Karla's Cottage

Valentine celebrations and a giveaway

This week Sugarwings and I threw a little Valentine making party for our friends. I set out lots of supplies for card making and for decorating gift boxes, plus had a few examples for ideas. The treat cabinet was filled up, and we made sure to have some healthy after school snacks out too, to make the parents happy as well as the kids.

One of my examples was a pop up card, with instructions next to a couple of finished ones. Its a very simple version, that even the kids could do.  Here are the instructions, if you want to whip one up. The part you can't read, behind the pop up just says to make sure not to glue the paper you cover the outside of the card with to the part that folds up.

The kids all seemed to get into the projects and worked away on them for a couple of hours. Its good to see little ones be creative and stick to something like that, to not have to get up and run around or go play with toys. It was refreshing to see them all involved with making their boxes and exploring all the different supplies there was to dig into.

They all kept me pretty busy, I didn't really get to sit down to make something myself. But before the group arrived, I had made up these.  Isn't the chalk board top perfect for writing a sweet note to your Valentine to read before opening it up to see the treats inside?

Its been a while since I've done a giveaway.  And I was reminded while reading Beth's blog that our 5 year anniversary is here!  Hers was the 9th, mine is actually on Valentine's Day itself.

Thanks again, Beth, for getting me started!!!

So it seems appropriate for me to offer a Valentine to you as a giveaway prize to celebrate!

Just leave a comment on this post, and I'll draw a name Monday, for this sweet little giveaway.

And if you are still cutting, pasting, and creating your own valentines, here is the back cover of that candy box I have on my dining table.  A friend asked to see a close up of it, to see if the music was acutally playable.  So, I'm posting it here for her. Its a cool graphic, and if you wanted to use it in your art, you can click on this to open in a larger window, save it to your computer, print it and cut out the heart. 

That music note, heart shaped border is a pretty one to use.  I might try to make something out if it myself.

Only 4 more days till Valentine's Day!  I hope you have some sweetness planned for your holiday too.

Pretty, pretty, pretty, I love Kim's house! plus a Boutique sale and a giveaway

Everything at Kim's was pure perfection, she has major decor, design, and detail skills.

And the ladies who came to spend the day were such fun!  I hope they enjoyed my two classes as much as I enjoyed sharing the tips with them.

There were gifts galore too. Kim gave us all the table decorations she used to foof our seats, I already have these wings on display in my own holiday decor.

And the generous attendees all included me in their swaps, even though I didn't have time to participate.  (photos to come, you'll be impressed with their work!)

Kim's house was sooooo pretty. I said that word so many times, that I sounded like a broken record.  Or a dimwit with a pitiful vocabulary.

Can you blame me? Pretty was everywhere.

Kim was attempting to show me around when I arrived, when I caught a glimpse of her studio through the open doorway and I was magnetically pulled into the prettiness of the room, with no hope of stopping myself. I just had to explore that space.

But it wasn't just the studio.  The whole house is that great.  This is the bedroom that Jessi and I shared, Kim's daughter, Kate, gave up her room for the whole weekend.

My main project was a wire wrapped wreath, with lace leaves and a nesting dove.   I brought a table full of "extras" for everyone to play with. Ribbons, lace, beads,glitters, etc.   When I teach a class,  I think its only fair to include everything you need in the kits.

But- its good to have an option to personalize the piece and have some bonus goodies to dig through.

Don't we all love to dig? 

Everyone's project was unique, no two just the same. Just the way I like it!

We also played with paint, and I explained some of the techniques for short cut painting tips that are on the side bar of my blog. I'll have some pictures of that later, as well as a bigger sample of the work. Kim and I painted her nightstands using the same steps that we did on the small wooden boxes that I brought for the class.

When I arrived, she had a pristine, newly painted, chalk board door.

And I had the honors of supplying its first drawing.

Kate has tamed a feral cat and it adores her.  So, my thought was to add the kitty to the picture, and have it play with the ribbons dangling from the wreath that we were making that day.

I have more photos to share after Christmas, but for now, I really need to get shopping and wrapping! Sugarwings has been ill since I got home and a lot of my time has gone to snuggling instead of prepping for the big event this weekend.  I hope Santa can find my chimney, because no one in this house should count on gifts from me.... I'm not prepared!

Speaking of gifts- don't forget that you have till Christmas to win a special, surprise gift from me. Any comment this week, any post counts.

Also, if you have Christmas gift cash to buy your self a gift, come on by the Boutique. Everything is 30% off if you use  THIS LINK.

The only catch is, that I won't be doing any mailing for a few days.  You might not recieve your box till after New Years.

And if you click on the website directly, you can't get the sale price, its only available from THIS LINK

When you fill your shopping cart, you need to type in the words-  happyholidays   - then hit "recalculate" to get the special price. Its simple to do.

Merry Christmas!

Gifts and Giveaways and free images, Happy Happy Holidays!

Last week, friends came by to help me practice my "Song of the Season" class that I am teaching at Kim's. As a thanks, and a Happy Holiday, I made up a little goodie bag for each of them.

These great scented candles from Bath and Bodyworks were on sale for 5 or 6 dollars, I can't remember, but it was a very good deal, so I bought a bagful to pass out this season.  Each one got foofed up for the person it was going to.  My pal, Angie loves pink roses as much as I do, so hers is topped with a circle of my favorite wallpaper in the world, and I wrapped a coordinating old, gold striped paper around it, tied it with a pink bow and added a millinery rose and a bit of sparkle.

Beth and Karla are both accountants, so their candles were decked out with pages snipped from a 1910  math book.

  A bit of glue, a scrap of paper, and some foof, and they were quickly personalized to suit the giftees. 

(the scent I chose was Vanilla Peppermint, and it reminds me of the happy evenings Sugarwings and I have spent with our cocoa  parties by the Christmas tree.  We like to stir the hot milk with candy canes, and then either add a spoonful of shaved chocolate, or a squeeze of vanilla agave syrup to our cups)

There is still another gift for Beth, but I didn't have it ready for her that day. She brought a Christmas present for me, and of course, I did NOT wait till I had one for her before I opened this. It was wrapped way too pretty. And even if I did pretend to be polite and wait, I'd have opened it as soon as she left anyway, then would have had to scramble to re-wrap it for when I had a gift ready for her and we could officially trade.

Her present was layers upon layers of gifts!  A tattered old corsage and a hand made, ruffled scarf as a bow topped it all off.  Under that, old wallpaper in gray and sage (I've already made something with a scrap of it, too).

  Inside were two books, one was a 2012 planner done by local talent, Greg Johnson.I've never owned one before, but have always wanted one of his annual creations.  I stole this photo from my friend, Debbie, she sells them in her Curious Sofa shop.  You can get one for yourself, here

The other book is a flower child book from 1910.  In the cover it says:

"To every child-flower that blooms within the curious garden that we call home, this little book is lovingly dedicated"

Its going to be a favorite of Sugarwings and I! Way too nice to cut up and use for projects, but I'll be scanning and using the pages, for sure.

These pages are for you. Just click to open in a larger size, save to the computer from that window, and print.

My dear friend, Shanna brought this beauty to me. She is a stained glass artist and makes wonderful Christmas ornies. My tree is full of her creations. This one is a new design, a tussy mussy, with hand painted enamel designs.

Now some more gifts for you!  I picked three names from the comments this last week, and they have a choice of a dress form class or a cuff class online.

The winners are:

1-Debbie Jullirat

2-Wanda Contrears

3-Nancy Thompson

Will the 3 of you please email me to get the info for the tutorials?

  Since its Christmas and I love making and giving presents as much as I love getting them, I'll do another giveaway too.

Between now and Christmas, leave a comment and I'll draw a name to win a surprise prize.

 

Holiday French Ephemera labels, free images for you

 

 Holiday decor is an ongoing thing around here. I thought I was done, and was going simple this year... but every day it seems like I think of "one more little thing" that I want to do.

We spend more time in the kitchen than anywhere else, now that it is all remodeled.  Its homey and a great gathering place for the whole family. I've got a table top tree in there on the buffet, and the big tree in the living room is placed so that you see it from the dining table.

But the rest of the kitchen looked like it could  be any old day of the year.

So, I made up some quickie labels using some French images I got from my pal, Gwen of Bottoms Up.  They were chocolate cards, I digitally removed the words and added my own holiday themed ones, and then removed the colors and tinted them all slightly neutral.

I always print my images onto matt photo paper, the results are much prettier than just copy or laser paper. 

The backs got a quick smear of glue stick, and the cut out labels were then pressed onto my everyday cannisters.  You have probably heard me complain about glue sticks in the past, the glue never lasts. Which is perfect for this, because its only a temporary look. 

And yes, if I was really going all out and doing it right, I'd empty the canisters and fill them with candy canes, cookies, ornaments and other holiday foof. But no, this was a very easy, very quick project just to add a vintage and Christmassy feel to this corner.  In January, I'll just take a soapy, hot sponge and wipe the glue away, and with little fuss and bother it will all be back to normal.

If only putting away the tree was that simple!

 

In the spirit of the holiday, I'm also giving away some tutorials.  Please mention in your comment if you are interested in one or the other of these.

Oh, and by the way, I'm still adding more and more trees to the Etsy site, and there are still a few in the Boutique.

Its nice to see that they are still so popular, since I enjoy making them so much.  I've had to replenish the stock a few times, but it is getting late in the year, so probably won't be adding any more after this. Thanks so much for shopping with me!

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Here are the images that I used for my canisters.  Just click on the image to open it in a larger size before you save it to your computer to print it.  Some of the edges are cut off, but that didn't bother me, and it doesn't really show once they are all cut out.

A Christmas Angel mini dress form

One of my favorite things about the mini dress forms that I've been making all year, is the different ways to dress them up.

This one is an angel, to set out for Christmas.

She wasn't always an angel. She started out as just one of the gals that I'd made as an example for the online class.

But I saw these premade, white feather, wings at Hobby Lobby (half price this week, too) and picked up a pair.

I added some glitter to the body, and tinsel to the skirt, then slapped the wings on, and ta-dah!  A holiday angel.

 

 

And if you'd like to win a dress form tutorial, please mention in your comment that you are interested. Or if you'd rather have a cuff one, please let me know. In the spirit of the holiday, I'll be giving away three more classes this week!

 

A tree top Christmas Party with Little Edy and a giveaway

My new, white Christmas tree is up and ready to be decorated!  I'll be away for 2 weekends in Dec. and I am a little sad about missing out on tree time.   I wanted plenty of time to enjoy the holiday decor, so my plan is to have the  halls decked before Thanksgiving. But I needed a new topper, since I  have two trees this year and plan on using my other tree in the newly remodelled kitchen this year.

While tidying up Sugarwing's room, I came across this little doll who had seen much better days. Either my fairy grand baby has the same tendencies to hang onto things that need refurbished, or she is the cause of the need for refurbishment...

This doll kind of has a Little Edy/Grey Gardens look about her, doesn't she?

The first thing I did was repaint her eyes and brows.

Then, I popped her into a party hat with the point cut off.  At this point she doesn't look like she is going to any kind of party I want to attend.  But there is still work to be done.

The party hat is a perfect skirt base for her, its sturdy and I can slide it right over the top of the tree.

 I wanted a halo that stood up from her head, so I made a wire ring to hold it.  The ring fits around her noggin, and was glued into place before gluing yarn hair over it.  The halo itself is a vintage, circle, rhinestone brooch.

To keep the halo standing straight up, I glopped on a bunch of glue where it is wrapped with the wire. That needed covered up, so I added a white millinery bloom over the glue blob.

Her dress is made up of vintage papers, trims, and lace that I glued to her body and the party hat, no sewing for me. The wings are feathers and flocked wallpaper, and she is decked out in some millinery and jewels.

When she heads up to the top of the tree, I'll get a photo of her in her new home.  That is if I ever get caught up and get that tree decorated...  Right now, its up, the lights are on and its naked as a jaybird.  But still festive!  I'm happy just to have it there waiting for me.   I've wanted a white tree for the past few years, my old one turned yellow and I hadn't found a reasonable priced one to replace it with.

The yellow was not a good "patina-ed with age look" it was a "did a dog pee on your tree?" look.  It had to go. 

My life is full of white trees right now. I've been bleaching and glittering more batches of bottle brush trees this week.  I thought I had plenty of them done, but needed another couple of sinkfuls to fill some special orders.  Plus, I like to have plenty to play with and decorate myself too!

 

Can you have too many? So far, the answer is no, and I seem to have a LOT of them.

And finally, I made up some cuff bracelet kits.

All filled with lacey, velvety, vintagey goodies.

These are priced separate from my Cuff Tutorial. Previous kits included the price of the online lesson, but with these kits, you need to either purchase the $6 class separately or use put them together in your own way. The kits come with the aluminum blanks and all the trims and bits you need to make a bracelet according to my directions in the class.

There are also plain cuffs for sale for you to use if you don't want a whole kit.

They are stocked in the Boutique in two sizes, 1 inch and 1-1/2 inch. 

I hope you have a happy holiday weekend planned.  We are going all local/free range/ organic this year, and even roasting our own pumpkin to make the pies. I've never done that before, so I might need to have a frozen pie as a back up... If you have any tips, please let me know!

Happy Thanksgiving!

PS- as a Thanksgiving treat (because I'm thankful you read my blog and buy my stuff and I can pretend this is a real job) I'll give away 2 Cuff Tutorials.  Please leave a comment letting me know if you are interested. 

ps- Have you visited Amy? She makes the best stuff from nothing.  She is having a link party and I joined it today.

Craft Day fun and still time to enter the Craft Day Giveaway

 

Tuesday, we had another craft day. Lately we've been pretty good about keeping up with these. I'm so glad, because they mean a lot to me.  This last one was really fun, all of us seemed to be in a snarky mood and we laughed all day.

Beth had this post card with her, and it made me laugh because it suited my mood that day. As an artist, I work alone a lot, and it can be lonesome. Craft days are such a great break from the quiet "good girl" days of slogging away and working alone. Its nice to have a day with buddies when we can crack jokes and be a little rude.

Beth also brought some goodies for our Craft Day Club giveaway.  We'll draw a name for the winner on our next craft day, on the 20th.

Leave a comment here if you want a chance to win.

Mary completed a record number of glue book pages last Tuesday.  This was my fave.

Her glue book swap is still open, by the way.

Beth worked on this embroidered bag.

The Other Karla did some stitch work too.

While I worked on my two dozen paper mache mushrooms. These are not quite done, I'll have some photos of the finished product soon.

But the prettiest thing all day?  Beth's flirty little feathers. She just came from the hairdresser and had some pink feathers woven into her hair.

 

Just Because

One of my recent flea market purchases was a big box of lace.  Good lace, lots of  the the netting style that I love, but mostly scraps. Still, it was only ten bucks, and I love scraps. I prefer scraps. 

I added strips of a variety of the laces to some old table cloth material and made another pillow case for my bedroom redo.

And I have been covering old mail bags with the scraps too.

 

This one has a little pocket on it. 

I'm a crookedy sewer. But I kinda like that look.  Like I prefer scraps to rolls of lace.

And I love the way this flower is wonderfully tattered. Perfectly imperfect.

Not that my sewing is anywhere near perfect, oh my.  Its a struggle. But I keep doing it.

These bags are in my Boutique now. I actually had a spare moment to do it after all the kitchen packing got done.  I've had Sugarwings a couple of "bonus" days this week too, so am extra proud of myself for getting something added to the shop!!! 

Something that took my mind off the drudgery of packing was the mail.  A couple of sweet gifts arrived recently.  This book is from one of our Birdsong Tag Book swappers, Sue Emmerson.  She sent it to Sugarwings all the way from Australia.   Its a sweet story about a little koala bear who is adored by her mommy, but then, the mommy has a lot of babies and is busy with them, so the little bear decides to win a big contest to win her mommy's love.  What she finds out is that her mom really loves her  so much, and doesn't care if she wins or loses.

Which was good for Sugarwings right now. Her mom just started nursing school and is super busy, and she misses her. But she knows that no matter what her mom is busy with, she is always loved.

This gift came from my pal, Laurie, just because. Don't you love 'just because' gifts?  She said she saw it and thought of me, inside is a fairy medallion, that is every bit as wonderful as this beautiful wrapping she did.

The last time Beth and I shopped together, I bought a few tea towels at an estate sale.  I never turn down a $1 tea towel, you can't even pick a hand towel up at Walmart for that price, and of course they never look this good.

Beth told me not to buy more, she had a stack of them in her basement. So, last craft day, she brought a big bag full of towels and napkins too.  I feel like I need to throw a dinner party to use the napkins! (but I don't have much of a kitchen right now)

ps-If you'd like a gift too, sign up for our Craft Day Giveaway drawing, please leave a comment on that post.

You'll get goodies from Beth, Mary and I.

Also, please forgive me for not answering comments right now, our remodelling project just started!

Craft Day Giveaway

A while back, at Craft Day, Beth mentioned a round robin swap she planned with Lisa and asked if I'd be interested in joining.  I said I didn't have time, but couldn't stop myself from joining anyway.  Its a year long adventure, and only involves making one page a month and sending it on. That isn't too big of a commitment unless you consider the postage. By the time the books are near the end, they could get pretty heavy, and we are sending it around a lot. Only four people are in it, Beth, Lisa, and Sandra, so it goes back and forth a lot. 

But worth it. Even though I am cheap, and know that the postage will end up being at least 50 bucks for me by the time I am done.  It won't seem that bad, because it will be a little bit at a time! Not $50 at once.

The first month, we do our own cover and one page to get our book started. It goes to the next person who adds a page and then... it confuses me, but Beth is good at keeping me on track and made up an intricate schedule for us to all follow.

The theme is "Her Life In Stitches"  Well, I don't sew much, all the rest of the group are good with textiles.  I thought, maybe I could make a joke book, and have everyone in stitches, laughing...

But then, I thought, no, I'll  dedicate it to my mom and honor all that she taught me. She was an excellent seamstress and while I did not inherit those skills, she taught me a way of looking at things and knowing how to figure out how something is made, step by step. And to have a creative mind while doing it.

I cut the title "Home Arts" out of an 1890s magazine and glued it onto my cover, since I think that suits the topic.  My book is beyond sewing, and stitches, but is about the love of home, making stuff, and the art of making a house a creative home.

Beth, Mary, the other Karla and I have been trying to get together more regularly for craft days.  We each have our own projects to do, and it just seems like the work goes so smoothly when you can chat and be with friends. Its always ultra casual, some days, I barely kick stuff out of the way so they can get to the table. I know they don't expect a red carpet from me, they are coming to share ideas, gossip and our latest projects, not judge my housekeeping,(or lack of).

Sometimes we share more.  Mary brought a stack of old images the other day and let us chose a few. While going through them, I thought about how much fun the whole craft day experience is, and how much it meant to me to have such low maintenance friends, with so much in common. We all drool over the old supplies and half the fun of the day is looking at each others stuff. Everyone likes to share tidbits here and there also. Tips, tools, and actual bits of scrap get passed around.

I thought you might enjoy being a part of it too, and would like involved with the sharing. So, I asked Mary if I could have a stack of her images to pass along.  She was generous with them and gave me a good pile. I wrapped up a selection of them with velvet ribbon and added a few millinery blossoms from myself. Beth says she'll throw in a treat from her supply stash too.  I'll let you know what it is when I get it from her. But you know she has good stuff!

(oh, and in case you didn't know it, Mary Queen of Glue Books, is hosting a glue book swap)

 
Here is one of the images from Mary's ephemera stash, and you don't have to do anything at all to get it. Just click on it, open in a larger window and save it to your computer. It will be all pixely if you try to print it as is, so please do open the larger version.

If you'd like to win our Craft Day Giveaway, please leave a comment on this post.  Deadline is Tuesday Sept. 20. 

I'll leave you with some pictures of the newest listings in the Boutique.  Lots of autumn toned millinery!

 

Who is this woman???

Can you guess who this photo is of?? If you guessed Karla Nathan, I just don't know if you are right or not.

Someone named Carla Ross, on Facebook, says it is her. She is using it as her profile picture. I'm a bit freaked out about the whole thing. I reported it to Facebook, and heard nothing back. I left her quite a few messages, asking her to remove it, and heard nothing back.

Yep, I'm more than a bit freaked out about it.

I've changed my profile photo to this one, and changed my password too.  Honestly, I don't think there is much more I can do. Except hope that Carla Ross is just camera shy and borrowed a photo, and that she isn't really some weird, creepy, guy out to steal identities.

Now. onto a much more pleasant, happy subject- Romantic Homes has a blurb about my wallpaper obsession collection on page 26-27.

This is one of the photos they used. I was squeamish about doing my own photos for them, since I am not a real photographer, I'm just a picture taker.  My camera is a nice one (and I LOVE it), but not a great one, and I don't use big girl editing like photoshop, just picnik.  I'm good enough for blog pictures and scrapbooks of fairy babies, so was really worried about doing a magazine shoot, even a mini one.

(that bench was built by my son, from a Victorian headboard that I painted)

I'm still plugging away on the tag book covers. My God, what is wrong with me, that I offered to make 135 covers?????????????????  By the way, the swap is at full capacity now, thank you to those who joined.

 
  I promise I am not really cursing you all as I glue trim onto yet another in the never diminishing pile of tags. They will get done.  I know they will.  I can do it.  right?

That is, if I live through this weekend... I am babysitting the tiniest fairy grand baby for the first time.

 For 3 days while her parents are teaching their zen and energy stuff at some festival.  I will have Sugarwings too, and she is a full time handful when she is here, so it could be exciting.  Did I mention that the baby is still breast feeding and has never been without her mommy over night?

Maybe I will have to use this as my new facebook picture after doing 135 tag covers and watching the girls for the weekend.  I'm feeling hagard just thinking about it.

Honestly, it will be a good experience for us to have both girls together.  And we need to spend more time with our littlest one, she hasn't been over as much.  I remember lots of late nigths cuddling baby Sugarwings and rocking her when she couldn't sleep. This will be my first shot at it with her sis-star.

Wish me luck!!!!!!

Oh, I almost forgot- the winner of the dress form tutorial is

Kim Caldwell

That was such an easy giveaway, I think I'll do it again!

Leave a comment if you want a chance to win.

I'f you've already purchased the $15 online class, and you win the drawing, I'll send you a kit. ( I really do have kits made,  I simply have not photographed and listed them yet. It has been crazy around here.)