vintage paper/collage art – Page 50

Dumpster redos

antiques/junking, flowers, Hand Painted Furniture, how-to projects, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 22, 2007

Today was mostly a day of primers and base coats. I spread drop cloths everywhere, set up card tables and got out a bunch of junk that needed to be painted white.

I found this little toy vanity/jewelry box at a garage sale last week for $2, and the weird mask thing was in the dumpster that I climbed into.

Presto chango- and abra cadabra- magically these pieces are now transformed.

A light sanding, 2 coats of bonding primer, and some white paint were added to all these items. Then, for the mask and the shelf that I also found in the dumpster, I added 3 more shades of white with a sponge.

Medium grade sand paper, lightly rubbed over the edges of the toy vanity gave the piece an aged feel. I added a vine of roses to the top of its oval mirror, then a garland of flowers to the bottom drawer.

I was glad I got to get some flowers done, because I had so many things to get a coat of white onto, plus visited with Sugarwings for a few hours today, did yard work and went to the grocery store TWICE.
Here is my list of what got base coated today:
the 4′ x 4′ mirror from last week’s garage sale (flowers to be added later)
toy vanity
weird mask thing (finished)
a piece of ceiling tin to add flowers to
part of a desk, cut in half and made into a nightstand -(pictures later, when I add the finishing touches)
the shelf from the dumpster (finished)
4 pieces of a magazine rack I found in the dumpster and took apart to make into wall hangings (pictures later)
a small gold frame that I added music paper and flowers to (finished)
a metal box with a lid to add flowers to later
a watering can to paint flowers onto

I am not sure about the odd mask. It is interesting, but Not My Style. Although, I do like a bit of funky stuff around. Maybe in the garden? Or maybe I’ll sell it, let me know if it is YOUR style.. $15?

Playing with Sugarwings was a good break in the afternoon. After she left, I finished up with the white and then had time to add some flowers.

I had bought this tiny frame (with an ugly picture in it) when I went on vacation last month and shopped at goodwill in Indianapolis. Today, I primed, and painted the frame, then glued down old sheet music. Over that I painted some flowers.

I distressed the frame slightly with sand paper, and coated the whole thing, picture, frame and all, with umber glaze and wiped it off. $35 if anyone wants to buy it. I will add it to my Etsy shop next week, or email me here before then.

My handsome son, Ryan, came down to the studio to talk while I painted. He’s good company and loves to chat. But, he is so shy with other people. I wish he’d meet a girl. He simply will not get out and meet people, and certainly will never find the love of his life playing his guitar or video games up in his apartment, or hanging out watching horror movies with his mom or staying up all night working out with the punching bag or watching wrestling on TV. That is all he does besides go to work.

He is my biggest worry in what I think is a pretty happy life. I just want him to meet someone he can be comfortable with, but he is so reclusive and shy. It certainly isn’t his looks holding him back, is it?? What a cutie.

Typical mom, I worry. I want this son to be as happy as Sugarwing’s dad is with his little family.

Sorry, I shouldn’t be running on like this is a diary and I am pouring out my problems. Back to some eye candy—

Michaels had swavorsky crystals on sale for $2 a bag.

I bought a few bags in different colors and shapes. Love the teardrops.

Oh, I forgot to add this soap dish to my list of what I base coated white today. It was brass before. I might add a glaze to give it some age and depth.

And here is another photo of my new cafe set, just because I like it and it is fun to get new things that don’t need anything done to them! No painting, no fixing, just unload it from the car and enjoy it!

But I did paint the cement cherub statue. She was spray painted gold, uck.

I HAVE AN ETSY SHOP!!!!!!!!!!

Etsy Goodies, fairies, flowers, Hand Painted Furniture, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 19, 2007

I started an Etsy Shop!!http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5099942

I only listed a few things so far. I will add to it as the week goes by.

I hope to carry raw materials for supplies, like these garden tags, and some finished pieces like the tags I made up from a couple of the tags always available.

These tags look like they were meant for a garden center to use to mark their plants. I have plenty, the offer still goes for 12 for $1, includes postage,(unless you live somewhere overseas, then the postage will need to be added)

I also listed one of my hand painted switch plates. I have sold a couple through the blog already, and am making more.

I will be listing more hand painted items too.

Well, it is a start, I actually set the shop up and listed some stuff, after saying for MONTHS that I was going to! Wish me luck.

Today started with me going over to Sugarwing’s house to pick her up. She was sound asleep, but always wakes with a smile!

Their place is a rental, but that is no reason to live with plain walls! I faux finished these for her to enjoy. When they move out, a quick coat of white over it will get their deposit back.

Her bed is painted with fairies, the one on the right is a Dorothy fairy, Sugarwing’s mama is a big Wizard of Oz fan.

I got this bed for her on clearance for 75% off. It had been $1,000!!! My god, who pays $1,000 for a baby bed?????? I was happy with this cool bed for $250, though.

We picked up my niece and met a group of friends for coffee (for the moms, not the girls, they had juice) at Bella Bistro. Lovely murals there to enjoy. (not mine, although I have a few murals at places here in Lawrence)

While my fairy grand baby is napping, I went out to pull some garden weeds.

It is starting to look good out there! The green tomatoes are getting bigger.

My husband tried to help by tying up the tomato plants for me, but he used old mop handles, broken bits of wood, and metal fence stakes for posts. He honestly sees nothing wrong with that. I tried to politely explain that it was sweet of him to help, but that I wanted a prettier garden. Oh well, the tomatoes will grow and cover it all up with green and I’ll never notice the mop handles. I guess I am just lucky to have a husband who helps.

12 days left to enter the drawing for a hand painted charm! Leave a comment or an email, enter as often as you’d like to.

my Brother from another Mother, a Fairy Princess, and a purple haze

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, how to's, paintings, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 18, 2007

I just found out that my tiara swap partner

http://www.123lavenderlollipoplane.blogspot.com/

and I have the same birthday, 5-5-58! Now I am curious to find out how close horoscopes actually are. I want to quiz her to see how Taurus-ey we match up.

I wrapped her tiara up like a birthday present with some sparkling tissue and a dangling purple crystal. And of course a flower, us May girls love flowers–"April showers bring May flowers". My mother always used to tell me that meant me, I was her May flower.

Barb’s address is 123 Lavender Lollipop Lane, so I made a tag for the package with a hand painted purple lollipop all glittered up and tied with a bow.

I like to mix collage work with hand painting. I am such a quick painter that it is actually faster for me to paint something than to dither through all the boxes and shelves of papers I collect to decide what to add next. But, then half the fun of doing any collage work is playing with all that gorgeous paper you collect!

And of course, the lollipop had to have a crown too.

I painted the lollipop on watercolor paper, cut it out and glued it to the tag that I had attached pretty scrapbook paper to (on sale at Michaels for 10 CENTS a sheet). Then, the crown was cut out of gold holographic mylar paper, that I glittered up and added crystals to.

I wrote the address directly onto the tag and screwed it up (I have notoriously bad handwriting). So I re-wrote it (more carefully this time, I do tend to scribble) onto a snip of matching scrapbook paper and glued it over the screwed up writing and outlined it in marker. Sometimes, messing up a project makes it better, I like the added layer of the striped paper on the tag.

Next, I glued a border of sparkling trim (used on the tiara) to the edges and tied a bunch of ribbons to the top. Then of course, the ribbons were in the way when I went to glue down paper to the back of the tag. I do get ahead of myself.

Sugarwings tried on the tiara before she went home after our Father’s Day Extravaganza Brunch.

I should make her a princess crown of her own. But she’d eat it.

More purple! A verbena started up between the bricks at my garden entry. Last year, I had planted some in the hanging baskets above the bricks.

Don’t those pavers look like they have been there forever? Actually, it is just simply bad installation. I did it myself and they are all settling in and sagging. I like that look, though.

I accomplished lots of yard work yesterday, was spreading mulch and trimming up. When I went to the garden center for a few bags of Cyprus, I found this table and chair set for 75% off.

And since my husband shared his big casino jackpot winnings, not only with his son and dad- but with me! I treated myself to something new. I usually just buy garage sale furniture, but couldn’t pass this set up. It was $79 for all three pieces. Not a bad deal for such a heavy, well made set, and its very Frenchy looking, isn’t it?

(and look- purple in this shot too)

Dads, Fish, Pop Pops, and Jackpots

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), paintings, Sugarwings, tributes, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 17, 2007

Happy Fathers Day!

My dad was an avid fisherman.

His favorite spot was at his brother’s place. He also loved trips to the lake with the guys or to Florida with his wife and another brother.

My friends and family often roll their eyes or tease me about how much scrap booking I do. But having these pages done is more than just a hobby or a project. I love to look back and reminisce about the pictures.

This photo might mean the most to me. I visited my Dad in Indiana a few months before he was diagnosed with cancer. I didn’t see him again until the night before he died. This is our last photo together.

Man, I am crying right now as I look at it.

Ok, then, happier things!

My art journal/scrap book is filled with pages of Sugarwings (here with her Pop Pop), of course. I add a quick page or two every week.

By not fussing over it, or spending too much time worrying about it being ‘just right’, I can keep the book up to date. I leave the journal sitting out, so it is easy to pick up and flip through at any time. And I do look through it a lot.

By now the book is too full to close, I think that by the time I fill it up, it will be shaped like a full circle!

My husband is every bit as smitten with the fairy grand baby as I am.

You can see that my pages can be quite simple. Only a background sheet, a photo and some stickers on this one. Its more about being able to get them glued down into a book where they can be enjoyed, and doing it quickly and efficiently so that I can do it for fun, not as a chore.

I hear people moaning about boxes or drawers full of photos that they can’t face. But I have discovered that only printing what you want to add to an album (isn’t digital great??) and adding them right away solves that issue of all the pictures building up and overtaking a closet!

For Father’s Day, my husband took his dad (in a wheel chair now), and my oldest son (Sugarwing’s dad couldn’t go, he has a toothache, poor guy) to the casino. Rich, (my husband) put $100 in a machine to play as a group, and they hit an $8,000 jackpot! And I am always telling you that I am lucky- maybe he is even luckier!!

So, he gave his dad half, then split the other half with our son, Ryan. (named after RYAN STREET in Lake Charles, LA— NOT Ryan’s HOPE!!! I had been living in Germany for 2 years before he was born and had never heard of the soap opera Ryan’s Hope, but apparently, thousands of other mothers had, because it is a very popular name for his age group). My sweet son promptly went out and bought his dad the best grill that he could find for Fathers Day. I think someone raised that boy right. Maybe it is the influence of his generous and kind father?

I know I usually try to show pretty things on my blog, but don’t you think Ryan counts??

This watercolor is one that I did of my dad’s father. I never knew him, but think I might have liked him. He was a park ranger as well as a farmer.

Sugarwings is lucky to be growing up with a grandfather that loves her so much, wish I had that in my life.

My mother’s dad and I were never close, but he was ill most of the time I knew him. She loved him immensely and talked about him often.

And wasn’t my great grandfather a hunk?

While I am honoring all the fathers and grandfathers in my life, I can’t forget the most cuddly one of them all, Bookie! He has fathered litter after litter of SEVEN little Dorkie babies at a time. He’s an old guy now and kind of smells, but he still has my heart.

I Heart Potatos, and I Heart Beth’s House too!

antiques/junking, jewelry, paintings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 14, 2007

You know a day has to be a good one when it begins with a heart shaped potato! Now is that a good luck charm or what?

After scrubbing the lucky tater and tossing it in the crock pot with the roast, I went to see Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ and give her the birthday gift. She added this painting of Maddie to her shelf with the painting of Milo along with the Christmas ornaments I had painted their portraits onto as gifts last year.

This is a little charm I made and tied to her package. I had made a dozen of these, vintage paper, an added word, some glitter and a pile of diamond glaze into an oval bezel that I soldered jump rings to. This is the ONLY one that turned out! On the rest, the diamond glaze never set right, it is still milky. It has been months, I keep thinking it will clear up, maybe it will. I keep checking to see, and the words are slowly appearing like the message in a magic 8 ball.

These Marie Antionettish boxes were sitting next to Beth’s computer. She has them listed on Ebay right now, and they are even prettier in person!

I love to poke around her house, she has the coolest displays.

We each bought one of these chalk ladies on a junk day together. I sold a couple and kept one in my bathroom to hang jewels on. I wish I had bought more, there were a bunch of them for $10 each. Some were guys though, I only like the females. The males had hats. And they were pilgrim hats. There is something not right about a naked guy in a pilgrim hat.

This is the mantel in Beth’s living room, she has such deep, rich colors. We painted a gold and bronze faux finish over the china red walls, I don’t know if it shows up too well on this picture, though.

I’ll give you a sneak peek at her tiara. I wanted to add lipstick to the glass head, but we had other things to do.

My tiara is not nearly as far along as hers. I need to glitter it up and add the fooferific stuff.

I’m always touched to see things I painted years ago on display in someone’s home. I gave this to Beth a few Christmases ago, along with a bunch of home made fudge (my specialty).

After messing with the tiaras, we went to Mission Road Antique Mall to redo Beth’s booth, that once upon a time, we shared. I miss working on it with her, so she lets me come and play sometimes. I’ll show photos of it later, we did it in a red, white, and blue Americana theme.

This photo is of Terry’s booth, she ships over containers of wildly expensive and beautiful things from France.

We had to go and visit my old booth there and see if the floor was still the way I left it painted. I miss my ‘garden stone’ floor.

Well, time to check the crock pot and see if the heart shaped potato tastes as good as it looks.

Don’t forget to enter the charm drawing by leaving a comment. And check out the last post if you are interested in a magazine article of your home.

Crowning around

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

By Karla Nathan / June 13, 2007

If anyone thinks their home would look good in Country Almanac, Romantic Country, Small Room Decorating, or any of the other Harris Publications, please contact me about some sample photos.

Today is Beth (my buddy)’s birthday, and tomorrow we get to play all day. A redo of her booth at the mall (its always fun to rearrange things!) then lunch (I hope she picks Pei Wei-its her birthday, so I don’t want to interfere with her choice, but honestly,what food is better than Pei Wei???)

I wrapped up the ATC sized painting of her dog in a vintage magazine page that I got in the pack from Cheryl. It had a picture of cake on it, so I added a recipe for ice cream that was in an old cookbook I got garage sailing a couple weeks ago.

I topped off the package with a tag I made with a sparkling B for Beth, over some pattern covers (she likes anything to do with sewing), hand tinted with acrylic paints and distress ink. At the bottom of the tag, I glued "early plastic" leaves next to a vintage green button and added a crystal to the center of the button. I used the same crystals on the crowns of the two models in the picture.

Where do I store my crystals for projects? Well, one time I decorated a pair of jeans with crystals on the pockets. The jeans got paint spilled on them so are now work pants. Whenever I need a crystal, I reach back to the pocket and peel off a crystal to glue down to what I am working on.

I am still trying to figure out the tiara I am making. I hand painted some flowers on pink paper to cut out and use on it, but am not sure how or where, just wanted to have some ready if needed. You never know when you’ll need a hand painted flower to embellish something! I also glittered up the vintage grosgrain shoe clip that I thought might work on the crown. I’ll see tomorrow how it all pulls together, Beth and I will be working on them then.

I usually run on and on and on, but this is my 2nd post today, plus it is time for "Rescue Me"!! I am going to eat a bowl of Breyer’s Vanilla ice cream with Magic Shell and a fudge brownie and stare at Dennis Leary on the TV. Not a bad night! (I did go to the gym today, so don’t think too badly of me)

Don’t forget- any comment enters you in the drawing for the rose charm for June!

Rockin fairies

fairies, flowers, give away, how to's, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 13, 2007

After my 100th post yesterday, I wondered, will I run out of things to say or to show? Then I realized how easily entertained I am, and I knew I’d always find things I thought were interesting. Now, whether, other people will find it interesting too and keep reading, well, that is another story, isn’t it?

My sons found this rock when they were about 8 and 10, whiel we were on a camping trip. I will never know which boy found it, because they both took credit for the find and half killed each other trying to give it to me. I guess they have always known that I am truly entertained and excited by odd details, like a rock shaped like a heart. It might be the sweetest thing they ever gave to me, (except the fairy grand baby, of course).

Baked potato shaped rocks might not be as wonderful as heart rocks, but this one still deserves a spot in my collection out in the yard.

But a crystal rock is really special! I filled a back pack with these on a hike up in the hills North of Little Rock. What a gorgeous place, we were up on a hill over looking the town, it was serene and quiet, felt very desolate and private, but down below you could see the town of thousands of people. The ground sparkled in the sunlight, there were crystals everywhere. I just wished I wasn’t such a wimp and could carry more.

Have I lost you yet? Hope not, because I want to show the beautiful fairy that I got in the mail today from Heather!!http://prettypetalsboutique.blogspot.com/ It was part of our mini fairy swap, and I promptly hung it up in Sugarwing’s room.

I hung Heather’s fairy in the alcove that I have painted with faux brick.

On the wall, are 2 fairy themed shadow boxes that I made. I found them on clearance at Marshalls for $2 each, because they were so ugly, filled with plastic mini corn cobs, for some reason. So I took out the corn, repainted the frames and added the assemblage stuff.

I often find art supplies in the clearance aisle of non-craft stores. Or goodwill, or the trash, or a garage sale, etc.

The sparkling fairies hanging in the window are from the clearance department at TJMaxx. I spray painted some branches white, added glitter to the paint while it was still wet, and screwed them to the wall over the window.

To the branches, I tied ribbons with teeny flowers on them and added a few fairies for a unique window treatment.

I love the Fat Grandma fairy best! Maybe it is her pink hair?

I got some gardening done today, didn’t just walk around and aimlessly take photos of rocks.

I keep my most used gardening things in a pot in the breezeway on a table I have mosaiced.

The pot was painted by a friend, Vickie Howard. This isn’t her typical work, it was donated to a fund raiser as a center piece and I bought it there. Her work is pretty classy. If you buy a print somewhere like JC Pennys or another department store, it is often her painting used in the frame! Or if you buy holiday paper cups or popcorn tins at Target or Walmart, she was likely the artist!

Today, I got started on my tiara swap. Here are some things I pulled together for it. The black grosgrain vintage buckle already has received a coat of glitter and looks good.

The child’s head band has wire twisted on it to make the crown shape, and has been primed white.

Tomorrow, I am taking the bundle of supplies with me to Beth’s house http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ to work on them together.

Today is her birthday (I will enter you into my drawing for the rose charm- TWICE for each "happy birthday" comment you leave on her blog!!!)

So, tomorrow, I’m helping her redo her booth at the antique mall, then we are going out to lunch and doing some glitter gluing after. We might be able to manage to squeeze in a few estate sales on the way!

12,165 hits * 4 months * 100 posts * countless new friends *

give away, jewelry, paintings, Sugarwings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 12, 2007

So, today is my 100th post! Time for reflection? I’m not a very reflective type(although, I do like shiny objects and those sort of reflections).

Here is a list of what I love about blogging:

1- Well, I started doing it to promote my business, to show my paintings and use the blog to feature some Ebay things like these drawer pulls. I am not a frequent Ebayer yet, am still learning. And there are lots of nice bloggers who offer advice!

2- I keep up with my family who live far away. I sometimes feel like I am talking to them when I write. Sissy sends me photos of some good junk she finds and I can share that too. She just got this fairy tale book at Goodwill.

3- I am motivated to get things done! Not that I always need that, I do tend to keep busy. But I also have been known to not do anything creative for days on end, but with the blog, I am often thinking about what I can post tomorrow and that can be an incentive to work on a project instead of reading a book. But it won’t stop me from watching too much TV, nothing can get in the way of my TV addiction!

Here is the garage sale cabinet I picked up on Saturday when I was out junking with my friends. It needed a slight re-build, since it was in pieces. I re-enforced the back, added trim and repainted it while I was at it.

4- Have I mentioned the friends???? Great people that I have so much in common with and enjoy "talking" to. Big hearted and generous people too. Natasha http://natashaburns.blogspot.com/ arranged a mini fairy swap for me when I told her I was bummed about missing the fairy jar swap I saw on so many other blogs. Here is what she sent. Looks to me like it is just perfect for Sugarwing’s room. So many people gave me advice, added me to their links, and welcomed me when I started. I’ve met with nothing but kindness and friendship since I started doing this. The community was a bonus I never expected at all.

5- Having giveaways! I love doing the gifties and treats! I think I will always have one going, leave a comment, enter the giveaway for this month!

6- WINNING GIVEAWAYS!!! I have been lucky enough to win a few so far too. I won this vintage paper pack from Cheryl Connell. http://fromthepines.blogspot.com/ Look at all the great stuff she put in it!

I also won this tag with a card and some goodies from http://whispersofinspiration.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html I used it in a journal I made about our vacation.

7- Swaps- swaps- swaps- swaps!!! Yep, another addiction. A May Basket was my first swap and now I am joining them right and left. I am working on a tiara and a match box this week.

And look what I got in trade for one of my measley little charms! Michelle http://www.ginghamworld.blogspot.com wrote that she’d like to swap and I told her I liked her bags and the color pink. She sent this beautifully wrapped hand made bag as well as this pearly "K".

Not only that, there was a cute heart pin in the package. My sister, Bobbie Sue’s last name is Valentine, and I have a fondness for hearts.

See what I mean about the generous people I meet??

8- Comments! Why do you think I bribe you all with give aways? I LOVE TO GET COMMENTS. ( I’d do the give aways anyway, but I am not above using them as a bribe!) I love to leave comments too. You’ll see me scattered all over the web on comment pages. I like to sometimes go to a comment page from a favorite blog and click on every single name there, checking out their sites and leaving comments on them all.

9- Which brings me to How much money I have saved on magazine purchases! I read blog after blog and it is so much more satisfying (and cheaper) than buying a stack of decorating magazines. Hmm, should I say that since I sometimes write for magazines??

10- Beth http://bethleintz.typepad.com/ and I get to talk and gossip about the blog people we know like they are neighbors just down the road.

11- Sugarwings! Well, actually, my fairy grand baby is just the best thing about every part of my life, so I had to include her here. And my blog is a wonderful spot to show off photos of her.

You have no idea how hard it is to hold back on the granny urges to have an All Sugarwings, All the Time- blog. I could just stare at nothing but her. I found this little rose bud dress for her at a garage sale for $1, so she and I played dress up and took pictures in the garden.

Plethora of Packages and Presents

jewelry, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 4, 2007

While packing up fairy swap and other items that needed to be mailed, I decided I should be sending something to my family too!

So, I made up little packets of photos of our visit to see them all, added a hand made charm to each bundle and tucked a sweet little quote about sister hood into each before tying them all up with pink tulle bows and black velvet ribbons.

For my friends that are coming to visit on Wednesday, I cut some more sisterhood quotes out of the same book, but to these, I added a drop of vanilla rose essential oils and then glued down a vintage button.

I have made up flower pots to welcome them to my cottage. Inside are the scented quotes, magnets I have made from old jewelry, a white crocheted doiley, a floating candle shaped like a flower and wrapped in white tulle, and a pair of earrings.

I made the earrings for them from colored pearls. I don’t know how pearls get colored, but I like the result. They are genuine pearls that I bought in about a dozen colors or so. I kept them simple by just adding them to silver French hooks.

All of the earrings are wrapped in vintage newspaper quilt patterns I picked up when I was on vacation in Indiana. The date at the top of the paper says 1929 and 1930.

The earrings are hung from a business card, then wrapped up in the old paper and tied with raffia. I’ve added my buddie’s names in gold pen to the package before gathering up all the gifties to add to the pots.

Photo copies of my favorite watercolor, "Blue Hydrangeas" are glued to the terra cotta pots with gel medium, after backing them with a bit more of the 1929 newspaper.

This day has been a lot more fun than it would have if I had spent it cleaning house like I should have done. Between wrapping up bundles to mail, posting, blog reading, and making gifts, I read some of the 1929 articles, including some reviews of Lon Chaney as the Phantom and the lurid details of Joan Crawford’s brother’s ugly divorce. I’m sure my friends will be happier with presents and Hollywood gossip that I picked up, than they would be with sparkling light fixtures.

Although, they have never been out to visit and now that I am out of time, I am having second thoughts and wondering if I should stay up all night to clean so I can make the house look good……….

Pretty packaging and some procrastination

give away, jewelry, paintings, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 4, 2007

I have been packaging today. Funny how those little details at the end of a project can take as long as the project itself.

Here is how I finished my charms for the swap. I added beads to compliment the roses, I ended up using a variety of crystals. Then I tied each to a business card with a sheer ribbon. I will slip each into a little plastic bag as soon as my poor arthritis eases up a bit. Too much ribbon tying today!

I still have 3 charms left to sell, if you want one. Plus, you can win one in June by leaving any comment.

I jump from media to media, partly because I want to do EVERYTHING and also because I get easily sidetracked by shiny objects and go off to start another sort of project.

But also because I am always hurting, my joints are a wreck. So, I will paint a few days, do jewelry a few, etc. If I were to do the same thing day after day, I’d cripple myself. I need to keep changing my repetitive movements so that they aren’t too repetitive!

I had a good time wrapping up my fairy swap pieces to send off to Australia, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania.

I used pages from a flower fairy book to fold around each tag, and tied them up with ribbons, a business card, and made use of some of the hanging frames that came with the charms I painted roses on. I added a bead to the center of each open frame, hoping that Holly, Natasha, and Heather will be able to use these in one of their projects.

I really like the open frames, now that I decided I didn’t want them on the charms. I bought a million of the set (trying to save on postage and thinking I’d use a ton of them), and thought I was stuck with something I hated, but now can see endless opportunities for these as separate bits instead of together.

Well, I should finish the charm packing. Or I should unload the dishwasher from our dinner party last night. Or I should change the sheets from yesterday’s house guest and get ready for the next guests. Or pull weeds in the garden. Or attack that cobweb I saw swinging from the chandelier. (I know if there is one, there are others up there on the ceiling.)

But I think, I’ll goof off and play in the studio. The house always gets cleaned up somehow before guests arrive. And if I turn down the lights and use candles, maybe they won’t notice the cobwebs?? I know, I’ll make them gifts to welcome them! They will appreciate presents more than non fuzzy chandeliers! (but I will manage to change their sheets before they get here, for sure, don’t worry about that one)