We’re having a party – Page 12

Craft day with Carol Spinski, Debbie Dusenberry, and Amy Barickman, woo hoo!

flowers, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / January 14, 2013

Last Tuesday, Amy, Carol, and Debbie came over for a craft day and lunch. It was a fun day of catching up, creating, and chatting.

Amy's friend, Cindy, came by for a while, it was nice to meet a local Lawrence lady who was a big shot blogger (Skip to my Lou). I had no idea. Wow, 2,000,000 hits a month?? Not only was she a big time blogger, she was sweet as can be, which is appropriate since she has a store called Sweet.

In the kitchen, my dining table was set with a drop cloth cover, white mismatched linens, cream plates, and white salad plates with tiny rosebuds. I added matt white pottery vases with bright roses (on Mondays, my local Kroger marks leftover flowers down to $1.99 so I snaf up armloads, then feel greedy and put back all but two to take up. Happens every time. I see the sale price and start grabbing, then stop myself).

The look of the room inspired me to get out some Valentiney themed and colored papers to add to the all neutral books we were making. I loved the look so much, in the room and in the book I made that I thought it would be fun to have a workshop to create Valentine journals. The details are in the previous post and I'll have some photos coming up in a couple days with more info.

Knowing that
Carol and Debbie were both fans of "low color" style,I'd set out a
studio table full of neutral ephemera so that we could sift through and
pull together pages that we wanted to use in our books.

I'll be providing similar for the books we will make in class. As a matter of fact, I probably won't be putting these away, I'll leave the piles out for us to work with.

At a flea mkt last fall, I scored an 1800s receipt book stuffed with fantastic writing and logos. We all used pages of it in our books that day.

Of course, an afternoon with these three ladies is pretty durn inspiring in and you know that they can put together something scrumptious no matter what supplies they have on hand!

I had some ticking stuck away and pulled it out knowing that Debbie would use it in an interesting way, and she did, fraying the edges of strips to make ribbon, and lining some pages. She generously left the book here to use for ideas during the workshop.

Amy's book is a sweet pink tone.

And she generously left some of her books behind too. These are copies of two of her latest books and she gave them to me to offer as giveaways.

Vintage Notions and Fabric Flowers.

While I am away in Hawaii, I'll have some fresh posts done up ahead of time for you, so please come back. Leave a comment on any post between January 14 and 28th for a chance to win one of two books.

The third will be given away during my workshop on Saturday, Feb. 2nd to an attendee.

Holiday parties galore!

celebrations, family, holiday decor, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 19, 2012

We had a big weekend, with lots of holiday fun. Friday night, our Hippy Chick and the two little grand fairies went with us to dinner and to see "Rise of the Guardians". Dewdrop loved it, because the "night mares" that the Boogey Man created were horses. She is a huge pony fan, and yelled out "go Honies!!" every time she saw one of these spooky creatures in the movie. To her, they were the heros.

Afterwards, we drove around to look at Christmas lights. One home here in Lawrence had an elaborate display set to music, complete with a video of a life size Santa eating milk and cookies in the upstairs window. At first, we thought they actually had Santa up there, it was realistic as can be. Then, the video started to loop and we started to clue in on what was going on. All of a sudden, the size of the picture changed and his whole head filled the window, that part was a bit creepy and unexpected.

Then, on Saturday, we had a holiday pitch in dinner and craft party. And on Sunday, we had breakfast with Santa at one of the clubs my husband works at.

For the craft party, a friend had a bagful of clear glass balls she wanted to use up and we were challenged to find ways to create with them. So, I experimented with a few ideas, and filled a couple of tabletops with supplies for everyone to play with.

Some became snowmen, some had fairies or family member's photos inside.

I also had boxes that everyone could decorate and either top with a snowman head, or leave as is.

Another friend brought clothespins for the kids to make into toy soldiers.

Here is a snowman that Addie made.

Everyone's projects turned out quite different, which is one of the fun things about these kinds of parties.

Dinner was great too, pitch ins are my favorite. Every time I look into a pot or bowl someone else brought, it's like a little surprise party for my tummy. I love food that I didn't fix myself!

My studio didn't get much in the way of decor for the holidays this year. I set out some of the things that I'd made for sale, which is an excellent way to decorate, because hopefully, when the season is over, the stuff is gone and there is nothing to put away.

Well, that is if things go as planned. But, these wings will still be in vogue for Valentine's Day, so I'm not worried if I have a couple left.

Our weather is once again freakishly un-winterlike this year. So after making their projects, most of the kids played outside. Sugarwings soon turned her princess gown into something that looked like it had been dipped in Hershey's syrup, she had so much wet, gooey mud on herself.

After she and her little friend got cleaned up, we settled them in front of Frosty the Snowman on TV and gave them some hot chocolate to warm themselves up. It might have been warm outside for winter, but not really warm enough to play in the water and mud.

The husbands watched the KU game and played pool, we made things in the studio, and kids divided up their evening by crafting and playing outdoors. I think they even explored the Fairy Berry Trail in the dark.

Yep, it was a good weekend! I even managed to get about 75% of my Christmas shopping done.

But please, don't mention wrapping. ugh.

I will be away from my computer till Sat. the 22nd. Sorry, I can't get new orders from the Boutique or Etsy out in time for Christmas. Next shipping date is Dec. 27th. Wishing the happiest of holidays to you!!

Happiest Halloween

celebrations, Dew Drop, family, holiday decor, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / October 29, 2012

We had a Halloween party that kind of morphed into a multi-layered event.

At first it was going to be just our Gypsy and I making some masks.

But for most holidays, I try to have a kid's craft day with my friends, so I decided to invite all of them too.

And we decided that maybe it would be fun to have a bonfire also, and invite husbands to hang out there while we made things.

We figured that while we were all together that we should do a pitch in dinner and make a whole evening of it.

Complete with a late night, impromptu tea party in the gazebo with the little girls.

And of course, some puppy cuddling too!

So, I picked up a bunch of supplies for the kiddos.

And found these paper mache masks at Target for only $2 each.

Michaels had these wooden ones for $1.

After dinner, we worked out in the studio off and on between visits to the bonfire for s'mores, or having a game of flash light tag.

I'm always impressed at how hard the kids work when we have these craft parties.

There is a wide range of creativity, and you never know what they will come up with.

There were mini pumpkins for the kids to decorate too. The younger the kid, the more projects you need to have. Older kids and adults can spend all evening on one thing, but the more petite artists like to move from one piece to the next pretty quickly.

We had perfect weather for the night. Wow, what luck! It was nice enough to dine outside, but just chilly enough to enjoy the bonfire too.

And while I preach anti orange and purple for the holiday, its still fun to have some more obvious decor for the kids.

I had plenty of traditional colors in the ribbons and stickers too. As a matter of fact, I had more than enough, so I bagged up leftover stickers and took them to Sugarwing's kindergarten class to use.

I think the little ones had a good time.

I know I did!

I am finishing up my pages, Twinkle is finishing up her pups

dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, puppies!, swaps, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / August 16, 2012

This Faery Book Swap page is a done in a similar way to my other pages: slap down a vintage paper back ground, find a pretty lady or girl in my ephemera drawer, glue on some wings from the 1950s bug book that I got at a garage sale, sprinkle on some glitter, trim and done.

Well, basically at least. All are different in that I used a variety of ladies or girls, papers and trims, but it boils down to all being the same sort of process. Each is unique, but I didn't use any ground breakingly creative skills in assembling them, as you might have noticed as I gave some "how to's" on most of the pages I made.

This one has some hand drawn vines around the wallpaper centerpiece. And I used a sheer fabric, layered between the main decor and the background.

After finding my stride and figuring out shortcuts to make pages, I went a bit bannanas and made quite a few. I like to have extras for the swap, but if I don't need them, I'll be making up a seperate book for the Boutique.

I've also got some extra covers, so will make up some kits to sell too. In case you didn't get in the swap but would like to create your own fairy book.

The back is a pretty page from one of my old children's books, and a touch of lace at the bottom. But ooooh! what lace! Its butterflies!

I used quite a bit of this trimming out the covers too.

Each cover was basically the same design and style too, but all were done with slightly different supplies. When you use vintage materials, you get unique results. My wings are all petals or leaves from old millinery blooms, and the wallpaper is matched up to my wing materials. So are the ribbons and the little flower that I added to either her bodice or hair.

You can tell from this glimpse, that I used lots of different laces to trim the bottoms too.

I am so excited to be getting closer to assembly time! There will be two more posts upcoming with photos of the rest of my pages.

If you are curious about how I pull together a big swap, here is a post from the last one I hosted.

This pic of Twinkle about to pop on Aug. 12th, before the puppies are even due. Believe it or not, she is much bigger now, every day she seems to balloon up even more, and I feel so bad for her. Its hard to figure the due date, because she was over at her boy toy's house for ten days and I hear that they enjoyed every minute of the time together.

The vet says to figure 63 days from the mid point of their romantic interlude. But if I calculate from the first weekend, the due date is now.

I think she might have the pups today, and its Sugarwing's birthday, wouldn't that be perfect?! Her temperature has dropped to 98.5, she seems to be trying to nest under the deck, so we can't let her go out in the yard alone. I've barricaded the doggie door so she doesn't sneak out. She barely fits through it anyway. I might have to grease her belly if she continues to try to get in and out that little door.

Today Sugarwings is six years old. Tomorrow she goes to kindergarten.

For her birthday, I painted her new loft bed. She helped me, its a razzelberry color, with glitter. The ladder that goes up to the mattress is 5 steps, so I numbered them and did one fairy, two worms, 3 lady bugs, 4 butterflies, and 5 flowers on the coordinating rungs.

Sorry the photos suck, they were taken on my phone in a dark garage.

We've had a terrific birthday week, starting with her Mommie's party on Sunday, zoo on Monday, cupcake baking and decorating Wednesday, and a BBQ tonight. We had thought about a water park visit today, but haven't mentioned it to her. I'm glad we didn't, the weather doesn't look great, and I want to stay near the expectant momma.

What's on the menu for the BBQ? All of the birthday girl's favorites, of course! Salmon, french fries, watermelon, chocolate milk, corn on the cob, and spinach. Then, home made cupcakes mixed up by Dewdrop and Sugarwings.

I'll let you know if we have a few extra guests for dinner. I'm hoping to see six little tiny pups coming to the 6th birthday party!

Romantic Gothic Ghosts Workshop at Karla’s Studio

bird song art event, holiday decor, parties, Romantic Gothic Ghosts, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / July 25, 2012

Beth and I are planning some classes at my studio, a one day event, a bit more casual than Birdsong was. She'll teach in the morning while I get lunch ready, then its my turn to have an afternoon class. Both will be very much in tune with the online Romantic Gothic Ghost online projects we did a couple of years ago.

That online class is still available for $25 or you can get it free when you come to our classes at my home.

Projects for the day are still to be announced, we are in the midst of prototypes. I can promise that they are going to be moody and romantic, a lovely piece to decorate your home with for Halloween, with no garish purple or orange to be seen.

Lunch, complete kits full of vintage goodness, dessert, and drinks will be included, as well as the bonus online class. And we'll schedule some time for coffee and muffins before the work day begins so everyone can get acquainted.

Saturday Oct. 6, 2012 from 9am-6pm

Cost is $100

Email me if you'd like to pay by check, or click here, and scroll to the bottom of the post to get to the pay pal button.

Classes at my home are very casual, tee shirt and jeans type things, not dressy at all. But feel free to be a little witchy for Halloween if you'd like. My Sissy is coming and she will be all witchied-up. I might be too.

Also, I've got to warn you, that we will be surrounded by werewolves. 1-2 lb ones, though, so not as dangerous as most. Twinkle's puppies will be at the age where they will be scampering about underfoot all day. Feel free to snuggle one on your lap while you work if it looks like its getting tired. Sometimes little werewolf cubs need more rest than they think, and should be encouraged to nap.

But only if you are strong willed enough to ignore the tempting price tags tied around their necks. Yep, puppies will be for sale…..

It did my heart good to have some Birdsong friends sign up as soon as I announced this on Facebook Tuesday!! It matters a lot to me that people who have been here before are looking forward to coming back.

This class will have limited seating, and will one day only. If you are coming in town for it, its a great weekend to be in the KC area. The Old West Bottoms area of Kansas City is opened up with tons of once a month junk and antique stores, and the Renfest is going on too. I LOVE both. (Our class is on a Saturday, and I plan on being at Bottoms Up on Friday, and the Renfest on Sunday myself.) more info about both can be found here
All food served will be homemade, with fresh ingredients. I usually cook pretty healthy and low fat, but I make up for the calorie savings with some decadent desserts.

Beth and I would love to see you there. Hope we do!

Happy Birthday to Beth

junk, kitties, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 17, 2012

We got back from our trip just in time for me to celebrate Beth's birthday with her.

She is notoriously hard to shop for, because she is the world's best shopper. If she wants it, she'll find it.

So, I prettied a box up with vintage wallpapers, made her a necklace, and filled the box with tibbits I thought she'd enjoy working with. Because its always fun to get new arty supplies!

I asked her what she wanted to do to celebrate and she said she was going to her regular, twice a month auction. Years ago, I used to go with her to this auction, but since I closed my antique mall booth, it became too dangerous for me to attend. I have a history of always buying the heaviest thing in the whole place every time I go, and since I no longer drive a van, or have a booth to put big heavy pieces into, I just don't need to buy that kind of junk. Even though I can't seem to stop myself.

This time, I proudly constrained my urges to buy big things, and just picked up a few smalls that I didn't need.

It helped that the auction goods that were offered that night kind of sucked.

Big time.

The auctioneer even seemed bored with the offerings and started playing games with it all, like seeing how high he could stack them.

This is a stack I couldn't resist, even though it wasn't very heavy. I paid $17 for all of these Oz books. And I bought a flat of Oz dolls for Sugarwings. Beth mentioned that it wasn't complete, there was no Dorothy. But I assured her that we might have a couple around here to fill out the set. Lil Sugarwings is a bit of a Dorothy fan.

While the goods for sale weren't all that good, the company was, and we laughed and chatted all night. I packed a birthday picnic to feast on and pretty paper plates and napkins to serve it on. It ended up being such fun, I was wishing I had a birthday coming up to spend there.

Its good to be home, and I have plenty of vaca photos to show. But for now, here is what greeted me when I returned, our new cat. She was a stray that decided to adopt us, and Sugarwings has named her Sweet Sweet Sweety. (that name is said really fast with some jumping up and down, each time it is said)

She is a pretty cat. Or he is a handsome cat, I'm not sure yet which.

Twinkle is not around right now, she has gone to see her boyfreind for a week or so. Looks like our vacation ended just in time to get her over to see him, so we'll be having some puppies in August! Maybe about on Sugarwing's birthday, August 16th.

Happy Birthday to my handsome husband

Food and Drink, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 14, 2012

For my husband's birthday, I had some help whipping up homemade blueberry pies.

It was pretty exciting. But anytime Sugarwings does some baking, its a joy-fest.

I tried something a little different with the pies. We filled a shell with fresh berries, then topped it with a mixture of butter, organic brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour. We drizzled a little water over it, added a heart cut out of pie dough, and baked it. The berries' juices mixed with the topping as it melted into the pie, and it was really yummy. It left a slight, crispy top, but not the same as a crumble, because I used very little flour in it.

Along with the pies, I made fried chicken,(catfish for the vegetarians too) mashed potatoes, gravy, corn (fresh from the cob) green beans, coleslaw and rolls. Plus a strawberry cheesecake.

whew.

4 and a half hours in the kitchen, I made it all the old fashioned way, like my grandma and mom used to. What a lot of work. How on earth did they cook like that on a regular bsis???

It was a good party, and the kids gave Pop Pop a book to read to his littlest grand fairy, plus he got plenty of hugs and cuddles, so he had a happy birthday.

They made him some flower pots, and he got a mint plant and lime tree to grow his own garnishes for cocktail hour.

He's one hot grandpa, isn't he?

ps- you can still enter the drawing to win this collage by leaving a comment

Special friends and a special day

Books, celebrations, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), parties, vintage paper/collage art, wallpaper, We're having a party, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / June 12, 2012

Before I left for my North Carolina adventure, I had a little party for some special friends. Kecia, who I met at Tiffanys in CA is on quite an adventure herself. A two month plus trek across the country, hop scotching from one friend, family member, junk shop, to another. She stopped to see me here at the cottage on her way across I70.

And my beautiful friend, Angie, was having a birthday. Two reasons to celebrate!

You know me, it doesn't take much to convince me its time for a party. I love any excuse to set the table and invite friends over.

And with two special occasions, I was raring to go.

I stole my buddy, Carol's tip about using vintage wallpaper as a table runner. And I just happened to have a few rolls to choose from…

Angie had another very important celebration, she is a first time grammie as of a few days ago! So, I broke out the extra special, hoarded, fairytale wall paper from the 20s and made a frame for her to put a baby picture in.

Instead of just having a dinner party, I invited everyone to come for the afternoon and have craft day too, and friends dropped by here and there for whatever time they could make it. Some just for craft day, some just for dinner.

My favorite way to spend a day. Good friends, good conversation and stuff to make!!

I'm still hooked on slopping modelling paste on my collages. So, I made some books with covers all textured up. (this one is in the Boutique)

On this one, I collaged the back too, but instead of texture, I dry brushed paint over the collage, then inked it a bit.

This book needs a slight re-do. I've filled it with pages and pages of old papers, and they are too delicate to turn with ribbon ties. I have to add some rings instead.

Here is the back of this one.

IIt will be a while before I burn out on this technique, I'm super into smooshing the modelling paste around over pretty papers!

Dew Drop's mommy, our Gypsy, made a journal this way too, Beth worked on some stiitching, the other Karla was doing needlepoint, Shanna had some painting to do in an enamelling project, and Angie was foofing up vintage bottles with messages and trinkets.

The great thing about craft day, is that everyone works at their own pace on whatever they feel like, and the conversation flows here, there, and everywhere.

Kecia arrived later in the day, and said she had not had a chance to create while on her trip, so I set her up with supplies to make a book too. I love the layers she put on her cover.

After dinner, when the other guests had gone, she and I went back out to the studio and worked till after midnight finishing our books.

Twinkle bonded with her, and we will both miss her, the visit was much too short!

My own thoughts on blogging and Making a project my own

Dew Drop, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party, Workshops

By Karla Nathan / May 29, 2012

Thanks again for all your comprehensive and thoughtful comments on blogs and the changing blogworld. My theory is that our nitch of blog friends is going to keep on enjoying the blogs and pals they have come to know, as well as exploring new ones they meet through links and mentions on their present faves.

Maybe blogging is not as big as it was, but it did grow with a BOOM when it took off!

And maybe Its not growing like it was, people tire of writing, lose purpose or move onto bigger and better things.

Also, younger groups of tech savy net surfers might not have the patience to visit and read blogs. Maybe for their group, tweeitng and pinning gives them the quick fix they need.

But it looks to me like my peeps, the ladies who "get" each other and have found each other online are not looking to lose contact. I think that there is still plenty of blog love to be shared between us.

Maybe we don't always stop to comment, like we did when we first became involved with blogging, but when there is a sad incident, or a reason to congratulate, or a subject that will make you think, our blog buddies are there to share it and do step in to leave their thoughts. I might have 2,000 plus hits on my blog in one day (not including the people who read it through facebook, google reader, etc.) and still only get 3 or 4 comments. But, when my dog died, and I was heartbroken (still am) so many of you came by to ease my pain.

I have NO plans on leaving. Like I mentioned in my post about this subject, I made time to sit and write my posts, even when I was not back in the swing of real work after so much time away. Blogging isn't work to me, its become a big part of my life. A daily journal almost.

I'll be posting away long after all the readers are gone. My pal Laurie and I were saying that when we are in nursing homes, we'll be writing about making necklaces out of leftover macaroni from lunch, and how to dye things with our chocolate pudding.

Our classes at the event in CA were useful and pretty. I've already got mine in use. Kecia gave us a lamp shade frame and some goodies to foof it up, then turned us loose. I brought some extras from home to add to mine, since I had a spot in mind for it in my living room and wanted a certain look.

And my pal, Lori was ready to share too. She gave me this teensy crocheted basket to tie onto the lace. I glued a button with an "N" on it for Nathan, and filled it with crystal beads.

The fun of the design is adding all the little tidbits here and there to the trailing lace. I brought chandy crystals and backed them with floral wallpaper, and a few other things, like this tiny wooden egg.

And of course, I needed a fairy.

Kecia had a series of shades she had done herself as examples, I wish I'd taken some photos of hers. She is one of the most talented artists I've met in a while and I really enjoyed her booth on Vendor night.

She is also an adventurer and is taking a few weeks to travel from her NJ home to CA and back for Tiffany's. Looks like she'll be able to stop and visit Kansas on her return trip, and I look forward to having her here.

Another class from the event got a slight alteration from me too. I tend to rework the classes with all of my own supplies, and this one was a big change. I had the watercolor sketch for the banner backdrop with me and wanted it to be featured instead of a picture of Audrey on the scrapbook we made, so I turned the book horizontal to make it fit, and changed the color scheme up a bit.

Knowing that we were making a scrapbook, I packed photos of my loved ones, and lots of vintage papers.

The scrap book papers were all black and cream, I covered some of them in my own colors, but still using the shapes and sizes provided, and tying in some of the blacks when I could.

The flowers behind Dewdrop were part of the kit.

And I really liked the shape of this paper. I used the provided piece, and covered the left side of it, added the photo and flowers, then let the rest of the original paper peek out on the right.

There were two other projects over the weekend, I'll show those later. For now, I'll leave you with more scrappy pages from this class.

I was diligent about getting my book done, I knew that I wouldn't get back to it once I got home and it had been way too long since I'd made a grandchild photo album. And yes, it was finished before the weekend ended! While swap night was going on, I sat at my table spot to cut and glue away the evening.

Tea Party Time

Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / May 21, 2012

Sugarwings and I decided to throw a tea party. Laurie had given her some tiny cookie cutters and we wanted an excuse to bake!

I kept her home from PreK to bake treats, make sandwich roll ups, dips, and veggie trays then set the table pretty with me. We had a great time planning and preparing.

She also learns about counting from gathering the cups and saucers, as well as how to set the table. So I didn't feel too bad about her skipping school, we had lots of learning opportunities throughout the day.

She was so excited about the party, she changed her dress 4 times.

We'd invited about 20 people, but not all could make it. And some forgot to come, but I don't think my fairy girl even noticed, since she was face first into the sugar bowl most of the meal.

It was a special day for me with her, soon she'll be a kindergartner and I won't have the option to pull a skip day with her any more. But…. Dewdrop was sure into the tea party herself. I have a feeling that my party days are just beginning!