February 2008 – Page 2 – Karla's Cottage

Bling your Birdhouse Day, or “What do your LOVE about your Birdie’s home?”

celebrations, Etsy Goodies, how-to projects, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 11, 2008

The dates are set for our upcoming party! It will be self-linking and self swapping.

Beth and I will co-hostess the day and hope you can all join us. If you aren’t a crafter and don’t have a hand decorated birdhouse to share, feel free to show pictures of a favorite birdhouse in your home or gardens.

The mini birdhouses I have used are 99 cents at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. Wooden, or paper, or chipboard, they have a lot to chose from for under $3.

I’ve enjoyed hosting "What do you LOVE about your home?" and "What do you love about your Holiday Home?". Now for spring, I thought that "What do you love about your Birdie’s Home?" would be a welcome party.

Beth will makde up this button, feel free to post it on your site if you want to participate.

And, as promised, here are the dates and the information about the events. Hope to see you and all your feathered friends there!

Celebrate Spring with Beth and Karla for their

“Bling your Birdhouse” Challenge!

(Other wise known as “What do you LOVE about your birdie’s home?”)

This is a SELF-linking and SELF-swapping challenge.

Show photos on your blog of a birdhouse you have embellished, in any way your artistic heart desires. If you aren’t an artist, you can share pictures of your favorite bird’s happy home.

Leave a comment with Beth or Karla (or both) on THURSDAY MARCH 27TH. Both artists will be showing their own blingy birdhouses that day. This is where the “self linking” comes in. Make sure that your URL is in the comment so everyone can come to visit and admire your birdie’s home after reading your comment.

If you want to buy/sell/or trade your creation with another artist, make sure you include that info in your post. This is where the “self swapping” comes in. If you are up for a swap, want to sell the house, or simply want to keep and enjoy it yourself, let everyone know.

Want some help with ideas for birdhouse décor? Bling kits will be for sale at Karla’s Etsy Shop and at Beth’s too. They will be filled with fun vintage touches to make your bird’s abode something really special.

And for a tutorial before the big day, join Karla on her blog Monday February 25TH. She’ll take you through the steps on a couple of different birdhouse styles. Also check out Beth’s blog posting HERE for photos of a Shabby Chic neighborhood she has designed for her feathered friends.

Blue Bird Realty

Etsy Goodies, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 10, 2008

Beth and I have a plan. We wanted to do a swap, but something a little different. And something spring-ey. It is so durn cold here in Kansas, I need a breath of spring!

Plus, I fell in love with her post about the beautiful birdhouses she was making.

Using her ideas, I made one for myself too. But I wanted to trade her for one of the sweet birdie abodes she had made.

We decided others might want to trade too.

So we came up with a "What do you LOVE about your Birdie’s Home?"

Other wise known as "Bling your Birdhouse Day"

It will be a challenge for everyone to show their creations (date coming) and to swap or sell their birdhouses from their posts.

Details as soon as we work it all out. Anybody want to come and play with us??

I’ll be offering a tutorial on blinging the houses out (date coming). Also some bling kits of doodads and vintage papers you can use on your own creations.

Besides making this one little birdhouse (and the realty sign in front of it), I’ve had a lazy day. Wrapped some packages to mail from my Etsy shop, played with the baby, and made a pot of ham and bean and veggie soup for tonight. We have a forecast of freezing rain and I needed fortify myself with a hot pot of soup. And corn bread, of course. How can you have bean soup with out cornbread?

I listed one thing on Etsy, a paper doll dress ball gown. Like I said, a lazy day. Listening to John and Kate plus 8 (how do those people survive???), finishing my book (The Other Boleyn Girl – I love the Tudors!!) and not much else. Aren’t Sundays wonderful???

The Art of Rejection and Sugarwings thinks that nothing is more fun than a wrestling rat

Etsy Goodies, magazine pictures or articles, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 8, 2008

Ever have something for sale that you know that you just love and wonder why no one seems to be interested in it? I had this hand made folder, made with some pretty wallpaper and hand painted roses for sale, and the listing just expired.

So, I took a look at the photos, and decided it was not well represented. A little dark, not clear enough, bad background, and the ephemera it was packed with looked messy.

These are the re-do photos.

I rearranged the ephemera to a prettier order, added a vintage brooch to the tulle bow, and lowered the price. Now, if it sells, how will I ever know which trick was effective? well, you just don’t anyway. You do what you can to make your pictures and your prices as attractive as you can and then you cross your fingers! You just hope someone likes what you put out there.

And as an artist, you have to learn to have a thick skin about rejection.

I’ve been the juror at enough art and craft shows, screening the people who apply to sell their work, to know that "no" doesn’t mean "yuck". It means, "not right for this right now."

I’ve turned away really good art, that wasn’t right for an art festival. Or I have been working at a gallery, hanging a show and just have to leave out a piece that was nice but that wasn’t fitting in.

I guess what I am trying to say to other artists out there, is don’t be discouraged. Keep trying, keep making the things you love and keep looking for your audience.

Rejection is never easy, but after so many years in the business, it honestly doesn’t bother me the way it did when I was younger. I’ve learned that if a piece doesn’t fit in one place, usually it will fit into another.

Or if it doesn’t sale, the right buyer still hasn’t seen it.

Or maybe I didn’t display or photograph it as well as I should, or had the price correct, or have it for sale in the right venue.

Or maybe the piece needs a bit of tweaking and a slight redo.

Other times, I just need to admit that maybe the piece wasn’t as good as it could be, and it just wasn’t going to sell anyway. That’s the hardest one to learn.

So, I redid and relisted the folder on Etsy. And my magic wands that Somerset is sending back I will list also. Somerset Life is using some of my folders in the next issue. Also, a framed baby doll dress is still there with them, and I think that they will be using this memo board.

I made the memo board from old ceiling tin cut to fit this frame. The magnets are buttons, jewelry and millinery flowers.

I’ll let you know if they plan on using it for the July issue. As an artist, sometimes you can feel like you hear "no" more than any other word!

As a grandma, you hear it a lot too. Sugarwings is in a "NO" mood today and yelled it at everyone and everything.

So what do you do with a contrary baby who is tired of being cooped up inside on a cold, wintry Midwestern day?

You go to the pet store!

Chinchillas and canaries at Pet Smart are as exciting to a one year old as a trip to the zoo would be to an older kid. It got all of us out of the house and smiling.

ps- the wallpaper folder is sold and is on it’s way to Jeanne!

Dorkies in the Snow

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, I've been tagged, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 6, 2008

When is SUMMER coming? I am not a winter person.

Twinkle, on the other hand is loving this snow.

Sparkle, our Little Miss Butterball, who you’d think has enough fat on her bones to keep her warm, wasn’t any happier about the snow than I was.

After walking the dogs, I scurried right back into the house and stayed there. I made use of the snow day by continuing my scrap booking.

Slowly but, surely, I am working my way through the 7 months worth of photos I am behind on.

I seem to have gotten out of chronological order somehow, here is Thanksgiving, and I don’t have Halloween in yet.

And on the page next to Thanksgiving, here is a sunny summer photo.

Hey, at least they are getting done!

When I got to our trip to the Renaissance Festival, there were so many, I need to do some collage work with a couple of pages. I used the guide map from the festival for the background and added our tickets to it too.

I didn’t want to fill a whole book with nothing but Renfest, but on the other hand, all the pictures of Sugarwings that day were so cute, I had to include them! So I made a big pocket and filled it with loose photos.

Look at the mess on my desk, do you wonder how I get anything done? I work and accumulate scraps and mess till I can’t take it anymore, before I finally clean up.

If only I could get into the habit of picking up as I go along.

I also made some time to list a TON of things on Etsy.

SOLD

Not a bad day for staying put at the computer for a while, getting things listed.

I am feeling so much better now, thanks for all your well wishes. I didn’t have a very bad case of the flu. I’m not saying it was fun, but it wasn’t as bad as it could be.

And tomorrow, I get to go and play in Kansas City with Beth. I’m glad I recovered in time! We plan on seeing a couple movies, so we are closer to being caught up on the Oscar list.

Another friend, Sandra has tagged me for this "meme".

If any of you want to play along, consider yourself tagged!

4 JOBS I’VE HAD

Mural painter

Bartender

Jewelry maker

Antique dealer

4 MOVIES I LOVE

The Jerk

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

Labyrinth

A Christmas Story

4 PLACES I’VE LIVED

Lawrence, Kansas

Pendleton, Indiana

Russellville, Arkansas

Wertheim, Germany

4 TV SHOWS I WATCH

Only four?? You’ve got to be kidding. I am a

TV junkie!! Idol, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Top Model

Top Chef, Runway, Survivor, ER, Office, How I Met

Your Mother, the Tudors, Flight of the Conchords,

Trading Spaces (now that Paige is

Back!) and on and on and on

4 PLACES I’VE BEEN OUTSIDE THE US

I’ve been to the Bahamas a few times and lived in

Germany for a couple of years

4 PEOPLE I EMAIL REGULARLY

Beth, Sissy, Bobbie, and my handsome husband

Plus I answer the dozens I get every day

4 OF MY FAVORITE THINGS TO EAT

Another one of those, you’ve got to be kidding ones.

Only 4??? OK, I’ll go with what I eat most of the time

And love, baked chicken, cinnamon rice cakes, vanilla

Yogurt, pasta, sweet potatoes, chicken pad Thai, popcorn

4 PLACES I’D RATHER BE

I love to be here in my studio! But, anywhere with

Sugarwings, at a movie with my husband, junking

With Beth, on the lake with my family- but not in this

Weather, it would have to be summer time!

4 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO

Baby-sitting Sugarwings, making things,

Going to DC to see my husband next week and having

a special Valentine’s Day with him, SUMMER

Sugarwings, scrapbooking, and soup

Etsy Goodies, family, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 5, 2008

The flu bug is still attacking me, but I think I see an end in sight, finally. I am starting to feel more like myself. But not good enough to babysit for Sugarwings today.

She went to play with friends today, and I got out some of her photos and made a much delayed start on a new photo album. It has been forever since I sat down and ‘scrapped’.

I started with an album I had decorated earlier, it was waiting for me, ready to fill with pictures. I tied a tag onto it that came from my friend, Karen . I plan on using a lot of the tags I received as gifts from our Sweet Treats Swap in the scrapbook. On the back of Karen’s tag, I glued a photo of the fairy grand baby.

I like to use a lot of pockets in my albums too. The one on this page, is simply a pretty envelope I had received from someone, that I glued to the page.

Tying a ribbon to the corner of a picture before tucking it into a pocket makes it easier to take out and look at. I also make sure to either glue two photos back to back, or to glue pretty paper to the backside of the photo, for stability. That way the hole punched for the ribbon is sturdy and won’t tear.

It might be hard to tell from this picture, but the photo of Rich and I is in a greeting card. I save cards that I get and use them as folders in my albums.

The ticket inside the card is one that Sissy made for me, it says "wishes".

I embellished the page with scrolls drawn with a blue marker and added a German die cut that went with the garden theme on the first picture.

I haven’t done any scrap booking since Sugarwings turned one in August! I have been trying to keep organized, and setting aside things I wanted to use in the new album, and the photos I needed to put into it, all in a Rubber-maid container.

It was getting kind of full!

I am keeping up with my New Years resolution to do more hand drawn or painted things in my collage work. I’ve added lots of simple scrolls and posies to these pages, and hope to get my paints out tonight when I do the next few pages.

Speaking of hand drawn work, these cards came in the mail today from Jen R.

I won them in a contest on her blog, but they felt like a get well present today! Thanks, Jen, they are so pretty.

I stayed in bed most of yesterday and today, trying to get over this cough and sore throat. But I did get this wallpaper book finished, and listed on Etsy after finishing it.

I used one of the wooden cut out birds I had covered in blue flocked wallpaper on the cover, and painted a branch for her to nest in, then built her a nest from shredded wallpaper.

Inside the book is a whole collection of my favorite papers, and it also comes along with a scrap pack of wallpapers I had used when making the book, to use in your own project.

I can see these as art journals or scrap books. Can’t you just imagine a photo of someone adorable on each page? hmmm, maybe I need to keep one just for Sugarwing pictures!

I sold the one I listed yesterday, and plan to list a couple more, but don’t know how many I will be making. If you are interested, feel free to email me about any of them in the previous post.

In case anyone’s paper doll has a Valentines Ball to attend, I listed this ball gown today too. It is made of a great wallpaper of brocade silk, one of my all time favorite papers. I had actually bought the paper to do a wall in my home and never did. I had it packed away for about 20 years, and am glad to have it for projects now, because as fickle as I am about home decor, it would have been torn off the walls years ago and replaced, and wasted if I had actually used it as wallpaper.

Has anyone seen the Mermaid swap that is going on now??? I am crazy about Mermaids. You can see all the photos at this Flickr Site. It is yet again, another great swap I missed out on joining!!

This is one that I made (last year), she is a German porcelain doll that I dooded up. Her hair is a fluffy yarn that I dyed to match the fabric I bought to make her tail from.

I don’t sew, that made the tail a challenge for me. I figured it out somehow, and made the thing tail-like by sewing a long pipe cleaner inside it to give it shape, then filling it with beans to give it form.

She was then glued onto a starfish that I added pearls and tiny shells to.

And of course, I had to glitter up the starfish.

It has been days since I have felt like eating, even tho my sweet son Ry, bought me a can of soup. But today, I must be doing better, because I have some chicken simmering on the stove, ready to make my own soup.

Well, that and the fact that my other son, Sugarwing’s Daddy, has caught the same bug, and I need to make soup for him, since he is my baby. I need to get it done and take it across town to him before the big snow storm starts (yes ANOTHER one!).

The Blue Bird of Happiness flew in with 3 giveaways for February!

Etsy Goodies, give away, paintings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 3, 2008

Has any one seen this One World One Heart giveaway? It is a group effort by Lisa Ocean Dreamer and she has linked a ton of bloggers who will be giving away gifts on Valentines Day.

I haven’t had a chance to enter more than a couple of drawings yet. I want to wait until I have time to sit back, relax and browse through all the wonderful new blogs that I haven’t seen yet, plus visit some old friends I haven’t been by to see in a while.

I’d like to offer this large altered tag as my giftie for the event.

It features hand painted roses, old wallpaper, glitter, and vintage jewelry- all my faves!

That makes THREE GIVEAWAYS for February for me!

Here is the list and the rules to enter my 3 drawings:

1. One World One Heart-leave a comment on THIS post only to enter

2. One Year Blog Anniversary on Valentines Day- leave a comment on any post up till the 13th, all are entered.

3. My regular monthly drawing– leave a comment any time all month, any post, all are entered.

I have been enjoying myself, playing with wallpaper all weekend. I have a bad cold, terrible cough and a fever that comes and goes, so in my delirium, who knows what I might end up creating?

Maybe I should just go to bed and rest, but I seem to be on a roll and very productive right now. Plus, if I lay down, I feel like I am drowning in my own snot (well, I guess that goes without saying, I sure wouldn’t want to be drowning in someone else’s snot).

So, I have stayed in my studio slicing and dicing wallpaper, mostly making books.

I felt like experimenting with the binder I bought. I might take it back, but I am not sure yet. I kind of liked using it to make these wallpaper journals, or scrapbooks. What ever they are.

Each page is a different vintage paper, ready for embellishments. I think these will be the perfect backgrounds for some one who wants to make a unique book, or a special photo album, and who loves old wallpaper!

I purposely left a lot of space for adding goodies. The pages are fit loosely into the binder, and there is room to expand.

I know that when I work on a scrapbook, I tend to make it so thick it won’t close anymore. Hopefully the way I assembled these will help out with that problem.

Plus, I was feverish and didn’t want to make anything complicated. I simply was cutting and gluing and binding. And I LOVE the collections of old papers. Yum. Or as Sugarwings says now, "Numms"

I did make a few other things too, when my fever abated and I was feeling like trying something more creative than cutting out pages.

I also spent some time listing things on Etsy.

This box is something I had made in the past and used to keep some supplies in. I thought it deserved a better life, instead of being stuck in a drawer full of magnets, like I had it. So, I listed it in my shop.

I also listed some paper doll dresses.

This one is a tutu.

I also decided to make another magic wand to send to Somerset Life. (The editor did like the photos of my last ones and asked to have them sent in, but that doesn’t guarantee that they will be used.) Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I just had to make this one. The stuff spread out on my messy work table practically assembled itself!

Don’t you love it when all the odds and ends in the craft room seem to just belong together? My Sissy sent the silk ribbon and rose with her book pages for our swap. The ribbon looked so beautiful with the flocked wallpaper I had just cut a book cover out of.

The crowns and wooden cut out birds were left laying on the table from making recipe swap book covers. And the wand itself? I finally packed away the Christmas decor from my studio (yay!) and had broken the handle off of a sleigh. It was laying in the pile of debris that I work out of.

Sometimes, being messy pays! All of these things that had been tossed aside, just called out to me from the chaos and like I said, practically made them selves. That is magic, huh??

She is the Blue Bird of Happiness and is ready to grant happy wishes to all.

I just wish she’d make my cold go away.

I’m off to make more wallpaper books, and watch the PBS marathon of the Jane Austen movies. They are starting in a couple minutes, so my spell checking might not be as good as usual. Blame the delirium from the fever too, if this is illegible.

12 hours, 3 trips to Office Depot, one to Hancocks, some dried out salmon, and a box of cookies later….

Books, give away, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 2, 2008

We made it! Our Sweet Treats and Roses Recipe Swap books are DONE.

Not that it was easy. We started with a Cropadile and ribbon, thinking that would be fine.

It wasn’t.

After an hour, we had two books done!

I thought I’d resort to the binding machine. The box said that the binder would hold up to 90 pages, and we had 42, but they were thick, so the binder was too small.

So- off I run to Office Depot to get larger binders. And they didn’t fit my binding machine!

At that point, we took a lunch break. I made marinated salmon, Kansas City strip steaks, sweet potatoes and Yukon gold potatoes and salad with pears and pecans.

I was side tracked too much and the food was dried out. I should have paid more attention.

But we came up with a plan while eating! So, off I go again to Office Depot, this time to get a 2 hole punch and then to Hancock Fabrics for BIG needles.

Jen (one of my friends who is in the swap with us and who helped today) said to try a big needle to get the ribbons through the holes.

Perfect! We got going on a roll and just a few hours later (well maybe about 6 hours) we had all the books assembled.

The participants took so much time and care with their pages! All were lovely as can be.

My Silver Bella Pal, Heather Bullard even sent her postage money beautifully wrapped! As well as including Starbucks gift cards for Beth and I.

Our swappers inundated us with treats! Rachael provided much needed carmel chocolate cookies from New Zealand that gave us the energy to keep punching holes and threading ribbons! And gracious Mrs. Staggs sent the prettily wrapped rose patterned cup and saucer filled with chocolate kisses! I could just KISS her ! (I am quite devoted to chocolate)

I have already shown you some of the gifts that people sent earlier, including Karlas’ fairy doll and puppy dog for Sugarwings. Well, she also sent along these Valentines that she made! Sugarwings for me and Milo for Beth.

I think I will add mine to my scrap book. It will make a lovely page.

I am totally and completely overwhelmed and surprised by the gifts we received along with the recipe cards! As Sugarwings says all the time, "OH MY"!

I don’t even know where to start. Tags, candles, candies, silk ribbons, ephemera, hand made soap, sachets, note cards, lotions, treats, wallpaper, and more.

Double "OH MY"!!

Look at how beautiful it all is together too.

I’ll be using all the tags in my scrapbook filled with pictures of the fairy grand baby. And I’ll be gobbling down that candy!

Thanks so much, Sandy, Jennifer, Joy, Lena, Karen, Heather B., Karin, Amy, Sissy, Deb, Heather K., Terri, Rachael, Amy W., Kathy, Ele, Sarah, Jessi, Tamy, Lee, Mahala, and Betty. Oh man, I hope I didn’t leave anyone out, everything is sooooooo lovely. And over the top. I feel like it is Christmas again!

A complete list of all the participants in our swap is on this post.

And please visit the Flickr site that has pictures of pages and covers to see more. I will be adding to it later on.

This pretty pile of loot is all from that friendly and fun, Jessi. She went in for surgery today, if you get a chance, go by and wish her well.

I met her at Silver Bella,and I can tell you, that girl is a bundle of energy, I doubt if she will be kept down long!

Here they are, FORTY TWO hand made books. And they only took about 12 hours. Well, for our part today, at least. So many people worked so hard to do their share to make these beauties and I appreciate it all so much.

No two are alike, each one is a joy to flip through.

My own book has a cover by Beth and a tag by Mrs. Staggs.

This page is by my friend, Jen, who came up with the brilliant idea to use a big needle to get the freaking ribbon through all the holes instead of us cussing as we tried to pinch it through by hand.

I was so pleased to see the variety that came in, but to also see how well they all fit together when assembled.

The book has a nice flow to it.

Some people did the backs of the pages too. Some embellished each page by hand. There was a nice mix of styles and designs, to all pull together for a unique and lovely finished product.

Yes, I know I am gushing! But I really am thrilled with it.

Thanks so much to everyone who created part of this. I can’t wait for the next swap! I thought I was hooked on swaps before, now I am hooked on hosting them! What a blast!

ps- my January giveaway winner is:

Cheryl

Thank you all for your comments, each was entered. Today starts a new giveaway!