antiques/junking – Page 34

Teaching a Lesson

antiques/junking, Books, family, Food and Drink, give away, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 28, 2007

I had a teaching day today! It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning, painting roses with a fellow rose lover! I had set up some treats in my "dessert wardrobe" but mostly we were too busy with our paints and brushes to indulge in the cookies.

Actually I had 2 students. Gail brought her 10 year old daughter, Deja to learn how to paint a rose sign too.

I was able to get 2 done myself while demonstrating the flowers.

These are on lightweight, metal, pre-made signs. I liked working with them, it was a change from the usual old wood that I use for my signs.

While I had my brushes out, I finished Sugarwing’s purple pony that I am painting for her first birthday. I added a lot of glitter to it, so it will need quite a few more coats of poly, so the glitter won’t be sharp against her baby soft skin.

Last night while cleaning up my studio to get ready for today’s sign painting, I decorated a candle. I used bits and pieces of paper and trim that were left on the craft table from previous projects and fixed up a candle that had been on sale at Michaels for 50 cents.

What caught my eye about this candle, is that the card stock circle on the top of it, is actually a sticker. Once that circle is peeled off, instead of tossing it, it can be re-used onto something else.

So, I thought it was worth the time to glitter and foof up the cover. Then, I added some vintage trim to the jar rim, and polka dotted glitter on the jar itself.

The pretty angel image I used came from the FABULOUS estate sale that Beth and I went to this week.

My friend, Vicky, invited us to her home early to shop before she was open to the public, and she has the best stuff. She is an artist also, but extremely successful- I’m talking about a 4 story house with an elevator!!! Wow, you don’t see those in Lawrence, KS. She does beautiful work and has a similar taste in decor to me (hers is just on a grander scale).

I bought stacks and stacks of lovely old books from her, suitable for all sort of crafts and ideas. Remember the cabinet I mentioned a while back, that I said I didn’t even use for storage? I do now! It is filled with books from Vicky.

She had some pinks and whites for my kitchen. The Hull pitcher with the roses on it, was only $5.

The creamer was a gift from Beth! She gets boxes and boxes of things from auctions and sometimes brings me flowery things that aren’t her style. She brought 2 flats of goodies for me this time.

This scrap book from Vicky was FILLED with vintage images! For TWO DOLLARS! I will add some of the images to my Cottage Collage Kit giveaway that I will be drawing names for at the end of the month, too.(leave a comment to enter)

Let’s, see, what else did I get. hmmm… This cute topiary type pot (that I will glitter up and decorate for Christmas) was $2 too.

3 urns for $18 (great for storing wallpaper!), a wrought iron garden bench, and a ton of interesting terra cotta pots (that she gave to me)

And a box full of these wonderful appliques! Her whole house was trimmed out in these, everywhere, all over, even the turret. Yep, her house had a turret. Wow. My kind of sale!

I’m sure I am leaving some purchases out, I just was overwhelmed by the sale, it was all such great stuff. Check out Beth’s blog to see what she got at the sale too. http://bethleintz.typepad.com/

A Tussy Mussy Fest

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, Hand Painted Furniture, magazine pictures or articles, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 27, 2007

Thanks for all the nice comments about my $1 table. Here it is all finished. I put a dark oak stain and poly over the top to protect the paper and to age it a bit. Then I added gold rub-n-buf to the edges. I should stain the legs too, to deepen the paint color and make it richer, but I didn’t want to deal with all the spindles and carvings! I figure it is OK as it is and I kind of like the contrast with the darker top.

I can get so much done in a day, because I know how to "stop" on a project and not keep fussing with it. Sometimes OK is OK!

My buddy, Beth, http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ came over this after noon for a Tussy Mussy Fest. She was going with a Halloween theme, and made this cone with some great papers she found at Hobby Lobby.

I used all vintage wallpapers on the outside of mine, and old sheet music inside. This cone has one of my hand painted medallions on it, some vintage velvet ribbon, and millinery flowers.

Neither of us signed up for the Tussy Mussy swap, but thought it would be just as much fun to get together and make a few.

I will list these on Etsy, but might keep one just to enjoy here in the studio, they look so good on my pink glass doorknob! That knob is from Anthropology, that store can be PRICEY but has great clearance prices on hardware. I got these half price knobs for $20 each. I wouldn’t have paid $40 for them, but I sure would have thought about it!

We used party hats as a base for the Tussies, (I got a pack of 8 at the Dollar store, Beth had cool Dora the Explorer ones). She and I made cones a few years back for a magazine shoot and didn’t use party hats, it took us forever to come up with a pattern that worked.

This photo from the shoot was taken by Bill Mathews and styled by Gloria Gale. It was in Victorian Decorating, maybe 3 years ago? What a fun shoot, we made up a bunch of crafty things then went to this glorious Victorian mansion and spent the day setting up our projects for photos. The house is a museum and every time we touched something of theirs we had to wear gloves, it was a bit intimidating, but a unique place to hang out for the day!

If you are going to make a tussie mussie, I’d recommend using a party hat as a base, quicker and easier, they come out really nicely shaped, and the perfect size.

I had a teeny snippet of old wallpaper that I hated to waste. Beth quoted Pam Garrison to me, something about vintage wallpaper being too precious to waste a single scrap.

So I turned this blue scrap into a paper doll dress and made a tag out of it. I thought the shape looked like a dress when I saw it laying on my table. So I drew and cut out a little girl to put into it. (The paper doll tag is sitting on my $1 table’s painted sheet music top).

My blogging buddy, Heather, http://prettypetalsboutique.blogspot.com/ ordered a couple of my medallions from Etsy! She was one of the first people I met when I started blogging and was so helpful to me, I wanted to send her a little thank you with her order. I made a tag for her, and a mini card to go in the package too. I used one of the legal letters from 1917, isn’t the handwriting pretty? I think is says something about past due taxes, but we’ll ignore that part.

My studio is back to normal-so messy and piled up with stuff I can’t find anything!

Before Beth arrived and the Tussie Mussie Fest began, I was painting a rocking horse for Sugarwing’s birthday. I got it at a garage sale for $2 and am painting it her favorite colors, with flowers and butterflies. It is almost done, I am a quick painter. I’d say I’ll have maybe 2 hours into the project.

I can’t believe my baby will be a year old already. I wanted to make something for her and start a birthday tradition. It will be nice to make a gift every year, then add some money to a savings account we will hold for her till college. I hate to buy too many toys, or clothes that she doesn’t really need.

(yes, I just posted another bad photo of myself)

After the Tussie Mussie Fest, Beth and I went to an AMAZING sale, then came back home for a Panera Bread style tomato salad (with herbs and tomatoes from my garden) and some grilled chicken that I had been marinating while we crafted and shopped. Not a bad day. She even stopped to buy a loaf of Panera bread to go with the salad.

I still have some cones to fiddle around with and add prettys to, and a car to unload. Oh my, you wouldn’t believe this sale we were at! It will be so much fun to unload this stuff!!!!

Maybe I’ll find something cool in my new goods to add to the Cottage Collage Kit giveaway- leave a comment to enter, I’ll be drawing a name in a few days.

White paint, and a White Dorky

a lapse of memory again, or am I just careless?, antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), give away, Hand Painted Furniture, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 25, 2007

My blog buddy, Natasha http://natashaburns.blogspot.com/ let me know that I messed up on the swap amount AGAIN. It isn’t 2 cards, she reminded me, then the next day, she had to remind me again, it isn’t 4 cards and two tags, it is 4 each. So, I made an extra tag today for her and I am sending it off to Australia as a thanks to her.

I got to play with power tools today! I had to make some signs to paint, so was cutting up some boards I had stored (they used to be my garage! It was the first garage built in the county, ages ago, I HAD to save the boards when we demolished the old building!!)

While I was outside painting boards, I decided to prime and base coat a bunch of things:

4 windows to make into signs

a just her size chair and a little rocking horse for Sugarwings

2 Victorian chairs

a table

a cabinet

and those signs that I cut with the jigsaw

Poor Twinks wasn’t as much of a help as she thought! (see why I call her a Dorkie?)

She ran as fast as she could for the house, and into the breezeway, but got very little paint in there. We got out the hose and sprayed her (and the breezeway) off.

(oh oh looks like I could use my roots touched up soon- why do I show such bad photos of myself???)

There isn’t much to her when she is wet.

I have even more paint on me than Twinks had in her fur. But I always look this way, I have a bad habit of wiping my brush on my clothes, so I pretty much either ruin all my clothes, or just get dressed in paint clothes every day.

A table that I had bought at a garage sale for $1 last month had bad veneer on the top, so after priming and base coating it today, I covered the top in sheet music.

I found some that says "Moonlight and Roses" and "Love is a Rose", so I painted some roses over the music paper. It isn’t done yet, here is sneak peek.

ArtsyMama is having another party! Her tea party on May Day was so fun for me, my first real time to dive into blog world and meet people. Can’t wait for this one, we are asked to give tutorials of projects, so I think I will do one on how to paint furniture. It will be on August 8.

SIX DAYS LEFT TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY- JUST LEAVE A COMMENT AND YOU ARE IN!

I am slightly crazy about these medallions

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, give away, how to's, paintings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 24, 2007

Another wonderful day- almost 12 hours of uninterrupted studio time! That rarely happens, even for me and I am supposedly, a full time artist.

I got these 3 leather covered books last week when I went estate sale shopping with Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/. I knew they could be good projects, and they cost me under $5 for all three.

Today I turned them into this-

Some vintage wall paper, rub-n-buf, glue, glitter, roses and ribbons and they are all "Silver Bella-ed Up".

I was inspired by the Marie Antoinette Swap that is going on this summer (I didn’t sign up for that one, but loved the look of it). That movie was so spectacular. I still day dream about the colors and pictures in it.

This one is actually a box made to look like a book. The inside was already so pretty, I just added some silver trim over the dark book binding tape and a rose medallion over the hole I punched in the outside of the lid to attach a button shaped crown.

I used one of my anaglyptic wallpaper medallions to glue a rose picture to, cut it out and glued it down. (I used one on the front of the other book too)

I bought quite a few rolls of the wallpaper border for 99 cents each at Goodwill. They’ll make such great projects! I love the medallions, there are so many ways to use them!

Today I glazed some of the paper pink and some umber, then added hand painted pictures to the center of each oval.

I have been seeing the cutest cupcakes every where I look and thought I’d try painting a few. But mostly I painted roses, they will always be my favorite and I can paint those with my eyes closed by now.

I like the way the glaze shows off the texture of the paper.

I made some note cards with a few of the center medallions. There was a box of Christmas cards in a cute shape on clearance at Michaels for $1. They were ugly as they were, so I am gluing my own stuff over their ugly picture. I liked the scalloped edge that they have and I added hole punches to accent the scallops. Then I painted a little green vine down the side.

With this note card, I cut the oval out of the wallpaper, I didn’t use the whole strip. Then I put it down over some vintage wallpaper and added velvet ribbon.

On this oval, I painted a teeny ballerina and made a tag with her. This is one of the giant 8" x 4′ tags that I got cases of at a garage sale. (I’m putting some in my Cottage Collage Kits)

Did I mention that I am totally enamored with this wallpaper??

For this tag, I glued part of an old typed letter in the oval, and added a picture and itty bitty millinery flower over it.

The medallions can be used in so many ways. I will be sticking them everywhere.

I have some for sale on Etsy too, as well as most of the projects I made today, if you don’t see something you like over there, feel free to ask me about it.

I used another one to make a card for my Christmas in July swap partner http://loveofyellowroses.blogspot.com/ (oops, I forgot it was 4 cards, 2 tags!! My friend, Natasha http://natashaburns.blogspot.com/ reminded me).

So I whipped up a couple more cards and some tags for her, and then tweaked the two I made yesterday that were TOO YELLOW. I used some gold and walnut stamp ink to age the edges and that helped. I think they’ll be OK.

Everyone was so nice with their comments and encouragement about the cards, thanks.

That can’t be all I did today, I was in my studio for about 12 hours straight. The day flew by, but it seems like I should have more to show for it!

I guess I painted a heck of a lot of these little ovals. Did I mention how crazy I am about them? I think I might have, and you might be sick of hearing it by now.

But if you aren’t sick of them, I’ll include a painted oval in my give away as part of the COTTAGE COLLAGE KIT drawing for July. Leave a comment (as often as you’d like) to enter.

Another Art Doll Hat and Gloppy Purse Fairy

antiques/junking, fairies, how to's, how-to projects, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 21, 2007

The Art Doll Hat for the swap hosted by http://craftingbycandlelight.blogspot.com/ was fun to work on today. It is very different than the one I made for Sis in our private swap.

But both have the same base- a party hat in holographic paper, gold for Sissy and silver for my swap partner http://jenniferconway.blogspot.com/.

Jennifer has a wonderful site and makes the coolest crows. I don’t do crows, but I added a bird to her doll, hoping she’d like it.

I can’t send it to her until I get an exacto knife and clean up those messy arms. My scissors were too bulky.

I have a lot of these party hats left, I might make some angels to use for Christmas tree toppers.

I also made a purse fairy from one of the tiny perfume bottles Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ gave to me in our supplies swap.

My first step was to pour glue into the bottom of the bottle, then shake glitter inside it.

Next, I glued a 1" high picture down onto some background paper, and cut her out. That way, her back is attractive too, and she is more sturdy, with the 2 layers of paper. I left a strip of paper at her feet as a base.

I found a crystal bead that was small enough to fit through the opening of the bottle, and wrapped the paper base around the bead, glued it to the bead, then wrapped the base in silver ribbon and glued that down.

Now she can stand up and has a weighted bottom.

I cut butterfly shaped wings out of the same paper I had used on the back of the lady, and glittered them, bent them into a V shape and glued them to her back.

I carefully, without creasing her, folded her over and poked her through the opening to the bottle after adding glue to the bottom of the bead so it would stick to the inside of the bottle. I used a paint brush handle to adjust the fairy once she was inside, and used the brush to poke in some teeny little vintage flowers that had a drop of glue on each.

To foof up the plastic lid, I wrapped and glued a strip of the same paper I used on the fairy’s back onto the side of the lid.

A vintage button topped with a pearl bead was glued to the top.

And now I have a fairy that will always be with me wherever I go. I think I glopped enough glue into that bottle, that it will be secure, that is, if it ever dries! I’ll leave the lid off a while, maybe a week or two??

ps- you can still enter the giveaway for July by leaving a comment

Mini Spa Day at Home for the New Mom

antiques/junking, Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, family, flowers, Food and Drink, give away, parties, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 20, 2007

What a nice day! We had a fun Mini Spa Day at home for my niece to celebrate her baby’s two week birthday, then I got to work in the studio, and now my husband is back from his business trip. And I was smart enough to make up extra Cordon Bleu for lunch today and don’t have to cook tonight!

I didn’t actually get to make things today, but I did bundle up some Aqua Themed Cottage Collage Kits for Etsy and got them listed ($14).

And I played with my new purchases from my estate sale shopping with Beth. This vintage wallpaper was being used as shelf paper in a cabinet in a basement, I pulled it out and got 3 large pieces for ONE DOLLAR!!

Velvet ribbons, rick rack, buttons, a sequins all came from the same basement. I added the green ribbon and the mother of pearl button, with a vintage flower to the top of the little jar full of sequins. That is about as creative as I got today, mostly it was unpacking, and packing and finding new homes for everything.

All of these little rhinestone earrings will make pretty snow flakes for Christmas projects and look at these tiny Button Crowns!!!!!!! Oh, I see a Silver Bella project in their future.

And this little clear button is a Scotty, but it is awful close to looking like a Dorky. I never find Dorkies!! The world is filled with Stupid Scotty dogs tho. Oh well, this is cute and like I said, almost a Dorky!

Twinks has claimed the feather pillows as her own. They were only $2 each, that is pretty cheap for a dog bed, but they sure are pretty. Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ says they should go into a hammock. Well, I don’t have one, but it is a good idea.

And look at this rug- I have always wanted one of these. I paid a bit more than I usually spend when out shopping, but it sure is a lot less than buying a new rug at a "real" store or even buying an old one at an antique store. This one is 10′ x 6′ and was $75. Ooh, that makes me cringe to admit I spent that much.

There were 3 of these brass lady-stake things, I only bought 1, for $2. I should have got all three, but was spending like a fool already. Now why did I think that another $4 would break me??

I like it in the flower pot. I don’t know what it is really for, but she seems content in the rose moss.

I found a bunch of ric racs and ribbons for a total of $4.50, quite a few rhinestone buttons for $1, got this cute aqua colored card for only 50 cents, and the trash can was $1.50.

You can’t beat shopping in the basements and garages of estate sales! That is where the sellers put the stuff they think is junk and not worth much.

These leather covered booklet thingys are cute, the one on the right is actually a box, the left one is a note pad, and the middle is a funeral home booklet. All three were $4. I can see all sorts of possibilities with them.

The prettiest pretty of them all today, was Madison Catherine. She is 2 weeks old and seemed to be enjoying her party. We all got to hold her while her mom soaked in the tub.

I lit some candles for the new mom, got out scented lotions and tossed some pink rose petals into the jacuzzi.

I set up a special chair for Brooke to sit in for lunch, and tied up the back of it with a bundle of flowers I got in my first swap from Karin at http://www.creativechaos.typepad.com/

We ate salads with feta, cranberries and almonds, then had cordon bleu with spinach fettuccine and a side of broccoli. (the broccoli got mushy but the rest of the meal was good)

The new grandma brought a Tiramisu, who needs broccoli when you can have that?!! I picked a gladiola from the garden for Grandma Gladys who loved Brooke so much and would have loved to see her baby. She was with us in spirit today.

Brooke wore the crown I received in the tiara swap from Barb at http://www.123lavenderlollipoplane.blogspot.com/.

I have one more thing to list on Etsy, then I am going in to have a plate of leftover cordon bleu. I wish I had leftovers everyday, man I hate to cook dinner.

Please leave a comment if you want to enter the drawing for a Cottage Collage Kit!

A Bounty From Beth, Baubles and Blooms

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, flowers, jewelry, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 19, 2007

Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ had so many great things for me today in our swap!!!! Old wallpapers, a cool box full of stuff, pictures, post cards, a how to paint roses book (love it) a scrapbook, old lace rolled up on a clothes pin, cards, Valentines, and three mini bottles to decorate. She suggested I make "purse fairies" to put in them, so I’ll always have a fairy with me.

And look! Old photos of lovely ladies!

I know I tend to go on about being a Lucky Person, but I do think I am lucky to have a friend like Beth. Not only does she have cool stuff (and she shares it)- we can talk for hours about anything or nothing and have a great time together.

When we are old, we’ll still be buddies like these guys.

I’m afraid we didn’t get around to making our Silver Bella projects today, we got caught up in Estate Sales in Kansas City and couldn’t stop.

I bought these two necklaces that are along the lines of what I collect. I rarely find them for such good prices anymore, so don’t buy very often, these were $20 and $25! (they are sitting on a table that I faux finished)

So, we got to talking about jewelry, (along with gossiping about our blog friends and what they are all doing and who said what and who showed what on their site this week).

Beth showed me these pieces that she got from her Grandma. Even better, hers are sentimental. But, I have never seen her wear them, she isn’t a jewel person.

I, on the other hand, AM a jewel person! Love the old stuff, or hand made things from old pieces. Here are some I pieced together myself with old bits that I collect.

I really like this green one, but I never wear green. Sometimes I wear the necklace with a black tee shirt and jeans since I don’t own green clothes.

The pink Chzeck glass necklace is the first I bought, and it is just as I found it, didn’t need any redoing at all. It is my favorite and started the whole obsession with these glass stones. I wear this one all the time, it seems to match everything I have!! When I bought it, I was worried that I had spent too much, and felt bad about buying something so expensive for myself for no reason, and 20 years later, I am still wearing it, and am so glad I got it! And it wasn’t that much, only $45, but at the time, that was quite extravagant and I almost didn’t get it. All of the others cost under $30.

Sissy gave me the round purple pieces that I used to make the chain for this one. She made earrings for me from them too, and they are my one of my favorite things. I don’t own purple clothes either, but I do wear this color jewelry a lot with white or black tee shirts (I have boring clothes).

These two I bought at a flea mkt this spring, and will probably clean up and sell instead of keep. I have plenty! And I work at home, and usually wear paint clothes, so don’t always have a place to go to wear jewelry.

Although I did have somewhere to go tonight! I was invited to a Lawrence Art Guild party at a friend’s house.

She had the most beautiful, wild, rambling gardens!

I spent some time chasing down this butterfly.

Pam has a funky old wooden ladder that she uses to brace her holly hocks.

I loved the chaos of the garden, it all seemed so natural and unplanned, but she has a degree in horticulture, so I do think that she spent time planning it!

We had a nice evening of sipping wine, exploring the gardens (oh there are lots more than these!) and talking art with friends.

There’s No Place Like Home, but Okoboji isn’t bad

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, flowers, give away, Sugarwings, Travel, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 16, 2007

It feels good to be back in Kansas!

We are back from our family reunion at Fellenwarth Beach, Lake Okoboji, Iowa. I felt like I took a trip back in time, or was on the set of Dirty Dancing at the Kellerman Lodge! This place was built in that era and has been updated, but still had that old fashioned feel. (but no Patrick Swayse, drat)

There was the cutest little amusement park next door, called Arnold’s Park. Sugarwings rode on her first carousel horsey and her Uncle Ryan won a prize for her in the bottle toss.

She had her first taste of ice cream.

At first she wasn’t sure what to think, and the cold didn’t make her very happy.

But once the flavor hit her taste buds, she decided Ice Cream is the best!!!

It wasn’t the cheapest place to stay, and I’m afraid that we made it even worse by pulling our boat up there, along with my BIL bringing his boat. If the nation experiences a huge gas shortage this week, it is because we used it all up in those two trucks. We could have spent a week in Florida at the beach for what we spent on a long weekend in Iowa.

But seeing relatives from all over the country made it worth it. It was great to be there for Little Joan’s 75th birthday (oh, and she liked the photo album I put together for her.)

I snuck away with baby brother, Randy and his husband, Kevin for a bit and we did some junking. Both of them are avid antiquers and that Kevin has a great eye and so much knowledge about what he sees. I just look for what is pretty, he knows values, and the history of what we come across.

I only had an hour or so to shop and there were SO MANY antique places up there. I was hoping to take more time junking, but just couldn’t be selfish during family time. But I did find lots of cool old papers, this album full of anniversary cards was $8, the kids books were $2, the kitten post card with glass eyes (how cool is that??) was $1.

I found a few other little pretties,

the white dog salt shaker- $2
shell vase $1
an oval frame with a German die cut cherub – $4 (and I seem to have packed that away somewhere in the vast luggage that isn’t unpacked yet)
But my best find, was these two cardboard courthouse record keepers, from 1917-1930.

They were jammed packed with correspondence, typewritten, and hand written!!

I’ll be adding some of these pages to the July Cottage Collage Kit giveaway. There are some wonderful pieces in the boxes, I can’t wait to have time to sift through them all. (the boxes were $15 each, but I was only going to buy one and then my BILs surprised me with a second one, how sweet)

Back to normal life, houseguests are gone, the vacation is over. I have so much unpacking to do and errands to run.

I went to the store to get soap to do up the mountain of laundry I brought back from Iowa, returned our books on tape that we listened to on the drive, and of course had to get some of the $1.99 bunches of flowers that are on sale every Monday. And Peaches were on sale for 88 cents lb. If they are good, I’ll go get more and make a pie or two.

Then, I swung by the Vet’s office to get my pile of Dorkies, and all of us worked outside, watering the garden and flowers. The little dorkies are all as happy to be home as I am!!

Where is all the stuff hiding???

antiques/junking, give away, Hand Painted Furniture, how to's

By Karla Nathan / July 11, 2007

My fairy grand baby has loved meeting her Wyoming cousins, and we are all looking forward to the rest of the week together up at Lake Okoboji in Iowa. I probably won’t be posting for a few days, I’ll check in if I can, but most likely won’t have access. You can still enter my drawing if you want to leave a comment, you can enter to win a Cottage Collage Kit, with vintage papers and other pretties.

People have been asking me what I do with all my stuff in the studio when I set up the room for a family reunion.

I hide it all!

This little silver metallic colored wash stand that I painted is full of doll making supplies and trims, the cosmetic case is more lace and doiles, and the wicker basket holds all my original greeting cards. (this piece was free, Beth, http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ gave it to me and I fixed it up.)

And of course, all these baskets are full of supplies too.

I have all my jewelry making goods in the (free from my niece) wardrobe drawers, with mosaic materials in the side door of it.

Drawing and collage supplies are on the shelves ($15 at a garage sale, then I repainted)- and you really don’t want to see behind that screen! ($3 at at garage sale) That area is where the avalanche of junk is hiding.

My sewing machine is in this cute little $5 cabinet that I painted and added a ceiling tin top and a wooden wreath to, and the candy dish is full of seed packets. (and that is my typewriter sitting on the shelf, not sure what I am going to do with it yet)

Two sets of Home Depot basic cabinets ($50 each) are stacked up and placed back to back then filled with more and more junk.

This is all scrap booking goods packed away into these drawers. The dresser was $20 at an auction, it didn’t have a bottom drawer, but I like it this way. I used to keep a tv on top and the video equipment on the open space.

I have stuffed this french vanilla painted wardrobe (that I paid $15 for and rebuilt) full of vintage fabrics and water color supplies. There are more fabrics in the German trunk above it. I don’t really sew, but I sure am a sucker for gorgeous old fabric. Someday….

This glass doored hutch holds some inventory that I am eventually going to sell. I thought I’d set it out and enjoy it until I found new homes for it, instead of storing it in boxes. (This hutch was only $50 at an auction!)

You probably won’t believe this, but this narrow chimney cabinet is empty! Not a thing in it, but I did cover the shelves in old paper, then glaze them in umber, and edge them in vintage lace.

I paid $5 for it at a garage sale, but don’t really need it. I just have a soft spot for storage pieces and cabinets!

This buffet sits near the head of the table, but has nothing to do with food service. It is full of fairies and fairy houses that I made, and vintage jewelry. (it was $75, but needed work too)

So, this room isn’t perfectly set up as a dining room, it still has a studio feel to it, but I really can seat a lot of people at tables in the center of the room, and it is nice to be able to all sit together even if we are surrounded by inventory and supplies!

I’m off to start the dishwasher again. I didn’t have to cook tonight, my brother-in-law made chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes and black bean salad! I had 2nds.

I contributed a carrot cake from a mix, that I dumped a can of mandarin oranges, red grape raisins, flax seed, sunflower seeds, extra brown sugar, cream cheese, yogurt and an extra egg into. I kind of cook like I craft, off the top of my head and what ever sounds good at the moment.

I decided what to offer for the July Giveaway!

antiques/junking, Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, fairies, family, give away, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 9, 2007

Well, we have a houseful of people, kids, and dogs (Twinkle is still being "trained" by Luke), so I am not able to do any craft or art work. But I did manage to put together a few more Cottage Collage Kits (or scrap packs) to sell on Etsy.

Here you can see Twinks getting a lesson in going down the blow up slide in the wading pool. Luckily, she seems to be enjoying all of the so called "dog training". Her feet haven’t touched the ground since the kids arrived.

This visit has been so busy, that we all forgot that we were supposed to have an ice cream buffet last night!! There is a lot going on, when kids forget ice cream!

Once the kids were tucked in, and the guys were settled into a card game, I went to the studio to play with paper (my cleaned up studio!)

I made up bundles with over 30 items in them, including sheet music, vintage wallpaper, copies of my art, pages from old books, a page from a steno manual, a millinery flower, some posies, old buttons, vintage gift wrap, and on and on.

Its so fun to pick through my stash and try to find goodies I think someone might enjoy using.

This tone on tone wallpaper is actually silk.

Anyway, I listed 6 of these on Etsy last night for $14 each. I got to thinking, that maybe a similar one would also be a good giveaway for July. So, if you are interested in a variety mix of a Cottage Collage Kit, leave me a comment and I will enter you in the drawing at the end of the month.

Here is one of the old wallpapers, pretty, huh?

These are from packs I made last week with a blue theme, that have already sold out.

I’ll be sifting through my goodie cabinets and finding some pretties to add to the giveaway, when I get a nice packet together, I’ll show a photo.

Now, I’d better go and see how Twinkle’s training is going!