free images – Page 3 – Karla's Cottage

Whats new in the Boutique and more free Fairy images

By Karla Nathan / July 6, 2012

We spent our 4th of July out on the lake. No, we didn't get food poisoning from our picnic, this picture is just of something I added to the Boutique.

There are a bunch of these listed in the shop now. I think this one is my fave, aren't those great graphics?

Of course, the tins are cool too. Maybe I'm attracted to the green?

I debated leaving the pills in the boxes, some were really pretty. But, I figured that it would be smarter to dump them out and take them to the pharmacy to be disposed of properly.

Who knows what on earth was in those pills? These were from way before such things were regulated.

Its been awful hot lately, but was so nice out on the lake. Sugarwings and my husband took a long swim from the cove to the shore, and he says she told him "it was lovely" out there on the lake.

She was right, "lovely" was the perfect word to describe the sun setting over the trees while a warm breeze blew across the lake.

It was all around, a good day. I hope your holiday was a good one too.

We made fruit salad and baked bread to take on the picnic, (still loving that bread maker) then I foofed up the living room a bit before hitting the lake in the late afternoon after the worst heat of the day had passed.

Everything around here was so dry and brown, that I wanted to brighten things up indoors by adding some roses around the room. I'll have pictures of the mini redo in the next post.

I even managed to do a little work on my Faerie Book Swap. Which is still open if you'd like to join.

This image is the cover of a box of old birthday candles. To print it, click on it to save from a larger window.

Here it is again, edited to sepia.

Hope to see you in the swap! We are up to 75, there will be a great selection of pages for me to make the books with!! Its getting exciting and the pages haven't even started to arrive yet, I'm just giddy with anticipation!

Faerie Book Swap and free fairy images

Books, fairies, free images, swaps

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.

Nests and fairies and birdies and peeps

bird song art event, Dew Drop, fairies, family, free images, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 26, 2012

While I was in CA, I celebrated my 54th birthday, and it was a joy to be with friends that day. A group of them took me out to lunch the day before, and Carol treated me to dinner that night.

My roomie, Lori, even brought me a sweet little gift in bed when I woke up on my birthday. Now, that is special treatment!!

Lori has some photos in Jenny Doh's new book, and one of them is of me! Well, part of me, at least.

As a thank you to my freinds for making my birthday so nice, I made up some wire nests (from my Twining and Twirling online workshop).

These are all on their way to my thoughtful buddies now. Just a token to thank them for the great weekend.

(I've added a few nests to my Boutique also)

While we are talking nests, I thought I'd show you my banner from the Birdsong swap I joined. I wish I could have been a part of all of them, but I was a little overwhelmed at the time. There were some really great swaps, I was impressed. And so glad that I was in this one! I usually try to join one swap whenever I go to an arty event, because I spend so much time oohing and ah-hing when I watch the trades getting opened and end up jealous over the beautiful loot everyone gets.

These letters were temporarily clipped to my curtain rod in the kitchen, but I kind of like them there, and they might hang out that way for a while.

This book is a Birdsong treat that I got from my friend, Tami.

Its more than perfect, because when I send messages to the Birdsong group, I call them my "peeps". Plus, I kind of like fairies a bit…

Its an adorable book, that Sugarwings and I fell in love with right away. Cute illustrations,and a fun little story filled with songs and poems and lots of fairies.

She has been entranced by it, and after I read it to her, she sat and looked at the book for over an hour.

And this is a kid that doesn't sit still much.

The peeps who came to Birdsong were overly generous! Very thoughtful gifts came our way, what a wonderful bonus on top of the great weekend of fun that I had with all the ladies.

I'll leave you with a scan of one of my favorite pages, and of the cover. Click to open in a larger size before you save them to your computer to print.

A surprise package!

antiques/junking, free images

By Karla Nathan / April 5, 2012

My friend, Angie was setting up an estate sale and asked me if I wanted to do a little early shopping. Of course I did!

When I got there, she said she had something for me in my car and would set it in my front seat while I shopped. Not only did I buy some great sneak peak goodies from her sale, this basket of beauties was waiting for me when I left!

The sewing basket itself was a great pink color and a thoughtful gift, but wow! Once I looked inside, I was just shocked. Here is just a few of the tidbits she added to the package.

Thanks, Angie!

This pretty card was inside too. I scanned it to share with you. Just click on it to open in a larger window to save and print.

And today, this pack of pretties came in the mail for Birdsong from one of my new Paper Cowgirl friends, Terri.

So many people have been generous with their gifts to the ladies at our arty party coming up. Thanks!

The countdown has begun, and THIS is what the studio looks like right now. Can you picture 25 ladies creating in this mess??

I've got some work ahead of me…

Plus I am teaching two classes this year, so I have two kits to still assemble yet.

Oh well, it all pulls together some how! But it won't happen if I don't get doing it, so I'm off to work.

Valentine celebrations and a giveaway

celebrations, free images, give away, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / February 10, 2012

This week Sugarwings and I threw a little Valentine making party for our friends. I set out lots of supplies for card making and for decorating gift boxes, plus had a few examples for ideas. The treat cabinet was filled up, and we made sure to have some healthy after school snacks out too, to make the parents happy as well as the kids.

One of my examples was a pop up card, with instructions next to a couple of finished ones. Its a very simple version, that even the kids could do. Here are the instructions, if you want to whip one up. The part you can't read, behind the pop up just says to make sure not to glue the paper you cover the outside of the card with to the part that folds up.

The kids all seemed to get into the projects and worked away on them for a couple of hours. Its good to see little ones be creative and stick to something like that, to not have to get up and run around or go play with toys. It was refreshing to see them all involved with making their boxes and exploring all the different supplies there was to dig into.

They all kept me pretty busy, I didn't really get to sit down to make something myself. But before the group arrived, I had made up these. Isn't the chalk board top perfect for writing a sweet note to your Valentine to read before opening it up to see the treats inside?

Its been a while since I've done a giveaway. And I was reminded while reading Beth's blog that our 5 year anniversary is here! Hers was the 9th, mine is actually on Valentine's Day itself.

Thanks again, Beth, for getting me started!!!

So it seems appropriate for me to offer a Valentine to you as a giveaway prize to celebrate!

Just leave a comment on this post, and I'll draw a name Monday, for this sweet little giveaway.

And if you are still cutting, pasting, and creating your own valentines, here is the back cover of that candy box I have on my dining table. A friend asked to see a close up of it, to see if the music was acutally playable. So, I'm posting it here for her. Its a cool graphic, and if you wanted to use it in your art, you can click on this to open in a larger window, save it to your computer, print it and cut out the heart.

That music note, heart shaped border is a pretty one to use. I might try to make something out if it myself.

Only 4 more days till Valentine's Day! I hope you have some sweetness planned for your holiday too.

Free vintage Valentine images

free images

By Karla Nathan / February 2, 2012

Sugarwings and I decided to have a party. We are making cupcakes and inviting Pixie Pie, Clover, and a bunch of her other besties to make Valentine cards.

So, I have been busy scanning some old Valentines from my stash. I'm printing up stacks of them for the kids to cut up and glue.

These are straight from my scanner, no editing. Not the prettiest way to present them, but I thought I'd share them with you as is.

All you need to do, is click on the image, it will pop up in a larger pixel window for you to save it to your computer to print and use.

My recommendation is to print them onto matt photo paper. It has a much nicer look than just copy paper.

PS- Bottom's Up is this weekend if you are in the KC area!!!

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.

Holiday French Ephemera labels, free images for you

free images, give away, holiday decor

By Karla Nathan / December 11, 2011

Holiday decor is an ongoing thing around here. I thought I was done, and was going simple this year… but every day it seems like I think of "one more little thing" that I want to do.

We spend more time in the kitchen than anywhere else, now that it is all remodeled. Its homey and a great gathering place for the whole family. I've got a table top tree in there on the buffet, and the big tree in the living room is placed so that you see it from the dining table.

But the rest of the kitchen looked like it could be any old day of the year.

So, I made up some quickie labels using some French images I got from my pal, Gwen of Bottoms Up. They were chocolate cards, I digitally removed the words and added my own holiday themed ones, and then removed the colors and tinted them all slightly neutral.

I always print my images onto matt photo paper, the results are much prettier than just copy or laser paper.

The backs got a quick smear of glue stick, and the cut out labels were then pressed onto my everyday cannisters. You have probably heard me complain about glue sticks in the past, the glue never lasts. Which is perfect for this, because its only a temporary look.

And yes, if I was really going all out and doing it right, I'd empty the canisters and fill them with candy canes, cookies, ornaments and other holiday foof. But no, this was a very easy, very quick project just to add a vintage and Christmassy feel to this corner. In January, I'll just take a soapy, hot sponge and wipe the glue away, and with little fuss and bother it will all be back to normal.

If only putting away the tree was that simple!

In the spirit of the holiday, I'm also giving away some tutorials. Please mention in your comment if you are interested in one or the other of these.

Oh, and by the way, I'm still adding more and more trees to the Etsy site, and there are still a few in the Boutique.

Its nice to see that they are still so popular, since I enjoy making them so much. I've had to replenish the stock a few times, but it is getting late in the year, so probably won't be adding any more after this. Thanks so much for shopping with me!

**************************************

Here are the images that I used for my canisters. Just click on the image to open it in a larger size before you save it to your computer to print it. Some of the edges are cut off, but that didn't bother me, and it doesn't really show once they are all cut out.

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!

Grandma Downey and Aunt Alma

family, Food and Drink, free images

By Karla Nathan / August 2, 2011

This week, I'm heading to Indiana to see my sisses and their families. While there, I am attending the annual family reunion of my dad's side of the family. We always call it the Downey Dinner (I grew up as Karkie Jo Downey)

My sister, Bobbie Sue, has been collecting recipes all year from cousins and aunts to compile a cook book, and I got to make the cover for it, and named it "Downey Dinners".

She has filled the pages with old family pictures, stories, and illustrations, and I can't wait to see it all together. When I get to Indy, we'll be assembling the books, and then bringing them to the big event to pass out to relatives.

For my cover, I did a small pencil sketch from a photo of my Grandma Downey, as she was holding up a fish she had just caught. I changed the fish to a wooden spoon, added an apron to her dress and set her in front of a table filled with bread dough in progress. She was renowned for her home baked bread. (Bobbie Sue inherited her skills in bread making, I did not)

I had to add a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, because that is how I always remember her.

After I finished the sketch, I scanned it, edited it in sepia, then printed it on mat photo paper.

Next, I used Copic markers to add some color, and white ink to add highlights, then cut out the image.

My cuz, Paula (who was in our tag book swap), sent me a scan of her dad's grade school report card with Grandma's signature on it. I used this as the background for my tinted drawing, and then layered it over some kitchen-ey old wallpaper, inking the edges of each layer for depth.

Then, I scanned it again, and added the words in Picnik.

(feel free to use these images in your own art, if you'd like. I'd be honored to see Grandma Downey in someone's journal or on a tag somewhere!) Just click on the picture to open in a larger window, save to your computer, then print.

My Aunt Alma had sent me a recipe for my very favorite pie and I offered to do an interior page with it. At the time, we were going to divide up the book and cousins were all going to do some of the pages, but Bobbie Sue was brave enough to take on over 130 pages on her own. I did end up still doing this one page, after all. But it was a very last minute project. I was hoping to find a better photo of my aunt, but none was available right then, so I had to use a snip from a group shot. Its a little blurrier than I would have liked.

This page went together really fast, maybe 15 minutes because I was running out of time to get it to the copy shop Saturday afternoon. I used a favorite wallpaper background, the photo of my aunt that I slipped into a mat from an old album, the recipe card she had sent to me, and a clipping from that day's paper that just happened to mention that Sugar Cream pie was the Hoosier state pie. Who knew? And how serendipitous that it happened to be in my local Lawrence, Kansas paper the day I was making the page.

I finished it off with a hand drawn vine and rushed both pages off to the UPS store to be copied. I think they do the best job for the price. I'm always happy with the color and quality there.

Before I head East for my trip, I want to announce the latest winner of the $15 online dress form tutorial.

Debbie of Romancing the Bling

If you'd like a chance to win one, please leave a comment on any post. If I draw your name and you are already taking the class, I'll send you a kit full of vintagey goodness to make the doll from.

Please forgive me if I dont' have time to answer comments. I will keep up with dressform tutorial orders and can send you the passwords from my Ipad. I'll ship all order from the Boutique on Thursday the 11th.