Karla Nathan – Page 297 – Karla's Cottage

The Ideas that Friends Add

By Karla Nathan / March 29, 2007

Tomorrow, I am having an egg party. I’ve asked a group of friends to come by and have their kids color boiled eggs while the adults work on hollowed out ones to make keepsake eggs. I’ll have dyes, glitters, paints, collage items all out to tempt everyone to make something special.

We’d had a group that got together semi-regularly for "Craft Night" with wine and projects and it has fallen away, with everyone so busy with their own lives. I am hoping that this egg decorating party will trick them all back into the habit of crafting together!

My buddy, Beth, http://bethleintz.typepad.com/gathering_dust/ , and I do projects together quite often. Sharing ideas and tips with another artist can be inspirational, educational and also provides the social outlet that often, artists miss. We all work alone so much. Here is a ATC that I did with Beth this week, the gold on the crown was her idea to add. Sometimes a friend has the eye to point out just the touch you need to finish something up right!

Our Craft Night Group is a mix of different medias. Diane is a photographer and she brought her equipment and we all learned how to take portraits of each other. Here I am, in my paint clothes. (most of my clothes do have paint on them). Diane is not only a photographer, she is a really GOOD, professional photographer. I worked with her on a Romantic Homes shoot, she does beautiful work.

Shanna is a mosaic/stained glass artist. She shared her expertise to teach everyone mosaic principles. Here is a bird bath I started one Craft Night, then was hooked and stayed up all night to finish.

See why I want to get the group back together? So much to learn, so much fun to have together!

Vintage Roses

paintings

By Karla Nathan / March 28, 2007

This morning has slipped by and I sit here still in my jammies, with all the things I meant to do, still waiting. I ended up spending time figuring out my camera’s options and reorganizing picture files on my computer. Not exactly a waste of time, but not what really, really needed to be done.

Anyway, I got a decent photo of this rose watercolor I had done a couple of years ago. I have a snippet of it on my blog already, but this picture is so much better, I wanted to show it.

My sister and I were having a great junking day in Indianapolis a few years back and came across a gorgeous old painting on faded paper. I bought it, and painted my own version of it, and this is it. Old paintings inspire me, and I do change them a bit when I do them and make them my own, so I try not to feel like a "copy cat" of the original artist’s work. Heck, I’d be flattered if someone was inspired to paint by one of my watercolors.

Hip Hip Hooray, Fairies on Ebay!

fairies

By Karla Nathan / March 27, 2007

My buddy, Beth (http://bethleintz.typepad.com/gathering_dust/), the Ebay guru, came by today and helped me start listing on Ebay!!! She patiently walked me through each step and gave me advice for a couple of hours. (did I tell you she was a very good friend?) Since I closed my showroom in June, I have been telling people I was going to start selling on Ebay, but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. At first, I was "taking the summer off." Well, honey, summer is long gone and I just might have stretched my vacation to the breaking point. Time to get back to work!

Here is one of my listings, it is a Fairy Cottage. I am trying to do a variety of items, jewelry, fairy homes, fairies, artist trading cards. I will have cottage style antiques, garden signs, paintings, and other goodies coming up. Wish me luck!

Beth even showed me how to put a link from this blog to the Ebay sales and visa-versa. Take a look if you’d like to, by clicking on the link in the top right column of this site.

After we listed things, we sat and played with papers. She was making tags with cool old dress patterns, I was making artist trading cards with some of the vintage paper items I had added hand painted fairy wings too. Here is one, titled: Delight of Earth.

Colorful Sepia?

fairies

By Karla Nathan / March 27, 2007

On my junking day last week with friends, I found sepia photos for 50 cents each, so bought a dozen of the cutest for projects. This little girl was already as cute as she could be, but with that elfish smile, I thought she should be a fairy. I liked her so much, I painted all of the "new" old photos into fairies.

How To Hints: I used acrylic craft paint, glitter glue, gold pulver, chalk, and distress ink with artist paint brushes and cosmetic sponges

Ink and chalk are great for tinting in areas where you want to see through to the original picture, such as I did on the hair, stockings, and pants.

Craft paint is opaque, but doesn’t tend to want to stick. Build up layers slowly on the large painted areas like the wings. I used a cream color (never pure white, it is too much of a contrast against the sepia) and painted the wing shapes, then did about 4 coats of the cream letting it dry in between.

Once I had a base ready for the wings, I used pink and yellow to color them in and outlined them in brown/black together with a fine brush.

The flowered and stripe shirt and antennas were done without having to build up like the wings. I used acrylics again and just made dots and lines. No base coats were necessary since it was only simple strokes and was just gone over once.

Buttons are dots of glitter glue with gold pulver sprinkled on to the wet glue.

Blooming Business Cards

flowers

By Karla Nathan / March 26, 2007

Art shows are coming up and I am thinking about getting ready. My favorite, is Art in the Park in May. The show has a huge community following, with a history of over 45 years, and a loyal attendance. Today, I worked on business cards to have on hand for shoppers. I am off to make color copies and then cut them out. When I get home, I think a touch of glitter would be a good idea.

Maybe I should be working on inventory for the sale. I do tend to spend a lot of time on non-money making efforts. I prefer to think of it as "atmosphere". When people come to see me, I’d like them enjoy the whole package and all the details.

Another Beautiful Day

flowers

By Karla Nathan / March 25, 2007

Today was every bit as beautiful and Springlike as yesterday, so of course, I had to plant more flowers. And waste not, want not, I couldn’t throw away the flowers that broke off in the flats! So I gathered up the few little stems and placed them in a vase that that one time was a salt shaker, and added some leaves from my St. Patrick’s Day shamrock for greenery.

Here is a group of pots I filled and sat by my breezeway door as a welcome to guests. I like to top off the pots with a handful of moss as a finishing touch. Especially this time of year, when the flowers are tiny and seem a bit lonely in a big pot.

Earlier this week, I had a good junking day with good friends. I found this lost little lamb and decided he needed to be a part of my Easter decor.

When I stopped at the craft store to get the moss for my flower pots, I saw this little chick in the 50% off aisle. I thought she should come home and be part of my Easter decor too. Over the years, since my boys have grown and gone, I haven’t set out anything for Easter. But now that I have a grand baby, I am excited to get back into the habit.

When my boys were little, I used to paint hollow eggs. Here is one with a little chick on it. I used to date them on the back, this one says 1989.

On the junking day, I found a few bunnies too. Here they are in a glass compote nestled in yellow grass. The tallest one with the violets on her back is one that I made about 25 years ago and hand painted.

Pots of Pansies

flowers

By Karla Nathan / March 24, 2007

What a beautiful day here in Lawrence, KS. I made the most of it by doing some much needed yard work, and then rewarded myself by planting some pansies. I drove around town to see who had the best bedding plants at the best prices this morning, and I hate to say it, but I bought a few flats at Wal-Mart. I usually think their flowers are saggy, but they were certainly pretty today.

Here is a photo of the front of my studio with a few pots of violas, pansies, and snapdragons. I also saw petunias for sale and thought that was odd, didn’t realize they were hardy enough to be out this early. I didn’t risk it, just in case.

One sad thing, while cleaning up the yard, I found a dead bluebird. Not a bluejay, which are pretty common, but an actual, pretty little bluebird. Even dead, he was a vibrant beauty. This might sound gross, (but if you know me you won’t be surprised that I did this) I plucked out his wing and tail feathers and saved them. The little guy will live on in a future craft project. Maybe I will make fairy wings for a vintage doll from his feathers.

Graffitti Roses

paintings

By Karla Nathan / March 22, 2007

My good friend, Angie, is going through a rough time and I wanted to do something to cheer her up. So, I snuck over to her store when it was closed and painted some dark pink roses on her front door. I almost felt like I was a vandal, but I think she’ll be happy to see them and won’t have me arrested.

Here is a close up, just a sweetly simple rose on each door panel to brighten up her entrance when she comes in to work tomorrow. I lightly roughed up the panel with sandpaper, added the roses, then topped them with a water based clear coat. They were dry and protected, and I was done in under 30 minutes. Made me think that I should take more time out of my day to do something nice to surprise a friend. Well, at least I hope she thinks it is a nice surprise and not some sort of graffitti by vandals! I didn’t sign my name just in case…..

Her store is called "My Father’s Daughter" and is an example of her romantic, wistful style and she has plenty of roses inside to go along with the ones on her door. Next time you are in Lawrence, Kansas you really should drop in to see what she has. Plus, you’d enjoy meeting her, she is about the nicest person around.

Two entries for today and something every day this week. Maybe I should have been working harder on something else and not playing online so much this week? I have enjoyed writing but can’t promise to post this often every week. Art shows to get ready for, things to list on Ebay (if I can get over my hatred of packing and shipping), house guests arriving (rooms to redo for guests!!!), gardens to plant. Hip, hip, horay, it is springtime!!!

Red Geraniums and Yellow Forsythia

paintings

By Karla Nathan / March 22, 2007

Spring’s arrival, with the Kansas wind blowing and a few little blooms starting to peek out of the backyard was a promising start to the season. Between clicking from blog to blog on the virtual tea party (see 3/21 ‘s post) and meeting lots of new blogger friends online, I spent an hour painting these two watering cans and picked some budding forsythia to place in them. A client I have done a few painting projects for over the years dropped the cans off and asked me to paint them white with red geraniums and ivy. Hope she likes them, I liked doing them. Felt like a very springy type job and made me start thinking about my upcoming garden. I think I’ll buy a few flats of pansises today, that is a flower that is safe to plant this early around here, we could still get a few frosts or freezes yet.

Spring Fling Tea Party

Food and Drink

By Karla Nathan / March 21, 2007

Welcome to the Spring Tea Party! I think it really will feel like Spring here in KS today, is supposed to be in the 70’s and I am going to cut some forsythia. Here is a tiny teacup fairy watercolor I have done, doesn’t she look like she is ready to play outside on a nice spring day after her tea party?

This photo of the breakfast nook in my kitchen was in Small Room Decorating Magazine, page 26, Nov 2006. It was taken by Bill Mathews and styled by my friend, Gloria Gale.

You can see some of my tea cup and sugar bowl collection on the shelf above the table.

Gloria and Bill did these photos too, but they have not been published yet. I wrote an article for the pictures, but don’t know which magazine it will be in or when it will show up. Sometimes, the pictures take a couple years or more before they are used! Which is hard, when I am so excited to see them when they come out! I check the newsstand at the grocery store every week, even though the editor is very nice and sends me a copy ahead of time. It is a good feeling to be flipping through pages at the store and be surprised by photos of my home.

This is the entry way to the kitchen, basically the main entrance to the home. I can’t say it is always this welcoming and set for a party, but I love it when it is. Any excuse for a party is a good reason to get my pretties out of the cabinet and use them. I don’t believe in letting my favorite things sit on the shelves and be left out.

The bright pink rose painting hanging by the door is one of my watercolors. I faux finished the walls in a wash of 3 toasty colors over ivory to warm up the room. With all the white furniture, I didn’t want too much color on the walls, but it was too blah when it was a lighter shade of cream.

My son was working for a cabinet shop when we were remodeling and he built all the beautiful cabinets for me. I added the embellishments, painted them a French vanilla, then glazed over them with a cappuccino color. Fitting and tasty colors for a kitchen!!

I tied tiny little teapots to my garage sale chandelier after painting it white (I think the last owner was a circus clown, by the color it was when I bought it). For the spring fling tea party today, I will take down one of my favorite teapots from the top of the cabinets and make Black Current tea. I am baking brownies too, and adding white chocolate M&Ms to them. Now, where have the white chocolate ones been all my life??? YUM

One last photo from Bill and Gloria’s work at my house before I go check out the virtual tea party. If you want to go to, the link is: http://www.artsymama.blogspot.com

This photo is a close up of the cake I had out for the photo shoot. I don’t bake things that turn out pretty, so I always buy a cake a the grocery and doctor it up. Then, after the pictures, we sit down together and eat it!

Wishing you a beautiful first day of Spring, and thanks to Kari at artymama for the idea of the tea party.

Author name: Karla Nathan