a list of creative ways to use index cards & rolodex cards
1. Create an accordion book. Here’s my tutorial on making a tiny accordion book with index cards or strips of watercolor paper.
2. Practice hand-lettering. Gather a variety of pens, pencils & markers and brainstorm different ways to write each letter of the alphabet.
3. Make a striped collage. Use vertical or horizontal strips of paper to create a collage.
4. Paint repeating patterns with acrylics. Use a small brush to make dots, doodles, stripes, hearts, etc. Try this on a painted base or a plain card.
5. Continue a pattern. Glue a pattern from a magazine to the center of your cards. Use markers, paint, or any medium to continue the pattern outward using markers or paint. This example is in pencil and ink.
6. Write a list. Here are some art materials that can be used on index cards.
7. Create a mixed media collage. Envision this work as a mini art journal page. Use anything you might use on a larger art journal page, including acrylic paint, imagery and words from magazines, painted papers, etc.
8. Create found poetry. Select phrases from various sources from magazines to old books and arrange in an interesting way. Glue to a painted background. Here’s a post about found text & found poetry.
9. Draw mandalas. Start in the center and build outward. They can be as wonky as you wish! Here’s a post about drawing freehand mandalas.
10. Paint tiny abstracts with acrylics.
11. Carve a stencil with an x-acto knife.
12. Interpret a Daisy Yellow creative prompt
13. Do a 30-day, 61-day, 100-day, or 365 day project
14. Make a tip-in. Attach to the center of your art journal or junk journal with washi tape. See 10 Ways to Use ICADs in your Art Journal
15. Practice paint mixing. Start with mixes of 2 colors
16. Draw a repeating linear pattern
17. Draw blind contour self-portraits (silly + fun)
18. Stamp patterns with hand-carved eraser stamps
19. Do mark-making in ink
20. Practice block lettering
21. Make a map of an imaginary island
22. Make gelatin or jelly prints (tips re: making a DIY gelatin printing plate)
23. Paint a grungy mixed media grid collage
24. Document your word-of-the-year
25. Write a top-ten list
26. Make art with a circle theme
27. Make patterns using washi tape as a painting mask
28. Make a cross-stitch sampler
29. Sketch the facade of your house
30. Explore one theme or motif. Ideas in Zine 19: Exploring Shapes, Motifs, and Themes
31. Write a short story or flash fiction
32. Draw a diagram
33. Adhere a glassine envelope and tuck a note inside
34. Type a note to a friend and put it in the mail as a surprise
35. Paint a plaid or tartan pattern with stripes criss-crossing and overlapping
36. Write a recipe (how about olive & rosemary mushroom quiche)
37. Do a mind map or brainstorm
38. Paint a landscape
39. Cut out letters to make a word. Use gelatin prints & painted papers
40. Scrape textures in wet acrylic paint
41. Write the word “love” in 17 languages. Or write a word in another language and add a definition/translation/part of speech on the back
42. Write a list of things to lift your mood next time you are feeling yucky
43. Design a quilt block or apron
44. Draw with Neocolors
45. Draw your morning coffee mug
46. Make a daily habit tracker
47. Brainstorm the connotations of a word
48. Re-arrange a collage or painting. Paint something, cut it up, and put it back together differently
49. Paint a rainbow
50. Stamp lyrics or a quote with alphabet stamps
