fairies – Page 7 – Karla's Cottage

An Elf taking a break in the forrest

fairies, guncles, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 1, 2017

My pal, Beth, had some vintage photos of guys for me to send to Guncle Randy. I needed to make a card for his birthday, so I appropriated one for myself to repurpose.

It started like this, I used green marker on his suit, then metallic pen for polka dots on it and on his tie. The boots became elfin shaped by going over them with a black, sparkly marker and extending the toes into a curled point.

His party hat is vintage paper, decorated, and the buttons are small rhinestones. I then cut him out, inked the edges with brown, and glued him to a woodland scene of old wallpaper that I'd added to the photo folder that he'd come in.

There was a stone wall in the picture of the woods, which was perfect to seat him on! But the piece of paper wasn't quite big enough, so I added a strip of vintage paper below that, and decorated it with a butterfly stamp.

The rest of the inside of the folder is covered in nature inspired, vintage wallpaper, and the edges are rubbed with copper ink. I made a "happy birthday" message to glue to the bottom segment.

The folder can become a stand, too.

As a last touch, I glued brown, velvet ribbon over the seam, and some metal fairy and dragonfly charms to fly around him.

Happy Birthday, Guncle Randy!

Much needed vacation craft days

fairies, guncles, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / January 21, 2017

When Guncle Randy and I get together, there is usually some pretty paper and glue around. We always make time for a craft day and on my last visit, we even fit in more than that.

We had a full day with our pal, Regina plus a lot more time back in the stuffed to the brim (with delights) art room he has.

Regina gifted me with some gemstones, and I'm looking forward to getting them turned into jewelry.

During our play date, I made some cards, my sis had a birthday coming up.

And a nephew had just gotten married.

Randy had this awesome, old, ballerina photo that he copied for me to use, so I made this Valentine from the picture. I also created a Valentine banner with some red felt triangles he gave to me.

After I finished my sweetheart banner filled with ballerina girls, Randy and I collaborated on a banner with hunks for his mantel.

The left hand piece is by me, the right by Randy.

Here is another that I made for him. The red felt pieces are from Target's Dollar Spot. They always have good supplies, don't they?

I never get out of there with spending just ONE dollar….

When I left Kansas, I threw a few supplies in my suitcase, but not enough. No problem, at the Guncles' house, there are lotsa goodies to play with. Randy shared with me and we worked for hours back in his room of wonders.

Yep, it was a fun brother/sister/best friend week. Thanks, Baby Bro!

Fairy cards

fairies, family, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / January 4, 2017

The week before Christmas, I squeezed in a smidgeon of time to make a few cards to send out. Not many as I would have liked to create, but enough to bring me a smile from getting my fingers gluey and glittery and to send to my sisses and my husband's moms.

For the great grandmas in my grand fairies' lives, I printed this happy picture from the punkin patch onto matt presentation paper. The hands had been cropped out, but I figured I could make it work. I cut out the girls, leaving space to add mittens for Dewdrop and one for Sugarwings, but she was missing a lower arm too. So, I layered the pictures on the card to position her missing arm under her sis, making it look like a hug.

They do a lot of hugging, so that was a fitting fix.

To remove the Happy Halloween feel and add some Merry Christmas cheer, wings, scarves, and hats were added, then the fairies were glittered up and colored with markers and gel pens. On this card, I added lace, and glued them onto a sky blue piece of card stock. At the bottom I smeared on some of that crafty snow paint that comes in a jar. Then drew snowflakes with a white gel pen.

This card for Bobbie was done in a similar way. We were wearing mermaid shirts in the photo and Sissy was holding a little mermaid figurine. Which were cute as a beach photo, but not what I wanted for a Christmas card. So I used markers to draw poinsettias on the shirts, and drew, cut out, and glued a candy cane into Sissy's hand.

The same photo from our Sister Trip to Siesta Key was used for Sissy's card too, but done in her favorite color of sea blue. I covered up the mermaids with a silk rosebud, glitter, a rhinestone and a mini tree.

ps-For some reason, my [printer is not feeling well. All of the photos I used weren't as clear as I'd like them to be. I've gone through the fixes on the toolbar of the printer, but I still get lines and less detail than there should be with high quality paper. Hmm, I'm not sure what is going on, but I used the photos anyway. The quality bothers me, but I hope that the joy I felt while creating still comes through to the people I sent these to.

A quick trip to the Renfest

fairies, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / November 12, 2016

I adore going to the Kansas City Renassaince Festival and most years, spend at least a day or two there during the season.

But drat it, this year, it got away from us.

Sugarwings and I popped in the first weekend it was open, thinking we'd be back more later with the rest of the family, not knowing this would be our only visit for this year.

It was a very fast walk through, with less than two hours to spend there, we were only able to hit some highlights. She won a friend to wear on her shoulder at the arcades, and named him Pascal, after Rapunzel's salamander.

She danced with the fairies around the Maypole and once again, I got a photo of her "in flight" with both feet off the ground.

She tends to fly when she is with her fellow faye.

Most of our time was spent talking to various fairies.

Or petting dragons.

Our time was over in a flash, but lots and lots of fun happened during that brief blast of time.

A river rock fairy in Missouri

fairies, Sacred Circus, sea shell fairies

By Karla Nathan / September 28, 2016

Over the weekend, we visited Ava, MO again for a festival my son's family was co-hosting. While there, I spent some time down in the nearly dry creek bed gathering stones to make a fairy to leave on the beach. And just like last time I was there, I found one, single, tiny shell for the fairy to hold.

As I played with pebbles, I had a view of the circus rig and could watch the kids practicing up on the bank of the creek.

My grand fairies were giving lessons to the campers' children and at the big performance the next night, all the little ones got to come on stage and show what they'd learned.

I was serenaded by one of my favorite singers. Michael Lay, who was up on the nearby stage. His voice floated down to the shady spot along the bank where I was searching for the perfect set of wings for my fairy.

The stage itself was pretty cool, my son draped it in fabric, and did this string art installation on each end.

Dewdrop and a few friends joined me and created their own magical creatures.

They helped me put a ring of rocks around my own sprite. She is placed right by the foot bridge.

There was a larger river on the other side of the campground, where I spent hours walking through the crystal clear water, and parking a lawn chair in the shady shallows to watch kids and dogs splash around.

As I found the most perfect wing shaped rock, I got excited about making more sprites, and as I waded along, I quickly spied all of the bits that I needed to make another one. I figured I was on a roll and would have a whole flock of fairies!!! But all of a sudden, the river bed no longer had rocks that stood out as wings, faces, dresses, etc, all of them started to look like plain, old rocks and nothing stood out to me.

I decided to pocket the pieces I'd found to make the second faye, and brought her home to assemble in the mosaic I'll be doing in front of the fireplace. After all of the beach fairies that I've left behind on various shores, I figured it would be fun to have one in my own home. I think she'll be very happy living here with us, and I'll have pictures to show you when she is grouted down. Although, I do feel a little odd about locking her in place, all of my previous fairies have been thank yous to the beaches I've loved spending time on. I guess I'll think of her as a love token to my home instead, and a memento of the weekend with family in Ava.

A new fairy garden

fairies, flowers

By Karla Nathan / May 30, 2016

Last spring, Sugarwings and I created a fairy garden in a pot outside my studio's back door. Sadly, Honey loved it even more than we did, and dug the whole thing out. She has a thing for flower pots, and if left unsupervised around one, will empty it out and try to wear the pot on her head like a hat.

So, this Spring, we made Fairy Garden Number Two, and placed it by the front door of the studio, outside of the fence, hopefully where the dog won't find it.

This one is even better, but still needs some creative touches, like painting the house and adding props.

I can tell how much this girl has matured in a year just by seeing her style of gardening. This time, the pot is more of a garden design than a toy to her.

She made the trench filled with blue marbles to create a river, and asked me to make a bridge for the pathway from the house, and over the little creek. One of the pink, plastic flower pots that the plants came in was perfect to cut into an arch to fit over the water way. Sugarwings planted each flower herself, and even took the wheelbarrow to the massive piles of dirt in our front yard from the construction project, and dug up soil to fill the planter herself.

Dewdrop is becoming a gardener too. She was in charge of the marigolds in her grandfather's veggie garden.

A playdate tea party

fairies, family, Food and Drink, friends, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / May 9, 2016

Sugarwings has been wanting to host a play date, and asked me for help. We decided to turn it into a fancy tea party with crafting and a walk in the woods after.

She and Dewdrop worked on the food, making these grape caterpillars with googly eyes, after a mini lesson from me on how to do it. We used blackberries for the heads and simply pushed the googly eyes (meant for cupcakes) down into the berries after we had them on the sticks with the grapes.

And see how nicely the table is set? Sugarwings did it all on her own.

We made the the place cards together. I cut a strip of died coffee filter, rolled it up, pinched the bottom and added a staple to hold it in place. Then gave her two leaves cut from scrapbook paper. She wrote the names on them and stapled them onto the rose buds.

The guests seemed to appreciate the efforts. One girl kindly told me that the tea was "divine".

We used cookie cutters to make the french fries into flower, butterfly, and bird shapes, then cut the hot dogs to make octopi.

Of course, any food looks special when you use the best dishes.

And it all tastes better when eaten with friends.

The girls explored the Fairy Berry Trail, before heading across the creek for a walk in the woods.

The creek was low, it was a good day to cross.

For me, the cutest part of the day was watching them sit in the Fairy House and point out all the sprites they imagined flitting about. The girls had full descriptions and stories about the little winged creatures they saw.

It was adorable to watch them build tiny homes from twigs, leaves, and ribbons for their new imaginary friends to live in.

This part of the day was so much fun, we ran out of time to do any crafting.

Looks like we will have to invite them back for that part, huh?

A beach fairy in Missouri and revisiting some seashell fairies of the past

fairies, sea shell fairies

By Karla Nathan / May 3, 2016

While in Missouri at the campground, I made a little fairy on the bank of the creek that ran behind our tents. It was a challenge to do since I had to use rocks, not shells like I have to work with on most beaches.

But look, I did find one little shell for her to hold!

And look at what cute feet I found to use!

She could be one of my favorites.

Oh, but how could I chose a favorite from my little fairy children?

This was Jacksonville where Guncle Randy helped me find the ideal shells to use.

This gal is from Maui, where there are gorgeous bits of heart shaped coral washed up on the beach.

This glittering, white fairy is on Siesta Key Beach where my sisses and I spread our dad's ashes.

Siesta Key has become the home of many of my fairy babies, including this mermaid.

This sand dollar skirted sprite is a Sarasota girl too.

It's funny how varied the personalities and looks are from one beach to another. This Coronado Beach fairy is also wearing a sand dollar skirt, but looks nothing like the girl from Siesta key.

I've made a stone fairy in Missouri before too. This one is from another visit to a music festival that my son was a part of.

When I was on St Pete beach with my sisses at Halloween time, I made a Sand Witch fairy, with a little broom, inspired by that hat shaped shell.

Ft Lauderdale in winter had me scrambling to find suitable shells, but I loved my little Atlantic sprite once I finally found the right ones.

Each one is created with items found right there on the beach I make them, with no alterations. There are times I wish I could snap a shell in half to make it fit, but I make myself follow the rules that I've set. to only use the pieces as is.

All of my babies are also filled with memories of the beautiful time I spent on their beaches. I leave them behind, as a thank you to express my love of the place I've visited. I like to picture a little girl coming across one after I've left it nestled on the beach.

I hope that the fairies bring someone else joy too.

A sea shell fairy on Jax beach

fairies, family, Travel

By Karla Nathan / February 1, 2016

In the last few years, I've started a tradition of making a sea shell fairy to leave behind as a thank you to every beach that I visit.

Usually,in the days I that I spend along the water, I keep my eyes out for the exact pieces to make the sprite just right. Every stroll in the tides is a chance to gather up the ideal shells. I have a rule that I can't manipulate them. I'm happy to find broken ones in the right shapes, but I never snap off bits myself.

And I like them to be from the shore that I am leaving them on if possible. Sometimes I'll slip a perfectly shaped curl of shell up into my pocket while walking on a nearby beach and save it for the fairy, but that rarely happens.

On this trip, guncle Randy and I only had a short time at the beach (craft day was waiting!!). I wasn't sure if I'd be able to collect what I needed to make a little shell girl that fast, but Randy had a good eye for what we needed and brought me the best wing, ever.

While I was finishing up brushing the sand nice and smooth around our elfin creation, a tiny dog ran up and gave me a kiss. It was a Papillion, so we named the girl after her. You can still see some of the itty bitty dog foot prints she left in the heart shaped ring around the fairy.

Beautiful grand fairies and beautiful cloaks

fairies, family, paintings, sewing?, show and tell

By Karla Nathan / December 30, 2015

My sister-in-law, Terry is a talented person who is happy to share her skills. When I was admiring her work on the dozen or so costumes that she had whipped up for the Grand Masked Ball that she hosted on Halloween, she offered to make cloaks for all of my girls.

At the holidays, when you know how swamped everyone is.

So, the big girls and I, plus Sugarwings and Dewdrop spent some time finding just the right fabrics. That led to nice days out together and good bonding time. I was slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume and weight of the fabrics (7-1/2 yards each of exterior and lining!!) for the teenager's capes and couldn't imagine trying to make them myself. But Terry is a pro and spent many happy hours creating costumes for her kids' high school plays (all the parts, not just her own children) and is an expert in this type of sewing.

The cloaks arrived in time for Christmas and were as pretty as can be.

They were the hit of the night when the boxes were opened on Christmas Eve.

Plus, they are plain old, ideal for swirling and twirling in.

And when you put one on, you feel mysterious and beautiful.

But what could I do as a thank you? I decided to do a Sugarplum Fairy painting of a sprite in a cape, and use Terry's own granddaughter as a model. That little one has hauntingly beautiful eyes!

Terry is a major art collector, she owns paintings from artists who hang in the National Gallery.

Yes, intimidating!

So, I kept it simple and turned my whimsical, little piece into an ornament. I had a vintage picture with a domed glass and thought that would work well to turn into something to hang on a tree.

I did a small painting, cut it out, glued it onto chipboard covered in gold paper with a glittered snowflake added to the background for dimension. Then, I frosted the "fur" with mica flakes, and the wings with fine, crystal glitter. With the domed glass, I had space to add a nice, sparkling rhinestone to the magic wand.

The same gold paper is on the back, and the edges are glued shut and sealed with glitter velvet ribbon. The same ribbon is looped as a hanger and secured with a bit of flocked gold paper. (the glue is still wet and showing in this picture, oops!)

Before putting the original painting in the frame, I scanned it to make a few Christmas cards, and this piece for my own tree.

For now, it is tucked into a feather wreath that is hanging on the mirror.

I know that Christmas is over and I should be dismantling all of the decor…. but I'm just not ready to let go yet, are you?