Author name: Karla Nathan

Since I have been selling Halloween themed kits and flowers, I thought I should make something with the stuff myself before the supplies were all gone! 

This wallpaper reminded me of the walls of a haunted house, and the piece of jewelry looked like a spider web, so that was the basis for the whole piece.

sold, thanks

The brooch was too shiny, even though it was old, so I aged it with black, then drew a spider web around it on the Victorian photo album mat.

Everything on this collage is old, except the photo, and it is a copy of an old cabinet card that I tinted and added a jaunty witch’s hat to. The hat is cut from old black velvet ribbon.

"Twilight Dreams" is available on Etsy.

I doubt if I will make much more in the way of Halloween goods. I am going straight from summer to Christmas and getting ready for my vendor booth at Silver Bella.

Most of this week has been spent making wallpaper journal kits for Silver Bella and for Somerset Life.  I sent a box of them to Jenny Doh yesterday, and wrapped up the rest today.

I’m pretty proud of myself for getting organized and making tags! Of course, I have Beth to thank for that.

I was freaking out about how much I had to do to be set up for this event, and she calmed me down and told me to focus on getting something that would be for sale packaged and ready for the booth and I would feel better.

She was right! I made up labels and packets of embellishments to go along with the journals, then figured out a way to attach the packet to the book, so shoppers would know they were a set.

When I made the books, I picked a color theme for each, and filled it with old papers and then bound them together.

I tried to leave plenty of work for the artist who purchases one, yet still make them pretty as is.  It was a fine line on some of them.

Its hard for me to stop once I get to foofing….

There aren’t nearly enough journals made  up yet. Well, at least I hope I will sell more than a handful!

Instead of spending time making up more journals, I stopped after tagging all the ones that were complete.

Since I wanted finished, tagged products, set to go, I worked on bagging flowers up. What self control! It would have been so much more fun to make a few more books and piddle around with pretty papers.

I made the tags from some cuddlebugged wallpaper, then used it as a background for the flowers and the journals both. I will keep this paper as my theme for all the tags I make up for Silver Bella.

The back of the tag is the sheet music that Phyllis gave to me, that reads, "The Belles of Kansas Waltz".

I bought this toy trunk at a flea market for $1, and plan to fill it with bags of millinery flowers. I might need something bigger, not sure yet… Well, it would be NICE to think I needed more bags of flowers. I hope to sell a lot, at least!

Thank you, to everyone who left kind messages about Sugarwings and her family. Looks like they might not move in! I’d be soooo happy if my son and the Hippy Chick  keep their home intact and raise their  little fairy girl together.

Keep your fingers crossed for them all! 

If you remember, last time we saw these bottles, they weren’t looking so good….

I soaked and soaked them, using the denture cleaner with the foaming bubbles. No, that is a toilet bowl cleaner that has foaming bubbles, isn’t it? But the denture tablets do foam up and are supposed to bubble off the grime. 

Well, they didn’t do a bad job at all, but there were still some oogey places left, and I grabbed a handful of gravel and swished it around inside and that took care of it.  I got a lot of good advice about rice and vinegar, which I think I will use next time instead.

The bottles  didn’t have to be perfect, I wanted them to still look old, not brand new, so I was happy with the way they were still a bit cloudy, (but clean.)  I added some doodads to a couple of them already.

The pink ballerina picks and tiny stoppered pots also got a make over.

I broke the pick off the dancer, and poked the stub into a hole I had made in the cork, added glue to hold it in place, then decided to add a mother of pearl button for stability. I think it looks like moon glow behind her.

One of the hand blown glass vials got the same treatment for its cork, but this time, I covered the front of the button in old wallpaper.

The 2nd vial  has a cork aged with paint and ink, then topped with a rhinestone.

Both are filled with shiny objects, such as more rhinestones, crystals, beads, etc. plus some words cut from old sheet music about dreams or fairies.   

Both bottles are tied onto hand dyed silk ribbon that Heather gave to me, so they can be worn as pendants.  Lou Wanda and Lou Cinda are modeling them for now, while I decide what to do with them.

I think that if used properly, they could be good for granting wishes…. I just need to figure it out.

Sunday was Sugar and Creamer Day. Well, not really, but that seems to be what it turned into.  I went to an auction with Beth and ended up buying a few glass S&C’s.  I was buying box lots and these were in them along with the stuff I wanted.

(this photo doesn’t even show all of them)

Hey– I have a BRILLIANT idea!  How about if I give away a sugar and creamer set for my September giveaway?

I can fill them up with something too.  More details later for my "Sweet September Prize Pack".

I also bought a dozen or so more dirty little bottles to soak, and this pretty hand painted compote as well as some old trophies. Lately, I have been on a trophy buying kick. I don’t have a firm plan on what to do with them all yet, but eventually, I will come up with something. Maybe I will just award myself one every once in a while when I need a boost.  It would probably feel good to win a nice trophy.

Speaking of feeling good- I think Twinkle might be in love. Well, lets hope. This is Teddy, her beau.  She is staying at his house for a few days while they plan a family together. 

Which means that I would have puppies due the week of Silver Bella.  Hmm, bad timing, huh? But I want puppies, so I’ll make it work somehow! 

Do you think the hotel would notice if a dog was giving birth on my pillow while staying there?

Or would Pam Garrison mind if Twinkle had a puppy or two under the table during one of her classes?

I would promise to give the litter Silver Bella themed names.

At the auction on Sugar and Creamer Day, I mean, Sunday, I finally found just the right vessel for my 50 ballerinas that were a birthday gift from Beth on my 50th  in May.

Well, now it is only 49, Sugarwings has one that she uses to decorate her play dough cupcakes.   But that doesn’t mean that I lie about my age and tell people I am only 49 ballerinas old. I live up to being 50.

Fifty, really is a pretty good thing, I am liking this age.

Besides bubbling bottles clean, and then decorating them, I have been cleaning out closets in the cottage.

Sugarwings and her Daddy are moving in with us part time.  It is a sad occasion, I was hoping that my son could make it work with his cute little hippy chick.

But for now, the fairy grand baby and my little boy will be staying here with me.

Which means, my life will change a bit. I have Sugarwings over a lot now, but living here is different.

If I don’t answer all your comments and emails, it won’t mean that I am not enjoying reading them.

It will mean I have a few minutes on the computer before I have to go chase down a two year old fairy running abound and getting into stuff.

And if Twinks starts a family, there will the pitter patter of LOTS of tiny feet around here that I will be chasing.

Not a lot of big changes will be happening though. I still plan on posting a lot, because I can’t stop myself for one thing, I tend to have way, way too much to say.

Also, I will be selling on Etsy, and on Lollishops when it opens.

Here is a small Halloween craft pack made with the very last of my Halloween colored blooms!  I have two of these left they are only $5, and include 3 wallet sized Halloween pictures. sold

This is my last "deluxe" Halloween craft pack.  All of my orange and black flowers are sold or packed to be sold. I kept enough to make a couple project for myself, and thats that.

I just love this one, see the title of the sheet music? "The Ghost of the Goblin Man." And doesn’t the photo look ghostly itself?

This one is $22, but it is jammed full of lots of vintage supplies.

I want to thank all of you who came by my Etsy shop and bought up all my flower packs!

I still have 3 of this $9.00 pack left too.

  And please, do continue to comment, I’ll still be here and will read each and every one of them and will answer as many as I can!

sold

Why am I wasting my time? I don’t know why I am not creating much, piddling seems to be all that I am doing.  Nothing really constructive, just goofing around.

I glittered up the chalk ware dorky and gave her a pearl crown and matching chocolate pearl eyes, then made a collar and dog tag for her with ribbon and part of an old earring.

The glue is still wet, she isn’t really foaming at the mouth.

While shopping in Beth’s Bargain Basement, I found some cute doll and baby clothes.

And – ultimate bargain!! – they were  a gift for Sugarwings. I thought I was buying them for $1 each, which is a pretty good deal in itself, but she just gave them to us.  Beth is generous with stuff like that. 

Plus she took an IOU for the stuff I did buy, I’d forgotten my check book-oops.

Not that it was a waste of time to play with the new dresses, but really, how high on my priority list should playing with doll clothes be?

Especially when Sugarwings isn’t even here.  If she was, she’d be wearing this blue cutey, it looks like it would fit her.

But lately, all she wants to do is sculpt with play dough or paint. I can’t convince her to put on a pretty dress and play tea party with me and Twinkle.  She is obsessed with paint. I think I am beginning to understand how my husband feels when I lock myself into the studio to paint  and won’t come out.

This morning, I puttered around at a few garage sales, even though nothing in the newspaper looked all that interesting, and when I got there and saw them in person, they were even worse than described.

I spent a few dollars and got a couple little things with potential, though.  I picture this pink poodle all foofy with glitters and goobers.   She will be a poodle diva soon.

And the birds can be glittered, maybe one can nest in the crocheted basket?

But the bows, oh my, those are really, really nice as is!  They were 50cents for all three.

One garage sale had stacks of sheet music.  They were going for 50 cents each, but I always ask what the volume buying price is before I shop.

I was able to buy 25 for 25 cents each.

The deep colors are great on this one, but don’t you think that the woman is a bit scandalous to be wearing PANTS??  Of course, the cover does say she is the Heavenly Sinner" 

More rich colors on this one, but the lady seems sad. She must be waiting home alone while her man is chasing after that harlot wearing pants.

This cover is my favorite. As much as I loved the saturated colors of the first two, these soft and dreamy shades are more my style.

This assortment of stoppered bottles came free in the pink poodle mug.

Two are hand blown glass and I am not sure what their real purpose is.  One was filled with peppermint oil that I poured into the trash, and now my whole studio is scented with mint.

These can be re-made into fairy dust containers, don’t you think?

These little picks might be my best find of the day.

And of course, the best are the 3 pink ballerinas.  I am really attracted to pink ballerinas.  Well, that didn’t sound the way I meant it. Not that there is anything wrong with that.. I just meant the vintage plastic variety. Lets not start any gossip about what goes on here at Karla’s Cottage, OK?

There were a few mermaids in the bunch too.  I wanted to be a mermaid when I was little.  I knew I could never be a ballerina, because I am more than slightly clumsy and have no dancing skills. But for some reason, I thought I might have a shot at being a mermaid someday.

Now, these girls  aren’t picks, I wonder, are they cake decorations?

Keping with my day of puttering around and not really accomplishing much, I decided to clean these bottles from the flea market. Carol and I have plans for a group project with a few bottles and pumpkin heads.

Sounds odd, but when our magazine article comes out in the next issue of Romantic Country, it will  make sense.

First I soaked them in hot water.

Then, I dropped in denture cleaning tablets.

Still dirty. So I dropped in a few more.  The bottles were pretty cheap, but I spent $4 on the denture cleaner. 

They aren’t looking much better yet, so I will let them soak over night. I’ve heard this will work, but who knows.

Between the denture tablets and the peppermint oil, my studio smells like a dentist office.

TO BE CONTINUED

(OK, now you have to picture the voice of a soap opera announcer- or can you picture a voice? I must mean, imagine the voice-)

Will the bottles ever become clean?

Will Karla ever get the minty fresh scent of peppermint oil out of her studio? Or will Karla hear dentist drills in her dreams tonight from the over powering smell?

Will the chalk ware Dorky’s apparent rabies cause it to attack Karla’s toes as she works at her desk?

Will the scandalous woman in pants steal the husband of the daydreaming lady?

Will Karla quit goofing off with piddly projects and get any work done? Or will she sprout a tail and swim off with some pink ballet dancer?

Scrabble letters seem to be popular to work with, but I have never really used them. Recently, I was given a bagful, and thought I should see what I could use them for.

So, I just drew on a few with ink pens and will use the game pieces as accents in the swap bags I am making up, matching up the letters to each person’s name.

It was a quickie and fun thing to do and now I am looking for all sorts of places to use these tiles!

I added one to this aqua and purple tag that I made for a friend whose name begins with "P".

While I had the tags out, I finished off a few that I had started at Beth’s on Tuesday.

I was experimenting with her cuddlebug,  and embossed a few tags and some vintage wallpaper.

And, I figured it was time to start being inspired by the "Pre Bella, Get Inspired, Get Acquainted Swap" and use some of the stuff I received!

Heather had this ballerina on a card she sent to me, so I cut it out and glued it to the tag I made at Beth’s.  Dark ink around the figure really makes it look shadowed and 3-d, doesn’t it?

The flowers on this one and previous tag are from Holly. The velvet ribbon is from Andrea.

I was trying to do a trick that Beth uses a lot, with gluing bits of wallpaper into a  kind of crazy quilt look.  The two tags with the green ruffle are listed on Etsy, the other two will be soon…. if I can get organized and get it done, that is. 

Down in Beth’s Bargain Basement, I found this glass doored cabinet and decided to switch it out for the robin’s egg blue child’s hutch that I had been using as a glitter cabinet. This white one is more convenient. 

And now, I can give the hutch to Sugarwings, since I bought it for her to use in the first place. She says "MINE" every time she sees it, so I think she wants it.

Have you ever tried Martha Stewart’s glitter glue? It is 25% off at Michaels this week, so I bought a jar.  I got the kind with the brush attached to the lid, like  a little kid’s paste pot. It reminded me of the first day of school and the joy of dipping into a fresh jar of paste.  Seems like a fitting thought for the first week of September.

I am extremely happy with the stuff. The brush was fantastic for getting in and out of the crevices of the birds and roses I was glittering up.

And finally, I got the swap goodies packed up!

Here is a picture of all the gifts together, ready for the box. 

I added a few more things:

a bag of buttons

some cuddlebug tags

an old earring

chocolate

and the scrabble initials

  Everyone was so generous with the postage, I wanted to add some weight to the boxes!!

If you’d like to see all the photos of the swap goods, I have started a flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/groups/876636@N23/pool/

Well, back to taping up packages.