vintage paper/collage art – Page 49

Stolen Moments and Quickie Crafts

Etsy Goodies, fairies, how to's, Sugarwings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 10, 2007

My friend, Karla http://sugarbeardesigns.blogspot.com/ bought one of my cottage collage kits, how sweet of her. So I had to add some extras to it before I mailed the package. I made her a bookmark/tag from the plastic garden tags that I found, and then gathered up a few little things I thought she’d like.

How did I manage to have time for this while we are having a reunion? Well, the kids and I decided to make some bookmarks from a kit.

So between my panda and my monkey, I squeezed in a pink tag for Karla!

My charms from the swap hosted by http://mymothersdaughter-maryb.blogspot.com/ arrived! The hostess herself made 3 of them, and all are wonderful little treasures. Of course, I am prejudiced towards the ones from friends:

Beth of http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ and http://mizsmoochielips.blogspot.com/index.html. I haven’t had time to go through and enjoy all of them yet, I didn’t bring in the mail till after midnight, then we all sat up and talked for a while. I am stealing a few blogging minutes while my husband is picking up more guests at the airport and everyone else is asleep. Yes, I know I should go and unload the dishwasher! but I can do that while we all stand around the kitchen and talk!

Everyone wonders how I have time to blog with all these guests, but I am pretty quick. I write off the top of my head, like I am talking, and I am a bit of chatter box, so it is natural. Not much thought goes into what comes out of my mouth.

One more super quick project I did yesterday- my darling Mother-In-Law, Little Joan, is having her 75th birthday. She is extremely hard to buy for, since her needs are so few. But this year, she became a great-grandmother 3 times!

So, I took this album (from a garage sale for $1.50, and still in its wrapper!!) and jazzed it up a bit.

I kept the pages as they were and added a few personal touches,such as the "great grandchildren" on the front, as well as braided some eyelash yarn and ribbon, and attached a hand painted charm to them.

This went inside the front cover.

Sugarwings was her very first great grandchild (and what a great one she is!!)

The album is the kind with die cut frames, so she can just slide the photos into the ready made places. I will add a few of Sugarwings and Madison Catherine. Little Joan isn’t crafty, or scrap booker, but she will easily be able to keep this album up, since it is practically on auto pilot. As her grandkids have babies, there are places ready for their pictures.

These are a bit fuzzy, but since I am on borrowed time, its all I can do! I hear a car door now, that means there are travelers arriving that need hugs!! Gotta run——

ps- don’t forget to enter July’s Cottage Collage Kit drawing by leaving a comment

I decided what to offer for the July Giveaway!

antiques/junking, Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, fairies, family, give away, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 9, 2007

Well, we have a houseful of people, kids, and dogs (Twinkle is still being "trained" by Luke), so I am not able to do any craft or art work. But I did manage to put together a few more Cottage Collage Kits (or scrap packs) to sell on Etsy.

Here you can see Twinks getting a lesson in going down the blow up slide in the wading pool. Luckily, she seems to be enjoying all of the so called "dog training". Her feet haven’t touched the ground since the kids arrived.

This visit has been so busy, that we all forgot that we were supposed to have an ice cream buffet last night!! There is a lot going on, when kids forget ice cream!

Once the kids were tucked in, and the guys were settled into a card game, I went to the studio to play with paper (my cleaned up studio!)

I made up bundles with over 30 items in them, including sheet music, vintage wallpaper, copies of my art, pages from old books, a page from a steno manual, a millinery flower, some posies, old buttons, vintage gift wrap, and on and on.

Its so fun to pick through my stash and try to find goodies I think someone might enjoy using.

This tone on tone wallpaper is actually silk.

Anyway, I listed 6 of these on Etsy last night for $14 each. I got to thinking, that maybe a similar one would also be a good giveaway for July. So, if you are interested in a variety mix of a Cottage Collage Kit, leave me a comment and I will enter you in the drawing at the end of the month.

Here is one of the old wallpapers, pretty, huh?

These are from packs I made last week with a blue theme, that have already sold out.

I’ll be sifting through my goodie cabinets and finding some pretties to add to the giveaway, when I get a nice packet together, I’ll show a photo.

Now, I’d better go and see how Twinkle’s training is going!

Madison

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, family, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 7, 2007

Remember how I waited till the last minute to clean my studio and turn it into a dining room for company? Well, something else came up and it still isn’t done.

But it was a very good excuse for not cleaning, Madison (named for Madison, Nebraska- hometown of the Nathans) was born tonight! We spent most of the afternoon and evening at the hospital waiting for our niece to give birth.

The whole family was there waiting for her arrival. We played cards, laughed, made bets on who’s family would have the first baby, ours or the other people waiting that we made friends with. (We won!!) We had baby races with Sugarwings and another baby there with her family.

Finally, Madison came, and we all went back to see her. Sugarwings is enthralled by her new cousin.

So, do you think I’d clean the studio when I got home??? Nope, I fixed up a spice rack that I got today at a garage sale for $1 (including all the bottles) so I could use it to hold all the glitter that I bought today at the same sale (a bagful of glitters, sequins, buttons, and bows for $2).

I used a lot of the goodies I got in the mathcbox swap from Debra at http://www.hophopjingleboo.blogspot.com/ including the doll baby at the top (appropriate for today!). Whenever I glitter something up, I will think of Madison and the day she was born.

Hey, organizing the glitter was a very important part of cleaning up the studio!! How can you have guests over if your glitter is in plastic bottles and laying around helter skelter???

Well, maybe I should try cleaning up a bit now. No more excuses.

PS- All of the vintage paper packs I had listed on Etsy have sold, but I will be making up more soon.

ppss- Thanks for all the feedback on the loading speed of my blog. I’m glad to hear it is faster. If anyone is still having trouble, would you please let me know

pppsss- I really will have a give-away this month. I am counting all comments made in July and will let you know what the drawing is for as soon as I figure it out! (open to suggestions!)

Guests coming and no place to put them admist the junk, so I go and buy more junk

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 6, 2007

I should be getting ready for company. I have half of a family reunion at my house this weekend, then we are all car pooling to Lake Okaboji, Iowa for the rest of the get together.

Instead, I go garage sailing. And found a sweet ballerina doll for Sugarwing’s room. I added butterfly wings to her, so she’d be a fairy ballerina.

Of course, I aways have a stash of butterfly wings for these emergencies. I buy them by the cartload when they go on clearance at Michaels. Usually they can be found for a quarter at the end of the season. And you never know when you will need a set of wings in a hurry!

At another sale, a print shop was closing and I got 5 cases of manila and white mailing envelopes in 4 sizes, 2 cases of white and cream, blank note cards (the kind you send in an wedding invitation for RSVPing), and 3 cases of giant shipping tags!! For how much? TWELVE DOLLARS!!!

Now, am I crazy to think I will need this many envelopes for shipping purchases on Etsy and Ebay, or am I just being realistic, knowing that I am a swapaholic now and will be using lots of mailers???? I’ll also include some of those shipping tags in my give away this month. And probably every month for the rest of my life.

Even twinkle can’t figure out what I am doing with a car load of old windows. Well, sometimes I wonder too. But, I am planning on painting these up for signs, they have a pretty shape and were only a couple dollars for the stack.

This is my $1 table. It had bad veneer, but I already picked it all off so that now there is a new surface to work with. Some putty and paint? Or a mosaic? Or cover it in vintage papers? After the legs are painted, this will be a beauty, no matter which way I decide to finish the top.

This white iron stand with glass shelves was extravagant- $5.

Some days you come here for eye candy, other days, you get dirty old tables, or a dumpster. I almost hate to show you these next pictures. Oh my. But you’ll see why I say I SHOULD BE WORKING.

I will have 9 people staying with us and about 25 or so people coming here for dinner,(and meals in between)from Saturday till Wednesday.

And my art studio, which has seen some heavy duty work lately, plus is piled with garage sailing finds, needs to be transformed into a dining room by noon Saturday. Beds need to be made up and groceries need to be bought to feed us all.

So, I’m off to the grocery store. (I think that there is a neighborhood garage sale by the store, I might have to stop)

A Sterotypical Kansas Day-

antiques/junking, Etsy Goodies, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 5, 2007

I had a cleaning day today, and you certainly don’t want to see those kind of photos or hear those stories. We have house guests coming to the cottage again. I swear, if I never had visitors, we’d live in filth, I only clean when someone is coming to stay, and luckily that is pretty regular around here!

I managed to sneak a snippet of time to make up some packages of vintage scrapping goods to sell on Etsy.

These have an aqua theme, with a hint of rose, more blues, and purple. I even had some purple print sheet music to include.

I had a good time picking the pretties out. After doing all that mopping and dusting, I needed a fun break. I can’t stand a day that goes by without some sort of creative activity, even if it is just playing with pretty papers!

I have a vast selection of supplies and know I’ll never get through them all, so thought I’d share a bit of it.

I made up some pink themed ones yesterday and listed them, at $12 each and sold one today. Its always nice to sell something, even if it isn’t a lot of money, it is kind of a confirmation that you were right about the merchandise and someone agrees with your taste!

Oh, that sounds silly, doesn’t it? Maybe the reason I am not a good business person is that very reason, "it isn’t about the money!!"

Yesterday, we went out on the lake for the 4th, and I think that the rest of the town was there, it was the most crowded I have ever seen our sweet little lake.

It was starting to cloud up, but storms weren’t predicted till later. We decided to call it an early day since we had Sugarwings and her mom, our 14 yr old niece and our 9 months and about to pop pregnant 22 yr old niece with us.

We got back to the dock and it was looking bad, so I sent all the girls on up to leave with Sugarwings and her mom, telling them we’d tie up and haul everything up to our car, that they should get indoors.

In the short time it took to pack up, the weather got much worse and all the boats were trying to get off the water as fast as they could, sirens were going off, and the marina was announcing that there were tornado sightings.

As I walked up the dock to the parking lot, I saw a funnel cloud right above us! Luckily, it was dispersing. No touch down, no damage, but I sure thought that there would be wrecks in the parking lot, you should have seen everyone trying to get out and to shelter!

I am pretty proud of myself for not being one of the people who were in panic, but mostly for also not being one of the dumb asses standing there staring and pointing and taking photos. Of course, that means I don’t have a picture to show you here. Sorry.

Everyone figures Kansas is nothing but one Tornado after another, but I’ve only seen 3 funnel clouds since I have lived here.

Maybe I should’ve gotten a picture?

Earlier before the storm, I did take this photo- Sugarwing’s first swim in the lake. She loved it.

I DO have Red, White, & Blue!

antiques/junking, flowers, Food and Drink, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 4, 2007

When I helped my friend Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ redo her booth earlier, I took photos of it, saying that I wouldn’t have any red white and blue to post for July 4th and wanted to use her patriotic display that we made.

So here are a couple of shots of her antique booth. She does have cool stuff.

And then, my match box swap partner http://www.hophopjingleboo.blogspot.com/ sent this piece to me, along with the box full of goodies. I added glitter and punched a star in it to tie a ribbon onto it.

While I was sitting at the craft table, I noticed the stack of matchboxes that I bought for the swap. hey, r,w, & b! (and yes, of course I saved all the matches from the boxes I emptied out)

My glazed pottery jar full of markers was on the work table, and I saw that it was along those lines of patriotic colors too.

I looked around the studio some more and saw a white ironstone cup full of blue bird feathers, sitting on a post card featuring red roses.

I also noticed a collage I had done last year that had this little gal with red roses and blue forget me nots in the center.

The first stepping stone outside the studio has red and blue flowers in stained glass (and whitish cement).

And there are red begonias, white dusty miller, and a blue plumbago outside my door too.

I can’t forget Ole Blue! My ’81 Ford Ranger that has an 8 track player in it and came with a box of country music 8 tracks under the seat when we bought him.

My little red gazing ball has blue flecks in the glass.

Happy 4th! Our coolers are packed and we’re headed to the lake.

Gorious Gifts, Grandbabies, and Gardens

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, Sugarwings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 3, 2007

The fairy grandbaby and I had a great day in the gardens. I had found this bouncy car at a garage sale for $2 and it is perfect for her to sit in while I plant, dig, and do a shot of Miracle Grow here and there.

I’d say my Miracle Grow is working- look at the height of that gladiola!!!

I am almost 5’3", here I am standing in the flower bed next to the gladiola and holding it up to the back of my head and trying to snap a photo to show how high the plant is. I’d say it is at least my height.

and yes I know my fingernails look awful- I’ve been gardening and don’t wear gloves. plus I have an ugly rash. I have been sick from a tick bite and am on antibiotics for it. Maybe I shouldn’t show these kinds of photos???

At least Sugarwings is pretty in this picture! Our poor front yard is a mess, we have a construction project on the road in front of the house and it is so torn up, it is hard to get a mower over to that spot. This flower bed just goes wild. I haven’t done much to it in years, planted hardy native plants and let it go.

We worked in the herb beds together, after going to the garden center and getting a lot of 99 cent plants that were on clearance.

Sugarwings and Twinkle are totally in love with each other. That dog never leaves the baby’s side. Of course, the baby often has tasty things smeared on her too.

See my old wheelbarrow in the back? Kim at http://deardaisycottage.typepad.com/ has one like it with flowers planted in hers, but I use mine to do yard work.

The planter boxes on my gazebo are starting to fill out. I kept them simple this year, just some inpatients, begonias and ivy.

This is the first time I have ever bought the hanging planters ready to go, I usually make my own. But Walmart had them on sale for $5.88 each, how can you put one together for much less?

I have 3 planter boxes on the gazebo, but they don’t match. I find them at garage sales and kind of like that they are all different.

A friend made the mosaic birdhouse for me in trade for a little fairy watercolor I did.

The garden center also had these glow in the dark hose guards on sale too.

(yes, Sissy, I bought some for you and Bobbie Sue too!)

I bought a glow in the dark hose guard for Sugarwings to put in front of her house too, but I think she wanted the big ball instead.

Well today might have been about as nice as a day gets. I could be the luckiest person around.

And speaking of lucky– look what I got in the match box swap that Natasha http://natashaburns.blogspot.com/ hosted. Deb at http://www.hophopjingleboo.blogspot.com/ was my partner and she sent me a big box full of delightful things!! I am starting to feel like a chintzy partner, I haven’t sent that much out, and always get such generous packages from everyone. Heck, for the tiara swap, Barb http://www.123lavenderlollipoplane.blogspot.com/ even sent my fairy grand baby a gift!!

Look at some of these treasures from Deb!!!

One side of this medallion was her logo, the other side has my name.

I hung it in my dining room china cabinet on the carnival glass dish that was my mom’s.

And look at the box itself, she used the large size (of course I used the small one and feel bad) and added to it, so that you wouldn’t even know right off that it was made from a matchbox.

I wonder if I should even continue swapping? I need to beef up my packages. I have been on the skimpy side too much, do you think I am getting a bad rep out there in blogland and no one will trade with me after this?? Karen of http://www.creativechaos.typepad.com/ was my first partner and she went over board too. An unbelievable may basket came from her.

Anyway, Deb, thanks so much, I am overwhelmed, it is such a great box of goodies. Love it!! And everyone should go to her site and see the bunny swap slide show she has, way cool.

Well, I’m off to take a nap before dinner, a day with a fairy grand baby can be a wonderful and exhausting thing. Plus, the Dr. says I have some sort of rare blood infection from this tick bite and I just don’t feel like myself. I think that is why I was so grouchy while trying to do some red, white, and blue bookmarks. It wasn’t the color, it was the ehrlichiosis!

Rose, French Vanilla & Robin’s Egg!

how to's, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / July 2, 2007

I usually enjoy most projects and look forward to getting started on them. But when I realized that the bookmarks for this swap needed to be patriotic, I was worried. I don’t "do" red, white, and blue! I do rose, french vanilla, and robin’s egg!

My buddy, Beth, http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ who has the most well stocked and fantastic craft room full of supplies you’ll ever see, gave me all this to work with. She has an overflow of stuff and is talking about making packs to sell on Etsy. She has done that in the past, but now is redoing her craft room and really needs to make space. You can contact her on her blog if you need anything, I’m sure she has it!!!

I still struggled and felt bad about what I was putting together. The whole idea that it had to be flat, was hard, I am a big believer in gooberey-glittery-encrusted pieces.

So, I compromised and used 3-d on the tassley parts.

I got out some old red velvet that was a rotted cover of an album in its past life, and covered a couple book marks with that.

Then, they started to get too 3-d and maybe not as patriotic? Although an American Beauty rose might fit into the category.

So I went back to the first two I started and worked on them some more, made the backs nicer. They are on their way to my swap partner, http://beachyscapecodcupboard.blogspot.com/ . It ended up being a good thing for me to do. I get so set in my comfort zone that I don’t try enough new things. So even though I got a bit cranky and it wasn’t going well, I learned from the challenge, and want to thank http://shabbyinthecity.blogspot.com/ for hosting it.

But of course, the minute I was done, I painted some soft pink roses to get me out of my red/white/blue funk! This is one of the frames I got at a garage sale a couple weeks ago, that started out gold with a print I didn’t like in it. I primed and painted it ivory, glazed the frame in umber, glued down a page torn from an old book with French words in it, then painted the roses over the text.

A Drawer full of Dorkiness and some other goodies

antiques/junking, Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, paintings, Travel, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 29, 2007

First of all, can anyone tell if my blog opened any quicker??? I did some tweaking.

I should be working, but thought I’d show some of my loot from my trip before I get on with my day.

Aren’t these 3 ladies something? Hey, it was suggested that we do a Halloween bag swap!! Good idea. And maybe I will save this photo for my bag, I think these old crones could easily be witches!!

My husband had to work a few hours at Columbia Country Club in Missouri, about half way to St. Louis. (and no, that isn’t a polite way of saying he was playing golf, he really had to work). So, I shopped at a mall there. It is far from my favorite place to go, and I really had to make an effort to stay there long enough to stretch out my time, there wasn’t a lot of great stuff. But I found all this!

Those bottles will be fun to decorate and fill, and I got a lot of old photos for under $1 each.

The best purchase (and Twinkle’s fave) is this set of old drawers covered in wallpaper. How handy will that stylish storage be???

Since I slept in the car most of the day, I was up late after we got home. I painted some more of the outlet covers that I had got in the big bag from Goodwill last month. Only 4 left to paint. I am selling them on Etsy and have sold a couple from this blog. These are not listed yet (the 2 switch plates are sold) so all of the outlet covers are available if anyone wants one. I’ll be listing them later this week, or email me here if you’d like one.

I’m off to work, have a decorating/rearranging job to do today with Beth. http://bethleintz.typepad.com/

More is Better!!!

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), Etsy Goodies, flowers, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 25, 2007

Why would I just make one of something when I can make a bunch?? Seems to be how I live my life, "More is Better!" should be my motto.

I really enjoyed the matchbox swap and just had to make up the rest of the package of matchboxes into something pretty.

I used vintage papers, ribbons,

and added some hand painting or drawing to each one, along with some 3-d bit of something nice to the tops.

And yes, they are filled up with trinkets and trivial little goodies.

Oh, and did I mention Glitter? Yep, there is glitter.

All 4 sides of the sleeves are decorated and the entire tray is painted, with glitter sprinkled inside the tray.

The bottoms are cute too.

Every one contains:

a page from a mini almanac from the 1800s

a bit of old wallpaper

a die cut flower from an old page of English die cuts

a stamp sized copy of an old portrait picture

some jewels

2 genuine amethyst beads

a vintage button or two

a large, tear drop shaped, moonstone quartz bead

some teeny bezels to add something to, and one bezel with an old bead added to it already

a charm frame to use in your crafting

The almanac page in the moon inspired box is about the eclipse of 1893.

All of them are a bit different, but have a similar amount of work and comparable amount of trinkets inside.

I’ll be listing a few on Etsy, but if you’d like to own a hand crafted, tiny treasure box you can contact me through this blog or email. They will be priced at $10 each.

And of course, "more is better" with Dorkies too! I took my 3 and my brother-in-law’s 2 dorkies out on the lake last night.

Oh my god, did I really just post a photo of myself in a bathing suit??? I must be crazy. I guess I am so covered up in furry little dogs, no one will notice my middle aged body.

Back when I was in my 20s and probably looked OK in a bathing suit, I never would have allowed a photo of myself in one to be seen. It is a relief to be older and comfortable in my own skin, even if it is starting to sag and crinkle up.

"More is Better" but 5 dogs in a boat is a lot. They are:

Sparkle, Twinkle, Arty, Bookie, and Ruby. Hopefully next year, Arty and Twinks will ‘hook up’ and we’ll have a few more puppies around!!!

I have a list of people waiting for Dorkie babies. We usually give a couple away to family and friends from each batch, but it has been 4 years since our last litter. So, the list of people waiting for a dog is getting long. Twinkle had better be as prolific with her puppies as I am with my art projects!

SIX DAYS LEFT TO ENTER THE DRAWING FOR THE HAND PAINTED CHARM, leave a comment if you want to enter!

Ps- does anyone have trouble opening my blog? Kim at Daisy Cottage says that she does and my neice told me that it opens slow for her. Any other problems with it?

Also, should I try to do shorter posts? I do seem to run on and on and on. Like I said, "More is Better" has always been my motto, but I wonder if I get a bit carried away and no one has time to look at what all I put out there?

I’ll be back on Thursday, we’re going to St Louis for a couple of days!