ICAD Rev № 16 Starts June 01
Index-Card-a-Day began in 2011 on a whim in a coffee shop when I was drawing mandalas on index cards. And it has grown into an annual tradition where we create & share with our supportive community of creative people.
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2026 marks the 16th iteration of our annual challenge
We embraced the simplicity of this small format and the camaraderie of fellow challengers. And… we’re still creating on index cards!? Rewind back before social media as it exists now. We started on Flickr, navigated to Facebook, and hopped over to Instagram. We have forged friendships, shared traditions, and made a ton of art!
I am grateful for the imagination, ingenuity, and creativity YOU bring to the community. Thank you for cheering each other on & keeping it focused on creativity rather than competition. We bring together a diverse group of people from around the globe. 🌈🌏📇✨🔭
Together we have painted, collaged, sketched, glued, stamped, printed, illustrated, stitched, constructed, documented, colored, inked, lettered, and/or folded. We have interpreted prompts from portal to zebra to ogee.
Find me at my newsletter/substack & instagram & ko-fi
As we approach the start date I wanted to give you a feel for how things will work this year so that you are ready to go and know what to expect.
Daisy Yellow Index-Card-a-Day Challenge
📆 June 01 - July 31
🌈 Create something on an index card each day for 61 days
📏 Max size 4x6" or A6
📇 Start with a 100-pack of ordinary, simple, analog, paper index cards. That’s what the challenge is all about. I use these lined cards and index card dividers.
✂️ Ideas at 50 things to create on an index card
📲 If you post at instagram, follow the challenge account @indexcardaday and tag posts #dyicad2026
🗝️ There are daily prompts & weekly themes (all 100% optional). Get the themes and the first set of daily prompts (maps to June 1-30).
👩🏻💻 Tammy G founded the challenge in 2011
What to do each day? you’ve got options!
Get the first set of daily prompts (maps to June 1-30).
a) Create something, anything. You could use these 61 days to build a series, document something each day, refine techniques, learn new tools & mediums, and take tangents into unexplored territory. About half* of our challengers work off-prompt.
b) Use the daily prompt (optional): Create something sparked by the prompt. We start with prompt № 01 on June 1st. You can interpret playfully, dramatically, mysteriously, coincidentally, botanically, figuratively, ridiculously, inversely, and of course literally. About half of our challengers use the prompts on a majority of days.
c) Use the weekly theme** (optional): Themes are an alternate ICAD track guided by techniques, mediums, materials, and types of art-making. Sometimes the theme resonates when the prompt doesn’t. I don't know how many people use the themes, likely < 10%.
*Percentages are guesstimates. 🤡
**Some ICADians cleverly meld prompts & themes 😉 but this is like solving a mystery within a puzzle multiplied by a conundrum while finding the hidden immunity idol.
Resources for Index Card Art
If you'd like to create on the most fantastical of substrates aka the index card, go to the Daisy Yellow Index-Card-a-Day home base to find links & resources. Here are a few links to get you started:
🪄📇➜🌦️🧭✨🍄📻🫧🌈✂️🪸🗺️📎🩷🍭🫙🖌️🐇
50 things to create on an index card
52 Ideas for Index Card Art (zine)
The Simple Beauty of Small Format Art: Sparking Creativity With Index Cards (zine)
10 ways to use ICADs & ATCs in your art journal or junk journal
Downloadable digital ICAD badges for all of your online spaces
This year I need to simplify the way I run the challenge because I won’t be able to dedicate as much time & energy as usual. I’ll be posting the prompts in a different way this year (see below). Beyond that, I have been spending much less time at instagram. This gives me more bandwidth to focus on art & writing. I will still be present at instagram for a quiet look each day to find out what you’re creating!!! I’m so grateful for your understanding as I shift my pace.
Daily prompts for June will be posted the last week of May. Daily prompts for July will be posted the last week of June. In previous years, prompts went out in weekly sets. This will be a twist. Last year I did a collage challenge called Februllage where all of the prompts were posted in advance. I liked having space to let ideas percolate, simmer, and stew. It was helpful to start thinking about how I would tackle/approach each prompt, what would be tricky, and what days I’d likely go off-prompt.
All nine weekly themes (i.e. collage or maps) will be posted the last week of May. In previous years, I posted themes every three weeks.
I’m taking my own advice and making space for new discoveries (this ⬇︎ from Creative Gazette 04).
Before the start… I encourage you to take a few moments to LOOK BACK at what you have created. Looking back to a year ago (or fifteen 😂) gives us distance and objectivity to visualize progress. Look for the stories and threads that run through your work. Note: newsletter/substack supporters can find a guided look-back process in Creative Gazette Issue 07 including a downloadable PDF.
I hope that this post answers your questions. It’s a fun, down-to-earth mellow challenge. You don’t need to register, just grab a pack of index cards and you’re ready to go.
