I am an Allergic Girl

This month I want to talk about food and my food allergies. If you don't want to read the story just have a quick look at the photos and captions. I took the photos while I made Jamaican Beef Patties, which I will also talk a bit about in this story. You can find the recipe for Jamaican Patties over at Baltic Maid  if you're interested in making them too. I've even put a copy of the recipe from her site at the very end of this post.

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the beautiful golden color is from curry powder

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I grew up in New York and remember eating Jamaican Patties fairly often and loving them. But we moved to the mid-west and since then I'd not eaten anything like them. I don't think anyone in my family even spoke of them after the move. Mid-western restaurants didn't have them on their menus so it's no surprise that about two decades later that I nearly forgot they existed! A few weeks ago I sort of remembered them and was trying to tell my husband, Bill, about them but the only description I could come up with was they were these "meat pies" kind of like a Pasty only not. Pasties, in my opinion, don't really have much flavor. They do make a rather hearty meal on the go and I do like them. But what I was really missing and craving was this "mystery food" from my childhood. Unfortunately I couldn't remember for sure how they looked or what flavor it was. So, how could I describe a thing I could not really remember to someone I grew up with so they'd remember too...? I didn't give up but just set the thought aside for a while.

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dividing the dough prior to rolling out

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Fast forward to a couple of weeks later and I was looking at food pins on Pinterest and saw a familiar shape in a photo that said Jamaican Patties I was like *DING* that's the food! When I followed the link to a working website I couldn't believe my luck! I was pretty sure this was the meat pie I was looking for. I do have a friend still living in NY that I grew up with, she is my sister's BFF, so I wrote her with the link and asked her if she could confirm the authenticity of the food as being similar to what we ate growing up and she said 'yes they looked very authentic' ~ wow! First Second try! Follow this link to wiki for more about Jamaican Beef Patties.

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ground beef, onion and curry

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In the next couple of days I made sure to have all of the ingredients on hand (or substitutions) because I intended to make these right away! I must tell you that the cooking and baking skills I have are what I learned from a couple Home Economics classes I took in school and a whole lot of self taught! At first my desire to cook was just because I wanted to learn to bake simple things like cookies. Then sometime during my 20's I found out I was lactose intolerant and I also got married. Then I wanted to learn to make breads, pies, roasts, soups and as budgets were tight cooking at home was very practical. However I had a whole new learning curve due to my lactose intolerance. I read a bunch of traditional cook books trying to discover how ingredients were used with what meals and which complimented each other. My goal was to look at a recipe and make a meal on a budget with what I had on hand. Then I had to figure out how to make foods dairy free or I'd be making his and hers dinners which after years of practicing this it's a cinch!

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once the filling is cooked & placing into the rolled out dough

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OMG you guys lactose and milk proteins are in so many things it is ridiculous and shopping became such a big chore at first. My shopping time nearly doubled because I was having to read every label of food that I was interested in buying to see if had milk in it and then having to put it back on the shelf because there was milk, dry milk powder or casseien in it. But as I became more familiar with different brands shopping time was greatly reduced. And we discovered a few soy substitutes as well as lactose free milk so I am now able to make a lot of foods I love: specifically pizza! I still read labels but now, for most foods, you can skip to the end and see if it contains milk or nuts because it will be in bold. It's the hidden milk proteins that I have to look for like sodium cassineate and such.

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the dough is moistened with water, folded over & pressed with a fork

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A few years after I discovered my lactose intolerance I discovered a new allergy. This time it was to tree nuts. Cooking at home rather than eating out became life and death for me. There have been a few restaurant chains that were totally clueless about the seriousness of nut allergies when it came to food prep and cross contamination.

Here's how a few treated me: they will either give me a book filled with their products to read the ingredients lists myself. "Oh geee thanks that's helpful and caring how about I go somewhere else" I would think...

Or they steer me towards dishes I do not want but that are (probably) dairy free selections like "how about some cream of mushroom soup" wait WHAT?

And my favorite "sorry but these are pre-made so we can't alter the ingredients" so then I would question the freshness of the food.

One restaurant even went so far as to hand pick out almonds from my spinach salad and send me the dish back... I know this because I found some of the almonds they missed at the bottom of my meal. It was a good thing I didn't have an allergic reaction to that. I'm going to use strong language here and say that was a crappy and dangerous thing to do and really show's ignorance and / or complete disregard for the seriousness of a food allergy in a patron. They will not see my business ever again.

Dare I say I 'learned my lesson' not to order a dish that has nuts in it and try to ask for it nut free. "It shouldn't be that way" I kept telling myself. So, then home cooked meals became a life and death necessity for me because I was afraid that an incompetent chef was going to kill me. Not to mention all the questionable pre-fab foods and how unhealthy those are in their own right. What I discovered was that a lot of restaurants, especially chains, are serving no better than TV dinners.

If you didn't already know they are getting their food from SYSCO or Reinheart. These are the these same pre-fab food stuffs that are served at nursing homes, hospitals and schools. Not necessarily all bad but not really all that good either. So it's a good thing I had a lot of practice with altering recipes at home so for me to accommodate this new allergy AT HOME was not as difficult as the lactose intolerance. But out there it seemed hopeless for many years until I also discovered this wonderful resource Allergic Girl by Sloan Miller. Sloan Miller is an allergy expert living with allergies! She's also got a blog called Please Don't Pass the Nuts a web page called Allergic Girl and a FB page. Her wisdom and insights have helped me re-integrate back into occasional dining out but, unfortunately, still unable to enjoy a decent pizza around here - if you're from New York you know what I mean. Good thing I can make it at home.

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all done and ready to eat!

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Back to the Jamaican Patties.... I was super happy that all the steps to make them were familiar to me and that I could pull off making them in no time.  Let me tell you they are spicy and delicious! I have a lot of gratitude for Baltic Maid for posting this recipe for it has allowed me to enjoy a dish I am quite fond of and can easily make in my own kitchen.... move over pizza you've got a contender! I suggest eating these alone or with rice or even a baked potato!

Here are a few sauces you can eat with these patties, many of which I just whipped up on the spot:
1. ketchup
2. ketchup mixed with curry powder
3. Patak's Vindaloo Paste mixed into ketchup
4. Patak's Vindaloo Paste  mixed with ketch up and mayo
5. Patak's Vindaloo Paste  or Pataks Eggplant Brinjal mixed with (soy) cream cheese
5. Patak's Vindaloo Paste or Pataks Eggplant Brinjal mixed with (soy) sour cream
6. Patak's Vindaloo Paste  mixed with plain yogurt
7. Any Patak's Chutney!
8. My husband eats his with plain yogurt.
9... get creative and mix your own special sauce!

If your local grocery store doesn't carry Patak's products you could always try asking them or you an order it online direct from the company or even through Amazon.com

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Below is a list that I have written on a card and use when I go to a restaurant. Feel free to copy it, change it to your needs, print it out and hand it to whomever waits on your table next time you dine out. You can either call ahead before you dine out to ask if they can accommodate food allergies or just show up and ask the staff to hand the list to the chef and see what happens.



butter, butter fat, ghee, cream, custard, milk, milk solids, dry milk powder, whey, whey products, rennet, brine, cheese, lactose, sodium lactate, lactoglobulin, lactoferrin, lactulose, caseinate, casein, sodium caseinate, lactalbumin, lactic acid starter culture, lactalbumin phosphate, potassium lactate, hydrolysates, maltitol, xylitol, lactitol

I also have these on my list not because I'm allergic but because I do not want these in my food and because I do experience unpleasant side effects from: MSG, phenylaline, aspartame, saccharin, sucralose & sorbitol

If the restaurant can accommodate you on the spot without steering you away from your first choice dish then you know they're most likely making their food fresh. If the chef personally appears at your table to discuss what you would like from the menu so they can make you a special dish. I'd call that a high level of competence, attentiveness and this type of chef most likely has been schooled in the seriousness of food allergies and cross contamination!

If they can't accommodate your needs or think they can and you experience side effects then no, they're probably not too savvy. It's probably not safe to eat there. Take note not to say you have a "dairy" allergy when / if you really have a "lactose intolerance" or "lactose allergy" as the most remembered version of the the food pyramid has eggs are included in the dairy category even though the current ones puts eggs in the correct meat category - or you may get people asking you if you can eat eggs. And, for some reason when I mention my lactose intolerance, I keep getting people asking me if I can eat pasta or wheat... even people who've just seen me eat a whole bowl of pasta.

For years now I've not been able to eat / buy popular popcorn brands but Sloan Miller just posted about Angie's Popcorn and I think there may be some hope for a dairy free popcorn after all these years! And she also suggested making some popcorn toppings at home!

I wish you all luck, if you suffer from a new or old food allergy! I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, stories, recipe links and tips if you'd like to share them with me.

Thanks for stopping by!

All the best, 

Stephie                                                               Tweet

Jamaican Beef Patties

Ingredients

Pastry Dough

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 1/4 cups whole spelt flour & 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1/2 cup / 1 stick / 113 g unsalted butter, softened but not melted
• 3/4 cup ice-cold water

Meat Filling

• olive oil
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 spring onions, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 2 Scotch bonnet chili peppers (any colour), seeded and minced
• 1-2 tsp dried thyme
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper, or  to taste
• 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups water
• 2 slices whole grain bread, processed into crumbs in a food processor

Egg Wash

• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tsp water

Directions

In a bowl, combine the flour with the salt, baking powder and the curry. Add the butter and mix it in with your hands until it resembles a very coarse meal. At this point add the water. Squeeze the mixture until it just forms a ball. Knead once or twice to combine fully (the less kneading, the better).

Divide the dough into two pieces, shaping each into a thick pancake. Wrap the pieces in plastic wrap and place them in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. The dough will keep in the refrigerator for several days.  Take it out 30 minutes before using it.

For the filling, heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan and add the beef, onion, spring onions, garlic, peppers, and thyme. Fry the meat until it turns brown and the moisture has evaporated. Add the curry, salt, and pepper, and constantly stir. A crust will form on the bottom of the pan.

Add 1 1/2 cups of water. Stir and scrap the bottom of the pan to incorporate the brown goodness on the bottom of the pan. Add the breadcrumbs and more water if necessary. Cover and let everything simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir the mix occasionally.

Preheat the oven to 400°F / 200°C. Divide each dough pieces into 8 pieces. Divide the meat in the pan into 16 portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll one of the dough pieces into a rectangular shape with rounded edges. Place one of the meat portions on one side of the rolled-out dough leaving a free border of about 1 cm. With your finger, apply a little water around the edge. Fold the one side over the dough over the meat and seal the edge. Lightly press a fork around the edge to make a pattern. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Place the pastries on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush them with the egg wash and bake them for about 20 minutes or until the pastries turn golden.

Guten Appetit!

a busy February

So yeah, my February was short and sweet. So short in fact I forgot to do a blog post during it so I'm making up for it now. Gosh it was quite a busy month for me as I spent the last week or so of January and the first couple of weeks of February working on three different Valentines Day art projects and I even managed to get a few other things created as well.



One big project I wanted to create were some hand draw and watercolor Valentine cards for fun and then give them all away! It was a great way to get lots of drawing and painting practice. My favorite is the cupcake girl. I just love all the sprinkles! If you'd like to print them from home you can purchase a PDF file from my Etsy shop.

I also cut out and hand embroidered a super long Valentine Bunting, available at my Etsy shop.

And I had a lot of fun choosing fabrics, cutting, sewing, stamping and stuffing these super adorable door hangers. I even hand carved a "LOVE" stamp for this project. Available in sets of 2 at my Etsy shop.

I painted several Blueberry Blonde themed jewelry boxes!

I took a poll on my FB to see which was my most popular painting from 2012. The Blueberry Blonde Goddess painting was the most popular by far. So now there are Blueberry Blonde themed pocket mirrors in the Etsy shop. They come with matching drawstring bag, that I made. They're decorated with several of my hand carved stamp images and I even made one stamp to look like the Goddess in the painting. 

Somehow I even found time to make these two mixed media collage paintings; available in the Original Art section at my Etsy shop. 

You can also get prints, phone covers, greeting cards of these
and several other paintings of mine over at my Society 6 page.

It was a short month but when I think back and now look back on all that I made in February I'm quite happy to see how much I was able to CREATE! As it is my word for 2013 I feel like I'm living it! Thanks for stopping by my blog. Leave me a comment, question or just encourage me to get my March blog post up sometime while March is still happening. LOL.

~Stephie                                                                    Tweet

Wild Soul

Happy New Year! 
2013 and I seem to have gotten off on the right foot. This year I want to keep up my painting momentum and also try art journaling. Last month I posted about making a small series of hand bound, travel journals called From Here to There. I liked them very much and kept one to use for myself. I then joined Effy Wild's Book of Days art journaling class and watched the videos, that are available to members, in order to prepare for the class start in January. What I ended up doing was using what I learned in that short time to fill my Here to There journal with as much as I could from my 2012 all at once right then in December. A bit unusual in the world of journaling, perhaps. I think it turned out really cool considering how quickly it all came together and that it is in no particular order. The journal has a fun, quirky, charm to it with lots of color, textures and topics. It was a practice run for art journaling in 2013.

Staying in the "Zone"
The endeavor of getting into the creative zone on a daily basis or at least have a more regular routine of creating I decided to search for some e-classes that offered daily art journaling. I found Wild Souls Art with Effy Wild which is an art community I had discovered earlier in the year so I recalled that she did art journaling daily, and I started my search there. As I became more acquainted with her site I was amazed at how much this one person has going on! In addition to teaching her own classes she takes classes and teaches in other forums besides her own. After comparing my needs / desires for art journaling daily with her course and a few others, not that I needed to look much further, I decided to sign up to her Book of Days premium course.

Elements
After becoming a premium member of Book of Days (BOD) I had access to a whole bunch of cool art videos and I began with the self guided Elements series. Elements is a mini-course that takes you through creating a one or two page spread for each of the elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. And there were bonus lessons: Spirit, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. I made it through the Elements videos in a week or so and within two weeks I had all my pages completed and hand bound together. I'll show you my pages but I didn't want this post to be photo heavy so I made up some collage pictures using Picmonkey.

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For the first collage the first page I made is on the left hand side. It is a page that has all four elements together: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. I've made it the cover page for my Elements Journal. Then on the top right there is a green woman representing the Earth element. Below her is a light blue page for my Air element. I used acrylics, bubble wrap, sand paper, metallic paints & stencils.

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This next collage has Fire on top, water on the lower left and Summer on the bottom right. In these three I have used a variety of techniques including stencils, portraiture and abstract. While I'm not super skilled at these I wanted to go for it and get in some practice.

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This is my page for Spirit. I had this lovely photo from an issue of Vogue of Charlotte Gainsbourg. I'd had this for a couple years and knew right away that I would be choosing her for my focal point for this lesson. I wanted  the background to be very minimal; which is not an easy accomplishment for me. But, I really did not want to go overboard using techniques or embellishments for this page. I'm a person who loves movies so I picked an actress for my incarnation of Spirit. If you're familiar with Charlotte's work you'd know she is an amazing actress and singer but also a lovely person with an interesting life. I feel she's a positive influence and couldn't think of any other person who is such inspiration to me. So I decided that she, rather than a self portrait was worthy of a shrine to the divine feminine. That's my opinion and why I chose her to represent Spirit. I decided not to add any text but rather allowed the empty space balance out the beautiful image. I did add white flocking to some of the swirls that overlap the image; when the glue dried the swirls fade away into the background yet they also integrate the picture into the whole rather nicely. I added a blue rhinestone to her forehead to reinforce the idea of the divine. Photos do not do art journal pages justice they need to be seen in real life to be enjoyed. 

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 This page is my Spring page. Very green. Very whimsical. It's one of my favorite ones from the Elements course. It has lots of visual texture! I made the texture with a variety of tape strips at the base layer then by randomly rolling on paint. On a whim I drew this heart shaped face girl with big hair and had a lot of fun doodling all around and I even added text. I was going to paint her in a bit more but I every time I went to paint her face or hair I just couldn't do it. She was really bringing me a lot of joy just as she is. I couldn't bring myself to change it.This was one of those times when the muse speaks and I was present to listen. The muse helped me to be brave and to try something I didn't know I wanted to try from start to finish. I really had a lot of fun making it. This page is totally different than what I've been seeing other budding and experienced artists doing. So to create it and allow it to be exactly as it is - is more than a bit scary. But I may never be able to make another artwork like it and so I just couldn't make anymore additions or changes to this page. On the flip-side I may continue to make lots of characters like this and she could be the first of many. And with that thought I couldn't not create this then cover it up. That would be silly. Especially since I felt super happy with it as 'weird' as it is. Art is a process, there will be lots of happy accidents! I'm still learning, experimenting and finding my way to my style of creating one painting at a time! So I've made this textured super green happy spring girl in the spirit of new growth and possibilities.

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This is a series of photos for the two page spread I made for Winter. It was done along with about a hundred other women on New Years Eve during a live broadcast hosted by Effy. Talk about empowering! We were all there to support, encourage and make art together! I've never experienced anything quite like it. I think so even more now than while it was happening. The idea was to write a bunch of "stuff" we were releasing from 2012. This text is the base layer of the artwork and nearly everyone contributed what they were releasing from 2012 so I did not have much trouble filling up my two pages quickly. I wrote forwards, backwards and overlapped much of the text so it couldn't be easily read. It is getting covered up anyway so it didn't have to be pretty or legible. It was kind of nice just being messy and releasing  the "stuff" we want to and  have intent to let go of and just put it onto the page.

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Next I added some color chalk pastels and gesso to cover up the text. 

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For the third layer I made an outline of my hand on a scrap page, then I used it as a mask for both pages. I outlined and colored around the hands in pink... You can see my gesso, the mask I made of my hand, paint splatters and some stencils in the background...

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For the next step I wrote RELEASE on the left to represent 2012 and all the things I'm leaving behind. On the right it says RECEIVE to represent 2013 and all the things I'm willing to embrace in the New Year. I also glued on a SUKIE iron on image of a bunny and one of my hand carved stamps of bird images on the right. There is no real meaning in using these "symbols" it's just what I had on hand, they were small enough to use and they're cute. Although many artists do use symbolism in their art I have yet to develop my own personal symbol vocabulary. If you're interested in seeing an example of an artist who does have a developed symbol vocabulary and uses it well in their art I suggest you check out Jesse Reno.

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So, yeah me and 2013 have started off very nicely with my intention to be creative every day, to use the supplies I have and to add in a few new ones. To discover new art techniques and practice them. To try new art styles and cultivate an environment for me to develop further as an artist. I already have several online classes I'd like to take picked out and many fun projects planned to fill my year with creativity. I can't wait to do them all! 

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If you're wondering what online groups I'm a part of check my side panel, on this blog, for current ones at the top and older ones nearer the bottom. And in case you notice that I haven't blogged about every single group I'm in - I like to have a bit of flexibility with what I blog about so, I may not blog about or share the work I make during my time in any particular group past, present or future. I approach blogging the way I do a canvas with a bit of whim and I create what I want. 

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I will continue to update my Zazzle and Society6 accounts with products that have my art on them so you can buy them at your convenience. And of course my Etsy shop. If you'd like to request something specific please let me know. I will do my best to make it happen!

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I also wanted to mention that my word for the year is CREATE. I didn't really have one formally picked out last year but if I did it would have been PAINT. Which I did nearly all year long. I only found out about choosing a word for the year in December when I joined Wild Soul Art. So I picked a word for 2013 that would help me focus on what I wanted to accomplish for the year. I am going to do my best to live in that word for this whole year and I will continue to post to my blog once a month & update with what I'm doing.

Thanks for stopping by and being interested in what I'm up to.... 

Happy Days, 

Stephie                                                                 Tweet

From Here to There

From Here to There

Journal Kits

and a

GIVEAWAY

giveaway is now closed

PLUS:

Photos of how I've done 

a few of my journal pages!

I love making journals! It's December and I realized that I haven't made a journal in months! Suddenly I was really wanting to make one but this time, after gathering my supplies and setting up a space, I realized that the muse was calling me to accomplish a series of journals. In part this project grew from the abundance of cardboard I had as I just acquired from a toaster I just bought as well as the need for a new traveling journal for myself. Upon opening the box of the toaster I knew that *this* cardboard was destined to be some very special journals! As I began the project it became clear to me that making a few journals wasn't going to completely satisfy my creative urge. I realized that in order to satiate my creative tendencies I had to make the project even bigger and better by making them into journal kits.

I started out by making six journals but knew that I needed to practice and test ideas out on at least one of them. So I ended up really stressing the first journal out and decided I should keep it for my own. I had started out wanting to make myself a journal after all, right? And since I ended up putting it together and tearing apart a few times it was only fair not to pass it off to someone else. I did it this way because I wanted to see just how much the little journals could hold, still look nice, be relatively easy to construct, be portable, lightweight and filled with interesting items for inspiration.



I became aware that it would be a really good idea for me to get a feeling for using a journal kit that I put together. I can asses it strengths and weaknesses and look for ways to improve it. And that's exactly what I did! Nearly two weeks in the making and it's taken me a lot of trial and error to get these perfected and looking sharp! I'm glad that I was able to work through the difficulties and get the journals to be exactly what I wanted. After I got through the experimental stages I was able to apply what I had learned to the other five journals. I had a great time making these and I do believe that I will be doing it again!

the painting stages the covers went through...

I used acrylic paint for the covers, spines and the Washi tapes. Then I filled the journal with mixed media papers for decorating and newsprint for note taking or quick sketches. I included a pocket and filled it with a lot of inspiration like decorative scrap booking papers, paper doily's, manila tags and a few other things. Then a couple of days later I decided there weren't enough elements in the pocket so I added even more! I'm totally going to brag now: I also added a bunch of stickers made from some super cute, hand carved stamp, images that I made! Now the pocket is rather bulky but I feel it holds a lot of potential for a variety of creative expression.

close up of one of the covers

Originally I started out with enough space for storing three Washi tapes but through experimenting I ended up redesigning the holder to make more room and now it holds at least five! I'm totally bragging here again because one of the tapes feature my (BB) hand carved arrow stamp image and the other images are (SB) store bought or from (SU) Stampin' Up!

Washi Tapes

L-R: neon pink with SU swirls; light blue with SU snowmen

purple and pink with SB butterfly & flowers; red & orange

with BB arrow stamp; blue and green with SB stamp

and YES! that's a piece of home made Washi tape holding the end page in place...

This kit consists of a variety of supplies, colors and cheer to help inspire you to document those wonderful memories of your favorite vacation or day at the park and revisit them often. This kit will inspire you and help spark your creative muse. l know it will be just what you need to help you record a special day and to take with you on your next outing. Whether you like pencil, pen, pastels, water coloring, acrylic paint or  to mixed them all together there is plenty of space to experiment and create small works of art.

a look at the inside pages & folder filled with goodies

the button and string closure keep it all in place

you can decorate every surface!

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Included in each kit:

6" x 5" hand painted / hand bound journal, with button & string closure and 2 metal corners on front

12 pages (24 counting front/back) of mixed media paper
4 pages (8 counting front/back) newsprint
5 pieces of hand made Washi tape 12" - 17"

Tag board pocket filled with:
1 piece, folded, tracing paper
1 small piece of map
1 small piece of magazine page
2 small pieces decorative paper napkins
10 small pieces decorative paper
1 small, two color, picture of Neptune
2, folded, paper doilies,
a variety of hand stamped stickers, nearly all are BB hand carved images
5  manila tags, hole punched
3 mania tags
12 reinforcements
3 TICKET / KEEP THIS COUPON, faded blue
1 piece, blue card stock, decorated with my hand carved doily stamp / embossed in white
two pieces sticky back tape 1 embossed with the word BELIEVE and 1 with the word LOVE
and MORE!!!!
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Tag board page with 12" - 17" hand made Washi tapes:

1 purple & pink with butterflies & flowers
1 red, orange, yellow with arrows (my hand carved stamp)
1 blue & green with script
1 light blue with snowmen
1 neon pink with swirl
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A brief suggestion for additional supplies you may want to use in your new journal: gesso, book pages, newspaper, watercolors, gouache, acrylics, sand paper, scissors, photos, gel pens, distress ink , stapler, glue, glitter, spray inks, rub-ons, lace, ribbon, a brayer, stencils....

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a look at one of the journals...

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The holidays are upon us and I thought it would be super fun to do a giveaway of one of these sweet journal kits! Wouldn't you agree? If you think you'd enjoy this mixed media journal kit or know some one who would and would like to join my December Giveaway there are FOUR awesome ways to enter and please note: this giveaway is open to everyone everywhere but you should be over 18 because if you win I'll need your address to ship it out to you. Also if you're not in the USA the package may not arrive before Christmas, as you may well know. I also invite you to tell a friend, subscribe to my blog and to like my Facebook Fan Page to get sneak peaks, interesting links and more!

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Here's how to enter:

First lease leave me a comment with your name and a valid email address and tell me what your favorite winter sport is and why! (must be a real sport, please) 

Second fulfill the first requirement of leaving a comment. Then re-blog OR tweet OR post on Facebook OR somewhere else about this giveaway and leave me a link where you put it.

Third fulfill the first and second requirements in addition to making a purchase at my Etsy shop and leave me a comment with your Etsy purchasing name and as a Thank You I'll give you a 30% refund!

Fourth fulfill the first and second requirements for this contest and make a purchase at my either my Zazzle shop or my Society6 shop! 

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Giveaway starts December 7th and will end December 14th... winner will be announced here and on my Facebook Fanpage. I will also contact the winner by email. If all goes to plan and you're in the USA you should have your journal before Christmas! If I don't hear from you by December 21, 2012 I will select another winner.

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Happy Holidays & Best of luck on the contest!

~Stephie

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Winter is one of my favorite times of year and I thought you may all be wondering what my favorites are... Well I thought I'd start by telling you all that my favorite recreational winter sports to participate in are dog mushing, cross country skiing, snow shoeing and camping. Yes, I said camping - the kind you do in tents - it's really fun!  I never said it wasn't cold because it totally is but it is really rewarding.

My favorite winter sport to watch is biathlon, where women ski & shoot targets - these are some of the most impressive athletes I've ever seen. I was hesitant at first to watch but it really caught my attention.

Thank you to all who entered this giveaway and shared your favorite winter sports with me I like hearing about you! I'm happy you could all join in the giveaway fun. I counted five entries so I put 5 into Random.org
and Prerna Poojara has won the giveaway! CONGRATULATIONS!  I will attempt to get a hold of you by email. As you did not leave me an email address I will use the one attached to your blogging account. You have until December 21st to get back to me if I do not hear from you I will choose another winner.

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I've been on an art journaling journey and
here are a few pages I've made in my
Here to There journal kit. I've tried to
use as many of the elements I can
that come with the kit as well as other
ephemera from different events I've been to.

 This one is not finished it's just a jumping off point for inspiration...

 This is a two page spread there's some text; a postcard and a tip-in.

This is a two page spread with a quote and room for more....

 This is a two page spread with a tip-in envelope....

I made the envelope so I could put our concert tickets in it... 

Here's a two page spread dedicated to Cloud Atlas
and I just stapled in my movie ticket.

This is a one page spread I just started doodling

then I added color and text...

Gathering Up Bits of the World Giveaway

Did you know?
Susie at Gathering Up Bits of the World is doing a pretty nice giveaway for Journal It by Jenny Doh. The book has mini art lessons, tips, techniques and insights by a variety of artists. Susie is also adding in a journal she made and starter packet of goodies to start your own art journal with. How cool is that! What can I say, I love giveaways! Inspired by all the great giveaways I've been seeing lately I think I will be doing one soon, too. Be sure to join in the fun! Winners will be announced in a week on Friday.

Good luck to all who enter,
Stephie

Riverfront Arts Center, Fine Art Gift Gallery

November 2012

Every November the Riverfront Arts Center they hold their Fine Art Gift Gallery. The Riverfront Art Center is located at 1200 Crosby Ave., Stevens Point, WI and this will be their 14th year annual show. There will be artists from all over WI who have submitted work for the holiday season. This is a great opportunity to support local Wisconsin artists and find some unique gifts to give this year. If you're in the area please drop in you may find something unexpected if you do. They also offer a "men only" shopping night. That's on Thursday, December 13 from 4-6 pm and there will be staff on hand to help choose & wrap gift selections.

Here's a peek at the blank cards I've put into this show.

Enjoy the holidays!

Stephie

PS: Click here for an article from the Portage County Gazette for more info

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Fabulous Faces an e-course review

OCTOBER 2012

Last month I reviewed Tamera LaPorte's Art, Heart and Healing e-course and this month I wanted to talk about the next course I took by Tam called Fabulous Faces.


Fabulous Faces
This is a great class for beginners. In short this e-course is focused on drawing three styles of female faces. We use a ruler, pencil, eraser, paper, color pencils and acrylics to create a front facing portrait, a three quarter portrait and a profile. There are many hours of footage to watch and learn from as well as several PDF's to download. I've always been apprehensive about portraiture and wasn't sure where to start. But I really wanted to challenge myself and get past this fear.


What do you do when you're afraid to fail...
Would I really hold myself back because I was afraid to fail at drawing a face? Seriously? Ummm... NO! When the question is stated like that it seems silly. Maybe faces wouldn't be my thing. I could live with that. But I had to find out if I could draw one and if I could draw one successfully what then? That's the real question I should be asking.


Baby Steps
Over this year I've come to learn that what looks like success is really a moment preceded by a great deal of practice that if seen independent of the success could be categorized as a string of failures. As long as I am developing my skills and ultimately my own style, because that's really the goal, then each 'failure' is a success in itself. Maybe not frame worthy but a triumph. First I had to take those baby steps towards taking my art seriously. So what if I did make art that was terrible. No one is looking. I never had to share those with anyone, right? I could throw them out or paint over them. I could save them and look back and the stepping stones I took to where I wanted to be. I even imagine that some day I will be looking back on them and wonder if I could draw such quirky pictures again. It was about time that I started facing my fear of creating a portrait one feature at a time.


More than just a drawing lesson
I suppose I could have gotten a book on how to draw, but for me I needed more than that. Since I'd taken Tam's free course and knew that I liked her style and I felt that I could really learn from her. I knew that e-courses were going to work for me. Tam explains what she is doing and why she is doing it. She shows you her work, step by step and she even make mistakes and teaches you how to fix them. I like how she embraces serendipitous moments and teaches how to use them as part of the work. The website has a forum for showing your work, getting / giving support and feedback. From what others were sharing I'd say the course really helped many students of all artistic backgrounds gain the skills and confidence they needed to create successful portraits too.


Illustrate 
The style Tam teaches is more illustrator like and not life like but that is great for what I want to create. Being able to add an expressive character to my work would give me more options. But first I had to know if I was able to create a portrait. Tam really encourages the new artist to try the techniques she shows for successful results. I had to keep telling myself that I came to this course with the desire to know if I was able to learn to draw a face. I was determined to create at least one successful portrait. Because having this skill is worth something to me, not just validation but it culminates in a rounding out of my artistic abilities. Improving my skills is what I've been working on all year.


Fab Faces
When I decided to take the course I bought a set of drawing pencils and eraser to help encourage me along. I must say I did a fair amount of erasing. The first time I decided to erase a whole face was super scary. But I had the material, the understanding, skill and experience to make that bold move. Starting again was not nearly as daunting. If I had to figure it out on my own with a book those nagging thoughts that say 'give up' when things were looking bad may have overwhelmed me and won. But, with Tam's clear and easy to understand instructions I was able to see it through to the end. Her videos encourage you and help you feel like it's natural to make mistakes and gives you the tools to get back on track. You will learn the skills you need to to create a piece that you can be proud of and want to show off. Which was exactly what I needed because I was tired of avoiding portraits. I discovered that I rather liked portraits more than I expected to and I was more capable than I thought. Here's what I created in this e-course...

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Firstly we were to just go for it and create a portrait.
Here's mine... Not too bad. I kind of like the
heart shape of her face and her cheek bones.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This is my first attempt at the Three Quarter Portrait.

I can see where I struggled but I choose to  focus on what
I'm happy with and that is the proportions and shading.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This is my first attempt at a Profile Portrait.

It wasn't any harder than the other two lessons.

But I ended up copying the face and changing the

style of hair. There is nothing wrong with copying

a lesson. It's part of learning how to do something.

But at some point you have to venture out on your

own and show yourself what you can do. This one

for me was the toughest of the three lessons.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This is my first attempt at a Front Facing Portrait.

I chose to give my girl a braid rather than what Tam was

instructing. Part of becoming an artist is taking what 

you learn and applying it to what you create.

I'm super happy with this one, especially the shading.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lastly Tam posted an optional challenge to create

a monochromatic portrait. That is when you use only 

one color for the piece. She did allow tints and shades 

of that color along with white and black. I chose to 

do a self portrait in blues. It's not quite me but it is me. 

I'm quite pleased with the result and had fun making it.

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I decided that I did like the self portrait in blues so I went

to Vista Print and made some business cards...

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I'd say that I totally recommend this course to anyone who wants to create a portrait for the first time or to brush up on your already existing portrait skills if you feel you're out of practice. I had an art teacher who once told me to take as many art classes as possible with as many different teachers as possible. You can learn and learn from one teacher yes, but you can learn more if you expand on what you already know by taking in lessons from diversifying your instructors. Getting stuck creating in one way is not going to help you expand your skill set but learning from what others have to offer will help you develop as an artist. I know that at some point I will move on from Tam but for now I feel she is offering me exactly what I need to get me up on my feet and moving towards the artist I will someday become. I have a few more classes with her that I will be covering here on my blog so please stay tuned. I hope you will be inspired to take some of her classes yourself. Here's a link to her website Willowing.

Happy creating,

Stephie

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