September 2012 – Karla's Cottage

Romantic Gothic Witch book

Dew Drop, Hens, holiday decor, Romantic Gothic Ghosts

By Karla Nathan / September 29, 2012

I have deleted the sign up page for Romantic Gothic Ghosts so I don't oversell accidently. We are keeping it limited to a small group. But if you are interested, please email me for info. karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

Well, no kits are made up yet, but I do have the studio cleaned and decorated for Romantic Gothic Ghosts next weekend. I'm feeling close to being ready. Maybe I spent a bit too much time on the fun stuff, but the room got cleaned up as I went and its always much more interesting to kind of foof and redo as you clean, isn't it? That makes me feel like I actually did something other than knock down cobwebs.

Of course, its a Halloween party, so I could have just left those up and gone with that.

I decided that I needed another door prize to give away. Friends and I swapped prizes for each other's events, but I wanted to make a couple more too. This is a stack of notebooks glued together and decorated.

All of the covers, inside and out are embellished, and the notebook paper was dipped into coffee to age it a little.

Of course I used "The Good Stuff"! That is the only way to go.

To hide the seam where the books were stacked and glued, I covered the bindings in vintage black velvet ribbon.

In the center of the book, is a page filled with envelopes to hide special tidbits in.

Other door prizes are from Karen and Jennifer.

Jennifer is hosting The Gathering this weekend, and I donated a couple of prizes to it. A wire wrapped nest and the online Three Wire Workshop.

You can read more about the Gathering on her blog. My good buddy, Carol. will be the guest speaker and I hope to go to hear her. She is always entertaining and full of info. Karen's holiday party in Mt Dora, FL is sold out, but she will have another event in Texas in the spring.

If you are wondering why there is nothing new in the Boutique…. well, I've discovered, you just can't do EVERYTHING, no matter how hard you try.

But I get done as much as I can.

Yesterday I made 20 some paper clay pumpkins with sticks as stems, painted them white and they are ready to drop into the Raven's Tea kits (when I have kits ready, that is). The students will guild and glitter them and add them to the tableau.

That is probably the first time in my life that I have used the word Tableau.

Anywho, the students will get the walnut dyed, coverless book to wrap in ribbon, goodies to make the rhinestone accented tag, and the pumpkin to finish and set next to the teacup.

I still have TWO spots left for our own party. If you want to come out to visit the cottage and meet the chickens and the pups, we'd love to have you!

If you can't come to visit and take the class, but would like some How-to's from me, here is an article coming out in the next Jewelry Affaire. Its always a pleasure to be featured by Stampington in one of their many wonderful publications!

Right now, this is what my kits look like. I think I'd better step away from the keyboard and get to work!

Dewdrop’s first craft day

Books, Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, holiday decor, puppies!, Romantic Gothic Ghosts

By Karla Nathan / September 27, 2012

Dewdrop came over with her mom to do a practice class for Romantic Gothic Ghosts. The babies came outside to play since it was such a beautiful afternoon. I left the studio door open and made a pen for them right outside.

The little guys played so hard, they tuckered themselves out and just fell asleep where they stood. It looked like the aftermath of a fraternity party.

One even fell asleep with his head in the food bowl.

Dewdrop was perfect at her first big girl craft day. She decided she needed an apron to wear while she worked. Her favorite part was the pockets, she filled them with so much she could barely sit down.

Her Gypsy mama created one of Beth's books for the upcoming class. Beth is providing lots of great materials, and I got out some of the images from the online class too.

(All attendees get the online class included for free. I'll be printing off some of the images for them to use too. And if you are coming, mabye these pictures will give you some ideas on what you might like to bring to add to your own book)

I made a book while Beth made my Raven tea cup project.

It was fun to try the faux tintype technique.

No two books from the class will turn out the same, Beth is providing lots of goodies and tidbits, and some kits will differ.

My book and Dewdrop's Gypsy mama's book looked very different from Beth's.

I can't wait to see all the variations that the rest of the students come up with!

Of course, there were lots of breaks to play with puppies.

I'll leave you with some more of the pages our Gypsy created, she really had some nice ones. She made it her own by adding some gypsy colored ribbons here and there.

Anything to avoid cleaning…

Romantic Gothic Ghosts, vintage paper/collage art, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / September 25, 2012

The studio clean up is progressing. Kinda. If I just wouldn't let the mess pile up in the first place, it wouldn't be as hard. If I could concentrate on cleaning instead of getting side tracked with little projects and decor ideas, that would help too.

I can be elbow deep in clearing off a table and all of a sudden, an idea pops into my head and off I go, to work on that.

Like this witchy hat. The dress form in the corner looked like it needed to be dressed up a bit for the weekend, so I added a black lace jacket and skirt, then decided I needed to whip up a hat to match. Of course, I didn't really NEED one.

It was easy and fast, using the steps from the Romantic Gothic Ghost online class. This hat is a "bonus" class that I added to the existing lessons.

The witch's hat was last year's bonus class, and the BOO tussie mussie is this year's. I added a few new images too, for downloading and printing.

If you have paid for the class when it first came out, and forgot the password, let me know. Its worth a second look, and there are new things too.

We made this site two years ago, and every fall, I have revisited it and found things I'd forgotten about from the past. There is a lot of info, plenty of projects, and files and files of images, patterns, and backgrounds to print and use. (the alphabet cards spelling boo and ghost are new additions)

This isn't one of the projects, but is a FAST and easy one that really needs no instructions. I used the spider and web image in our files, printed onto a transparency, layered it over a cut out "ghost" girl, and popped them into a frame.

To be honest, I did it in such a quickie, short cut way, that i taped the picture to the wall, and hung the spider and frame on the same nail. Something that is only hung up seasonally doesn't need to be done perfectly.

Another quickie decorating job to save me from cleaning was adding construction paper masks to some of my ladies.

I just might go and make some more of these. It sure beats sweeping….

You can tell from this photo that I'm desperate to avoid making kits and cleaning. Yes, I have covered the hand wipe cannisters in ghostly papers. I came across a file folder filled with printed images I'd made up from the online class and never used. So, of course, I quickly found some where to glue them.

I hope someone stops me before I start decopauging my broom. Its so much more temtping that actually using it.

And hey! Don't you think that it would look cute next to the witch in the corner!!?? I was making a joke, but now, I think I might go and do it.

oooh, I think I need help

Bye Bye Fairies, Hello Ghosts!

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, free images, holiday decor, Romantic Gothic Ghosts, swaps, Tutorials, vintage paper/collage art, Workshops, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / September 23, 2012

Isn't this fairy from Linda sweet as can be?

It's sad that the Faery Book Swap is over! I made a couple more pages, as thank yous to some sweet people. And I have extra covers that I hope to list on Etsy or in the Boutique. If I ever get a spare minute to do it!

In the fairy frenzy, I'd made up about 16 pages for the swap, and didn't need them all of course, so I'll have a few of those to list too. But I didn't want to use any of those as thank yous. I thought "thanks" deserved something made special just for it.

I still have my family's books, they weren't mailed because we are going to open them all together when everyone gets here to visit for Romantic Gothic Ghosts.

I'm so glad that Guncle Randy, Sissy, Bobbie Sue and Terry can come out to play with us for the classes! We hope to go to see the annual Lawrence Zombie walk if everyone arrives in time, it will be on Thurs. the 4th and family is flying/driving in from Utah, Florida and Indiana.

Then, Friday is shopping at the West Bottoms district, with all the once a month junk and antique stores, as well as Bottoms Up.

Saturday the 6th will be our ghost filled craft day, with Gypsy spells and ravens. Sunday we plan on hitting the Renfest, all decked out in our fairy attire. A perfect little reunion!! Plus I get to have my blog friends meet my family, that will be nice. I'm glad that we are having a workshop while the relatives are in town.

Along with the thank you pages, I mailed out hand made envelopes stuffed with tidbits. To make these, I looked at a regular envelope to get an idea for the pattern, cut it out from an old book page, folded it up and glued the edges. Simple, and kinda cute. I might need to do more of these!

I've gone straight from sweet fairies to gothic ghosts.

These images (provided in the online Romantic Gothic Ghost class) are printed on transparencies and hung around the room.

And the room is a WRECK! I've started cleaning and decorating, but need to get all the chaos and clutter out too.

I started decorating at the ceiling first, then the cabinet tops around the room. I'm sure most people would have cleaned the whole room, put away the mess and then started fixing up. But I got too excited about making the ghosts and had to do the fun parts first!

See how they are hung from tattered tulle on the ceiling? (I'll have more photos later)

**********

Speaking of photos, I've noticed that no matter how good my camera is, and how well I edit pictures, they NEVER look as good on my blog as they do on my computer files.

I wish I could fix this…. I also noticed that if you click on one to open it in a bigger window, its sharper.

**************

Another instance of backward preparedness- instead of cleaning and making kits, I wanted to make some ghostly images to set around the room. This collage is an old trinket box with a glass lid that Beth gave me. I took out the image that came it in, turned it on its side and made it a shadow box.

A transparency spider image is across the glass, and a ghostly girl is layered over a gothic arch (from the albums full of pictures and images and backgrounds and patterns that were scanned and added to the online class) and glued to the back of the box. I then added some tatted trim and some very old, beat up flowers.

Its very small, and I seriously doubt that it adds a lot to the over all decor of the room. But it was something I really wanted to do.

We had lots of projects made up for the online class that I pulled out to use around the room too. This tag is pinned to my new curtains, hung just for the occasion. The tag is one of the "ready to go" bonus images from the class. All you do is print it and cut it out.

The curtains are from the Sparks Flea, and were $1. When I bought them, they were a hideous, fleshy peach. But I liked the over all pattern and the flocking was cool, so I gambled that dollar and bought them any way, hoping a bowl of dye would take.

It did and now I just love them.! Thing is, though, I bought them thinking I'd cut them apart to use in projects, and to test the dye, I cut a hunk off the bottom of one to dip. I loved it so much, that I dyed the rest of the panels and hung them up, even with a hunk missing at the bottom of one.

In the window, is a banner also made from the Romantic Gothic Ghost online classes. There are tons of projects, decorating ideas, and printable images in the class. I'd forgotten how much there was in it, and had a lot of fun looking through it with fresh eyes.

Everyone coming to the class at the studio gets the online class free too. We still have a couple spots open for our one day party in the studio if you'd like to join us.

You could hold a puppy on your lap while you work…..

A Passel of Pups

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, puppies!, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / September 21, 2012

I'm growing very fond of this little pup. Sugarwings calls her The New Agnes Rosebud. I told her that Agnes was very special and one of a kind, this pup deserves her own special name. If I keep her, she might have Rosebud as a middle name to honor Aggie Rose, though.

Agnes was my grandmother's name and our dog was named after her. My husband asked if we could name one after his grandmother, Dorothy. Dorothy!! One of Sugarwing's all time favorite people! Dorothy Rosebud should work just fine. I could call her Dot.

The babies are learning how to play. Its pretty funny when we call "puppies!", they bounce around and try to come to us and climb out of their pen. They look like burnt popcorn jumping around in a pan.

Its hard to get a group shot, there is so much motion, it becomes a blur.

But the chaos doesn't last long, a couple minutes of play wears them out and they are soon sound asleep.

We are still bottle feeding the herd. I've tried dishes and they get more on themselves than in. So, I cut a larger hole in the nipple and fill the bottle with a cereal, formula mix. They love it, and one feeding is usually about 4-5 bottles.

Aunt Sandy is feeling better now, she has had a sore back and couldn't work for a few months. Now, she is back at work with long days on the surgical floor as an RN, so I'm on my own for feedings for a while. Its more efficient (and cuddlier) to use the bottle, but soon, I'll have to train them to use a bowl. Or a trough.

My husband says we should keep two of them, since we are NEVER breeding pups again after the stress of what Twinkle went through.

One baby goes to the father's family, one to Dewdrop, one to my husband's assistant, and at least one to us.

That still leaves a passel of pups to sell, larger than most Yorkie litters! I'm not sure if I want two or not, I'm greedy about puppy time and would like to have just one to raise as my own so I can have her all to myself. If she has a litter mate, she might bond with him more than with me. Yes, I am greedy.

Although, Twinkle is a great dog, I really should keep as many mini Twinks as I can, or some day I'll be sorry. She has a great heart and is about as loyal and loving as a dog can be.

Notice the plants behind her? They are in the whiskey barrels I bought last spring, to turn the stumps into planters. The vines have really taken off and I've been happy with the result. Much cheaper than having stumps removed!

And the $1 solar lights from Walmart have been so pretty all summer. I bought the very plain ones, but now the fancier ones are on sale for $1 each, so I got a dozen of those for next year. My niece has some and says that hers have worked well for 3 years now, which is good to know. I'd not tried them before.

Speaking of cheap, I was at the garden center snapping up more clearance flowers, and they were snipping off the left over caladiums to pack the bulbs away for winter. There was a wheelbarrow full of leaves and Sugarwings asked if she could make a bouquet of them. She loves to pretend she is a bride and always needs bouquets.

The nice lady gave her an arm full, and one to me too. I put them in water when we got home, and they look every bit as fresh a week later. I wonder how long they will last this way? I'm loving them.

Puppy Snuggles

Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Mayara, puppies!

By Karla Nathan / September 19, 2012

These puppies are growing so fast! Dewdrop is their biggest fan, and her mommy says that she wants to see photos on Facebook of them all the time. She calls them Puppeesh.

Dewdrop is a gentle child and can sit quietly and just snuggle a baby pup.

Of course, being on her loving Pop Pop's lap makes snuggle time even more special.

The babies decided to learn how to play on Saturday and are starting to wrassle with each other. Mostly, it involves chewing on a brother's nose for a minute, putting paws around each other, then napping.

For now, they reside in the living room, inside the wading pool. I keep a box with their (ever changing throughout the day) blanket or towel in the pool, line the pool with newspapers and pee pads, and they have learned how to waddle out to the pads to tinkle. A LOT. Those pads get changed all day long too, buy stock in pee pads NOW.

Usually, the pups live in the pool this way for 5 weeks or so, but with this many, there just won't be space. They will need room to run and play.

I'm thinking about moving my car outside and turning the whole garage into a nursery for when we aren't with the dogs. When we are hanging out with them, they can be in the house, or taking over the studio like a pack of hooligans.

At night, I can bring them back in the house to their pool.

I'm treasuring this time of them being tiny, bottle feedings, and babyhood.

It goes by so fast. Just look at Dewdrop, she's a big girl now.

Or at least SHE thinks so! She and her Gypsy mommy have picked out a pup to keep. They are renting a new home that allows pets, and has a small fenced yard. And a passle of little kids ready to cuddle the baby!

A thank you, an apology, and a clarification

swaps

By Karla Nathan / September 18, 2012

This luscious bundle of ribbons, still on my desk because they are too pretty to use, is from Becky

All of my Faery Swap books have been mailed! (well, except two late people who missed out, but I am trading with them one on one)

I
want to thank everyone who left a comment about the person complaining
about the page she hated and threw away. Thoughtful, heart felt comments
came from the crafty world of swappers, and lots of private emails
filled with caring came too.

The
one thing I want to clarify is that the page that she complained about
was NICE. Really nice. Quality materials, done well. I didn't mean for
anyone out there to be feeling bad or having second thoughts about
their own work!!

This
shouldn't cast a shadow over this amazing swap, the work that came in
was top notch, filled with creativity. I was so impressed.

The only reason I brought up the whole issue, is that I was hoping she would read the comments you left and be too embarrassed to bring up the subject on her blog or Facebook. If she hurt the feelings of the person who made that page, it would break my heart.

And now I need to apologize to all of you, whose feelings I hurt by making you wonder if your page was the one in the trash. I should have kept the complaint to myself, but she was so ANGRY that I wanted to do what I could to make sure she didn't speak out publicly about this and name names!!!

Thank you all once again for being supportive. There is a wonderful arty community out there and I'm honored to be a part of it!

The tail end of the Faery Book Swap, I’ll miss it!

fairies, swaps

By Karla Nathan / September 17, 2012

Last fairypages 035

The Faery Book Swap is winding down, thanks to all of you for your patience in me getting them mailed out.

As I was putting together the very last one, I felt sad to think they were all going to be gone and my studio would feel so empty. I've loved assembling each and every one of these special pages of art.

As a farewell to the project, I stopped what I was doing and made one more page to include as the very last page in the very last book I was tying up with ribbons.

Every book as been put together now, all I need to do is slip them into their padded envelopes and make labels. Now, that sounds simple, but that is a lot of labels to make, so I'll be at it most of the day, and hopefully will have all of the goodies ready to go to the Post Office by Monday afternoon. Wish me luck!

There was a set back earlier in the week, when my old printer shot craps on me. Usually, I make a few books, make some labels, and mail a tubful, then repeat. But without a printer, I just went ahead and made all the books, now I need to sit down and make all the labels at one time. Ugh, boring. Its more fun to take breaks from labels to go and play with pretty fairy pages!

Office Depot recommended this HP86000 plus printer to me, I was told that it will print 2000 some pages for the same amount of ink that my old one would print 200. That sold me. It was a bit more expensive, but I got a $50 trade in on my dead one, it came with ink, and it was on sale. So, I was glad to get it.

Till I got home and had to try to figure out how to set it up. There went a precious hour of my life…. but all is done and ready now, I'm off to type away the rest of the day!

I'll leave you with some of the last books.

And a thank you to all of the kind hearted, talented swappers who were so generous with their time and skills!

And who were so patient with the time it took me to get these made and mailed.

I'm sorry that I don't get photos of all the pages, I randomly shoot some books that I have laid out on the table before I stack them up to hole punch.

There is a Pinterest board here that I've tried to add pictures from my blog to. If you have pictures of your pages that you'd like to pin to that board, please request an invite to become another pinner on it.

Also, feel free to add your names to the Pinterest photos that you are in, you can do that in the comment section. I will be pinning these photos to it later on after I get your books mailed.

Gosh, the studio is going to be empty with all of these gone!! I've had 2 dining tables filled with pages, a folding table to open packages on, another table filled stacked with covers, my work table stuffed with books in progress, and two other tables set up for wrapping and shipping stations.

Wow, this had taken over the whole room!

But it is less than 3 weeks until Romantic Gothic Ghosts, so its a good thing that the room is clearing out! I need to get that set up, make name tags, kits, and decorate. I've got some ideas that I hope will turn out cute. Beth has some too, and offered to come over to help.

By the way, that class is filling up. I have 3 people who are "maybes" and only 4 spots left. That means if the maybes are yesses, there is only one spot. Contact me if you are interested before its too late!!

The adventures of Trapper Tom and the Giant Cat

cottage, guncles, kitties

By Karla Nathan / September 16, 2012

We have been under siege for a while around here. Sandy was sitting on the deck, and saw a Giant Cat of some kind, (bob cat?) step out of the flower bed, scoop up a chicken, and calmly walk away.

In broad daylight!

So, we called Critter Catchers and had some traps set around the property, and have had all the animals and kids on lock down.

The children have to stay in the yard by me, not run around the property to play, and the kitties get locked up in the breezeway every night. The little dogs only get to go out in the fence, or stay by our side if we are out.

The poor chickens have been cooped up in the coop since their sweet little red sister was stolen away.

We've got 3 large traps set, and baited with nasty smelling dead creatures. So, being outside isn't all that pleasant any way. On hot days, nothing smells worse than a 3 day old, skinned weasel.

The trappers say that big cats only need to eat every few days, and that they have a range of territory, it might be a while before it comes back through.

He showed us all the signs and tracks in the woods of where the cat had been. This is a footprint, and is as large as Sandy's hand!

I wanted to make a plaster cast of the print, but didn't get to it in time, and rain ruined the trail. I've checked the woods daily, but have not seen any new tracks. Which, I guess is good, but it doesn't mean the beast is gone, I feel like he is waiting for us to let the ladies back out of the coop so he can stroll by and nab another one!

In the meantime, we have trapped an entire raccoon family. A large male, smaller female and 5 pups. Are they called pups? Cubs, maybe?

Trapper Tom retrieves them, and takes the cage to the river to let them out. If my husband is around, he will dump the coons or possums himself. He and the grands load up the big, red, pick up truck and head to the Kansas River and let them go. There is a caged coon behind the hen house right now, and my husband is out of town, so I'll keep it fed till tomorrow when he can unload it. That's better than us paying the trapper to keep coming up to empty the traps and I don't particularly want to do it myself.

Our count so far:

7 Coons

6 Possums

0 Giant Cats

Almost 3 weeks of checking traps and locking down pets

This is one thing that freaked me out. Trapper Tom showed us this area out in the woods where we had dumped straw from the hen house. On the pile was a selection of toys. Some were decorations taken from the tree house in the fairy trail, the others were dog toys.

I was told that this is where the Giant Cat likes to play. Trapper Tom says that a bobcat will play like a house cat and will collect toys. He was probably attracted to some of the feathers and the chicken scent in the pile of straw, so chose this spot to make a play house. It gives me the creeps to think he might have been attracted to the scent of kids in the tree house when he stole toys from there. Ugh. And where did he get the dog toys? From someones yard? I hope the dog he took it from is ok.

(artwork by Guncle Randy)

Attack of Big Baby

cottage

By Karla Nathan / September 15, 2012

This is Big Baby. She is adored by Dewdrop, but freaks Aunt Sandy out, because Dewdrop was leaving her in odd places and Aunt Sandy kept stumbling across her.

So, my husband and I decided to surprise Aunt Sandy with some scary Big Baby sightings. He duct taped the knife to her hand, and sat her in his sister's chair. Sandy shrieked, then laughed and from that point, the game was on.

That had been a mild start. Its escalated since then.

Aunt Sandy retaliated by tying her to our head board and smearing her with red watercolor paint.

Next, I hung her in Sandy's bathroom, to greet her as she stepped into the shower.

Then, Sandy and my husband snuck Big Baby up on the garage door opener to hang over my car as I pulled into the garage after my bookclub meeting Monday night.

Now its my turn, so I've stuffed Big Baby into the fridge just in time for Sandy to start thinking about lunch. Of course, there is a chance that Ryan will get hungry before Aunt Sandy does, but that's okay too. I'll enjoy hearing him squeal. Maybe he will take a turn in hiding her. He is a horror movie fan, he might come up with some good ideas.