Gift Idea: Homemade Vanilla Extract

I've been spending some time lately thinking about what Christmas presents to make this year. I know it's only August, but this year I really want spend the holidays enjoying the season as opposed to frantically prepping for every special moment and scrambling at the last minute to get everything done. I truly love getting homemade Christmas gifts and want to return the thoughtfulness and effort that so many friends and family put into their gifts to me. Hence why I'm thinking about this in August. I've decided on a couple gifts and plan to get the making underway this weekend. Unfortunately, I can't share any of those projects here, one of the would be recipients might see! But I can share one of last year's efforts, Homemade Vanilla Extract. 

There are TONS of tutorials online that provide excellent step by step instructions. It really was simple and turned out delicious and high quality stuff! I'd highly recommend doing it. We ended up using Tahitian Vanilla Beans and Smirnoff vodka for our batch. When you read about how many beans to use, don't believe the posts that have you using 3 per 8 oz bottle. Use 5-6. Ours sat for several months and we ended up adding more into each bottle that we gave just so that it could keep infusing and making the vanilla flavor richer. Fortunately, the extra beans we added at the last minute have done the trick because everyone who uses the vanilla claims it's good stuff. 

It was fun to design the packaging for the bottle, tho, here's another tip, if you end up printing it on an inkjet printer, spray it with a nice top coat before you cut it out and affix it to the bottle. The inevitable drips of vanilla end up bleeding the image if you don't! Doh! Lesson learned there. 

We paired the vanilla with a recipe book filled with ideas for how to use the vanilla. We found all kinds of fun uses for vanilla both sweet and savory. Here's a list of the recipes we rustled up: 

Spiced Pecans

Spring Vanilla Vinigarette

Vanilla and Black Peppercorn Pork

Vanilla Shrimp Crostini

Hot Chocolate

Old Fashioned Pancakes

Vanilla Cupcake

Vanilla Biscotti

Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream

Bread Pudding with Whiskey Vanilla Sauce

Vanilla Creme Brulee

Pear Vanilla Crisp

Cherry Vanilla Oatmeal

Vanilla Chai Tea

Vanilla Cream Soda

Vanilla Sugar Scrub

I tried out most of the recipes before including them, but they all looked so interesting to me! For a couple of the gifts, I packaged them in a little basket with a pre-made jar of sugar scrub and a cookie scoop as I figured mostly the vanilla would be used for cookies! 

This little vanilla experiment definitely peaked my interest for other types of infusing experiments. I cant wait to try more. Feel free to ask me for any more information about the vanilla adventure! There are certainly many more details I can share if you're looking to make some of your own.

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Summer Muse

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Late Nights and Lunch Hours

I want to start by giving a HUGE thanks to the Prairie Arts Council for providing the opportunity for Ashley, Joseph, and I to share our art with their community. It's a ton of hard work, most of it volunteer, and it's pretty incredible that they continue to give their time and energy to promoting the arts. Thanks to everyone who showed up to the opening as well. I know that several pieces were sold and that was even more than I was hoping for. What a great community to come out and spend some time with us! The evening was really nice and of course the tunes provided by Alex and Dan were fantastic. Good live music always makes things even better. Here are a few shots from the night. I'll post a larger version of the Summer Muse hanging shortly.

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Gallery Show, "Late Nights and Lunch Hours"

I am looking forward to this Friday night when we will be heading up to Rensselaer for the opening and reception of our gallery show, "Late Nights & Lunch Hours". Several of my pieces will be hanging alongside two other extremely talented artists, Ashley Fronterhouse and Joseph Cross. There will be wine, food, and good music. 

This upcoming show has given me an excuse to carve out time to make some new stuff and it's really been fun. I'm extremely thankful for such a supportive husband who's been picking up my slack so that I could focus more in the evenings. I've loved experimenting with birch plywood and colored pencil for this show. I can see many more experiments in my future. One thing that I realized is that even though I loved working with colored pencil, it was the complete wrong medium for the look I was going for. I'm switching to paint for the next one for sure! (Which will be yet another experiment, because I have no real experience with technique for that) Another first for me was working on such a large piece, the Summer Muse is 22"x30". It was really satisfying to create something so large just because. It's not anything I created with the intention to be purchased and hung on anyone's wall, it was just for fun and felt really freeing. I'll post more photos of the work and the gallery after the show. Here's the information that was printed on the back side of the show card. 

Prairie Arts Council presents

Late Nights and Lunch Hours:

A group art show featuring illustrations, prints, pen and ink drawings, and oil paintings. All works were created almost exclusively on the borrowed hours of late nights and lunch hours.”

Amy Kingman, Joseph Cross, Ashley Lee

July 20 - August 17, 2012

Artist’s Reception

Friday, July 20, 2012

6:00 P.M. to 7:30 P.M. (Chicago Time)

Lilian Fendig Gallery – Carnegie Center

(Two blocks north of the Jasper County Courthouse)

301 North Van Rensselaer St • Rensselaer, IN 47978

Gallery Hours – M, T, Th, F from 9 A.M. to 2 P.M.

or by appointment 219.866.5278 or prairie@rhsi.tv

Art on postcard:

Top: Ashley Lee, “April”, linocut print

Middle: Joseph Cross, “A Berne Farm”, oil 

Bottom: Amy Kingman, “Summer Muse”, colored pencil on wood

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First tea towel for sale

Got the first listing put up onto the 'ol Etsy site. Excitiiiing.

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Tea towel screen printing experiment

Well, it's been a long time coming but it's finally assembled. It's taken a couple months to get the space set up for this experiment and a very patient partner in crime who helped build and rig bits of our little diy screen print 'studio'. I have to say, though, all the setup was worth it! I am so excited, the print actually worked. Definitely more than I was hoping for on a first attempt. I had no idea how the fine lines of the illustration would register, so I was incredibly happy when I saw that all of the skinny little lines printed. Hopefully this first test wasn't just a beginners luck fluke and the next attempts will go as smoothly.

My hope is to get a nice line of tea towels created so that I can offer them on my etsy site, but I've got more experimenting to do before that happens. I'll be sure to post when the set is ready.

(You can see more of the process on my flickr set here)

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An Experiment in Screen Printing

After consulting a screen printing friend and doing a bit of research on the web, mainly the gigposters.com forums, I'm finally getting serious about putting together a little DIY screen print setup. Of course the middle of February in Indiana is just about THE WORST time to try and create this makeshift studio in the back of my unheated garage but slowly, slowly it's coming together. I've got a slew of new projects in the works, just waiting to be printed. First priority of the moment is to hang up some visqueen to make myself a smaller space to heat with the little space heaters I own.

Here's a sneak peek at our construction of a little vacuum table. Huge thanks to Alex for putting in so much time and effort to get these items built. Another huge thanks to Aaron over at RONLEWHORN for answering all of my random questions as I attempt to get things up and running. This has been no solo act, that's for sure.

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Now in technicolor

A very clever artist friend of mine suggested that I add a splash of color to these pen and marker butterfly prints. I do love the butterflies in black and white, but is a completely different feel. I think I'm digging this colored take as well. I did a quick color test with marker and I do like the look of it, but I think I'd like to experiment with some water color washes and some more painterly techniques. Any thoughts? I'm listing this one on my Etsy site and will custom color the butterflies any color requested. Just drop me a note and I'll color and add the item to my shop!

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Part 2 of the Wishful Thinking Collection

Last night I finished up the last piece for this weekend's IHE event! Everything has been sent to the printer so fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong with the printing. I don't like cutting things so close, but sometimes life just works out that way. I have been distracted by my daughter's cleft palate surgery and recovery among other important life things, but now she's doing fabulously and I'm kicking this last week into high gear! I'm getting really excited about the event. Can't wait to see how it all goes, not to mention browse all of the other great art that will be there.

If you can swing by this Sat. June 11 between noon to 8:00pm we would love to see you there. With great art, Sun King beer, and fantastic musicians it's guaranteed to be a good time. After browsing the booths you can always head over to Italian Fest or the Talbot Street Art Fair in the area as well. It's going to be a great weekend for food, music, and arts in Indy.

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Pen and Marker Butterflies

As the days count down to the handicraft exchange I've been busy bulking up my inventory. My goal is to create tiny collections of sorts based around some of the art that I already have for sale in my Etsy shop.

I have been feeling concerned that my body of work may come across as a jumbled, disconnected hodge podge because I enjoy playing with so many different styles and mediums. I have pen and ink, linocut prints, and even the styles of my digital work vary. Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time cutting anything out because each style seems to generate an interest. How to pick?

Well, I don't know if my little 'collections' plan will work or not. When it's all said and done my work may still come across as a jumbled mess at the exchange. We will just have to give it a try and see how it turns out. This will be a great learning experience for sure.

So that said, this is a piece I intend to pair with the Wishful Thinking print. It was originally done in pen and ink and shaded with gray marker. I think I'll also offer each butterfly as an individual print. Well it's late and I've got more work to do before bed. Goodnight!

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Let's Roll Some Ink

The victorian house linocut I carved has been whispering my name from the inside of a drawer for the past few weeks.

"Ink me." it said. "I know the suspense is killing you. Don't you care to see if I can print at all? Is orange the color for me, or maybe a pretty light blue? What about a little fun with pen, or watercolor backgrounds? How would I look on a colored paper, or the page of an old book? Come on, just take a moment and check me out. There are so many possibilities, and I know you're just dying to play."

But I had too much going on. You know how it gets. And as a result of a busy life, fun little projects that I barely make time for in the first place get pushed back, back, back, unfinished, but never quite forgotten. It just sits in the back of my mind on this limbo land to-do list taking up space in my brain. Truth be told, if it wasn't for my lunch hour it never would have been carved in the first place, so I knew it would take an effort to make the time to print it. There was a tiny play kitchen to be made and a first birthday party to plan, though, which seemed to spend every spare moment I could make.

Then finally came the day that I decided, the effort must be made. A Wednesday night when the day was less than ideal and I just needed a win. I needed something personal and just for fun. It was 10 before I could get to it, but I had finished all that needed to be done and was finally able to say to that whisper in the drawer, "Ok, ok, you win. It's time. This moment has been made for you, and for me. Let's roll some ink".

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INDIEana Handicraft Exchange Acceptance

I am so excited to announce that Ashley Lee of InkHouse and I (under my shop name of La Grisette) will be sharing a booth at the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange this June! We got our acceptance letter yesterday and are officially on the vendor list! Competition was stiff this year, we are told that they had to turn away over 50% of the applicants so we feel incredibly fortunate to have made the cut. Now that we've got the green light there is LOTS of work to be done. I am in search of a new, quality printer for my digital art prints. I would love to know if anyone has any recommendations!

This summer's event should be a great time. Lots of quality artists, musicians, and delicious local Sun King beer! Here are some specifics:

Date: Saturday, June 11
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Admission: Free!
Location: The Harrison Center for the Arts
1505 North Delaware Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Parking: on neighborhood streets around the venue

You can visit this site for additional info about vendors etc.

Even if we weren't participating in the event we had definitely planned to attend. It's a great time! Hope to see you there!

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Guest blogging today over at Beantown Baker

The crazy talented food blogger, Jen, over at Beantown Baker was kind enough to invite me to join in on the Friday Favs portion of her blog this week. I thought long and hard about what I could possibly contribute to her savvy food blogging audience when finally I decided that I could share a few of the things I've learned about food photography over the years. I'm by no means an expert food photographer but there are various things that I've learned through experimentation that have helped refine my photos. Check out the Top Ten things I've learned about food photography here.

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Scanner in action

Here's a video of the scanner in action. This video is nothing fancy, but it does the trick. :) Enjoy!

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Dora and Diego's Animal Rescue Center at the Children's Museum!

For the past month we've been collaborating with the Children's Museum of Indianapolis on some fun stuff and I've been really loving the job. We helped them out with their new Dora & Diego interactive exhibit for toddlers. It was pretty magical to see the hustle of the museum on the final day of construction when everything came together. You can always count on the Children's Museum to put together top notch stuff, but I was giddy to see the tiny little hut where our contribution was going to live. For our part we created a screen animation that sits in the Animal Rescue Center portion of the exhibit. The animation features Scan the Scanner who identifies and diagnoses little stuffed animals that are placed on the scanner. This project was so exciting to me because it combined my love of cutie design and animation with a fun, tangible experience for little ones. Let's just say that I am really excited about any new opportunities where we can do more stuff like this with RFID tags or other interactive trigger systems.

The entire exhibit is full of great interactives for toddlers. I would absolutely recommend stopping by if you get the chance to visit the museum between now and Aug 14th.

Here's the hut. I dont think it could be an cuter. Between the two scanners is a first aid station with bandages, ice packs, stethoscopes, and magnifying glasses then on the table there is a tiny little bathtub with two pedal operated dryers so you can clean the animals.

Here are some cubbies where you set the animals to rest and get food and water.

Scanning... Scanning... Here we go!

Eric, Taha, and I installing our portion into the hut. As we tested, Taha was such a rock star making little tweaks and updates on the fly. Great job to everyone who worked on this interactive! Kevin Marshall at the Children's Museum, Eric, Taha, Kyle, and Dan all did such a great job.

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Custom Beer Tap Handle

Good friends of ours turned 30 this past weekend and my husband and I were searching for something out of the ordinary to give them. They recently started brewing their own beer and installed a tap in their basement wall. We decided that a special handle for their tap was the right gift so we began the search for a good custom shop. We ended up finding a REALLY great shop out of Seattle. Will Bass of Bass Custom was super nice, helpful, and fast! He got our tap engraved, inked, and shipped in under a week. I'm sure that depending on his work load that quick turn around is not always possible, but it was such a nice surprise to get it several days before we were expecting it! The quality of the engraving was fantastic and he managed to capture all of the fine detail that we drew into our illustration. I know this probably sounds like I'm getting paid to say all of this, but I was just that pleased with the process and quality.

So why a garden gnome you ask?

In older posts you may have seen photos from an event we threw with our friends called Lebfest, where the two main team mascots were the Garden Gnomes and the Porch Geese. Our friends were the captains of the Garden Gnome team so we decided to create a gnome brew master character holding a beer, designed in woodcut style. It looks great engraved in the tap. I love the setup that our friends have for their bar! They were so creative with the ski's for shelves and the chalkboard paint for the brew name. It was great to see the tap fit into their awesome setup. Can't wait to try more of their awesome home brew and thanks to Will Bass, there is now a sweet custom tap handle we can pull to fill our glass!

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Sneak Peek

We've been busy at work finishing up something special for a fun client. Here's a big hint:

(Photo taken using the ClassicINSTA app. on my phone)

The project launches tomorrow and will be open to the public until Aug. 11! I'll post more details after the launch.

In other news, my IMPOSSIBLE Project film came in today! I can't wait to do some experiments this weekend! Expect a post about my instant film fun as well. Happy Friday!

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How To: Six Point Paper Snowflake

Below is a how to slide show for making pretty little 6 point paper snowflakes. If you have any trouble at all understanding what's going on, just click on a photo and it should take you to my flickr set where I've added detailed descriptive text to help clear up any confusion. Hope you enjoy!

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Baby Bruiser - Roller Derby Girl

Hot glue was my friend for this costume. At the last minute I added a bit of black fabric to the top of one of her bibs because, lets face it, the girl can drool. I wish I had have thought of it sooner so I could paint a little something on it. As for the rest of the costume, I snipped the helmet out of foam pads and covered them in black fabric, glued together some elbow pads and tied them on with ribbon, glued some spray painted wine corks to her tennies, tied a bunch of toule to a ribbon to make the tutu, and ironed on her derby name. The attitude she provided.

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30 Years

Well this weekend marked 30 years on Earth. This past year has been a whirlwind of huge events in my life and in the lives of the people I love. There were a significant number of awesome items on my 29 for 29 list that I didn't end up getting to this past year. I did end up doing several things I had no clue I would end up doing, though. (Like celebrating the engagement and marriage of my best friend and being a featured artist in a local art show) I also underestimated the time that I would spend preparing for the little one, being a matron of honor in two weddings, throwing a big anniversary party for my parents, and adjusting to my role as a new mom. To be honest, with all that filled my life I barely checked in with the list I had made. Now that things are slowing down and a new decade is beginning, it's time for a new list. Is it bad that I want to roll over a few of those items from the 29 to 29 list? I'll need to think about it. I think number 1 on the list will be to make the first homemade halloween costume for Fiona. That seems like a fine place to start.

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