Karla's Cottage – Page 118

Swap pages for the Farewell to Downton book, some are sideways, all are beautiful

By Karla Nathan / June 16, 2016

Well, isn't this embarrassing???

It seems that I have NO IDEA how to turn the pictures around.

I have been plagued with a streak of problems and this is just the latest.

Everything around us seems to be falling apart, such as cars, air conditioners, computers, cameras, and more.

Notice I mentioned the computer and my camera?? So, I have a new Mac ( a big change from Windows, but a welcome one, even with the learning curve)

So, here is my dilema. I have a new computer that I'm trying to figure out. I had a billion pages to sort and assemble into books before leaving on a big trip.

Then, my camera kicked the bucket.

Did I mention the deadline and the huge pile of pages?

I ordered a new camera, but it wasn't going to be here till Wednesday, we were leaving on Saturday, and I had to get these pages photographed before making them into books. And I had to mail the books by Friday, and they take at least a week to put together, package, label, and mail.

No problem, my phone has a great camera!!

And it is an Apple too, I should just be able to have the photos on the phone show up on the Mac, right? Well, for most people maybe.

I think I mentioned that learning curve?

Well, lets call it a learning mountain. Maybe a learning Mt. Everest.

I have over 16,000 photos moved from my pc to my Mac, and there are NO FILES, just pictures floating around nameless and I'm still slightly stupefied by it all.

Or just stupid?

And the pictures I took on my phone won't share with my Mac, no matter how many ways I try and how many trips to see the Geeks at Best Buy. So, I simply emailed them to myself and saved them to my desktop to get them available to use for my blog.

Whew, I did it!!!

I solved an issue!!

Yay, me!!

Oh, but wait….

This doesn't look right…

hmm….

AAARRRGGHH!!!!!!!!

Time is short, too. I don't have a way to get more pictures in time to get the books made and mailed before the trip. And I promised to show pages on my blog.

And as I tell the grand fairies, A Grammy Always Keeps Her Promises.

She might be a bit half assed about it, but she does her best and never lies.

So, please forgive my sideways pictures. I'll figure this out when I get back from the trip.

hopefully

I apologize for the small and sideways pictures.

But oh my gosh, aren't they gorgeous?????????????

I am blown away by the beauty of the pages that are gracing my studio table right now.

Compared to my other swaps, this one is a small group, but it sure is a good one.

Very, very well done.

I've been quite impressed with the quality and the loveliness of the creations.

Hey look, this one is straight!!! All of the photos are straight on my desktop, I don't know why Typepad seems to think they should be flipped on their sides, or why it decided this one shouldn't be.

Oh, well, that run of luck was short, back to flipped.

But I'm sure you can still appreciate the beauty.

While I am disappointed in my ability to fix this problem, I'm still thrilled with the artwork pictured.

The sideways pictures are just one of many things going on with me right now. I think I have gremlins.

I might be battling gremlins, but I'm doing my best.

And with artwork like this, building the books has been a joy, even with all the glitchy issues surrounding me right now. These pages have made me very happy, and I know the swappers will be as thrilled as I am with the books they receive.

Thank you to everyone who joined the swap. And thank you to those who ordered blank books too. I will most likely have more extras to hawk when I get back from my grand daughter trip, we had an unprecedented amount of drop outs on this swap.

Thanks to those of you who stayed committed and created such pretty things to share with each other!!!

Custom Downton Abbey Journal for Guncle Randy

guncles

By Karla Nathan / June 13, 2016

The Farewell to Downton Art Journals were very feminine, so I wanted to do a special one for Guncle Randy. I went with dark olive velvet and vintage gold trim. The tie is brown velvet ribbon, and the book still feels lux without being girly.

Here is one of the layouts I made for him. The flowers are cut out of a painting I did of Highcleire Castle. I had already cut it up and thought it would be a good idea to save the scraps for book pages. I framed it out in black velvet ribbon.

The two old photos on the other side are made into a pocket.

In the pocket, I put some more old pictures, like this great one of two guys and their dog.

This is a folded, old letter, with the stationery rimmed in black on the back. I added a medallion with an R for Randy and glued one side down. It ties shut.

When it opens up, there is another vintage photo. The paper is old and fragile, so I reinforced the fold with washi tape.

This whole swap was a fun theme for me, I certainly enjoyed the show for the seasons it was on, and it will linger in my mind for a long time.

Building the Farewell to Downton swap books

Books, swaps

By Karla Nathan / June 10, 2016

It has begun!

All of the pages are sorted, and the books are being built.

And I am once again, blown away by the beauty that came in the mail to my cottage.

See what I mean?

I'll show a few more close ups for now, but I have to scoot myself right back over to the work table and get busy getting the rest of the books put together. We are leaving on a grand daughter trip this week and I want all the packages sent before I go.

Enjoy!

Overwhelmed, but trying to stay reasonable

cottage

By Karla Nathan / June 7, 2016

Kansas has been extra rainy this spring. Which, after years of draught, I shouldn't complain about and won't.

Well, maybe not much.

Just a little.

The mud has held up our remodel a bit.

I should be more like Sugarwings, she looked at the sloggy mess and saw mud pies.

The mud is a joy to her.

But for me, I'm kind of in chaos. The kitchen and living room are half packed up, the yard is a mess, which is all bad enough, but we also have a few other smaller projects going on and between those partially finished jobs, and the piles of tools and displaced items around is multiplying the other construction chaos.

Plus, everything seems to be falling apart around me. The computer, air conditioner, my camera, Ryan's car, and that is just a partial list.

My way of dealing with it all? I've gone on an organization binge. Since I can't control most of what is going on around me, I've gone over board on controlling what I can. I had to rearrange my studio and add a cabinet taken out of the kitchen. That lead to every single thing in the room being sorted and labelled and straightened up.

The construction, while delayed, is an exciting thing, and I'm not worried about the progression. I know our builder and know the project will go well. I just am overwhelmed by so much at once.

So, I'm trying to stay as organized as I can with what I can and take a lesson from Sugarwings to look at the chaos around me as opportunities.

Fried computer? Ack! But now, I have a new Mac!!! (its a learning curve, and there are issues, but I'm so pleased with it)

And I'm trying to concentrate on how lucky I am to be able to replace it.

And to remember that this is just a mud puddle, not a life threatening flood like in Texas. We are healthy. We are blessed. Life here is good, just sometimes a little messy.

Glittered mat board and frame

family, how to's

By Karla Nathan / June 4, 2016

I'd rainbowed-up the Hippy Chick's graduation photo so much with PicMonkey that I couldn't find the ideal frame to match it.

She loves all things sparkly and rainbow, and those were both requirements to match the glowing picture of her.

So, I took a white framed, plain mat and glittered them up. The mat is so glittery, it is crusty, with layer upon layer upon layer of shimmer stuck on with sheer glitter glue, starting with larger flakes and ending with a very fine twinkle.

The frame got a slather of red paint and I sprinkled the sparkles over the wet paint.

The pattern is random, much like the background of the photo. And it is blindingly bright in person!

Custom Downton Abbey Journal for Sissy

Books, swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 1, 2016

My sister and Randy both joined in the journal swap, but for work reasons, did not have a chance to make pages yet, so had to drop out of the main trading. We will be exchanging sets later on when they get caught up.

I decided to give Sissy a head start on her journal by adding some trims and backgrounds, as well as making the cover in her favorite color, aqua blue. Although, the vintage, flocked wallpaper I had to work with was more blue than aqua, it came close enough.

I used aqua in all of its shades, from more greenish to deeper bluish.

This is a background page for her, made of old, old, old netting with sequin trim over wallpaper then trimmed in hand dyed velvet ribbon topped with 4 MOP buttons. The buttons were then foofed up with ancient, ribbon roses.

All she has to do is glue down a picture or whatever she wants and this page is finished.

Here is a completed layout, with wallpaper background, and a photo of the three of us under a hole cut into a postcard from 1910.

There is another picture of us at the bottom of the post card.

While we aren't exactly the Crawley sisters, we are wearing their hats. I cut the hats right off of Sybil, Mary, and Edith from this photo and glued them onto our own heads and embellished them.

Each book in the swap, got two coloring pages. I gave Sissy the two to do herself, but also colored the three sisters on one of them and cut it out from the rest of the page to glue onto decorative paper for her to use in the book.

Her cover is slightly different than the rest, I added the flowers to the front instead of tying them to the ribbons. I'm not sure which style I liked best, both turned out pretty.

And her book has a colorful rhinestone instead of clear ones on the "clasp".

A new fairy garden

fairies, flowers

By Karla Nathan / May 30, 2016

Last spring, Sugarwings and I created a fairy garden in a pot outside my studio's back door. Sadly, Honey loved it even more than we did, and dug the whole thing out. She has a thing for flower pots, and if left unsupervised around one, will empty it out and try to wear the pot on her head like a hat.

So, this Spring, we made Fairy Garden Number Two, and placed it by the front door of the studio, outside of the fence, hopefully where the dog won't find it.

This one is even better, but still needs some creative touches, like painting the house and adding props.

I can tell how much this girl has matured in a year just by seeing her style of gardening. This time, the pot is more of a garden design than a toy to her.

She made the trench filled with blue marbles to create a river, and asked me to make a bridge for the pathway from the house, and over the little creek. One of the pink, plastic flower pots that the plants came in was perfect to cut into an arch to fit over the water way. Sugarwings planted each flower herself, and even took the wheelbarrow to the massive piles of dirt in our front yard from the construction project, and dug up soil to fill the planter herself.

Dewdrop is becoming a gardener too. She was in charge of the marigolds in her grandfather's veggie garden.

A spa day for Dewdrop?

Dew Drop, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 27, 2016

While I was out in the garden, Sugarwings was playing King of the Hill on the mound of remodeling dirt while Dewdrop was supposedly napping.

At least, that was the plan. I came up from the garden to find this scene. Sugarwings had woken her sis up, fixed her a snack, and decided to treat her to a makeover, complete with a foot soak in a toybox full of water and glitter.

She even brought a mirror outside so that Dewdrop could watch her transformation.

This girl is infatuated with Kitties and has been asking to have her face painted as one quite a bit recently. This is one rendition that I did for her.

Now, Sugarwings has found the face paints and has decided to do the job herself, as well as setting up an outdoor beauty salon to create in.

This week is the last day of school. I expect many more elaborate set ups to come.

Although, it won't be the same without our tiniest fairy. She'll be heading to her mama's soon. And having her own special times there.

Looking for Luck, 4 leaf clovers in the grass

cottage, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers)

By Karla Nathan / May 24, 2016

When I was a kid, finding a 4 leaf clover and learning how to do a back flip into the pool were two driving forces in my life. I'd sit in the yard for hours, fruitlessly searching through the patches of green, desperate to find my own lucky charm.

And as for the flip? I'd put on a heavy sweatshirt, to deaden the pain of slapping the water with my back, and relentlessly, toss myself off the diving board, trying to learn that trick. It was a good thing I had the sweatshirt, because my back got a lot of slaps, I never once made it all the way around into the turn to land feet first in the water.

I gave up on ever learning the flip when I was in my thirties, but never gave up on my hope of finding a 4 leaf miracle.

When I saw my friend, Angie, and Dewdrop's gypsy mama both gathering handfuls of 4 leaf clovers in a matter of moments, I doubled my efforts with some hints from them both.

What I discovered is that discovering one is kind of like those magic pictures that were so popular in the 90s. It's a way of looking at it, not simply searching. They are out there, if you can focus your eyes in the right way to see them.

Happily, I can now find one anytime I feel the need for a piece of luck to hold in my hand. But mostly, I just let them grow, and not pick one unless necessary. It is nice to know that the grass around my cottage is filled with Luck.

I've been known to scratch at the grass with a rake, and sprinkle clover seeds all around the yard. These plants are so much more interesting than typical turf. And the hope of a flock of four leafers spreading through the lawn, is a nice thing to think about.

Hmmm, now that I've learned the clover trick from two experts, maybe I should tap the knowledge of my circus performer family and finally master the backflip???

Somehow I doubt that I'll do that… but if I do give it a try, I'd better fill my sweatshirt pockets with as many lucky clovers as I can find!!

A few more of my own Downton Abbey swap pages and a little swap ettiquette

swaps, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / May 22, 2016

This is what things have been looking like in my studio lately. Now, all the covers are done and ready for the pages that come in. A few boxes have already arrived, and I'm waiting to open them until I'm ready to start stacking and sorting. It is safer to keep them packaged up until I can get organized and have a space to spread them out and my check lists ready to go.

I've been working on a few pages of my own to trade with swappin' buddies. And I am DYING to see what the swappers have sent in to trade for their own books. But, like I said, I'm biding my time til I can do it right. If I started peeking into boxes, I could mix the pages up and have a real heckova nightmare set up when it is time to make the books.

Proper swap etiquette means I have to treat those pieces of art like they are precious, and of course they are. So, I need to be patient till the end of the month when the rest of the boxes have made their way to my doorstep before I begin opening them up.

Speaking of swap etiquette, I know that things come up, and people can't always meet the commitment they have made in the excitement of the moment. When the deadline to send in your art is months ahead , it is easy to think, "of course I'll have plenty of time to make those."

Then reality hits and life gets in the way, and sometimes you simply do not have the time you need to create, even if you have the desire.

Which is the beauty of a collaborative swap. If someone drops out, others are not left partnerless. This is a group thing, so there are plenty of pages to go around, you send in a number, you get that number back.

But, in the meantime- I have spent time making a book cover for each person, whether they had time to make the pages or not…

So, as one kind swapper has done when she was forced to drop out, please #1- let me know so that I can keep my count correct and so that I'm not waiting on your pages.

And #2, consider purchasing the book that I have made for you. You can fill it with art at your leisure later on. It would be much appreciated by me, and I'm sure you wouldn't have joined if you didn't have interest in the subject and a desire to have a book in this theme, right?

A few more tips in swapping- please sign each set of pages, the new owners love to know who created something so special for them.

And remember, kindness matters. We all have different skill sets and tastes, but we all put in a lot of time and care to send our work out in the world to share.

So, please know that while every page that you get back might not be your very favorite thing in the whole world, a lot of love went into making it for you. And since it is a collaborative swap, hopefully there will be some favorites in your book too?

I try to put the pages together for each book with some flow in the colors and styles. I do my best, but please forgive me and understand that all were done by different individuals and that the pages will vary quite a bit.

Which is of course, exactly why we love doing swaps so much, right????

We want the variety of styles and to share our art with each other.

With that in mind, I hope everyone enjoys their books and appreciates the care that went into them.

I have tons of appreciation for the artwork, thought, time, resources, money, and creativity that each person puts into the parcels of art they entrust to me to turn into books.

As well as for the trust that is given to me, to give each treasure sent in, the proper respect and treatment it deserves.

Thank you, to all who are in this swap, and to those who have been in past swaps (and perhaps in some future ones?)