swaps – Page 8 – Karla's Cottage

Charlotte the bunny fairy?

By Karla Nathan / March 13, 2010

Today, I am sending out this little Peat Pot Pretty with a Charlotte fairy to Amy. If you've ever seen her blog, you know she LOVES bunnies. So, I made slip on bunny ears for the fairy to wear.

Thanks for all your purchases, I love making these guys, and have plans for some pots covered in rosy wallpaper too. I'll let you know when they are listed.

That is, after I finish these!! Isn't that a pretty pile? Suz sent the book, and I can't wait to read it. but first, I am organizing tags into piles that look nice together.

While putting them together, I try to chose tags that look good together, but are still a nice assortment. I do take the assembly seriously, its kind of like picking out wallpapers or millinery flowers to put together in packs, you want some coordination, but still variety.

And I did keep the notes about special instructions to follow too. I just can't promise that I will be able to keep all of that in my head too, but will try. Please forgive me if you get your own tag back and you didn't want one of them.

But honestly, all of the tags are SO stinkin cute, you will love your books, I'm sure!

If I have loaded this correctly, you should be able to click on the collage and see it larger.

Okay, back to work for me. I have tags to play with! I also need to add the "Drink Me" labels to the little bottles. I'm going to drop a heart shaped key in each bottle, there was a bit of a problem with the keys I ordered. Apparently, I'm not very bright when it comes to metric sizes. These keys are miniscule!! If I tied them to the package, they'd just be lost. I need to either glue them to the covers, or drop them in the bottles. They are cute, just way too small.

what a nice week

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, swaps

By Karla Nathan / March 12, 2010

Well, the parties are done, and today was back to work. I wish I could have had one more day to play! Between Carol here to do photos on Monday, and the surprise online shower for Andrea, then the Craft Day Tea Party Baby Shower for Shawn, its been a blast of a week.

Not to mention all the Alice tags filling my porch every day when the post man comes! Talk about fun!

I'm excited about them all arriving so that I can get them sorted, stacked and ready to build into books. Some people are running a bit late, so it will probably be Monday before I start in on them. I'm sorry that so many of you over-nighted tags to me, just to have them sit and wait here for other's tags to arrive! I wish that you had asked me before you paid so much extra for postage, I feel really bad. But I do appreciate your efforts.

Also, I figured that you were sending 480 tags to me, I'm adding 81 covers, plus my 6 tags too. That is 567 tags. So, please forgive me, if I can't follow your wishes to put certain tags together in books. Some have asked to get their own tag in a book, others say to make sure that they don't get their own tag back. I will TRY, but honestly, I'm just not that sharp. My skills will lie in putting tags together that look pretty in a book with each other. I might not be able to do that plus keep track of who gets which tag.

I'm really sorry, but I can promise you that ALL the tags that are coming in are cute as can be and you will like your book!

And I greatly appreciate the tidbits that have been included! Its really nice to get so many extra tags as gifts, they will make my own book really special. I'm overwhelmed with the generosity that's been rolling in. Lace from Debra, teacups, bowls, goodies, all sorts of pretties. I'd just admired this Alice collage on Sandy's blog, then was so surprised to see it arrive here at my cottage! Notice the cards painting the roses? What a cute touch.

This package came from Marian Ballog and I thought it was just about too pretty to open, but I'm glad I did- it contained the book in the previous photo, by Marian herself!

Thank you everyone, its all such a treat for me. And for little Miss Sugarwings too. She has a little pile of pressies to open. We will have a party and I'll get some pictures of her as she sees all of her goodies. Debra (who sent this beautiful lace panel) also sent some books for Sugarwings to share with Pixie Pie, so we'll invite her to the party too, and maybe make some fairies from a kit sent by Cindy.

Thank you everyone, once again, I have to say, I'm just BLOWN AWAY !

Since I can't start on assembling the books until the tags all arrive, I spent the day photographing and listing goods for the Boutique.

Yep, there are Heavenly Paper Packs FINALLY for sale. In the extra large size, 11×14" sheets of some of the prettiest papers ever.

And Millinery! In gorgeous springtime colors.

Also bits and pieces of jewels, and a sparkling bird in its flowery nest (first photo).

It feels good to get the shop stocked up a bit. Yes, its been a nice week. And tomorrow is a Sugarwings day, so the week just gets better and better.

Plus- my house is still clean from getting it ready for Monday's photo shoot! That is a miracle of some kind. I'm loving having a tidy home. Lets see, its been 4 days
now and things still look good? Yes, a miracle.

I'll have some photos of the shoot for you in the next few days, thanks for asking about them. Now, I'm off to wrap up some Peat Pots and wallpaper and millinery that I need to get in the mail.

There are 2 Fairy pots left, from the 12 I had for sale, if you want one, please email me. They are $25 plus postage, and are not listed in the shop.

Good Goodies

Books, give away, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / March 4, 2010

The Alice Tags are starting to arrive at my doorstep, and it gets more fun every day! Not only are we getting some gorgeous tags for our books, I'm blown away by some of the packaging too. Like Samantha Miranda's tags wrapped in a sweet hankie, and including some chocolate bunnies! She and I had similar ideas, about Alice and the small door opening but we each had different takes on the theme. Aren't hers pretty?

Some thoughtful gifts came too, which was a nice surprise, especially after the week I've had. How can I be feeling down and yucky after opening all of this?

These are from Suzanne Crowley, and the box smelled lovely, from the gift of verbana soaps she included! I'm saving all the tissue paper that she used, it has the scent of flowers on it, and will make packages I send out smell wonderful too. (I try to recycle as much as I possibly can, and this time it will be a joy to do!) Look at how she has made Alice hang out over the edge of the card. I love it when people "color outside of the lines".

Suzanne also sent a fluffy pet for Sugarwings, and a towel set to go with the pretty soaps. To top it all off, everything was tied with soft old ribbons and hand made crepe paper flowers.

Kitty, who I've had the pleasure of meeting when I went to PA to visit her daughter, Heather, (and who is just as talented as that girl of hers) sent these. She included gorgeous, vanilla velvet ribbon wrapped up and packaged in an old album mat, then pinned with hat pins she made with crystal beads.

And this loveliness is from Laurie. Along with her pastel Alice tags- look at how cute that doily is!- was this Cottage sheet music and pink rose wallpaper!

The colorful bunch of tags are from Karen. She also made stationary set with the images she used on the tags.

I repeat- blown away! Thanks, ladies!

Yep, some very pretty things are showing up at my doorstep. I can't show you all of the tags that come in, but here is a Flickr site if you'd like to see what everyone is making. So far, we have 22 members, I hope that more of the 80 swappers will add their photos. Yes, I did let the number GROW again. Very much like Alice eating the cake, the swap grew, and grew, and grew.

These tags are from my Sissy. All of that red is very fine glitter, I wish it showed up better in the photo.

You can see the glitter better here. She has great little details in her tags, like the vintage crown charms hanging from heart shaped punch outs.

Now, you'd think that was enough mail excitement for any one person, but look at these! Vicki sent me a passle of her Shadow Box frames with fairy collage sheets. I'm going to have a craft day party with these and we can all see what we come up with. Won't they be fun to play with?

My photo shoot with Carol is rescheduled for Monday and I have not done ONE THING for it yet. I woke up today, again thinking I was fit and happy and ready to face the world. Then, I started to droop.

Ignoring my droopiness, I thought I'd try to clean up and foof the living room, but after dropping and breaking a couple of things, I gave up. But I knew that there was no way on Earth I could face another day of bed and TV.

So I took myself
off to the salon to get some new hair, as Sugarwings calls it. I figured that sitting in the beauty shop chair would get me out of the house, dressed, and maybe perked up. I know myself well enough to realize that if I'd stayed home, I wouldn't be resting, I'd be working, whether I was up to it or not.

Plus, being so sick from just the flu made me feel extremely OLD. Some highlights to hide the gray helped a bit. I'd probably feel less old if I wasn't so tired.

Before I forget, I need to announce the winner of the February Giveaway, the Alice Tag Kit.

Here is the sweet comment left by:

Pattyjo

I would love to win the giveaway…so I am hoping you will add my name
in the hat! Thank you for your blog and all the gorgeous projects you
show us. It must take so much of your time. I think I can speak for
most everyone on your blog that we appreciate it so much!
Pattyjo

Now, I really need to sit at the desk and get out the glue and paper to make a few small projects for Monday.
Wish me luck on being ready for the photo shoot! I'll need it.

Sweet Charlotte

Books, collections, paintings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 25, 2010

EDIT: If you came by the Boutique looking for Charlottes and they were sold out, I added some more, so most are stocked up again. There are no more tiny ones or the largest ones, thanks SO MUCH!

When I made this Valentine fairy from an old Frozen Charlotte, I decided I wanted MORE of these little girls to play with.

So, I found a source to get a few…. well, maybe 140 of them.

These are dug up near the old German factories where they were manufactured between 1850 and 1900. Seconds were tossed in the heap, and are now being searched for in the ground like buried treasure!

I'm loving these cuties, even their dirty little bottoms. (which could probably be soaked clean, but I like the old patina from the dirt)

Some will be used in making my centerpieces for the photo shoot on Monday. But I sure don't need this many, so I have listed them in my Boutique.

They are $3.50 each, plus postage. If you order mulitples, I'll send you a refund for the excess postage, because they sure don't weigh much.

These little girls were fun to play with too. I'm repainting the tiny plastic figures into Alices.

And I am still making Alice tags! Even though I have plenty now…

Is this one too obscure? Its Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

This is my favorite one, so far. Its the doormouse in a teapot, that I painted. The ribbon under the label (cut from a chapter title in the 1923 book) is a snip of old, red velvet.

That book from Beth was ideal for this tag swap! I just can't imagine doing all these without it. I've loved looking through the illustrations, reading tidbits to get ideas, then snipping out words here and there.

I've also used the text as a background for many of my tags. And since it was such a thick book, I should have plenty of pages left to use wrapping paper for the completed tag books when I package them up.

Even though my 75 limit was met, (Yes, I know it was a 60, then a 70 limit first!), I'm still going to let a couple more people in if they want. I had #77 ask me to come in today. How could I say no, when I had 79 tag covers made, and I paid for plenty of little bottles and heart shaped keys to tie on the books?

So, if you are on the fence, you still have time to get in. Since I got a bit carried away in making the tags! Two spaces are available. Of course, when I get the 60th book put together, wrapped, packaged, and labeled, and still have almost 20 left to do, I might be kicking myself for this….No, I'll enjoy it! It is going to be SUCH FUN when all the tags start arriving at my door!!

Edit: The swap is filled up, as far as I can go! Thanks so much to all of you who joined in from all over the world. I just can't wait to see them all pouring in!

Here is a little something for you, if you are getting started on Easter projects. Click on it to enlarge before printing!

And remember, you can win an Alice Tag making kit by leaving a comment.

Also, I'm joining in on Cindy's Show and Tell Friday. Go visit her for links to other show and tells!

Bright and cheerful despite the snow

Books, magazine pictures or articles, swaps

By Karla Nathan / February 23, 2010

Thanks for all the shopping yesterday! Today I spent some time wrapping up things to mail, as well as finishing my Alice Tag Book Swap covers.

If you are in the swap- please photograph your tags and add them to the Flickr site before you send them out!

Also, people have been asking me about ribbons. The last time I did a tag book swap, I told people to leave the ribbons off, since I was tying the books together. But some people added them anyway, and I have to say, it improved the book. So ribbon them up, or not, either way is fine!

Even though my tags have been photo copied from my little painted Alice, no two will be alike, because I used markers and inks to gaudy each one up.

I did say, "gaudy" didn't I? Red hearts, blue swirls, and all sorts of foofery got added to each tag. All 75 of them. I made the "drink me" labels on Picnik, then printed them off in a postage stamp size and am in the process of gluing them all onto these cute little stoppered bottles.

Each and every one of the tags got a bit of blue lace from my Great Aunt Caroline's stash of pretty trims. I think that I can set these all aside now till after the 10th when the tags pour in to be compiled into books. It feels good to be ready ahead of the deadline! I just couldn't rest until these were done. Now, I can move on to some other projects that have been whispering in my ear…

This is the Alice altered book that started my obsession. I have just listed it in the shop, if you are interested.

There for a while, I was on a book altering streak, thanks to Mary and the great old books that she gave to me.

For some reason, I've not gotten around to listing them. So, today I took the time to add a couple.

As well as one of my altered Journal/Ledgers. (These were featured in the last issue of Somerset Life)

But that doesn't put a dent in the piles of crap hand created treasures that I have around here that I need to try to hawk. offer for sale in my shop.

I have to tell you, they are a lot more fun to make than to photograph, list online, and ship! But, on the other hand, it really does feel good when I send one of my special creations out to someone who cares about it. That is pretty nice. Thanks!

I kept one of these ledgers for myself. It stays next to the computer, with all my passwords, codes, etc in it, as well as postage rates.

Postage rates are so hard for me to get right. The website adds each item in increments. So, I am trying to send refunds of postage when multiple purchases drive up the shipping too high. I don't want you to get gauged by over priced shipping.

This was a colorful posting, wasn't it? These Alice tags sure have brightened up my studio, I'm not used to so much red. Its kind of nice, with all the snow outside (still!) to have some bright cheery tones indoors.

I'm not an orange person either, but sure love these happy little guys! They got added to the boutique today too.

Now, I've got to run, only 20 minutes till the Postman makes his stop at my local grocery store.
I need to get the packages there before he is gone.

Don't forget to leave a comment if you want to win your own Alice Tag Kit (photos in the previous post)

Alice and mermaids and magical things

paintings, swaps, Travel

By Karla Nathan / February 20, 2010

My Alice Tag Book Swap covers are coming along. I did a small painting of Alice and of a door, then glued them onto a page from the Alice in Wonderland book printed in 1923 that Beth gave to me. Then, I took it to the copy store.

I hope that isn't considered cheating? I'm doing some hand work to each copy. The door is cut open, and behind that, I'm gluing a small rose picture. To the back, I've added blue flocked wallpaper.

For a title, I kept it simple, and just wrote "Alice" in blue metallic ink on red labels and glued those on. How nice that Kathy

sent all those boxes of labels to me! Perfect timing, and just what I needed for these tags!

I've also ordered little bottles and heart shaped keys to tie onto each tag book.

Since I want a book to keep for myself, I need to make up some tags too. I think I have more than 6 done now, but its hard to stop! This is such a fun theme, the possibilities are endless.

For this one, I painted the tag metallic gold, then painted the mushroom with watercolors, markers, and inks. I cut the text from the book to make the "ground" for Alice to stand on. She, the pipe, and the caterpillar are cut from a colored page of the book. I glued them down, then drew in the tube for the pipe. It was just too tiny to cut out.

But of all the tags I made, this is my favorite. Its very simple and flowery, and the illustration that I cut from the book was just so pretty as is, I didn't do much to it. I simply glued it to flowery wallpaper and added trim, velvet millinery blooms, and a heart charm.

My plan was to limit the swap to 60, but I was hit with a ferocious bug of some kind and didn't move off the sofa for 24 hours, and in the meantime, the swap numbers grew. So, I've decided to keep it open a bit. The More the Merrier! I will allow in a few more, if you haven't joined yet.

I need to order more little stoppered bottles for the cover, I only had 60. Since the swap numbers passed 60 while I was zonked out, I am ordering more. And I'd be happy to have even more swappers join in.

Here are the details, if you want to make 6 tags for a book.

If you are already in the swap, please upload your photos to this Flickr group.

And if you need some wallpaper to complete your tags, I have added some really pretty ones to the shop.

I also listed some millinery tid bits. I don't waste anything! Hey, there isn't any more old stuff being made, what is left in the world is all there is. So, I use odd petals here and there, and thought I'd share some in case you like to do that too.

Because there is nothing like using the good stuff. This bit of lace was just a remnant, but isn't it pretty tied to a package I sent out this week? A little bit of something pretty, and old, magically transforms a plain package into something special.

Have you seen this!!???
We get to be mermaid sirens! Kim is throwing another one of her fantastic art affairs. And I have said to myself over and over that I really need to attend one of them, but the timing has never been right. Well, this time it was! I signed up today. My pal, Carol is going with me, and I have my fingers crossed that Beth will too.

Anything is more fun if Beth comes along.

I hope you'll be there too? Info here, if you want to come!

Alice Tags

Books, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 16, 2010

Do you know what the best part of craft day is? The food. Well, not really, I guess. The hanging out part isn't bad either. We have such a good time, just chatting away about this and that while everyone works on what ever they brought to do that day. But I have to say, the food is great!

Beth made chicken salad. Marilyn made a fruit concoction that was sweet and decadent. Shawn brought beer cheese soup with home made croutons. And home made pretzels! To pretend we were eating healthy before diving into a coconutty Italian cream cake, we crunched on a veggie tray that Mary brought.

No, Alice is not a zombie. I know it looks like her brains are missing… once the ribbon is tied on this tag, it won't seem as gruesome.

Today, I worked on my 6 tags for the swap. I always do a few extra just in case I count badly or something else goes wrong.

Mary brought gold gesso to play with, and I had fun using it on some of the tags. That and I used some red paint to make hearts that symbolize the Red Queen.

For most of the tags that I did today, I used the text from the old book that Beth had given me. To spiff up the black and white illustrations, I used markers, inks, and watercolor.

And of course, I can't make tags and not use vintage wallpaper! Since one of the stories in the book is about the cards painting the white roses red, I figured that I'd use plenty of my red rose wallpaper.

I'm also responsible for the covers of all the books, so I got a start on those too.

The swap isn't full yet, I've got space for about 60 total. That is how many little tiny bottle charms I ordered. Those will be tied to the books with the words "Drink Me" written on them.

If you'd like to join us in this tag book swap, the info is Here

Although, since I am the one making all the covers, I wonder why I am having such a high number of people allowed in??? I might just be kicking myself about when I start to make number 50 or so. Nah, I'll be glad I did it, this is fun!

Before everyone got here, I took some wallpaper photos and added a few to the Boutique. My wish is to get more listed tomorrow…. but I have Sugarwings all afternoon, that that could be a pipe dream.

A Valentine Calendar for you to print

holiday decor, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / February 12, 2010

How beautiful is this???? My Sissy made it for you. Click on the image to save it and print it. I am going to put a copy of it in my photo album and use it as a mat for a picture of Sugarwings in her Valentine dress.

My little fairy baby has an ear infection and fever, so we are having a cuddly movie day together, watching her buddies, Pooh, Nemo, and of course, Alice In Wonderland. I need to study up on that one to get ready for the big swap-a-roo.

The swap is still open, details in the previous post, just scroll down. We have about 30 people since yesterday! The more the merrier, I hope you join too.

And please remember you still have time to enter the drawing for a Grumpy Fairy book that I am giving away to celebrate 700 posts and a 3 year anniversary. (comment on any post to enter)

How cool that they are going to be occurring on the SAME POST! You can't plan those sort of things, can you?

Gotta run, there is a tiny little nose that needs help blowing.

Guidelines for the Alice Tag Book Swap

swaps

By Karla Nathan / February 11, 2010

Guidelines for the Alice Tag Book Swap

For this swap, you will create 6 tags with the theme of "Alice". Your tags can be inspired by Wonderland or Looking Glass. Please
use approximately 4-1/2" by 2-1/2" tags. You don't have to be exact,
but do try to be in that ballpark so that your tags will fit well with
the books. An inch or so either way will work, because variety is
nice.

Also,
feel free to cut your tag out of any material you want to use. You DO
NOT have to use a pre-made shipping tag. You may fabricate your own
from fabric, metal, chipboard, etc. You
have the option of finishing both sides of the tags as elaborate as
you'd like to. Or leaving the back plain, its up to you.

PLEASE SIGN YOUR TAG! If you have a blog, please include the address. But you DO NOT HAVE TO BE A BLOGGER TO JOIN IN.

Once
the tags arrive at my cottage, I will sort them into piles that look
cute together and assemble the books from 6 different tags, plus add a
cover that I have made. You might receive your own tag back in the book you get.

Please
have your 6 tags to me by March 10th. Along with your tags, please
send $6 for postage and supplies. Also include your address written
onto a label for the the package. It doesn't have to be a sticky label, a piece of paper I can tape down is fine.

If you have a blog, here is a button you can add.

If
you'd like some vintage Alice materials for your tags, please click on
these pictures and pages to enlarge them before printing them off to
use.

Sign up by email only, not through comments. karlanathan@sbcglobal.net

Please
include your name, email, and blog address, if you have one.

3 years, 700 posts, a swap, some puppies, and a bonus giveaway, all coming up!

Books, celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), give away, paintings, Sugarwings, swaps

By Karla Nathan / February 9, 2010

A year ago this time, I was posting puppy pictures. Here is Twinkle and her one true love, Teddy, with their one year old daughter, Bella (middle). Isn't she a pretty pup? Hopefully, we'll have a few more little dorks running around the house in 60 days or so. I'd better have some puppies, 3 are already spoken for!

Last year this time, I was hosting a Puppy Love Tag Swap. It was such fun, I'm thinking about hosting another, but since I don't have puppies around yet, how about an Alice swap? No, not this little Alice! I mean an Alice in Wonderland tag book swap?

The rules will be very similar to last year's swap. I'll write them up and get back to you for a sign up, I just wanted to plant the idea for now. Anyone interested?

As a Tim Burton and Johnny Depp fan, I'm so excited about the Alice movie coming out soon! The previews have been glorious.

Along with the details, I'll also post some pages from a vintage Alice in Wonderland book that Beth gave me, if anyone wants to print those to use for their tags.

This swap is just what I need to celebrate my 3rd anniversary in blogworld!

3 years and 700 posts are both coming up this week, so I'll have a special gift for you too as a thank you for keeping me company these last 3 years.

If you'd like to win a copy of my book, please leave a comment on any post between now and Valentine's Day. If you'd like to sign up for the swap, I'll have details coming and a separate post coming for that.

All comments all month count toward my regular monthly giveaway, whatever the heck I come up with for this time. I seem to be so short on time in the studio, that I never quite get done what I need, and still haven't got a gift pulled together yet. But I will….