fairies – Page 15 – Karla's Cottage

A nice nest full of fairies and a nasty nest full of squirrels

Dew Drop, fairies, family, Sugarwings, Tutorials

By Karla Nathan / April 1, 2012

As promised, I added directions and pictures to download to create this fairy nest to my 3 Wire Workshop tutorial.

If you've already bought the tutorial, just scroll down and you'll find these directions added to the end of the nest and egg how to's. No additional charges, its a bonus! Included is a sepia photo of this family and a hand tinted one with my wings attached. Plus a couple more vintage pictures you could use in the nest instead if you'd rather.

I hope to add some holiday decor ideas and more wreaths in the fall too.

This workshop comes with directions for a wreath, nests, and crowns, all made from wire, with ideas for embellishments. I've added some instructions for decorated eggs too.

Speaking of nests, we had some uninvited guests build a nest in our dryer vent! I heard scampering in my laundry room every morning this week, and it took me a while to figure it out. Squirrels had gotten into the vent pipe from the outside and made themselves at home!

We had to take the cover off, reach in and pull out the nesting materials and replace the cover with one that has a cage over it. They had done a bit of damage, so I'm glad I had a sweet, grown up son around to take care of it for me and get the varmits out of there.

It was a nice day to be out in the yard, and Little Dewdrop kept us company.

Who would have thought that we'd be outside splashing and playing in the water in March? What beautiful weather!

Sugarwings took advantage of the 80 degree day to do some planting and finger painting.

I think she painted the dirt and herself more than her paper.

And these pictures were taken before she even got very messy. (and no, the paint did NOT come out of her pink clothes, no matter how much I soaked and sprayed it.)

Yep, a perfect day to be outside, we turned on the garden hose and let her play in that afterwards- yay, Spring!!

The newest Italian Super Model

fairies, magazine pictures or articles

By Karla Nathan / February 24, 2012

Jenn's over the top, dreamy affair in NC last fall was published in this Italian magazine. Jenn deserves all the accolades and world wide attention she got for this, it was amazing.

Woo Hoo! I feel very America's Next Top Model in Italian Vogue! (Yes, I'm a sucker for all of those Top Model shows, ) But I have a feeling I'd be voted off the episode for that stiff pose and lack of "finding the light". And I'm more suited to be an Italian grandma making pasta than a sleek super model.

But hey! This is not something that I ever would have dreamed I'd see and I'm tickled pink about it. A photo of me in a European publication?

pictured: Natasha, Dee, Lori, Jenn, Andrea, and me

That is me in the top left, I was helping decorate for the event and put some of the decorations on my head. I do tend to do that sort of thing. In the bottom right photo, Dee Foust is wearing one of the crowns that I made (shameless plug! Tutorial available here ). That is beautiful Jenn strolling across the meadow in the larger photo.

I have wonderful memories of the weekend in the mountains, with great friends old and new. Thanks again, Jenn!

This pretty weekend was also covered in Sonia's Creating Vintage Charm, an indie magazine that is really well done. I think that the fairy tale interlude is probably being published in a zillion other magazines too, it was pure photo op, all the way through and the talented Tiffany was there to snap it up.

Seriously, there wasn't a spot anywhere that you didn't feel compelled to point a camera at. It was that beautiful.

Sonia and I got to sit together during craft day at Once Upon a Dream and hung out a bit during the weekend. I plan on being a regular buyer of her zine. As much as I love reading blogs, its nice to have an actual magazine in your hands to flip through too.

And she fills it with charm, just like the title.

Funny, this photo didn't make any publications….or Top Model, even though, in my mind I was using all the modelling tips that I'd learned by being a faithful follower of the show.

Of course, I spent my youth watching "I Love Lucy" and that might have sunk in more than "America's Next Top Model" did.

On a completely different subject and one that ticks me off almost as much as losing Picnik, have you heard that Google Friend Connect is closing too? I'm wondering, will I lose the followers on that list? What do you know about it?

If you read my blog on Google Reader, but got there by subscribing on my side bar with Google Friend Connect, maybe you should subscribe directly on Google Reader, or I could just vanish from your list. I really am not sure what will happen. But I'd hate to lose you as a "Friend" even though Friend Connect is gone!

Beth has a good post about it here.

A forgotten drawer of pretties and a not forgotten, but delayed Fairy Swap

bird song art event, fairies, flowers, paintings

By Karla Nathan / February 22, 2012

The other day, I needed some supplies for a quick sketch to determine the style of a mural I am planning, and had to dig through my painting supplies drawer to find the paper I needed.

While I was in there, I took a little time to look at some paintings I have stashed away in the drawer. Some I had plans for, some I just did for the heck of it, the others were the basis of cards or something else that was a one time thing.

Recognize the roses? They were used as part of my blog design. I really should frame those, its one of my favorite paintings.

In the last few years, I have not taken the time to paint like I used to.

Finding a drawer full of paintings that I'd forgot about brought back a lot of memories.

Normally, I finish everything I start, whether I'm feeling satisfied with it or not. Its just a quirk of mine, I keep going till its done. So I was surprised to find this half completed fairy in the drawer. Hmmm, while I have my paints out, I might just have to finish her. Looking at all of these has got me in a painting mood.

On the other hand, I have plenty of other things I need to get done and I do my best to not get sidetracked with projects that are intriguing but not on my list. Durn list! Its pretty long at this point. And adding to it won't make marking things off go any easier. I'm even considering writing the list down, its getting so long and I dont' think my brain can take holding any more on this mental list of things I have hovering above me like a storm cloud.

Sometimes I think that seeing things written down makes them easier to tackle and less intimidating.

Writing directions and photographing step by steps for the Twining and Twirling Tutorial, 3 Wire Workshops was NOT on my list. I do tend to get sidetracked and have now spent three days on creating that blog site. Well, at least I got a lot of nests made for Birdsong while I was at it!

Speaking of Birdsong, I got the loveliest gift in the mail from Mercedes!

She had hoped to come to our weekend party in April and couldn't make it after all. She found this box of spun cotton tiny birdies and a vintage date book filled with birdie illustrations, and sent them to me. I will share some of them with the attendees, and add Mercedes to our Sponsor list on the side bar of my blog.

If you'd like to sponsor something for the drawings or goodie bags, please contact me.

Another new sponsor is Gail Schmidt of Shabby Cottage Studios. She has donated two $25 gift certificates to her shop for door prizes at Birdsong. Her shop is filled with things that the winners will be thrilled to shop through! Here are some of her sites:

www.shabbycottagestudio.com

www.shabbycottagestudio.net

www.creativeworkshops.ning.com

www.shabbycottagestudio.etsy.com

Thanks, Mercedes and Gail!

Oh, and the sketch I needed to do for the bigger project, that got me started digging through the drawer of watercolor memories? All done. If I had a list written down, I could cross this off of it! Here is a snippet of the picture, I don't want to give away the whole surprise.

On my mind since before Christmas, was hosting a Fairy Swap. I want to do a book of fairies, and I still plan on doing it. But so many things came up in my family since the holidays, I never got it planned for this winter. Now, here comes spring and I'm on the countdown to Birdsong.

I could probably squeeze in time to do a swap, despite that looming list- but its the space that the packages take up that is stopping me. Could I squeeze those in?

I will be turning my studio into a classroom for 25, and a hundred piles of fairies spread out over it might not fit very well with the students!

As I have done for Alice, Dorothy, and Birdsong swaps in the past, I'll paint a cover for the theme, copy it, and then embellish each cover by hand and add some nice vintagey pieces.

But for this one, I'm planning something Bigger and Better. Details to come, lets plan on May, okay? I think the fae prefer springtime any way, don't you? Their little wings would be frosty now.

So, please bear with me, I do plan on hosting this swap, and am excited to do it, sorry that I have to wait!

Thoughfulness

bird song art event, fairies, family

By Karla Nathan / January 20, 2012

My friend, Meleen, sent me a nice surprise this week. A beautiful box full of boxes! And not just any boxes, very vintage, never used, bird seed packaging.

Meleen is from Oyster Bay and embellished the gift with this cute idea.

These boxes will be IDEAL for Birdsong Two. I already have something in mind for them. And I will be adding Meleen's blog to my side bar as an official sponsor for the weekend.

If you would like to sponsor the event, please contact me. All you do is donate something that the ladies will enjoy. Most of the gifties will go into the goodie bags they will be receiving. Hmmmm….. that reminds me…. I need to brainstorm some goodie bag design ideas…….. heck, I don't even have my project done for you to see, let alone details like goodie bags pulled together yet.

I could be behind due to the fact that I have spent a lot of time here, in the "force field", which is what Sugarwings has been calling her clubhouse/fort under the dining room table.

Its a cozy spot, with an assortment of fluffy pillows- a soft, princess pillows, a tooth fairy pillow (a gift from Cindy), and a unicorn Pillow Pet/ Plus, handmade afghan from our Gypsy, a DVD player with a stack of movies, some fairy friends dangling from the bottom of the table as well as some drawn underneath the table top.

What more do you need? She slipped into her princess gown, and slung on her decorated sling, grabbed a dog and settled in for a few movies. I curled up next to her with a good book, and didn't want to come out.

Yesterday Dr. Pretty Boy (the resident at Children's Mercy that took care of our little broken wing fairy was quite beautiful to see, her mom and I really enjoyed his visits) gave her the go-ahead to return to school, with limited activities. Over protective Grams didn't take her first thing this morning, I thought a half day was a good transition after being hurt and out of class for a while.

But, now she is back to pre-K and my time is my own again. Hopefully there will soon be a necklace to show you for Birdsong, and my mind can start percolating on some goodie bag ideas.

More gifts came recent;y too. Beth had a tattered lace table cloth for me, just perfect for turning into leaves for my Song Of Spring wreath class for Paper Cowgirls, and a pretty water jug to serve tea in at Birdsong Two.

Beth brought all these to me on our last craft day, as a bereavement gift for losing poor little Sparkle. Although, Beth never really needs a reason to bring gifts, she finds things for me at auctions and estate sales and picks up little tidbits all the time.

Another bag full of lace was delivered in person to my front door by a new friend who read my blog and knew I'd give her grandma's lace a good home. She happened to be in town having a girl's day out with her quiliting buddies and they all came by to see me. It was so nice to have company, and so thoughtful of her to bring me the pretties. How sweet!

PS- Beth will be at the Old Summit Antique Show this weekend. Will I see you there?

A closet full of fun

fairies, family

By Karla Nathan / December 30, 2011

With a house filled with helpers staying with me for Christmas, I thought it would be the perfect time to do a little end of the year clean up. We emptied all of the dress up clothes from the girl's closet and hung about 30 hooks all around it, right at their height.

We still need a solution for the pile of hats and other things that we didn't have enough hooks for. For now, they are tossed into a too-small tub. I need a couple of baskets to hold them all.

I didn't realize just how many dress up clothes we had, I just knew that they always ended up in one big pile at the bottom of the closet after all the sprites were done playing with them. Now, they have hooks to hang them up on, and so far, its been much tidier. After the holiday bash, clean up went much smoother in the dress up area.

My favorite place to find fairy princess garb is at garage sales. Most of this closet full of fluff is all second hand, the rest is thoughtful gifts from friends who know how much we love to play with wings and fairy dresses.

You are never too big to be a princess.

Or an elfish prince.

Around here, even the dolls get in the act. For Christmas, our Gypsy gave all the little girls a doll from the Goodwill that she made over into a fairy queen.

The nicest thing happened to my son's Gypsy Beloved on Christmas Eve. She went to the Goodwill to buy supplies to make gifts for her 6 little ones and a guy stopped her in the parking lot to give her a $100 bill.

What a thoughtful Santa!

And she made Dewdrop this sock monster doll, with sockies the little baby has out grown, and a onesie that I had painted for her.

I made some creatures myself, these gifts were sent to the Guncles.

I'd seen the cutest little birds with pine cone hats that I knew Guncle Randy would love, and of course, I decided I could make my own instead of buying one. The elf and the birdie are both paper clay.

If you need some vintage goodies to trim out your own creations, don't forget there is a sale in both of my shops right now.

Everything is 30% off in the Boutique if you use THIS LINK.

And the small print says: The only catch is, that I won't be doing any mailing for a few days. You might not recieve your box till after New Years.

And if you click on the website directly, you can't get the sale price, its only available from THIS LINK

When you fill your shopping cart, you need to type in the words- happyholidays – then hit "recalculate" to get the special price. Its simple to do.

For Etsy, use the same code word- happyholidays -to get 30% off there too.

And by the way, a Very Happy Holidays to you all!

A new holiday tradition?

celebrations, Dew Drop, fairies, family, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 26, 2011

We had a Fairy Merry Christmas, and I hope that you did too. On the Day Before the Night Before Christmas (the title of one of our favorite songs around here), we had the girls here for a sleep over.

They decorated bottle brush trees in the studio, then decided to fix up the Gingerbread house for the fairies that live on our Fairy Berry Trail through the woods.

It got a whole new set of furniture, made of graham crackers.

After the painting/gluing in the studio and the icing/sprinkle excitement in the kitchen, we decided a bubble bath was in order. I poured them all (plastic) flutes of sparkling juice and filled the tub with Sugar Plum Fairy bath salts.

Calliope said that she felt like a princess. That gave us the idea to surprise them all with a princess party after their soak. The Hippy Chick ran upstairs and found some dress up clothes that were appropriately royal and had them laid out for the girls to slip into when they were done bubbling.

Of course, our girls lean toward the fairy side of "fairy princess".

Our tiniest sprite got to play a little dress up, but fell asleep before the other festivities began.

It was girl's night at the hot chocolate party.

One of the fun parts of the party is mixing your cocoa just the way you like it. We serve warm milk in teapots, and pass around Giradelli chocolate, mini marshmallows, shaved white chocolate with peppermint, candy canes, and for the moms, some Kaluha.

It was special. I'm lucky to have all these little girls to play dress up with. They are pretty sweet.

and now for the winner of my Christmas Secret Surprise Giveaway! Its a hand painted and decorated box with a nesting, ephemera covered bird on it. Pretty for the holidays, but not so Christmassy that you can't leave it out all winter. I'll fill it with some home made bath salts and send it to…..

Deborah Woodrow

And remember, if you have Christmas gift cash to buy yourself a gift, come on by the Boutique. Everything is 30% off if you use THIS LINK.

And the small print says: The only catch is, that I won't be doing any mailing for a few days. You might not recieve your box till after New Years.

And if you click on the website directly, you can't get the sale price, its only available from THIS LINK

When you fill your shopping cart, you need to type in the words- happyholidays – then hit "recalculate" to get the special price. Its simple to do.

Merry Christmas!

celebrations, fairies, family

By Karla Nathan / December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas! I hope your holiday is filled with lots of singing, dancing, and joy!

And big hugs from someone you love.

(Info about the secret Santa gift drawing and the 30% off sale in the Boutique can be found in the previous post, if you scroll down, but that is enough "business" for now. I'm off to get in on some of those hugs!)

Snowy little friends

fairies, how to's, redos

By Karla Nathan / November 18, 2011

Aren't these guys cute? I had other things to do, but couldn't help myself, I was drawn to making them. Yes, I have kits to assemble for the cuff tutorial, and trees to photograph for the Etsy store. But do you blame me for being distracted from my chores? I had such fun transforming these little wooden ornies.

I forgot to get a photo of them first, but found this one online to show you kinda how they started out. They are those semi-vintage (late sixties or so) wooden people from Germany that are painted bright colors.

When I was shopping with my sisses in Indiana, I found a big bag full of these and debated whether I should buy them or not.

Because they do start out garish in too shiny, primary colors.

But the shapes were so cute, I knew that they had some potential.

And I just love to take on a whole bunch of something. Little things that get me on a roll, and I can experiment and decorate each one a little different. I tend to to a whole bunch of most things that I do.

Each of these was basically done the same, it was the tiny details that differed.

First, I sprayed them with Zinsser Bullseye Bonding Primer, then glazed them with a mink brown paint.

Then, I painted the faces, and added some pink detail on a few of the people.

After that, they got a coat of glitter.

Which reminds me, have you tried Martha's new glitter paint? Well, I love most of what she makes, especially her fine glitter. But this paint isn't worth it, even with the Michael's 40% coupon. Its too thin, and to get the coverage that they show in the store on the sample you need at least 4, probably more, coats of paint. Who has time for that??? It dries slow and if you try to recoat it too soon, it just smears.

So, while the thin, glittery paint was still wet, I sprinkled it with Martha's regular glitter, for a more solid coat of shimmer.

Once they had the clear and white gold glitters where I wanted them, I added some mica here and there.

That is when the fun part started! I got to add beads, crystals, scarves, teensy weensy little hats made of ephemera, and other sweet pretties.

Aren't they the happiest little guys? I already miss working on them. I saved a few for Sugarwings and I to work on together, but for the most part I'm finished with them.

Most are for sale ($6 a piece) some in the Boutique and some in the Etsy shop. I've kept a few for myself or for tying onto Christmas presents too.

Kitty’s Rescue free image to download

Dew Drop, fairies, family, free images, kitties, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 14, 2011

Thanks for all your well wishes on the additions to our family!

This book just happened to be sitting on my desk and I thought it was quite appropriate to our situation. Although the little girl clutching the cat at our house isn't quite this lady like. She's every bit as happy to have a kitty to hold and cuddle, though.

This is scanned at high resolution, if you'd like to print it to use in your art, please click on it to open in a larger window, then save that one to your computer and you'll get better results than saving it directly from my blog.

No, we didn't adopt an eight legged cat, Sugarwings is carrying them both.

Everywhere she goes.

And it surprises me that the cats seem to like it. If she sets one down, it will follow her around till it gets picked up again.

Little Dew Drop is not as interested in the kittens, I think she is more of a dog person. She likes the new family members, but is more fascinated by Twinkle and Agnes.

Plus, she has other things on her mind, like learning how to walk and celebrating her first birthday this week!

My goal of adding new stuff to both shops every day kinda slipped from my grasp.

There was no school on Friday and Sugarwings kept me hopping. That and the new kitten/lost kitten/ new kitten/ found kitten excitment that we had. Then, along came the weekend including a concert, a fun craft day with Beth, a big family dinner, and before I knew it, I'd missed three days of getting photos posted in the shops.

But I did get a chance to make some new things!

These decorated 1" wreaths are in the Boutique.

And their ready to be decorated cousins are in my Etsy shop.

There are lots of trees added to the Etsy shop, I got to work on listing some Monday afternoon. The white ones are always popular.

And so are the eensy teensy ones.

There are still a few million trees filling up one of my work tables ready to be sorted and packaged and sold, but at least that is a start.

Some of my paper clay fairies are now in the shop too. This one is made on a vintage cake topper.

And this one sits on a wallpaper covered box.

Her eyes are vintage crystals taken from an old necklace. I pushed them into the wet clay, then added a black sequin crystal pupil, and painted the rest of the eye. They really have a nice sparkle when the light hits them.

I'll leave you with some photos of more new stuff listed. There is more to come too. I'm wrapping up purchases today and will have more photos taken to list goodies after that gets done.(thanks so much to you shoppers out there!) I also need to get pictures of all the new things I've been making. It sure felt good to get some time to sit at the worktable and mess around with all my toys!

Mushroom Fairy Rings

fairies, Once upon a dream, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / October 12, 2011

Lately, I've been obsessed with making paper mache mushrooms.

These are all for Jenn's fairy event in NC. She sent fairy themed ephemera for me to cover them in, and I created them with aluminum screen and duct tape covered in newspaper before adding her pretty papers.

Over that, I rubbed ink pads in a mushroom color, brown, white, and moss colors.

Next came glitters.

I had bronze, crystal, silver glitters as well as mica flakes.

Each of the caps is finished underneath too. Some with multiple layers of crepe paper, some with lace or ribbon.

No two came out the same. Even if I tried, I probably couldn't have focused on making two dozen clones. And of course, mushrooms all pop up from the ground with such unique forms, that I thought it was fitting that my fungi were all individuals too.

I'm so excited to see my glittery fungi gracing Jenn's magnificent decor!

EDIT- This post was written ahead of time, before I left on my trip. I'll have new posts all week while I am away, but might not get to answer all comments or emails, but I will be reading and enjoying them on my Ipad. Thanks for coming by! I hope to add some "Live" posts from the road too.