Books – Page 11 – Karla's Cottage

Faerie Book Swap and free fairy images

By Karla Nathan / June 17, 2012

(click pictures to open in a larger window, save to your computer to print)

Do you LOVE fairies? We do around here. Of course, its probably because I have a couple of living, breathing, little fairy kids running around pretending to be human grand children.

And of course, there are teensy fairies elves in my gardens, and guardian fairies watching over the house. Not to mention all the woodland fey habitating the Fairy Berry Trail out in our woods.

Fairies come in all shapes, sizes, occupations, styles, and forms. Naughty little trouble makers, angelic helpers, wild and wonderful tree dwellers, water nymphs, and of course the springtime sprites who paint all the pretty flowers to welcome the new season.

And I am delighted by all of them.

If you are too, maybe you'd like to join our swap in honor of the capricious, flittery creatures who are so illusive and lovely?

This is a little different than past swaps I have hosted. This time we'll be by passing tags and using half sheets of standard 8-1/2 x 11" card stock. (Or your choice of materials, cut to approximately this size) The theme is so special, that I wanted to do a "real" book instead of tags.

I will provide a front and back cover, with vintage papers, and my own art work, coordinate 8 pages to send back to you, ring bind the books, add ribbons and a fairy charm.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Here are the guidelines, if you'd like to join:

The theme is fairy, any interpertation you'd like
Size is 5-1/2" wide, 8-1/2" tall (approximately) A bit smaller, larger will work.
Please use card stock, or something sturdy. Please feel free to be creative and use other materials (cloth, felt, tin, chipboard, etc), just nothing too flimsy like plain copy paper.
Make 8 pages front and back, (the back can be simple but please at least cover it in pretty paper, not leave it blank) So that means 8 pages/16 sides total
Sign each page, add your blog name if you have one
LEAVE ONE INCH ALONG THE LEFT HAND SIDE FLAT, no 3-D items along the edge, so I can punch holes. Decorate the crap out of the rest of the page and goober it up as thick as you'd like, but please leave the left 1" for me to bind!
Email karlanathan@sbcglobal.net with your info to join. Please include:

Your first and last name
Your blog name and URL (you don't need to have a blog to participate)
Your email address

Deadline

Tags should be to me by September 1, 2012

In your package, include:

Your first and last name, same as you provided at sign up
A slip of paper with your name, and address, if your mailing address name does not match the first and last name you provided, please alert me
$20 fee for USA, $25 for overseas (these will probably weigh about one pound or so per book)

Here is a button you can post on your blog for the swap.

I look forward to seeing the piles of pretty pixie pages flying into my cottage!

Mail your sprite-ish art to:

KARLA NATHAN

1754 E 1200 RD

LAWRENCE, KS 66049

Faerie Swap Book Update, And an explanation of the costs

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.

Special friends and a special day

Books, celebrations, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), parties, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 12, 2012

Before I left for my North Carolina adventure, I had a little party for some special friends. Kecia, who I met at Tiffanys in CA is on quite an adventure herself. A two month plus trek across the country, hop scotching from one friend, family member, junk shop, to another. She stopped to see me here at the cottage on her way across I70.

And my beautiful friend, Angie, was having a birthday. Two reasons to celebrate!

You know me, it doesn't take much to convince me its time for a party. I love any excuse to set the table and invite friends over.

And with two special occasions, I was raring to go.

I stole my buddy, Carol's tip about using vintage wallpaper as a table runner. And I just happened to have a few rolls to choose from…

Angie had another very important celebration, she is a first time grammie as of a few days ago! So, I broke out the extra special, hoarded, fairytale wall paper from the 20s and made a frame for her to put a baby picture in.

Instead of just having a dinner party, I invited everyone to come for the afternoon and have craft day too, and friends dropped by here and there for whatever time they could make it. Some just for craft day, some just for dinner.

My favorite way to spend a day. Good friends, good conversation and stuff to make!!

I'm still hooked on slopping modelling paste on my collages. So, I made some books with covers all textured up. (this one is in the Boutique)

On this one, I collaged the back too, but instead of texture, I dry brushed paint over the collage, then inked it a bit.

This book needs a slight re-do. I've filled it with pages and pages of old papers, and they are too delicate to turn with ribbon ties. I have to add some rings instead.

Here is the back of this one.

IIt will be a while before I burn out on this technique, I'm super into smooshing the modelling paste around over pretty papers!

Dew Drop's mommy, our Gypsy, made a journal this way too, Beth worked on some stiitching, the other Karla was doing needlepoint, Shanna had some painting to do in an enamelling project, and Angie was foofing up vintage bottles with messages and trinkets.

The great thing about craft day, is that everyone works at their own pace on whatever they feel like, and the conversation flows here, there, and everywhere.

Kecia arrived later in the day, and said she had not had a chance to create while on her trip, so I set her up with supplies to make a book too. I love the layers she put on her cover.

After dinner, when the other guests had gone, she and I went back out to the studio and worked till after midnight finishing our books.

Twinkle bonded with her, and we will both miss her, the visit was much too short!

What once was lost and a giveaway

antiques/junking, Books, give away, I do tend to run on, don't I?, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / June 3, 2012

While cleaning up the studio for a mini redo, I came across some art journals I'd made a LONG time ago and forgotten about.

It started by cleaning the garage and coming across this buffet I'd forgotten about. After our kitchen remodel, I'd stashed it out there and it was buried under a pile of stuff my son was storing. I don't know why I didn't move it into the studio in the first place instead of leaving it to the spiders and dust in the garage for 9 months, its perfect in my work space.

The hutch had been sitting on a table previously. I switched the two out, then returned the hutch and all the stuff in it. The table is now in the garage with the spiders and I have an empty cabinet waiting to be filled up with more crap from garage sales treasures.(so I can lose them in the chaos too, like the art journals and the buffet. Who loses a buffet anyway? Does that mean I have waaaayyy too much junk?)

Back to the journals… I found a couple of them, and they are now listed in the Boutique.

One is filled with ephemera pages, and the other is a heavy canvas art paper, that I bought at an estate sale, kinda vintagey, not real old. But just perfect for a journal.

Um, I hate to admit it, but I found some other stuff packed away and forgotten too. Stacks of extra covers from the Birdsong tag book swap last year.

Plus a few extra tags I'd made while I was on a roll with the theme.

So I made up a couple of tag books and listed those too. And listed those in the Boutique under the Altered Books category, which had been empty for quite a while.

This art journal is in there now too, its a recent creation and was made from Beth's stash of goods, not mine.

I was at her house for craft day and was at a loss for a project.

She handed me a chipboard book and a box of paper and I did the basic pages for this, then embellished it when I got home.

(I have another project to show you from her stash too. I'll post it later this week. It was done with just what I could reach from my chair and not have to get up. I have to say, I could have gone on for years with this and not made a dent in the supply!)

She has great old papers piling up in her studio. This was in her box of odds and ends. I love the cracks from age.

When I listed this last book, I included a bagful of OLD goodies from my stash to finish it with, and am selling it as a kit.

Slowly but surely, I'll be filling the Boutique back up, and maybe, just maybe, I'll tend to the poor little neglected Etsy shop too.

But maybe not, I'm going out of town again this week.

Hopefully, I'll get more in the shop before I go. All purchases after Tuesday will be mailed when I get back.

I'll have fresh blog posts up for all week while I'm gone. And a chance to win this college I made when Beth and I practiced her class for Birdsong.

Leave a comment on any (or all posts) and I'll draw a name after I get back, probably on Sat. the 16th.

In the Land of $3 Hats

antiques/junking, Books, flowers

By Karla Nathan / April 3, 2012

Last week, I got to spend a day with three good friends. We hit the road and went on a junk-a-thon. In the past, this was a regular occurrence with us, but somehow we'd gotten away from the habit and realized it had been about 3 years since we got away for a day long junkin trip.

Life and families might get in the way sometimes, but a solid friendship will hold up and be waiting for you when things settle down. With small kids, some scary cancer issues, and just every day life, we haven't had time for day long play dates, but we all know we will be there for each other and ready to share a good time even if all we can manage is a chat and a cup of coffee together here and there.

A whole day to hunt treasure is a treasure in itself, and it was sure nice.

We drove up to St. Joe, MO and I found a hat or two at each store we hit. I whispered up a few really affordable deals. Its not often that I find $3 ones. Not all were that cheap, of course, but even a couple at that price was pretty exciting and I might have peed a little bit when I saw them. But, then again, I'm getting old, so that doesn't take much.

The rose pattern barkcloth was a good find too, I'm considering making cushions for the bench in the breezeway with this. One panel was a bit damaged, so was only $15, but I got the one in perfect condition too, and thought $26 wasn't bad for it either.

Its roses! And barkcloth!

For only 2 bucks, I got this Audrey charm, its under bevelled glass, and is going to be just what I need for my trip to see my buddy Kim, at her Tiffany's event. I'm not going all out on the theme, but a black dress, some pearls and this pendant will make me feel like I fit in. I've got the pearls from my Great Aunt Caroline.

Not so sure about the black dress. Hmmm, I think I'll be happier in black jeans and a tee shirt.

I've not had much time to think about it, and probably won't. Her big shindig is a few days after my lil Birdsong party. So, I'll be thinking about birdies and my own to-do up till its time to pack and head to LA. I'll be lucky to even remember to pack my new pendant, let alone look for a black dress.

These baskets were from an earlier junking trip, at least a year ago. I finally added them to the Boutique, almost in time for Easter projects. Seriously, I need to be up on the holidays a bit better. No, a lot better. If I had a lick of sense, I'd have been trying to push these way back in February for those of you who do plan ahead and need supplies.

Cute, aren't they? I have a few pairs of them listed, all are mini baskets, vintage and made in Japan.

There are a couple more new things there too. Not many, but more than I told myself I'd add. I'm supposed to be working on getting ready for Birdsong! But between day trips, grand fairies, yard work, dinner parties, and discovering how fantastic the Hunger Games are, I'm behind.

But if you've read any of the books, or seen the movie, I'm sure you will understand. Katniss Everdeen is an addiction that you can't beat! I'm near the end of book 3, and had to rush out to see the movie as soon as I finished the first one.

I've also had some other projects going. This one about kicked my butt. Its a giant banner that I am painting, and its not the paint part that got me. My original job was as a muralist, and I've painted 60 foot murals with no problem. But this one was complicated because its on fabric, and had to be hemmed and ironed.

I can scale scaffolding and paint a huge wall over a hotel swimming pool without even planning or sketching first. But battling a sewing machine and an ironing board while swallowed up in 13 feet of canvas? I don't even think that my hero, Katniss, would deal well with that.

Finishing up my Round Robin Pages

bird song art event, Books, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 28, 2012

Most of the pages I made for our Round Robin book, are "low color". But every now and then, I slipped in some floral tones, just because I thought it needed a little something. This page for Beth, is a tissue pattern paper background, glued down nice and wrinkly, then rubbed with an ink pad.

A ruffle of pattern paper was glued across the top, and a swath of lace was added near the bottom of the page. The B for Beth is drawn in glitter, onto a very old, hand written letter in French. I centered it inside a post card, with a circle cut out, layered it onto text from an old sewing magazine from the 20s that I'd covered a tag with.

The ribbons hanging down have glass buttons tied to a couple of their ends.

The theme of the Round Robin was "Her Life in Stitches", and I simply don't sew. All of my pages are glued, while the other women spent time doing lovely stitch work. I tried to use the theme by incorporating some sort of sewing item on each page. I tended to rely on buttons, lace, and ribbons quite a bit, I'm afraid.

Beth is one of the few people I've known who uses both sides of her brain to the fullest. How many ultra artistic accountants do you know? Her head is quite ambidextrous.

So, I thought I'd show both sides of her in her pages, creative and pretty stuff along with the business side.

This one has an envelope and report cards from a business college and is dated 1918. The background is a great old, gold leaf wallpaper.

There are layers of lace, ruffled ribbon, and a bejeweled hem from an old dress, along with a selection of buttons.

The back is kind of plain. Grey wallpaper, with a strip of the gold leaf paper, some lace and a pretty Victorian card.

Since the books all need to be sent off to Somerset soon, (how exciting!!) I hurried and made a few pages up for each person in the swap. All the pages were done in the same day, so a lot of the ideas and supplies were duplicated, but none were exactly the same. Everyone got an initial, Sandra's is done in pearls.

Lisa's too.

My own initials went on the inside of the back cover of my book. Since I'm not a sewer, my book is dedicated to my Mom, who was. Her photo is on both the front and back covers. Under her picture, I layered a page from a journal that I'd found that was signed, "Martha something Downey".

Mom's name was Martha Downey! Not that common of a name, especially with the "e" in Downey. I used the bottom of her photo to cover up the incorrect middle name.

Another unifying element in the pages I made the other day, is this jeweled and beaded fabric. I bought a flapper style dress that was encrusted with beads and rhinestone trim for only 12 bucks! I think everyone who was shopping at the antique mall heard my squeal when I came across that gem. It was tattered and falling apart, so that took all the guilt out of chopping it to pieces.

For this pocket, I cut around the beading pattern, then glued it to a matching piece of card stock.

Its attached to a background of white, flocked wallpaper. When I make a pocket, I always run a bead of glue along the bottom and sides, right at the edges, then slightly bunch it up, before pressing it into place. The bunching gives it a bit of a pouch effect, so that you can put items into it easier. Its not all that noticeable, just enough to be useful.

To fit the stitches theme, I slipped a dress form tag into the pocket. The tag is one that I made for my dress form tutorial, the class is about making a miniature dress form to decorate, but I also included patterns for collage too.

Sandra got a similar pocket from the glorious, gemstone encrusted, dazzling dress.

The tag I added to this pocket is a regular shipping tag, spritzed with two shades of Glimmer Mist, then inked around the edges. I glued a high fashion lady cut from a very old magazine onto it, added some ribbons.

Its been such fun to be a part of this swap and have a different book arrive each month in the mail. I'll miss being a part of it.

Other fun stuff has been coming in the mail too. Laurie Jackson offered to be a Birdsong Two sponsor, not just once,

but twice!

Two boxes full of goodies for my "Peeps" attending our workshop/party in April came from her this week.

Laurie took the time to actually create little gifts for all of the women, plus gave them some vintage goodies to work with, and packaged them up really cute.

But that wasn't the end of it, she also asked the author of this book, that she collaborated on, to send a copy for each lady! I can't wait to peek into one. I can always use some selling tips. I wonder if one of them, is to get off your behind and get busy and do it, not just talk about filling the shop up?

If you'd like to be a sponsor, please let me know, the ladies will be thrilled to open their gift bags.

Or if you'd like to attend, we have three spaces open. There were only two, but due to an illness, one chick had to leave the nest.

Arietty is so Pretty

antiques/junking, Books, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 26, 2012

My friend, Lisa, told me that she was so excited about a movie coming out about the Borrowers, her favorite book from childhood. I vaguely remembered the book, and took another look at it, she was right, its such a fantastic story. I think it spoke to me more as an adult than it did as a kid. I'm trying to read it to Sugarwings, but the fact that it is based in England years ago, makes the language a little too difficult for her.

She held up all of her fingers and told me to read it to her again when she was that many.

But I took her to the movie as soon as it opened and now she rates Arietty right up there with Ariel and Dorothy as her favorite heroines. And I agree. The movie was so beautifully done, I couldn't get enough of the artwork. Even Sugarwings, as lost in the story as she was, kept pointing out how pretty everything was and was asking me the names of the painted flowers.

The next morning after seeing the show, I surprised my fairy grand baby by leaving a pearl topped pin on the breakfast table (after snipping the sharp end off with wire cutters). Arietty sports a pin she found and tucked into her dress, as a sword, and even uses it to save her Mother's life at one point.

We are now writing a series of notes with little gifts to leave for the Borrowers who live in our own walls and have been making up stories about Sugarwings and Arietty playing with the kitties in our garden.

As a thank you to Lisa for sparking my interest in this story that my little one and I both love so much, I made this page for the Round Robin Swap that we are both in, to add to her book.

I took the ideas from the novel, about the teeny people "borrowing" ordinary things from the human beans in the house and re-purposing them for use in the walls to make a cozy place to live. The book describes letters hung sideways on the wall to make vertical striped wallpaper, and pictures of the queen (stamps) hung on the wall along with a ladies watch as a clock.

Arietty's mom adored a picture of the ocean taken from a card, and I came as close as I could by cutting out a picture from an old postcard that featured water.

The dining table is made from a playing card box, the vase is a thimble, and the table cloth is a lace scrap. On the table is a letter written with a quill pen and Arietty's sword/pin.

Popsicle sticks, rubbed with ink make up the floor. When it came to seating at the table, i was stumped because I wanted to use spools like in the book, but was also trying to keep the page flat enough to fit in the book, so I drew some spools on card stock, cut them out and wrapped thread around them.

I had some trouble finding just the right stamps, so I asked Beth if she had any I could use. Here is a sample of her pile of stamps I had to chose from! I was able to pick out not only the perfect pictures, but I love the colors they were too, I think they compliment the other colors I already had in the page.

The other thing I was lacking was a thimble. Not a single one, anywhere in my studio. So, of course, i asked Beth, who has everything.

Not only did she have a selection of regular sized thimbles, she brought out a Monopoly game piece one that is what I ended up using.

While I was in KC visiting Beth, we hit a few estate sales. I bought this old jewelry box for its faded pink interior. At the same sale, I found a pile of keys for a good price and bought a bagful. Beth bought was what left, I hadn't realized she was interested, or I'd have offered to split them.

But while I was looking for stamps at her house, I saw all of these, so didn't feel so bad about not sharing. I envy her piles of goodies!

It was an okay estate sale day, I've seen better. But we had such a good time, I told her she could take me to the Dollar Store instead and I'd enjoy it just as much. It was the company that counted.

Besides the keys and box, and a few other little tidbits, I bought at set of vintage cut glass drinking glasses for $12 and this other new stuff for my kitchen. Sugarwings and Dewdrop will enjoy the little white pitchers at our next tea party. Its time to start showing that littlest fairy how to pour her own cream!

Beth and I worked on bagging up her kits for Paper Cowgirls. I still have mine to do yet. I probably should not have taken the day off to go and play in KC, that was one more thing that was NOT on my list of what I need to be getting done.

But it will all get done somehow. I'm sure of it. Or at least that is what I tell myself…

I'll have some more round robin pages to show you this week. I made quite a few of them this week. The books are being sent to Somerset, so this week, I'll need to label all the pages and pack them up. I'll snap a few more photos as I do.

Round Robin Honeymoon and an even bigger and better sale!

Books, Round Robin Book Swap, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / January 15, 2012

Also, I am in the mood to seriously CLEAN HOUSE. After all the turmoil lately, I feel the need for freshness. So, my clearance in the Boutique and Etsy is amped up.

You have to go to the Boutique from this link:

http://www.karlascottage.com?code=January

And you will get 60% off with the code word January.

Use the same code word, January to get 60% off in the Etsy shop.

When I was invited to be a part of a round robin group, I almost said no. I thought I didn't have time, but I am glad I made it work! It has honestly been fun to do, and I am very excited about the art I will get in return too.

This is my latest page for Lisa's book. Hers has more of a theme than mine does, and Beth's most recent page for this book was really interesting, the "heroine" of Lisa's story got married on Beth's last creation.

So, on mine, I decided to send her on a honeymoon.

I found a photo in an ad from a very old Vogue of a young lady in lingerie looking into a mirror. I cut her away from the mirror, glued it onto old text over frayed and faded red velvet torn from the cover of a tattered photo album, and then used one of the photo mats over it.

To the topside of the mat, I glued the girl. The mirror is slightly tucked under the edge of the mat, so you don't see the shape of where she had been snipped away.

To give the mirror some sparkle, I outlined the frame in Stardust Gelly Roll gold ink, and rubbed it away with my fingertip, so it left a subtle sparkle. I filled in the glass part of the mirror with Diamond Glaze, for a shiny finish.

I thought the girl looked like a young bride, giddy and in love waiting for her new husband to come to her.

The page is decked out with some old jewelry, and the bridegroom is cut from an old photo and glued to a big metal button, dented with time.

As its seen in the book, following the other pages, I hope the story is clear.

Most of Lisa's book, as well as all of ours in the swap, are "low color". But Lisa set the stage for introducing red with the quilt scrap she used on the back of her own page. And Beth had used a hint of red in the heart she crocheted on the back of hers.

So, I think that the tattered red velvet won't be too much for the book. The back of my page is the center one pictured. I think that it will have a nice flow with the others.

I haven't had a heck of a lot of time to create lately. I've been trying to get my Birdsong Two projects together, though (still need to work on one of them!) plus the other stuff going on around here, I've been out of it as far as pretty-making goes.

But when Lisa placed an order in my shop, I wanted to wrap her purchase up nicely, and ended up sewing this pouch, then decking it out with, well, honestly, with some stuff laying on my desk. Well, you know, if you only use things you like, and only use good stuff, then the scraps that are laying around are usually worth using too!

See what I mean? These flowers are OLD. Some of the oldest I've ever come across. Definitely good scraps!

I know Lisa uses "the Good Stuff" too. She's made up this fairy assemblage for Birdsong Two, and it looks like she has picked out some winners to use in her kits. (she makes great kits, I was in one of her classes, wow)

I'd love to see you at Birdsong Two.

To check out the details, go here.

And if you'd like to be a Birdsong Two sponsor, please contact me. As a thank you for goodie bag gifts that you give to our guests, I'll post your link on my side bar of both blogs for a year.

Book club holiday party gifts and decor and treats

Books, celebrations, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Kitchen remodel

By Karla Nathan / December 22, 2011

Last Monday, I hosted our annual book club holiday gathering.

All of the dining table chairs were moved into the living room for the guests to gather in a circle and the dining room table was covered in a vintage velvet quilt and filled with goodies.

If I didn't have old lady eyes and needed the over head lights on, I'd keep my house lit with ambient lighting instead! I love the glow of all the small lamps tucked around the room. And of course the Christmas trees add a beautiful glow to it all too.

December is the perfect time to add lots of little mini lights. I love to use them under old lace curtains on the buffet.

The fairy lights add a nice twinkle to everything sitting near them.

This little paper weight was a gift from my sisters. Bobbie Sue added a photo of the three of us to an old paper weight that Sissy had. She made 3, so we each got one.

For book club, we all wrapped up a book we'd enjoyed that year for a trade. I got extremely lucky! There was a book I'd read in my 20s that I LOVED and wanted to re-read. I've looked for it for 30 years, but didn't remember the author's name or title. And it showed up that night at the swap!!! Its from 1978 and is called "The Mirror".

The book I gave away that night was "Room" and its very disturbing, so I wrapped it extra nice and added a brooch to the package.

The night before guests came, my son's Gypsy Beloved helped me make some gifts. We whipped up goats milk bath salts with a vanilla rose oil scent, and some brown sugar scrub too.

Sorry, no real recipe, I kind of made it up as I went along. But each are sooooo easy to make, I'll give you the ingredients if you want to wing it:

Bath salts:

Box of powdered milk (goat or otherwise)

epsom salts (whole bag)

cup or so of sea salt

scented oil to your own taste

Sugar scrub:

Half pound of brown sugar

Full bag of epsom salts

cup of sea salt

about 2 cups of coconut oil

about a half cup of glycerin

scented oil to your own taste
The scrub is great for rough, dry, winter skin. And the milk bath is really relaxing. I use both regularly.

I wrapped them all in small plastic bags sold at Michaels in the cake decorating aisle, and tied up the bath salts with white lace and a mini bleached tree or wreath. The sugar scrub got wrapped the same way, but tied with rick rack and a tag made from an old Shiny Brite box.

It was wonderful to have my new, big kitchen to host a party in. I can't begin to tell you how much I love that room.

The treats that night were pumpkin cheesecake, fudge, german chocolate brownies, pumpkin muffins, a veggie tray, pita chips, flax seed chips and salsa.

And of course wine!

I hope that your holiday has been filled with special occasions and more to come. Its a festive season, and I can't get enough of it.

And please don't forget, I'm picking a winner of a Holiday Surprise gift.

Just leave a comment between now and Christmas to enter.

Gifts and Giveaways and free images, Happy Happy Holidays!

Books, free images, give away, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 18, 2011

Last week, friends came by to help me practice my "Song of the Season" class that I am teaching at Kim's. As a thanks, and a Happy Holiday, I made up a little goodie bag for each of them.

These great scented candles from Bath and Bodyworks were on sale for 5 or 6 dollars, I can't remember, but it was a very good deal, so I bought a bagful to pass out this season. Each one got foofed up for the person it was going to. My pal, Angie loves pink roses as much as I do, so hers is topped with a circle of my favorite wallpaper in the world, and I wrapped a coordinating old, gold striped paper around it, tied it with a pink bow and added a millinery rose and a bit of sparkle.

Beth and Karla are both accountants, so their candles were decked out with pages snipped from a 1910 math book.

A bit of glue, a scrap of paper, and some foof, and they were quickly personalized to suit the giftees.

(the scent I chose was Vanilla Peppermint, and it reminds me of the happy evenings Sugarwings and I have spent with our cocoa parties by the Christmas tree. We like to stir the hot milk with candy canes, and then either add a spoonful of shaved chocolate, or a squeeze of vanilla agave syrup to our cups)

There is still another gift for Beth, but I didn't have it ready for her that day. She brought a Christmas present for me, and of course, I did NOT wait till I had one for her before I opened this. It was wrapped way too pretty. And even if I did pretend to be polite and wait, I'd have opened it as soon as she left anyway, then would have had to scramble to re-wrap it for when I had a gift ready for her and we could officially trade.

Her present was layers upon layers of gifts! A tattered old corsage and a hand made, ruffled scarf as a bow topped it all off. Under that, old wallpaper in gray and sage (I've already made something with a scrap of it, too).

Inside were two books, one was a 2012 planner done by local talent, Greg Johnson.I've never owned one before, but have always wanted one of his annual creations. I stole this photo from my friend, Debbie, she sells them in her Curious Sofa shop. You can get one for yourself, here

The other book is a flower child book from 1910. In the cover it says:

"To every child-flower that blooms within the curious garden that we call home, this little book is lovingly dedicated"

Its going to be a favorite of Sugarwings and I! Way too nice to cut up and use for projects, but I'll be scanning and using the pages, for sure.

These pages are for you. Just click to open in a larger size, save to the computer from that window, and print.

My dear friend, Shanna brought this beauty to me. She is a stained glass artist and makes wonderful Christmas ornies. My tree is full of her creations. This one is a new design, a tussy mussy, with hand painted enamel designs.

Now some more gifts for you! I picked three names from the comments this last week, and they have a choice of a dress form class or a cuff class online.

The winners are:

1-Debbie Jullirat

2-Wanda Contrears

3-Nancy Thompson

Will the 3 of you please email me to get the info for the tutorials?

Since its Christmas and I love making and giving presents as much as I love getting them, I'll do another giveaway too.

Between now and Christmas, leave a comment and I'll draw a name to win a surprise prize.

Hosting a tag swap

bird song art event, Books, how to's, swaps

By Karla Nathan / July 20, 2011

The tag books are starting to come together. Well, sorta. I have about a dozen or so made up. Thats a start! Its been such fun to open them all and see the talent inside the avalanche of mail. And here and there, I come across a sweet treat like this extreme goodie pile from Sharon, and that makes it even more fun. Like a treasure hunt. Its all I can do to be polite and gently unwrap everything and be organized with the tags, and stop myself from being like a kid at Christmas ripping into pressies!

And look at these beauties from Rebecca! There is the perfect spot for that spoon in my kitchen cabinet.

I thought you might enjoy a rundown on the process of the whole swap. I am NOT an organized person by nature and I have to be very strict with myself to make sure it all runs well. I have lots of steps each package goes through and I have to concentrate while doing them, so I don't screw up.

It starts with the sign ups, as people email their info to me, I add it to a word doc on my computer, when it is full, I alphabetize it and print it out.

No packages get opened till the swap begins. They trickle in a few at a time for weeks, then as the deadline approaches, they arrive in a daily mountain on my porch. The mail lady doesn't even knock any more, she just stacks them on the chairs in front of my studio.

Here is a snippet of the list, as I open a box I mark it delivered, and paid.

Everyone was asked to send their mailing address on a separate piece of paper. If they forget, I cut it from the return address on the box.

I arrange each person's pile of tags with their info underneath. I don't use these as the mailing label, they are just to keep me straight on whose tags I am dealing with and whose books have been made.

When the books are done, I make pay pal labels. It costs more and takes a lot more time than just taping down the label they sent in and having the mail man add the postage, but this way I can track each package, just in case we need to trace it.

It would also be quicker to just make books willy nilly, without knowing who each one goes to. This might sound silly and time consuming. but I like to know who is getting the book I made, and I enjoy looking at the artist's tag and trying to make a book of other tags that I think she'll like.

It probably doesn't even show, but it matters to me. I make the books with love.

I try not to send the artist her own tags back, but sometimes it happens, especially with later tags when there aren't as many to chose from. In the beginning, with billions on the tables, its easier. As I compile the books, I mark each off the list.

Cash and checks go in this box, with the tags that were sent to me as gifts. I think that my personal swap book is going to be extra fat and gorgeous this time!!!!!!!! There must be 30 tags in there. How lucky am I to get so much cool art for myself?

Tags that look pretty together get stacked near each other as I open the boxes, so as I make the books, I gather the tags from the area surrounding the artist's own tag. A more left brain person would probably put the tags out in the order they come in and work from first to last. I go by color and style instead.

Hey, I have to make it fun and interesting to me, or I'd go crazy! This is hours and hours of work. I know I could do it more simply, but I want to do it right. Each book of tags has to look good together. I'm not going to put a wild colored one in a book with all muted colors. The wild colored one will go with a selection of other colorful and fun tags.

While I am unpacking, I sort and recycle. Pretty ribbons, tissue, and wrappings get saved in one tub, and another fills up with bubble mailers. Boxes get stacked and saved, too. I can always tell when it is time for another swap, when my packing materials get low! I'd like to say that I am saving the earth, but honestly, I'm just cheap.

As I go through the packages, I have to force myself to stay on task, and put all the gifties aside for later. But all I want to do is PLAY with them! Its hard to not open and peek inside the gifts for Sugarwings too. I get as excited as she does about them. And when I get art supplies, it takes a lot of self control to not go sit down and make something right then and there. You know how tempting new supplies are.

There are too many to make to wait till all are here before I start the assembly. It will take me a couple of weeks to get them all made and shipped.

My workspace has a stack of fresh, new padded envelopes, lots of lace and ribbon, a crop-o-dile to punch holes for the people who forgot or made them too small (about 1 in 6), pretty bird paper of some kind to wrap the books in, and tape to add their label to the envelope.

I'll make up a dozen or so loose books, then sit and tie them all, and stuff then slip the envelopes into a basket by my side. When its full, I go and make labels. After the label is made, I mark that person off the list as shipped.

It helps to break the job up this way, bringing a dozen or so to completion before making more. Selecting the tags for each book is the fun part, if I did it all at once, then the tying and labelling would feel like punishment. I like to know that I can get up and go make more choices as soon as I finish my stack of envelopes.

I will be working on these for quite a while, so if you haven't sent yours yet, don't waste money by overnighting them! Please email me and I'll let you know whether you have time to get them in.

Thanks so much to all of you who sent your artwork in to me to enjoy and play with. I'll do my best not to drool on it. And I'll try to keep plugging away at these books and not get too sidetracked by how pretty the tags are. Just don't make them too sparkly or shiny, because I get mesmerized pretty easy by shiny things.

And thanks to those of you who sent my little fairy grand child some tidbits. I've given her a couple of them, and might throw a tea party and let her open the rest then.

The winner of my mini dress form online workshop is Debbie Jullieret.

I think I'll do another giveaway. The prize is a dress form tutorial. If you have already purchased one of the $15 classes, (thank you!!), then I'll send you a kit of vintage goodies instead if I draw your name.