hand painted signs – Karla's Cottage

I spend a lot more time on these things than I probably should

antiques/junking, Chandeliers, Good JuJu, hand painted signs

By Karla Nathan / August 20, 2023

For the September sale at Good Juju’s First Friday weekend, I conjured up some witch’s hats to hang in my entry. They are hung with black chandeliers and the frames I already had up there.

The frames help give the giant, up high slice of my real estate some more “umph”. I think the hats would just disappear with out the frames behind them.

When I plan such things, I need to remind myself just how big this area is. Previously, I hung some teensy birdcages which was a complete waste of time. These witch hats teeter on the edge of time wasting too, I shoulda made them larger.

For the August event, I finally made a sign with my name on it, but once I had the hats dangling, it didn’t look right.

So I replaced it with this fall wreath that I’d picked up for a buck. That seemed to go with the rest of the look much better.

My first inclination was to write the word “haunted” on a piece of paper and tape it above Cottage. I thought it would be funny.

But honestly, I just don’t like the sign itself. My writing is a mess and makes the sign look amateurish. I need to rethink and redo the words before I rehang.

The “KarlaNathan.com” was left up there, the black and white simplicity of it seemed to go well with the rest of the design. But I do want a nicer Karla’s Cottage to add, so back to work.

Sometimes I wonder at my choices for how I spend my time. Does this even matter?

Mushroom paintings

Hand painted, hand painted signs, mushrooms

By Karla Nathan / April 12, 2023

The other day, my husband was building a new raised garden bed for us and was using old fencing around it to keep the hens out. He left a pile of these trimmed pieces on the ground after adjusting the fence height. They caught my eye.

The wood was just what I needed for some little mushroom paintings that I’d been thinking about doing.

I scrubbed then sealed the old wood, front and back, before painting on it. Then added my schroomies.

The paintings are pretty simple, so I was able to keep the cost down. I’d like to do more, I enjoyed these and I have got a bucket full of wood trimmings to use. But between my concussion and not knowing if theses will sell well or not, I’m holding back on making more for now. (How mature and unexpected of me)

The garden beds turned out wonderfully! Once we get some dirt and get started, I’ll be sharing those.

A new venture

antiques/junking, collections, Hand painted, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, junk

By Karla Nathan / April 29, 2022

I’m so excited to announce that I’ll be setting up my pretties at Good Juju, starting next Friday! It was a rather quick decision, and pretty bad timing because I’m dealing with the after effects of my doodle running joyfully at full speed across a field, straight into my head.

Yep, concussion time again.

I have not felt my best. But because of this head injury, I had to cancel a trip, knowing that I couldn’t do the long drive. Joining the Juju family has been on my mind, so when Pam welcomed me in, I thought I might as well go for starting right away in time for the next sale since I wasn’t going to be traveling after all.

So, I have been combing through my stash, sorting my jewels, stringing banners, and tying up papers to prepare. I’ve had to take a lot of breaks, then stop by 4-5pm because of my eye strain and headache, but I have managed to pull together even more than I expected to.

I will have a small spot, so it wasn’t too hard to fill, even with a headache. And as I feel better throughout this week, I hope to craft more items to bring in.

I’m also doing something new, a sort of “Charm Bar”. I’ve made some sweet charms/pendants with a mix of vintage, crystals, and pretty bits and pieces. Each is ready for a chain, or to be clipped onto a leather or silk cord that I have ready to go, clips added. I love them, and think they will be excellent Mother’s Day or graduation gifts.

Since I am a bit confused now and then, I will not be working at the desk for the sale. But I will be there to visit, please stop to say hi.

https://www.goodjujukc.com

And another redone mural

flowers, Hand painted, hand painted signs

By Karla Nathan / August 6, 2019

While I was redoing a canvas for the Guncles, I thought I would touch this one up too. I don’t have a before, because I hadn’t planned on painting it, I just kinda started in on it while working on the other one (previous post).

It didn’t get a big overhaul. I changed the sign to my blog name, brightened and sharpened up some details.

Added a rosemary plant and some roses.

This hangs over the fuse box in my garage, because, well, what else do you do with giant 6’ paintings?

Updates to repurpose a canvas

flowers, Garden, guncles, Hand painted, hand painted signs

By Karla Nathan / August 3, 2019

Years ago, I had painted a canvas with a French market scene to use as a backdrop/divider for a booth at a show. It was a quickie, and not meant to be too detailed.

Here is the original. I have had it hanging in my garage, but have never really liked it. When Guncle Randy needed a French themed mural, I offered to give it to him.

But of course, that meant that I wouldn’t like it any better when I saw it at his house.

So, I spent an afternoon brightening it and adding details.

Including his Bichon, Bella, peeking out of the window.

And his address in French, on the wall.

(the sign isn’t really crooked, the canvas has a few billows, here and there that throw off the perspective in photos)

I like it better now. I think he will use it in his patio tent for a French themed dinner party or maybe to hang on the garden fence?

It is canvas and acrylic, so would be fine outdoors. But over time, could cause moisture to be trapped behind it and the fence would rot, so that couldn’t be permanent.

A visit through my mural photo album

Hand painted, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, paintings

By Karla Nathan / February 11, 2018

While cleaning up a bit in the studio, I came across my old photo album of murals and painted furniture. I'd forgotten I had it and enjoyed looking back over the years as I flipped through it.

Which is why we do scrap books and albums right?

I apologize for the blurriness of most of these pics, they are photographed through the plastic covers on the pages.

And taking a photo of a picture isn't always the best (or smartest) way to do a blog post, huh?

But please forgive me as I indulge myself in showing some of these old pics. They were glued down, and if I had to remove and scan each one, it wouldn't have happened.

So, instead, you get a quick and crappy trip down memory lane with me and my smeary pictures.

Some are from antique mall booths, and of painted furniture.

This is from a baby's room.

This as well.

And here is a master bedroom painted a deep color that I was asked to paint blooming flowers all the way around the baseboards.

The iris "bloomed" all around the room.

This was for a boy's room, with all walls done in a planetary theme.

His sister's room got dolphins.

Extra blurriness for this one, it is in a dining room and is part of a scene that filled all four walls.

I can't even remember painting this one.

But back in the day, I did do a lot of pets on walls. Often, the furry little guys would pose for me in person.

This is a Velveteen Rabbit scene for a niece.

And some frogs for another little girl who had actually saved up her own money to hire an artist to come and paint her bedroom. She loved frogs.

I painted this landscape in my mud room, hated it, and painted over it. My home is layers upon layers of painted over murals. My son's rooms changed every couple of years as they were growing up.

A friend had me do this for her, and the best part was hanging out and laughing together as I did the work.

I did public spaces too. Here is a basement laundry room at an apartment building near the KU campus.

And a bar in Louisiana. This was huge, the whole thing was 20×60'

The sunset was done with spray paint. I'm trying to remember why there was a desert in Louisiana, but I just can't. It was a cowboy bar, and the guy roping the moon was the logo.

The little guy in the beer bottle was the logo for another bar, and I painted a wall of him in various poses all over the place. A larger version of him is holding the bottle. It was like a big, drunken hallucination and was such fun to come up with.

I painted this restaurant wall to brighten up a narrow space. (I did the faux finish too)

And I was hired to paint tropical plants at a country club in Florida.

Funny, years and years later, my husband is working for this company now and is actually a VP. He wouldn't ever have hired me, that would've been nepotism, so I'm glad he got the job later on. This was one of the most fun paintings I've done, I had a week to stay at their private hotel at the club, order room service, and sit by the pool contemplating what to paint next. I had free reign in the dining room and snack bar to create on the walls.

Guncle Randy always gave me free space to decorate his walls too. Everytime I visited we would paint together and add more to his art room.

I was lucky enough to get to do some Design Showhouses too. This was in a music room of a very old, wonderful home. The walls are bronze, gold, and copper. The piano bench is covered in sheet music and is used in front of the bench my son built and that I now have in my studio.

Some of these, I really enjoyed seeing again, others are slightly cringe-worthy. I always painted fast, most walls were done in less than a day, and at the time, I kept pretty busy with daycares, hotels, and so many other spaces. It makes me a bit sad that digital cameras weren't around and I don't have better photos of most of the work. Painting murals was quite an interesting job and I got to travel, experiment, and really loved the work.

Aging a picture with crackle

Hand painted, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, how to's, how-to projects, paintings

By Karla Nathan / March 6, 2015

I was asked about this picture in my new guest room, so thought I'd give a quick how-to.

First, find a botanical, or other picture you like. Glue it to a canvas.

Next, tear and collage old papers around it. I chose a background of sheet music with an oval "frame" of roses torn out of old wrapping paper. All are rough, torn edges, different shapes, and glued down with white school glue.

When dry, I clear coated it with water based Polycrylic from Minwax.

I let that dry, then brushed on a weathered crackle finish by McClosky.

After that dried, another coat of Polycrylic went on.

The next day, I wiped on a sepia tinted glaze, let it settle into the cracks made by the weather crackle, and wiped it off.

Weathered crackle finish usually is applied over paint, then a second coat of paint is used over it to create a crackled paint finish.

But, water based clear coat is much like paint without color, and creates the same effect. But this way it is tone on tone, and clear. So, adding the sepia glaze shows off the crackle and ages any paper or canvas you do this over.

Here is a picture I used this technique on years ago for a Romantic Country article. The teapot is a photo copy of one of my original watercolors.

For this one, I glazed over it after it was in a white frame, concentrating the sepia tone heavily in the corners, and also using it on the frame too.

I sincerely hate the look of crackle applied as it is supposed to be used, it is soooooooo fake. But I love it to use in aging a picture. And in aging other things too. The trick, to me, is to keep it tone on tone, to add texture.

Here, I took an old piece of scrolly metal. It was antique, but it was not painted and I didn't want the paint I added to look too new.

So, I painted the piece white, did the crackle, then a clear coat, then the glaze. Over that, I did the hand painted roses.

Same technique was used here on this canvas before painting roses.

Instant age for a brand new painting!

Under the Sea mural in Jacksonville and shark attacks in Maui

hand painted signs, paintings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / January 5, 2014

While we were visiting the Guncles in Jacksonville before Christmas, we drove by the Embassy Suites on our way to the airport.

Years and years ago, I'd painted a mural around their pool, and we stopped in to see if it was still there.

It is and has held up just wonderfully!

This was a large project, but was a fast one. I'm trying to remember how long I spent on it, but since it was so long ago, I'm fuzzy on the details. But typically, something like this only took a few days or so.

In the past, I used to travel around and do lots of murals in bars, restaurants, dozens and dozens of day cares, plus in private homes. I loved doing it, and was pretty quick, in and out in a day for most jobs.

I sure am NOT that fast anymore. This painting took me weeks, but it was hanging in my garage and I could work on it in little snatches of time here and there. Plus, I was entranced by the whole theme and really enjoyed sneaking off into a fairytale forest for an afternoon getaway of painting. And it is a more finished piece than the fish picture. Painting just for the pure love of painting is diferent than painting for a client and a budget.

For the hotel painting, the background was painted blue before I got there and I was just adding fish over it.

I did use a deeper blue washed over the base color at the ocean floor.

Painting over the heavily textured walls was a challenge. Most of the creatures had to be planned to fit into the plaster pattern. I always did faces first, fitting it into the smoothest spots and working the body in around it.

Even all these years later, I remember working around that rough texture. Also trying to balance on a ladder in a planter as it kept sinking into the dirt.

And getting up my nerve to climb up the scaffolding that was perched across the pool at this end.

I'm not good with heights at all. I packed a lunch and a bottle of water and stayed up on the scaffold all day because I was too chicken to climb down. But the biggest problem with being on a scaffold for me is that once I get involved with working, I start to forget how high up I am and almost topple off the edge when I step back to take a look at the painting!

All of my work is done freehand, with no sketching. Which is a good thing, since I had to work around the plaster textures and fit the fish in where they went best with the rough walls.

Can you see the hidden mermaid in this closeup? I didn't remember doing that, but Guncle Randy reminded me that I hid a few in the painting. I could only find this one.

I dont' think I was as successful with the plaster problem with this birds. The one on the left has a slash across it's neck.

It meant a lot to me, that my husband turned off the highway and stopped at this hotel to take a look at the mural. These mural jobs that I used to do, maybe weren't high class paintings, but they sure were fun jobs and I was lucky enough to keep pretty busy with them. It felt good to look back at this one and not cringe, like I sometimes do with my older art.

It is far, far from perfect, but I can accept it as doing what the client wanted and be happy with the outcome. Of course, I'd like it better if I'd had a couple weeks for each wall instead of a few hours. But I'm proud of the fact that I could whip these paintings out in a short enough time to make it profitable for me to do.

All these fishies are timely for me right now. As you read this, I hope to be snorkeling. My husband and I are off to Hawaii for a visit with his dear sis, Terry and her husband.

Although, I am a bit worried about this kind of fish. Did you hear about the number of shark attacks off of Maui in 2013???? Two deaths, one near the beach we use.

Hopefully I won't be adding to those statistics. And 2014 will be a better year for swimmers in Hawaii. I'm going to be brave and not let the number of bites stop my water sport fun!

Although, I might be looking over my shoulder a bit, into the waves behind me…

Rosy room redos

antiques/junking, cottage, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs

By Karla Nathan / August 8, 2013

While I was taking time off, hanging with the grand fairies and on my home improvement kick, I spiffed up the guest rooms a little.

Not much, just some switching of linens for this room, and bringing in a bedside table. (I really, really hate the carpet, but the room is used a couple times a year, it's not worth ripping it out and putting in wood or laminate, like I'd prefer)

The second attic guest room got more of an overhaul. I hung a cool, old, mosquito net that Lisa had given me, and added a gorgeous net and lace bedspread from her too.

Here is a before. We don't use the room much, and around here, the guest rooms seem to just get leftover bits and pieces put in them. It was okay, but a little blah.

The dark green shutters on each side of the window needed balance and I happened to have a $7, dark green table from a garage sale wasting away, and thought that helped a little when I brought it in. (both are things I thought I'd paint white and never did, but I'm liking the contrast with the rest of the room)

But it made the bed look washed out, so I added some pillow cases I made out of some green and rose curtains from the 40s.

I had a heck of a time getting the netting to hang right, so it wasn't drooping down too much. I decided to use a beautiful hand made bit of wrapping paper from Lori Oles as an anchor to hold it on the wall. It worked, but was too light colored, so I pinned a round piece of floral wallpaper in the center of it.

Then, I broke a ruler in half, wrapped it in torn strips of ivory cloth. I gathered the netting, and nailed the fabric wrapped ruler over it in two places to hold the pleats in place.

The room is hard to photograph since it is so small and has those angled roof lines. The canopy thingamajig looks better in person than it does in the pictures. The bed is kind of cozy looking this way.

I stapled a millinery flower on each side of the ephemera piece, and trimmed Lori's ribbons to dangle a little bit, but not too far.

This room is full of hand painted rose pieces too. I used to have an antique biz and I'd paint furniture. All this is leftovers from that.

Sometimes I think my house only has things that no one else wanted it in. Either stuff I never sold, or things I bought dirt cheap second hand because another person wanted it gone. (except for the lovely gifts from Lori and Lisa, this room is all cast offs)

These shutters are actually a custom order that was never picked up, which is why they were dark green in the first place. And that inspired the rest of the redo. And it wasn't even something I'd chosen to do for myself or the room.

An Enchanted Forest painting and some deep (for me) thoughts on aging and time (but no math)

hand painted signs, Snow White, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / April 28, 2013

I thought I'd show you some steps to the Enchanted Mural I did for Kim's event. I posted a few beginning photos here and there while I was working on it, but as it progressed and started to look like something, we wanted to save the "reveal" as a surprise for the Fair Maidens attending the party.

It measures 8-1/2' x 16'. Too big for my garage wall! I had to bunch it up under the soffit, and move it down to paint the top after I was done with the rest of the picture.

The first step was background color, blue sky, brown ground. I didn't bother to prime it this time. I also forgot to cover my wall with plastic.

Oops.

Which would be fine, if the whole mural had seeped through, would be kind of impressionistic and fun. But no, just blobs of blue and brown.

Next, I painted the horizon and hills off in the distance, all in faded tones. After that, the grass. And I sketched the trees in chalk for the trunks, then blocked in the dark leaves at the top.

I was going for a look of standing at the edge of a dark forest, looking out into a meadow and off into the distance. I thought a road leading to a castle far away was appropriate for the Snow White story.

Here are a couple of "during" shots as I tweaked the sunlight. You can see that my background behind the pink tree on the left changes. I did a lot of re-dos on that area. But hey, it's only paint, you can change as much as you'd like. And I was making it up as I went along, so some things didn't work as well as others. There was a lot of painting over.

This is the final effort for that same spot under the pink tree. Deeper shadows and some yellow splotches of sunlight.

The whole thing is done in layers. I felt like I really got to know that forest.

Like the fact that there are more pink trees far away to the right. They got covered by trees in the foreground. If I had done a drawing first, maybe that little issue wouldn't have come up, huh?

Here is it is, filled in a bit more. Notice the shadow across the road under the trees?

I added little surprises out in the woods too. (early version)

(Completed version)

This is where Snow White lived with her stumpy buddies.

Her friends, the deer are in the woods too.

As well as a bunny and some butterflies.

I added a couple mushrooms. I wanted to do a whole fairy ring of them, complete with dancing fairies, but I actually was able to stop myself in time.

This mural is meant as a photo backdrop. No one will see the tiny goings on in the background for the photos. But I was so involved with my own day dreams, I got carried away and spent way too much time on the far away details. They made me happy.

But they really took too much time away from my real life. I spent so much time wandering around the woods in my make believe life that I got nothing else done. I've not added any new things to the shops, I've had no income. That is why they call us starving artists. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in creating that we don't care about selling.

But I am far from starving. I tend to snack as I paint. Not a good thing for the waistline. I figure this mural cost me $1000 in sales online and added 5 lbs to my belly.

Oh, but I sure loved being in this fantasy world!

Years ago, I did murals for a real job, but have gotten away from it. I used to be super fast, because I did so many. But with this I really zapped my time.

I was wondering if it has something to do with getting older? (I'll be 55 in a couple weeks) I seem to do everything slower as time swoops by me so fast.

Here is how I figure it:

When you are a kid time drags. Remember waiting for your birthday?? Those months seemed to take forever to go by. But compared to the amount of time you'd been on the earth, it was a pretty large percentage of your years. Lets say you are almost 5, maybe about 58 months old. So those two months till your 5th birthday are………

Wait a minute, I don't do math or percentages, what am I thinking???? My point is that two months of your life as a child is a huge chunk of time. Two months of your life as a 50 something adult is nothing. You've lived through 600 some months. Time goes by faster due to your frame of reference.

That is what I am blaming on my slow down. I take forever to get anything done and I used to be lightening fast. I think it is because time is slipping by so quickly that I don't register how long I've spent on a task. All afternoon at my desk feels like an hour or so.

Plus, as I said before, I got a little carried away on this project while living in the imaginary forest.

Case in point, this castle? I spent two hours on it.

(the blue birds and leaves are just blocked in at this point, no details)

And you can barely see it. I wanted it to look very far away, and it does, but did I need two hours of detail to do that? Oh well, I love the castle, so I'm glad that I did.

Another thought on aging:

As I get older, I care more about details. I wonder how many more big projects I'll be doing? They seem to matter more to me, so I put more into them. Not that I plan on kicking the bucket any time soon, or that I expect to be too creaky at 60 to get anything done. But I'm just more aware of the remaining years and how precious they are.

Okay, back to the painting?

While I wanted the forest to seem dark, to emphasize the light in the break in the trees, I didn't want it to seem scary. The shadows are a pretty blue, and while there are bushes and grasses, it's not over grown and tangled. It's a friendly forest. And since it is a photo back drop, I had to watch out for hot spots. No glaring whites or brights, all are faded or toned down. Which gives it a dreamy look, I think.

I'm afraid I can't get a photo of the complete thing while it is in my garage, there is no space to hang it up all stretched out. When I lowered it to paint the top, I had to roll up the bottom few inches.

Curtains will cover a foot at the top and 6" at the bottom will have to be rolled under to make it fit. Curtains will also cover 2 feet on each side. I didn't know this till it was 90% done, so I went in and brought the leaves down lower and darkened them to keep the effect of a dark forest. If the leaves were mostly covered at the top, it would change the look of the design.

This is a nest I added and wasn't happy with.

This is what it needed!

Much better!

If you want directions on painting a nest, I have a free tutorial here.

I'd have added more blue birds, but was afraid that they were so bright that they might stand out too much in photos. And they could look like they were sitting on the head of someone standing in front of them in the photos.

And I think one of them will be cut out by the curtains, but maybe the tie backs will save it.

Sadly, it is also too big to hang anywhere at my house. I donated my time (not planning that I'd spend ALL my time on it,) not the mural itself, so I get it back after the party.

I'd thought about selling it, but I have grown attached. I might cut it up in sections and wallpaper the grand fairies' room with it. I'm not sure yet.

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I've been working on this wire birdcage tutorial, and now have it ready to send to you! You can get the details here.