Karla Nathan – Page 175 – Karla's Cottage

Beth’s Gypsy Song and Spell book for Romantic Gothic Ghosts

Books, holiday decor, Romantic Gothic Ghosts, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / August 9, 2012

Beth's project for our Romantic Gothic Ghost workshop at the studio on October 6th is unique Halloween crafting at its most interesting!

She is making a gypsy spell book from felted wool.

She has been printing vintage images and gypsies onto fabric and gathering up lace and doodads for everyone to embellish their own book.

She will have a lot of sample pages for ideas and will show you how to make pockets, trim out pages, and assemble the book itself. NO SEWING- its tied and glued.

Not only that, she will teach us how to make our own faux tintypes!

Now, that is a handy skill to have.

Beth will provide everything you need to make your own Gypsy Song and Spell book.

If you prefer Halloween without bright orange and purple, maybe you'd like to join us here at my home for a day of fun and creating?

Details HERE

Faerie Pages flying in!

fairies, show and tell, swaps

By Karla Nathan / August 7, 2012

Kim

Fairies are winging their way into my studio daily now!

Lisa

The very, very best part of a swap is the packages piling up around the room. Of course, it doesn't take long for them to take over the room….

Briar Rose

This particular swap certainly will take over. Close to 1,000 pages including my front and back covers will be spread out around the room.

Laurie

I wish I could take photos of all the artwork for you. I'd get nothing else done if I did though. I will promise to get random photos here and there as I can.

But I will have a Pinterest board for them. And I think there is a way for people to add photos to my board, isn't there? Any tips? I think you just have to send me a request, but I could be wrong. I don't know if you do that through Pinterest, or if you just email me with your user name and I add you to the board.

If anyone has done this let me know if I'm close on how to do it.

Isn't this cute as a bug? It was sent to me by Elaine at Briar Rose

She actually creates the porcelaine pieces herself and used one on each page she made.

My front covers are DONE!!!!!!!!!!! Now onto the back ones, which are not nearly as entertaining to do. Which is why I have so few done. I need to force myself to do a few a day, and I'll be fine by the end of the month.

Then the fun begins, the first couple weeks of September will be assembly time. There will definately be more photos coming then. I love seeing the books come together, and try hard to match up pages so they look attractive with each other.

For now, I will try not to open all the packages till the due date. I love to see what comes in the mail, but I have to be very, very organized, with marking items off lists and double checking contents, and not getting anything mixed up.

So, its smarter to not open very many till they are all here and ready for me to dive into. Its hard to resist and I do peek a bit, especially at first. But once I start getting a lot of them, I pile all of the packages into tubs and slide them under tables until its time to open them up. If I open them all as they come in, I'd have total chaos, things might slide out of boxes, stacks would get knocked over.

I'll be using my self control and waiting to do it right.

Its almost impossible for me to let you know if your package is here or not. I check them off as I open them, not as they come in. As they come in, they will be stored away till later. Yours could be buried under 50 other packages, so its very hard to check. Thank you for understanding.

You can still join, if you'd like. They are due Sept. 1st.

The Early Bird scores the junk

antiques/junking

By Karla Nathan / August 6, 2012

Thanks for your input on the charges for the Faerie Book Swap. I'm glad you feel the price is reasonable.

I was making covers at 5 am today. I'm not typically a morning person, but it was kind of nice to be awake and gluing before I am normally up to face the world. I worked for 3 hours on them and then started the rest of the day at my usual time, and it was like a little bonus of hours for me.

Not that I'll become an early bird. But I enjoyed the gift of extra time. But not enough to ever set an alarm clock, of course. If I made a habit of being up at the crack of dawn, it would feel more like slaving away too many hours instead of like a special little bubble of time I was given to get caught up.

Yes, silly thinking, but maybe my mind is still fuzzy from being up so early.

A lot got done today, by starting so early. I shopped for a new car (no luck yet), did yard work, edited photos, shopped for some back to school clothes for Sugarwings (eeek- kindergarten starts next week!!), piddled around with a few other things, then sat down and did something creative.

I've been doing so much assembly line work in making 100 front and back book covers, that I was feeling like a robot instead of an artist. This evening, i took the time to actully make an inside book page so I can be part of the swap too. I want a book of my own to keep, so I need to have pages to trade!! I have ten or so, only really need 8, but like to have extras. Plus, I wanted to do something fun.

I drew a dress form and cut it out of sheet music, then glued it onto this old text. The wings are cut from a 1950s bug book then glitzed with a clear gold Gelly Roll pen, and the dress is made of flower petals plucked from my garden of vintage hats.

I outlined the wings in Black Stickles glitter, then inked the background with pink and black. Over that I lightly brushed some white Tim Holtz crackle paint.

My car has been on loan to my son, so I've been driving my husband's car, while he has been driving the farm truck. We tend to buy cars and drive them till they won't go any more, or till we are so sick of them that we give them to one of our sons. We get about ten years from most vehicles.

This car is 12 now, and has been a wonderful car, but when it died on me in the middle of NOWHERE, I decided it was time to replace it! On Sunday, I had taken a spur of the moment trip to one of my favorite shops, 4 Corners. Someone there told me there was a flea market nearby, so there I went on another little jaunt.

Trouble is, the flea was closed, was on a back road2 miles outside a small town I'd never heard of, and the car decided to take a break from travelling and not start after I came back from looking in the windows of the market (didn't see much).

Luckily, I had a book with me, I sat and read a while, then tried to start the car again, and it took off after about a half hour.

I'll go back and check out the flea later, when I have reliable transportation. The place is called Hooterville Flea and Bait Shop.

How can I not go back with a name like that???

There were hats calling to me from 4 Corners, so I was glad I'd taken the trip, no matter how worried I was about being stranded.

I bought 4 hats, a huge pile of Victorian scrap, die cuts, and old books, a roll of old silk ribbon in chocolate brown, a gorgeous down pillow covered in lace, plus this picture all for $59!!

The picture is not in the best of shape, but that is something I like about it. The bottom 4" or so was missing, but I rubbed sepia ink on the cardboard backing where part of the print was missing and I don't think it shows much. I also sanded some of the gold paint off the frame so the white underneath peeks out.

She is sooooo pretty. Not sure where she will hang yet. Somewhere special! Maybe in the guest room I am fixing up for my sister's visit.

Well, better get back to the fairy book covers. 15 more to go and I'm finished with the front covers, yay!

Faerie Swap Book Update, And an explanation of the costs

fairies, swaps

By Karla Nathan / August 4, 2012

The Faerie Swap book covers are coming along fine. Here are 77, almost finished ones. They still need a magic wand and some lace trim.

I've been trying to do them assembly line style, gluing all the wallpaper backs on, sanding and inking the edges, cutting out and adding the fairy with her vintage millinery wings, then the wallpaper circle with the title, then some glitter.

Whew.

It was going very well and I was pleased to see I was almost through the stack.

But the stack looked kind of small.

Then, I counted and realized that the copy store had only made 60 copies, not 100. So, back to the copy store for 40 more and start the process over again.

Now, I 'm working on the back cover. The very back is flocked wallpaper on the outside with some other pretty paper on the inside. I haven't decided which yet.

I bought chip board to use for a sturdy backing. I'm covering 50 in paper, then cutting them in half.

I plan for 100, my smaller swaps have gone way over that, but this one is more involved. We are not quite to 100 yet, so you still have time to join. Click on the side bar button if you want more info.

Some of the charms I ordered to tie onto the rings have arrived! I've got some other ones coming. I'll be tying pretty ribbons onto the binding ring and dangling charms from them.

I've had people asking me why I am charging so much to join the swap, when postage won't take $20.

So, I thought I should explain. First of all, I have to buy charms, chip board, wallpaper, glue, more glue, ribbons, ring binders,card stock, ink, and glitter. I have to pay for color copies, plus use my own stash of wallpaper, flocked paper and millinery.

It adds up for 100 books. And the postage will be higher than previous swaps I've done, these books are much larger than little tag books.

I put in hours, and hours, and hours of time to this. Starting with the watercolor of the fairy, so that there is an original design on the cover, not just an image I got from the internet.

Plus, all the sorting, and book making, then the days of making labels to send out the packages, plus the ink and paper for my printer.

Now, its true, that not all the money goes to purchases, some goes to my time. But it doesn't cover the extent of time that I put into the work. I'd make a lot more if I was taking photos of my things to sell and adding them to the Boutique. Or making something arty to add to it instead of this.

But I love swaps and its so fun to see my studio swamped in pages and pages of your art work!

So, I enjoy doing it, but I simply could not do it if I didn't charge, it takes away too much time from my real work. I hope you don't think I'm trying to gouge you on the price. Honestly, I'm not getting ahead on this. If you think I've over charged you, I hope this explains the costs behind the price.

Beating the heat

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, Hens

By Karla Nathan / August 2, 2012

Despite the heat, our garden is doing well. We have well water, and live over a deep aquifer, so I use the sprinkler a lot to beat the long string of 100 plus degree days.

I've set the chickens in the garden almost daily to get the bugs for us, and they did pretty good till the squash bugs hit the cukes. I've had to hand pick the horrid creatures off the plants, but have also used some organic insecticidal soap.

One thing I have not watered is our yard. This is what the ground looks like! We never did have the best looking grass anyway, so I'm ignoring the lawn and concentrating on keeping the flowers and veggies going. And the poor chickens. We lost one to what we think was heat stroke. So now, we keep a sprinkler going on low in the flower beds so that they can have a place to cool off.

We thought we were going to lose this gal too. One of the dogs got ahold of her, and chewed all the feathers off her rump. No real damage, and I think she looks kind of jaunty with that one tail feather sticking up.

We keep the wading pool full too, mostly for Twinkle. She is very fat and very pregnant and likes to jump in the pool, lay back and relax to cool off. I'm thinking about getting her a raft for it, she loves the one out on the lake.

Well, the forecast says we have a few more days coming with no rain, and more heat. Kansas is typically hotter than Hades this time of year, but not quite this hot. Sugarwings has a couple of swimming lessons coming up before back to school time, I hope its not too hot to hit the pool this week!

If its too hot to play in the pool, we'll be back inside playing dress up with Twinkle again. That is how we spent a big chunk of one hot day last week.

Big heads and little crowns, pretty packages and groody fingers

Romantic Gothic Ghosts, Round Robin Book Swap, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / July 31, 2012

The prettiest of pretties arrived from Sandra, one of my round robin partners.

She sent her last page for my book. I'll miss these pages coming in the mail and the exchange of boxes each month.

Our books are now with Stampington, so when we get them back, it will be like discovering them all over again. I'm curious to see which pages will be used in which magazines. They are being divided up as individual creations, not shown as full books.

Sandra sent a boxful of goodies, too, what a sweet surprise that was!

And she made this gorgeous cuff!

Although, my hands aren't quite as gorgeous as the cuff. They are actually kind of disgusting.

I've been gluing and dying today. They say you can tell a lot about a person by looking into their eyes, I think you can tell just as much from hands.

Mine say, "I love my job and am too excited to stop and put on gloves when I decide to dye something"

Today's batch of dyed goods is full of cheesecloth, ribbons, and lace. I dipped it in what I thought was leftover, cold coffee, not knowing that my sister, Sandy, had made a fresh pot until I stuck my hands in it.

The coffee was a good start, but I wanted more depth to the color, so I spritzed it with Tim Holtz Esspresso stain, then more spritzing with Glimmer Mist in pale pink, metallic gold and silver for some shimmer.

I'm making this up for the Romantic Gothic Ghost workshop at my home in October. So, I wanted it spooky, but still prettty, hence the spritzes of sparkles.

I've also been reworking the Raven for my class. I decided to draw some different patterns, and I think I like this one best. Although, now that the bird's head is a little bigger, the crown looks too small…

Yes, I do think I'll need to draw a larger crown pattern too.

Speaking of crowns, this vintage barrette, is now in the Boutique.

Along with a few other little tidbits.

Studio Tour Link

Uncategorized

By Karla Nathan / July 31, 2012

Please scroll down to read the current posts. If you are interested in seeing the studio tour, please go to this link.

New posts are below this message.

A teacup-raven-thingy

antiques/junking, Books, holiday decor, Romantic Gothic Ghosts, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / July 29, 2012

Its been very nice to see the interest in our Romantic Gothic Ghosts day in the studio on October the 6th! We have a lucky 13 signed up so far, before we have shown our projects for the day. I hope that showing them now doesn't spook our guests away…

My class is inspired by this stack of old Edgar Allen Poe books from a garage sale ($1 each), They are tatteringly wonderful.

You'd think that maybe, these would make me think of teaching a book of some kind???

Well, it would make sense to use the pages in art journals. But instead, I was intrigued by using just one section, the poem about the Raven.

I cut the poem into 1-3 line quotes to use as banners on a teacup-raven-thingy.

(no name for the creation yet, I hope I can come up with something better than that eventually)

The two quotes I used for my examples are some of the less interesting lines, I wanted to save the best ones for the students.

Our projects will be Halloween Holiday Decor pieces, that have a romantic feel.

NO purple!

NO orange!

Garish Halloweens, Nevermore!

I've bought some white and gray teacups, we will fill them with vintage paper nests and add a raven made from felted sweaters.

I wish we could do the felting itself that day, but it has to be ready ahead of time. So, I bought a couple of men's 100% wool sweaters at the Goodwill (geez, when did GW prices go so sky high??? $5 each for a crappy, worn out sweater???)

I boiled them in a big pot with liquid Rit dye to turn them a deep, rich black.

Then, drew a raven pattern, cut it out and stitched it up.

I AM NOT A SEWER. If you aren't either, don't be scared!

But- this was fast and easy. Black thread on a black bird doesn't have to be perfect, it hardly shows.

She is trimmed out with pretty black feathers, lace and glitter, then topped with a crown that we will make from antique brass window screening, and decorate with rhinestones. We'll make a strand of pearls for her neck, create the nest, and the arch with the banner and cover it in old millinery blooms.

And of course, the stack of books that the teacup rests on is included. We'll bundle up stacked pages (pre-coffee stained) and tie them with lace and ribbons to use as a stage for our teacup-raven-thingy.

Beth is busy whipping up her class idea too, and from what I saw Friday, its going to be really nice. Hers is a Gypsy fortune teller's guide book of some sort. To be used an art journal. And I gave her one of my Poe books to take apart so she could share the pages with everyone. So, the garage sale books do get to be in an art journal after all.

For details about coming to the class with us in my studio, please scroll down to the previous post, or click on the button on my side bar.

Now, that I have told you that I don't do orange and purple, I'm going to try to sell you a bundle of traditional Halloween colored millinery.

Well, just because I don't use the colors much, doesn't mean they aren't just right for someone's project. And these are nice, old flowers that deserve a good project to be included in.

And this might be way off season, but here is something new in the Boutique too.

Lots of old Valentines!

I'll leave you with some pictures of whats new in the shop.

Romantic Gothic Ghosts Workshop at Karla’s Studio

bird song art event, holiday decor, parties, Romantic Gothic Ghosts, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / July 25, 2012

Beth and I are planning some classes at my studio, a one day event, a bit more casual than Birdsong was. She'll teach in the morning while I get lunch ready, then its my turn to have an afternoon class. Both will be very much in tune with the online Romantic Gothic Ghost online projects we did a couple of years ago.

That online class is still available for $25 or you can get it free when you come to our classes at my home.

Projects for the day are still to be announced, we are in the midst of prototypes. I can promise that they are going to be moody and romantic, a lovely piece to decorate your home with for Halloween, with no garish purple or orange to be seen.

Lunch, complete kits full of vintage goodness, dessert, and drinks will be included, as well as the bonus online class. And we'll schedule some time for coffee and muffins before the work day begins so everyone can get acquainted.

Saturday Oct. 6, 2012 from 9am-6pm

Cost is $100

Email me if you'd like to pay by check, or click here, and scroll to the bottom of the post to get to the pay pal button.

Classes at my home are very casual, tee shirt and jeans type things, not dressy at all. But feel free to be a little witchy for Halloween if you'd like. My Sissy is coming and she will be all witchied-up. I might be too.

Also, I've got to warn you, that we will be surrounded by werewolves. 1-2 lb ones, though, so not as dangerous as most. Twinkle's puppies will be at the age where they will be scampering about underfoot all day. Feel free to snuggle one on your lap while you work if it looks like its getting tired. Sometimes little werewolf cubs need more rest than they think, and should be encouraged to nap.

But only if you are strong willed enough to ignore the tempting price tags tied around their necks. Yep, puppies will be for sale…..

It did my heart good to have some Birdsong friends sign up as soon as I announced this on Facebook Tuesday!! It matters a lot to me that people who have been here before are looking forward to coming back.

This class will have limited seating, and will one day only. If you are coming in town for it, its a great weekend to be in the KC area. The Old West Bottoms area of Kansas City is opened up with tons of once a month junk and antique stores, and the Renfest is going on too. I LOVE both. (Our class is on a Saturday, and I plan on being at Bottoms Up on Friday, and the Renfest on Sunday myself.) more info about both can be found here
All food served will be homemade, with fresh ingredients. I usually cook pretty healthy and low fat, but I make up for the calorie savings with some decadent desserts.

Beth and I would love to see you there. Hope we do!

Sweet little chicks and cactus flowers

family, Hens, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 23, 2012

Ever have one of those days when lots of bad or stressful things happen, but you still feel like you had a good day?

Lets see, today I woke up with a sore back and realized that the bed frame had broken and I was sleeping downhill (time to lose some vacation pounds?), then had to go on a opossum hunt through the wild, over grown flower beds in my jammies and high heels (they were the quickest shoes I could grab, since they were still on top of my suitcase from the party and I had to get the critter before it got my chickens!). The beast didn't get a bird, and I lost its trail, but searched high and low, trying to find where it scurried off to. By the way, I was wearing a vintage cotton night gown, the best of bed head styles, and carrying a big pink shovel. That opossum was right to run, I looked crazy.

The dogs did nab a hen later today, but didn't harm her, just her feathers. It was quite traumatic. And its over 100 degrees again today.

Ryan's car broke down, twice. Once, it was out of gas, the second time the battery ran down. Sugarwings and I missed a movie we were headed to when we had to help him instead. He pushed his car to work for blocks uphill, in this heat. We drove off thinking all was well, and it wasn't, I don't know why he didn't call us back!

There was a disagreement with a family member and I'm not one to loose my temper, I'm more of a cheek turner. But today I blew. Not proud of that one.

We made a loaf of bread and the paddle didn't turn, so I had baked flour with wet crusty edges. Not a big deal, but just one more thing today. And did I mention that it was 107 degrees again? The heat is unbearable.

But there was a bloom on our cactus, a gift from a grand child and sits in a pot painted by one of the little fairies.

It kind of stands for the day I've had, lots of problems and cactussy moments, but some how the day bloomed anyway. Having a happy little Sugarwings by my side all day kept me from feeling bad about all the issues that could have gotten me down.

She's my sunny, little cactus flower. Its impossible to have a bad day when I'm with her.

Instead, I enjoyed the good parts of the day. Here are the good points of the day that outweighed the bad ones:

Watching Sugarwings pretend to be in a parade through the grocery store whille holding 2 dozen pink roses on sale for $5.

Dewdrop running into my arms and showing me that she could do all of the motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Seeing Ryan handle his car problems with a good attitude and being proud of the man he grew up to be. He has lots of LD issues and was a very short tempered, frustrated child. He is a fine man now and I'm proud of him.

Picking a bag of fresh veggies from the garden, and popping a sun warmed tomato in my mouth

Watching the hens play in the sprinkler to beat the heat.

Taking a meal to a friend who hasn't been feeling well. I wish I saw her more often and I really should try to help more, I'm glad I made time today.

Laughing with my sister-in-law, Sandy who is living with us. Its good to have a freind around to share a silly thought with now and then. I also appreciated having her here to listen to me grumble about all the problems today and to accompany me on the oppossum hunt.

Getting a funny text from my husband who is quite proud of breaking a bed after being married 30 years.

Feeling Twinkle's puppies move for the first time. I love to try to count the bumps in her belly to guess how many will be born.

Seeing how sweet Sugarwings was about missing her movie. She is not a grumbler when things don't go her way. That made me want to not grumble about my peeves either.

Baking a second loaf of bread that turned out crustily wonderful on the outside and soft and almondy on the inside- just in time to have for dinner. As a matter of fact, a slice of that would make a nice bedtime snack too. Except I have no bed, I'll be sleeping on the couch till we get that bed frame repaired.

Oh, and I have a Project Runway recorded and ready to watch, that is the icing on the cake to top off this day.

Author name: Karla Nathan