Sugarwings – Page 13 – Karla's Cottage

Vintage cabinet card photos turned into art journals

Sugarwings, Tutorials, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / September 9, 2014

Wow, it has been exciting for me to see how many of you love to make journals as much as I do! Thanks for the purchases of the tutorial!

On Saturday, I added another book to the class, it is the small cabinet card one in the front, covered in barkcloth. (I also added scans of the cabinet card folders to use as a pattern if you do not have a vintage photo of your own to make one)

You can never go wrong with barkcloth, can you? Especially, a yummy, rosey pattern.

Yep, yum. Double yum, I love that stuff. Almost as much as old Rosy wallpaper, but not quite, because I'm just not as mechanically inclined to work with fabric as I am to handle wallpaper.

Which is why Beth posted this hilarious sewing machine illustration for me, knowing that any monstrosity of a sewing machine is a mystery to me.

And why the tutorial I wrote for the journals is about making them with GLUE. Although I an proud to say that I did brave a couple of sewing ideas to show too.

All three of these cabinet card books are done with glue only.

My world is a happy place when I don't have to go near that scary monster of a sewing machine.

Of course, a page like this would be just as nice stitched as it is glued. But I've done something nasty to my machine and the cry hole is all wonky.

(Isn't the title of this article great!? I thought it was appropriate for the tutorial, it is nice to help someone become more arty)

Sometimes all we need is a few tips and some cheering on.

Not all redos are all that pretty

cottage, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / August 28, 2014

Sometimes, practical just has to win out over pretty.

I loved this cabinet that I fixed up to use for the grand fairies' clothes, in our laundry room/closet. Our walk in closet has a washer and dryer in it, making it easy for me to put away my own stuff. All mine and my husband's things just hang or go on a shelf right there in the laundry room.

When the girls came along, I was not going to get back into the habit of hauling laundry up and down the stairs again. After a taste of total convenience, there was NO WAY that I'd be going back to schlepping baskets around.

So, I decided to add storage to the closet just for them.

But- as they got bigger, their clothes got bigger, and the cabinet seemed smaller. The shelves were dark and over stuffed. There was no room to hang any of their dresses.

Even though it looked nice, it just wasn't working.

So, I picked up this rack at Target. Everything fits on it soooo much better, and I can find thier matching clothes without a major search party and a flashlight.

I don't like the way it looks.

But, I sure like the way it works.

Sugarwings decided that the space behind it would make a great changing room for her. She uses a a couple of wooden clothes pins to hook a vintage table cloth onto a hanger on one side and the rack on the other. To get in and out, she unhooks the hanger side and pins it the table cloth back onto the rack.

And of course, if you move a piece of furniture, it kind of starts an avalanche of moves… I replaced a vintage, radio cabinet with the larger one from the closet, to have more space for the grand fairies' games and electronics, which cut down on some clutter, but now, where will the replaced cabinet land?

And so it begins, the furniture shuffle. If I was smart, I'd snap a photo and do a craigslisting for the smaller cabinet right NOW. Or load it in the truck and take it to Salvation Army, instead of creating a kerfuffle of moves with other pieces in the house.

We'll see…

A Pinkie Pie Birthday party and some home made sidewalk chalk

Dew Drop, family, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / August 26, 2014

August is a busy month for us. My husband and I have an anniversary, The Hippy Chick and Sugarwings both have birthdays, and of course, back to school time. Which still irks me, that it comes so early. Am I showing my age by thinking back to school should be after Labor Day?

We have had a lot of celebratiing going on.

So much so, that some days we had to double up on parties. Sugarwings' school's open house was the same night that we went out to celebrate her mom's birthday.

My social calender has been jam packed. A good buddy has the same birthday as the Hippy Chick and turned 50 this year, so we have had a brunch for her and a Girls' Night Out too.

I feel very blessed with all of the special occasions to attend. And to have friends and family around me to celebrate with. My sister also has a birthday this week, but is too far away for me to be there when she blows out the candles.

I miss being there to give her a birthday hug, but I also know that I'm very lucky to have my sisters in my life and that we are extremely lucky to be so close, even while being so far apart. I hope that Sugarwings and Dewdrop will always have this closeness. Whenever they spat (which is a LOT) I always tell them that a sister is a forever friend.

Not that it helps. When someone takes a toy from your hands, or screams in your face, it is hard to feel overwhelming friendship and appreciation at that moment.

The party that our Hippy Chick threw was full of friendship and fun. She let Sugarwings choose the theme, Pinkie Pie, and added lots of pink polka dotted balloons to the park by her house. Simple, colorful, and cute. With old fashioned games that inspired lots of laughs and running.

She provided some fun little giveaways, and made a gluten/dairy free cake with fresh strawberries. Sugarwings and I made some side walk chalk to give to her friends too.

There isn't much to making it, but I think we could have done it a better way. Maybe this post should be titled, "How NOT to make Sidewalk Chalk"

Here is what we did wrong. First, no recipe, no measuring, and no thinking it out. I kind of figured I'd wing it. And I was wrong, it would've been better if I'd paid attention.

First of all, I had no idea that plaster of paris would dry so fast. Our plan was to add the glitter to it, stir in some water, then pour it into a mold and swirl in food coloring to each piece of chalk in the molds.

Well, it was thick as burnt and lumpy gravy within seconds. Seconds! I did not use enough water. I found that if you use more water, it takes days to dry, but it is better than having it dry before you can get it in a mold because your mixture didn't have enough liquid.

And it sets up permanently. This bucket, after soaking for a week, is still coated with plaster. I thought it would wash away if I soaked it, but no, the bucket is ruined.

If you are making this, use something you want to throw away, like a Dollar Store bucket, not your favorite pail.

So, here is how you should do it:

Put on gloves

Add two cups of plaster of paris to a throw away bucket
Mix food coloring into one cup of water (we didn't do this, I figured out afterwards that it would be better to stir the food coloring into the water ahead of time, instead of adding it to the mix later)
Have your silicone molds nearby and ready to pour the mixture into ( you can also
pour the mix into small plastic bowls, and after they dry, break the chalk into chunks)
Dump a whole container of fine glitter into the plaster of paris, mix well
Slowly stir in water
Pour into the molds, let sit for a few days
Remove the chalk from the molds and let them sit for a few more days. Ours took over a week to set up when we did it this way, but the chalk was really nice. And the silicone molds made cute shapes.

PS- happy birthday, Bobbie!

Around the cottage

Dew Drop, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / August 24, 2014

Summer ends too quickly for me. Especially this year, we have had fall like temps that make me believe that summer has really ended, not just that school starts way too early.

On Sugarwing's first day of second grade, we could see our breath, it was so chilly! That is NOT typical Kansas weather in mid August. Usually we are cursing the cracked, dry, brown earth that is baking in the heat.

Now, I'm not complaining about not feeling like I live in a smelting pot, I just am discombobulated by the freaky weather and am going to start thinking about pumpkin pie before it is even time to harvest our tomatoes.

We have made use of this untypical August cool air by taking lots of bike rides and hitting the walking trails. During one walk, we paused for a selfie, and snapped it just in time to catch Twinkle in the act of side swiping Sugarwings and I both with her tongue.

Besides working on Nature's Blessing journal covers, I've not had much of a chance to get creative, instead, I've been hanging with the grand fairies and working in the yard. All the work that normally gets put off til cooler, fall weather has been tempting me to be out doors, doing it now instead.

Oh, I've had time for a few little redos, like fixing up this frame from an estate sale, and I've been in a deep cleaning frenzy in the house for some odd reason.

The frame was sprayed with bonding primer (zinser)

Washed with watered down, coffee colored paint.

Then, wiped with a paper towel. I plan on sanding it for a distressed look, then popping in a pretty picture of a grand fairy.

Of course, I'll have plenty of those to choose from!

Another trip to Crown Center and a bit of fizzy fun

Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / August 12, 2014

One of our day trips this summer was to Kaleidoscope at Crown Center.

Where I fell in love with the outrageous decor.

These paper towel dispensers make me want to build one for my studio.

And the place is 100% free.

All of the art supplies are donated by Hallmark.

It was so colorful and fun, we went twice that day. Once before and then after we saw "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" at the theater at Crown Center.

Cute theater! We have plans to go back to see Rudolf at Xmas.

I'll bet that Hallmark has some nifty Christmas crafts in mind for the holidays when we return. Since it is Hallmark, and they pretty much are all about holidays and celebrations.

Crown Center wasn't the only thing we revisited. We have discovered that vinegar and baking soda are a very exciting combo. Over the summer, we've played with it a lot.

We've filled an empty water bottle with it and added a balloon to the top, and watched the gas fill up the balloon. We've made volcanoes, we've just put it in tubs and played with the fizziness.

This time, we filled a pie tin with food coloring blobs.

By the way, after going through boxes and boxes of food coloring this summer, I've discovered that it washes out of clothes and hands with Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap in peppermint (from the natural grocers or Trader Joes)

We covered up the food coloring in the tin with baking soda.

(The wagon in the background holds a tub of water that she dumps the leftovers into when the experiment is done. All the food colors mixed together turn the water swamp colored, and she likes to sit in it and pretend to be a swamp creature. Don't ask me why it needs to be in a wagon, but somehow that was important in the game.)

Then, filled a squirt gun with vinegar and sprayed away.

The more you spray, the more fizzy, frothy, rainbow bubbles you get.

At the county fair

Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / August 6, 2014

2nd grade begins soon, so Sugarwings and I have tried to jam as much fun into the last of the summer days as we can.

Last week, we went to the county fair, in the afternoon before the midway opened for business.

That time of day, is mostly just farm animals and pony rides. Which we didn't mind at all. It's quiet, and peaceful and I'm a big fan of going places when the crowds aren't around.

We had the most fun pretending to be prize winning bunnies, jumping over a ditch. She won the pink ribbon for the best jump.

Why we love the Topeka Zoo

Dew Drop, family, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / August 1, 2014

We have such a good time when we go to the zoo in Topeka. For one thing, it is small, and easy to get around in. It used to be kind of sad and run down, but improvements have been made over the years and every time we go, it gets better and better.

Everything is clean. Everyone is friendly.

There is a 106 year old carousel in the park next to the zoo, and I've never seen it busy. Most times when we go, there are very few people there. This time, we were the only ones visiting this gorgeous, old ride, for about an hour or so. The cost is only $1.25, or 15 ride tickets for $15 (includes the train too).

It's so cheap, and there were no lines, so we rode over and over and over. Well, at least they did, I get a bit dizzy just watching it go around. If I'd joined in for multiple rides, I'd probably still be spinning around in my head today.

The attendants are always friendly to kids and since there was no one else there, the young man at the controls let the girls play on the horses, giant chickens, zebras, etc. trying each one out before choosing the perfect steed for the ride.

The adjacent park has rose gardens, a big community pool, a new play ground, trails, and a very, very old play ground made up of giant cement animals to climb on. When my kids were little, there were tunnels, but those have since been covered up. I'm glad the goofy animals are still there to play on.

And play in.

Once you get inside the zoo (only $15 for three of us for the day) it's an easy walk through it. With some interactive sites along the way, like this African bush camp. We usually can play jungle explorer there for an hour or so.

This zoo has had a checkered past, losing accreditation a couple of times. But major changes have been implemented and it is a sweet, little place to visit now and seems to be very well run and kept up beautifully. It is a quick get away for us, only 20 minutes from my house to the gate.

And how often can you find a place where you can hitch a ride on the king of beasts?

My grand fairies love having lions to climb on.

And a "cweepy" (according to Dewdrop) cave where you can visit the cats up close and personal.

Bigger zoos of course, have bigger attractions, but I don't think any of them can beat Topeka for price, accessibility, and pure charm.

Interested in the journal swap? Info here.

How to make two ingredient Fluff Stuff

family, how-to projects, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 30, 2014

This is the easiest, cheapest, fluffiest stuff to make. All you need is shaving cream and corn starch.

I buy both at Walmart, so the supplies are under $2.

You will also need a bucket or bowl, and spoon. Possibly glitter if you like sparkles.

We LOVE sparkles, so dumped in a bunch of it.

I know I mentioned a spoon, but we found that it was more fun to mix with fingers.

I didn't say that it was more tidy to use fingers…

Here is how we did it:

We randomly added shaving cream and cornstarch as we played with it, then dumped in glitter.

Here is how you should do it:

Spray out a giant pile of shaving cream, reserving some in the can in case you need it.

Slowly add and mix in cornstarch till you get it to a good consistency. (about 1/2 to 3/4 box)

Add more shaving cream if needed.

Add glitter, if wanted. (You'll be glad you did)

I'd say you could add some food coloring if you 'd like. But we were going for summertime snow, and singing about Olaf as we made ours.

Sugarwings added some shells to play with after she was done pretending it was snow. This is how it looked after leaving it outside on the table overnight, uncovered. I'd say it would probably be easily saved in a plastic bowl and reused if wanted. But for us, the fun is in the making, so we'll spend another $2 and make some more next time.

Our Summer Of Fun has been going by much too fast.

But we are enjoying every minute of it.

Taking time off to be with the girls, doing craft projects, day trips, swimming, and just sitting on the porch telling stories has been good for my soul.

Probably not so good for business… but I have made time to create and am looking forward to the "Journal of Nature's Blessings" swap. (this photo is from my prototype). And I want to thank everyone who helped me de-clutter the Boutique with the purchases made during the 50% off sale! I went from 10 pages of inventory to 6.

Now, time to rebuild with new goodies.

But not quite yet, I'm going to soak up some more summer fun first!

Interested in the journal swap? Info here.

Free Fun in Kansas City for kids

Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / July 26, 2014

We went to Crown Center recently, and while you can spend a lot there, you can also have a completely free, yet still jam packed day.

There are a lot of activities there for kids, like the aquarium, which was a bit pricey, $37 for two of us. It wasn't big, but you could easily spend a couple of hours there if you wanted to. It is aimed at kids and there are plenty of things to climb on and in.

Plus how often are you encouraged to pet a star fish?

My tip is to take your time, it is small, so don't rush it, by following the crowd that is working its way through from one display to the next. Stick around and enjoy the displays, because there aren't that many of them.

But our favorite part of Crown Center is the interactive play area that changes themes a few times a year. When we went earlier, it was a tribute to Oz. I've not been very often, this is only our third visit. The first was years ago when the play area was set up as a fairy tale land.

This time, it was all about recycling, reusing, and saving the planet. Complete with bicycles to pedal and power a light post, a pretend farmer's market to encourage eating local foods, a little play house where you learn to pack a lunch in reusable containers, and a life size doll that you could try clothes on and sort to see what needed to be donated to a thrift store when they didn't fit.

Then, you could play dress up yourself in the thrift store, or sit and read the books that had been donated.

There was an energy efficient car you could pretend to fill with gas and check the tire pressure, and a laboratory to learn about water resources.

Sugarwings lives in a world of make believe, so when she saw all of these props, she was in heaven. We could have spent days there. Or at least she could've…. My limit was about a half hour. But we stretched it to about an hour and a half, because she was thrilled with every aspect of the place. And it was NOT at all crowded. When we visited the Dorothy exhibit, that was packed. A more popular theme, I guess. Plus we went on a Saturday.

Fridays at Crown Center this summer are also featuring a free concert and outdoor movie. We didn't stay for that, but did have a snack in the Crayola Cafe and shopped in the Crayola store, where we could do some free art projects.

There is also a free craft area called Kaleidoscope that we have never made it to. Next time, we will plan extra time for that. Hallmark supplies the materials and crafts, and from what I saw the other kids carrying around, they were high quality, good projects.

Interested in the journal swap? Info here.

How to make fizzy bath bombs

how-to projects, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 24, 2014

In our ongoing quest for the crafty-est summer ever, we decided to make some fizzy bath bombs. First of all, those things are way cool. Second, they can be pricey for something that dissolves that fast. It was a bit cheaper (and more fun) to make our own.

I looked around at various sets of directions and recipes online. Then kind of consolidated and made up my own.

Here is what we used:

1 cup baking soda

1/2 cup citric acid (I found it in the canning section at Walmart, $3 for this little jar, I bought two jars which is enough to make about 3 batches and have a little bit left over to sprinkle on sliced apples for a picnic)

1/2 cup corn starch

2 tablespoons salt

3 tablespoons coconut oil (sofftened, not melted or hard)

about 8 tablespoons liquid (we used water)

few drops of scented oil (we had lavender)

The salt that I bought was the wrong kind, but I had some of this in the cabinet, which worked pretty good. I'd purchased ice cream salt, that was too chunky to use. Epsom salt would probably be fine too.

You can use food coloring, if desired.

Oh and glitter! Ours was in a magic wand shaker that Aunt Sissy gave to us.

First you mix all the dry ingredients, then add the oil and the essential oil drops.

Stir well. Then mix the food coloring and water together in a squirt gun. I saw that Martha Stewart used a mister/sprayer thingy in her directions, but we didn't have one of those.

Start adding the colored liquid a squirt at a time.

The citric acid has a reaction to the baking soda when you drop the bomb in the tub, that is what makes the fizziness. It's also what you want to prevent from happening when you are making them. Save the fizz for the tub, not the mixing bowl!

The trick is to have one person add the liquid while the other stirs non stop. A bit of fizz breaks out with every squirt, but whip it in fast and it goes away.

Mix and mix while adding spritzes of water until you get the consistency that will hold when you squeeze it into a ball.

Next, press it into molds.

We used the bottom of a measuring cup to press the mixture down hard, and get it compacted. Next, you wait a day or two till it sets up.

We scraped up all of our crumbs, and all the remnants in the bottom of the bowl and on the spoon, then added some water to see if it would bubble up, because we couldn't wait that long. And yep, it was as fizzy as an alka seltzer!

The food coloring and the glitter make the bath water pretty. But everyone might not enjoy that as much as we do. You can always leave that stuff out.

We got about 6 large hearts and 6 smaller tartlet shapes out of our batch.

Interested in the journal swap? Info here.