Karla's Cottage

Pretty girls

Pixie Pie and Sugarwings  had a mini fairy fest last night with some new sets of wings. Now, my little fairies have plenty of wings, but there is nothing like a spankin new pair to get the fun going.  Its kind of like when I have a room full of stuff to work with, but still get really excited about a flea market haul of new (old) supplies. 

The little girls weren't the only ones who got treats yesterday. I splurged and took all three little Dorkies to the groomer.  I usually cut their hair myself, but its easier to do outside in nice weather.  I hate cleaning up all the hair after trying to cut it indoors.

Since I was splurging on groomer fees, I went all out.  Twinks has painted toenails and a sparkly bow too.

It was so worth it.  Look at that face! She deserves a hair cut that no one makes fun of. When I do the styling myself, there isn't much style to it.  She is smart enough to act embarrassed about how funny she looks from my chopping. Last night, she was showing off, knowing she looked GOOD from the groomer's work!

Plus, she's going to be a mama, she needs some pampering. 

Thanks for all the Charlotte shopping!  I've been packing boxes for hours tonight. I think there are a couple left in the shop, not many. Man, those went fast. You'd have thought these girls had wings too, the way they flew out of here.

Thanks!

Sweet Charlotte

EDIT: If you came by the Boutique looking for Charlottes and they were sold out, I added some more, so most are stocked up again. There are no more tiny ones or the largest ones, thanks SO MUCH!

When I made this Valentine fairy from an old Frozen Charlotte, I decided I wanted MORE of these little girls to play with.

So, I found a source to get a few.... well, maybe 140 of them.

These are dug up near the old German factories where they were manufactured between 1850 and 1900.  Seconds were tossed in the heap, and are now being searched for in the ground like buried treasure!

I'm loving these cuties, even their dirty little bottoms.  (which could probably be soaked clean, but I like the old patina from the dirt)

Some will be used in making my centerpieces for the photo shoot on Monday.  But I sure don't need this many, so I have listed them in my Boutique.

They are $3.50 each, plus postage.  If you order mulitples, I'll send you a refund for the excess postage, because they sure don't weigh much. 

 

These little girls were fun to play with too.  I'm repainting the tiny plastic figures into Alices.

And I am still making Alice tags! Even though I have plenty now...

Is this one too obscure? Its Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

This is my favorite one, so far. Its the doormouse in a teapot, that I painted. The ribbon under the label (cut from a chapter title in the 1923 book) is a snip of old, red velvet.

That book from Beth was ideal for this tag swap! I just can't imagine doing all these without it. I've loved looking through the illustrations, reading tidbits to get ideas, then snipping out words here and there.

I've also used the text as a background for many of my tags.  And since it was such a thick book, I should have plenty of pages left to use  wrapping paper for the completed tag books when I package them up.

Even though my 75 limit was met,  (Yes, I know it was a 60, then a 70 limit first!), I'm still going to let a couple more people in if they want. I had #77 ask me to come in today. How could I say no, when I had 79 tag covers made, and I paid for plenty of little bottles and heart shaped keys to tie on the books? 

So, if you are on the fence, you still have time to get in.  Since I got a bit carried away in making the tags!  Two spaces are available.  Of course, when I get the 60th book put together, wrapped, packaged, and labeled, and still have almost 20 left to do, I might be kicking myself for this....No, I'll enjoy it! It is going to be SUCH FUN when all the tags start arriving at my door!! 

Edit: The swap is filled up, as far as I can go! Thanks so much to all of you who joined in from all over the world. I just can't wait to see them all pouring in!

Here is  a little something for you, if you are getting started on Easter projects.  Click on it to enlarge before printing!

And remember, you can win an Alice Tag making kit by leaving a comment.

Also, I'm joining in on Cindy's Show and Tell Friday.  Go visit her for links to other show and tells!

Bright and cheerful despite the snow

Thanks for all the shopping yesterday! Today I spent some time wrapping up things to mail, as well as finishing my Alice Tag Book Swap covers.

If you are in the swap- please photograph your tags and add them to the Flickr site before you send them out!

Also, people have been asking me about ribbons. The last time I did a tag book swap, I told people to leave the ribbons off, since I was tying the books together. But some people added them anyway, and I have to say, it improved the book. So ribbon them up, or not, either way is fine!

Even though my tags have been photo copied from my little painted Alice, no two will be alike, because I used markers and inks to gaudy each one up.

 I did say, "gaudy" didn't I?  Red hearts, blue swirls, and all sorts of foofery got added to each tag.  All 75 of them.  I made the "drink me" labels on Picnik, then printed them off in a postage stamp size and am in the process of gluing them all onto these cute little stoppered bottles.

Each and every one of the tags got a bit of blue lace from my Great Aunt Caroline's stash of pretty trims.  I think that I can set these all aside now till after the 10th when the tags pour in to be compiled into books.  It feels good to be ready ahead of the deadline!  I just couldn't rest until these were done.  Now, I can move on to some other projects that have been whispering in my ear...

This is the Alice altered book that started my obsession.  I have just listed it in the shop, if you are interested.

There for a while, I was on a book altering streak, thanks to Mary and the great old books that she gave to me.

For some reason, I've not gotten around to listing them. So, today I took the time to add a couple. 

As well as one of my altered Journal/Ledgers.  (These were featured in the last issue of Somerset Life)

But that doesn't put a dent in the piles of crap hand created treasures that I have around here that I need to try to hawk.   offer for sale in my shop.

I have to tell you, they are a lot more fun to make than to photograph, list online, and ship!  But, on the other hand, it really does feel good when I send one of my special creations out to someone who cares about it.  That is pretty nice.  Thanks!

I kept one of these ledgers for myself. It stays next to the computer, with all my passwords, codes, etc in it, as well as postage rates.

Postage rates are so hard for me to get right.  The website adds each item in increments.  So, I am trying to send refunds of postage when multiple purchases drive up the shipping too high.  I don't want you to get gauged by over priced shipping. 

This was a colorful posting, wasn't it?  These Alice tags sure have brightened up my studio, I'm not used to so much red. Its kind of nice, with all the snow outside (still!) to have some bright cheery tones indoors.

I'm not an orange person either, but sure love these happy little guys!  They got added to the boutique today too.

Now, I've got to run, only 20 minutes till the Postman makes his stop at my local grocery store. I need to get the packages there before he is gone.

Don't forget to leave a comment if you want to win your own Alice Tag Kit (photos in the previous post)

Oops, what about the February giveaway???

Where is my mind? Here it is February 22nd and I just realized that I never announced a giveaway for this month!  Maybe it has something to do with making 75 tag book covers, doing 4 watercolors of fairies,  having my fairy grand baby for about 5 days each week this month, or from helping my son move to a new home, or maybe just because I've had a rotten cold and am just not thinking straight.

Some months are busier than others, huh? But at least I didn't forget completely.  Since my mind is filled with making Alicey things right now, I thought maybe you would enjoy making some too. So, as a gift for this month, I'm offering a stash of supplies to make Alice tags.

Yep, I panicked and just swept up some stuff from my desk to give you.  But, hey, its good stuff!  You'll get 4 large tags, 2 small tags, a copy of one of the tags I was making up for the covers, 3 pages from the old book, some red gummed labels, blue flocked wallpaper (which reminds me of Alice's dress), a key with hearts, a heart charm, and some coordinating vintage trim (from my Great Aunt Caroline's stash).

Leave a comment to enter if you'd like to make your own Alice themed tags.

Today, I started to gather up a pile of stuff that had been accumulating on my "to sell" table.  I've neglected getting photos done. So, I told myself that I was going to photograph and LIST every bit of it.

Five hours later, and my shop is newly stocked! I even deleted the "sold" items to clean house a bit and make it easier to shop there.

This week, I won't have Sugarwings as many days as I have had recently.  I'll miss her, but I honestly need the time to get caught up.  I dropped my husband off at the airport today, and I am kind of looking forward to a week alone to be a whirling dervish of activity.

Because, not only do I have a watercolor to get done this week, I need to clean up my house and get ready for a little photo shoot.  My good buddy,Carol, who is a talented photographer,  will be helping me with it next Monday.

I'd like to come up with something really interesting for the dining room table that will work for the pictures, plus for a baby shower I am hosting the day after the pictures.  So, I'm hoping to get some "arty" time to create some centerpieces that will do double duty.

My little helper will be here for a couple days, so I'll still get my Sugarwings fix.  I couldn't go a whole week without her. She seems to be adjusting to her new house with her Daddy, and its looking pretty cute.  He was lucky to find a cool old house to rent, where he can have a massage therapy room for his business too.

 

I'll leave you with a few collages of the new goods in the shop.  And then, I need to get back to gluing tags.  Its exciting to have the whole evening ahead of me, no one to take care of, no dinner to fix, just me and my glue bottle and the TV.  I'm almost giddy.  I love my family and enjoy them when they are here, but I do treasure my studio time, and haven't gotten much lately.

Alice and mermaids and magical things

My Alice Tag Book Swap covers are coming along.  I did a small painting of Alice and of a door, then glued them onto a page from the Alice in Wonderland book printed in  1923 that Beth gave to me.  Then, I took it to the copy store. 

I hope that isn't considered cheating?  I'm doing some hand work to each copy. The door is cut open, and behind that, I'm gluing a small rose picture. To the back, I've added blue flocked wallpaper. 

For a title, I kept it simple, and just wrote "Alice" in blue metallic ink on red labels and glued those on.  How nice that Kathy

sent all those boxes of labels to me! Perfect timing, and just what I needed for these tags!

I've also ordered little bottles and heart shaped keys to tie onto each tag book.

Since I want a book to keep for myself, I need to make up some tags too. I think I have more than 6 done now, but its hard to stop! This is such a fun theme, the possibilities are endless. 

For this one, I painted the tag metallic gold, then painted the mushroom with watercolors, markers, and inks.  I cut the text from the book to make the "ground" for Alice to stand on. She, the pipe, and the caterpillar are cut from a colored page of the book.  I glued them down, then drew in the tube for the pipe. It was just too tiny to cut out.

But of all the tags I made, this is my favorite. Its very simple and flowery, and the illustration that I cut from the book was just so pretty as is, I didn't do much to it.  I simply glued it to flowery wallpaper and added trim, velvet millinery blooms, and a heart charm.

My plan was to limit the swap to 60, but I was hit with a ferocious bug of some kind and didn't move off the sofa for 24 hours, and in the meantime, the swap numbers grew. So, I've decided to keep it open a bit.  The More the Merrier!  I will allow in a few more, if you haven't joined yet.
 

I need to order more little stoppered bottles for the cover, I only had 60. Since the swap numbers passed 60 while I was zonked out,  I am ordering more.  And I'd be happy to have even more swappers join in.

Here are the details, if you want to make 6 tags for a book.

If you are already in the swap, please upload your photos to this Flickr group.

And if you need some wallpaper to complete your tags, I have added some really pretty ones to the shop.

I also listed some millinery tid bits. I don't waste anything! Hey, there isn't any more old stuff being made, what is left in the world is all there is. So, I use odd petals here and there, and thought I'd share some in case you like to do that too.

Because there is nothing like using the good stuff.  This bit of lace was just a remnant, but isn't it pretty tied to a package I sent out this week?  A little bit of something pretty, and old, magically transforms a  plain package into something special.

Have you seen this!!??? 
We get to be mermaid sirens! Kim is throwing another one of her fantastic art affairs.  And I have said to myself over and over that I really need to attend one of them, but the timing has never been right. Well, this time it was! I signed up today.  My pal, Carol is going with me, and I have my fingers crossed that Beth will too.

Anything is more fun if Beth comes along.  

I hope you'll be there too?  Info here, if you want to come!

Alice Tags

Do you know what the best part of craft day is? The food.  Well, not really, I guess. The hanging out part isn't bad either. We have such a good time, just chatting away about this and that while everyone works on what ever they brought to do that day. But I have to say, the food is great!

Beth made chicken salad. Marilyn made a fruit concoction that was sweet and decadent. Shawn brought beer cheese soup with home made croutons. And home made pretzels!  To pretend we were eating healthy before diving into a coconutty Italian cream cake, we crunched on a veggie tray that Mary brought.

No, Alice is not a zombie. I know it looks like her brains are missing... once the ribbon is tied on this tag, it won't seem as gruesome.

Today, I worked on my 6 tags for the swap. I always do a few extra just in case I count badly or something else goes wrong. 

Mary brought gold gesso to play with, and I had fun using it on some of the tags.  That and I used some red paint to make hearts that symbolize the Red Queen.

For most of the tags that I did today, I used the text from the old book that Beth had given me.  To spiff up the black and white illustrations, I used markers, inks, and watercolor.

And of course, I can't make tags and not use vintage wallpaper!  Since one of the stories in the book is about the cards painting the white roses red, I figured that I'd use plenty of my red rose wallpaper.

I'm also responsible for the covers of all the books, so I got a start on those too.

The swap isn't full yet, I've got space for about 60 total. That is how many little tiny bottle charms I ordered. Those will be tied to the books with the words "Drink Me" written on them.

If you'd like to join us in this tag book swap, the info is Here

Although, since I am the one making all the covers, I wonder why I am having such a high number of people allowed in??? I might just be kicking myself about when I start to make number 50 or so. Nah, I'll be glad I did it, this is fun!  

Before everyone got here, I took some wallpaper photos and added a few to the Boutique. My wish is to get more listed tomorrow.... but I have Sugarwings all afternoon, that that could be a pipe dream. 

Little romantic gestures

Did you get roses for Valentine's Day?  If not, my boutique is stocked up with new (old of course!) millinery.

We had a nice day. For us, Valentines is a celebration of the anniversary of my husband adopting our boys, so we do a family dinner at a favorite restaurant with gifts to pass out to everyone. We might have been the only group seated at the romantic Italian restaurant filled with tables of couples! 

Earlier in the day, I pampered my husband for the holiday, starting with a heart shaped breakfast.

Then, I made up a heart healthy snack mix of dried blueberries, pecans, and chocolate yogurt raisins and left it by his remote control, knowing he'd be happily surprised when he sat down to take a break and watch TV in the afternoon.

When you've been married for almost 30 years, the little gestures are even more important than when you are newlyweds. And small kindnesses like these are what keep you married for 30 years!  I much prefer a thoughtful little gesture to something flashy and expensive. And I think he does too.

 

You can still enter the Alice Tag Book Swap, if you are interested.  Details here.

The more the merrier! 

I need to run, I'm having a big craft day, tonight and again tomorrow in my studio, so need to get my table cleared off.  Its about a foot deep in junk at the moment.

But before I go, I want to thank you for all the well wishes for my 700th post and 3rd anniversary.  Oh, and I need to announce the winner of the Grumpy Fairy book.

It goes to Suzanne Duda. 

Wishing the Happiest of Valentine's Days to You!!

Happy Valentine's Day! Today is not only my 3rd blog anniversary, it is also my 700th post!  What are the odds that would happen??? So of course, I am celebrating with a giveaway.  Today is the last day to enter to win a copy of my Grumpy Fairy book

This little painting is for Sherry.  She has EIGHT grand daughters and has asked me to paint them each as a fairy, like I did for Sugarwings in the Grumpy Fairy book.  I've had a lot of request for doing this, but have always turned them down.  Now, I think I am ready to take on some commissions....

To see if I really wanted to go into the fairy painting biz, I did a few little sprite cartoons of some of my friend's children.

Of course, these will not be exact portraits, cartoon is the key word here.  I have plans for some vintage wallpaper covered mats. When I have it all done and ready to mail, I'll show you the photos I worked from and the finished projects. I'll be interested to see what the moms say.  I'll be relying on their feed back to see if I will offer this service in my Boutique. What do you think? Is there a market for this?

Each is a mix of ink, watercolor, acrylic, and glitter. There had to be glitter!

My little Sugarwings has been doing some artwork too.  She needed to make 16 Valentines for school, so I turned her loose with my red and pink paints and some glitter gel.  She was enjoying the job, but was even more excited to think about the cards her friends were making for her.  Their party is Monday after Valentine's, which is lucky, because she was sick on Friday.

Speaking of lucky, I've been getting some wonderful gifts in the mail! An envelope full of vintage die cuts came from Ruth, (who is one of the participants in our Alice Tag Book Swap- its not too late to enter if you want to join us!)

This giant selection of red gummed labels came from Kathy, along with the cute heart collage and the round stacking boxes. I can't wait to gaudy up those babies.

I think that these labels will come in very handy on my Alice swap tags.  

Then, I got a package from Sue

that was filled to the top with pretty papers for me and for Sugarwings! Along with lots of fun tid bits for my fairy grand baby to craft with, stickers, tags, and even sticky paper to make your own stickers with.  She used some over the painted Valentines she made for school.

There was a set of fairy wings for a doll too!  Sweet, huh?

But that is not all! My pal, Tiffany sent a beautiful card from one of her photos and inside it was this Glenda bookmark.  Just because.  And Jenn sent a cute Valentine, which was a sweet surprise.  

And I can't forget to mention the Valentine calendar that my Sissy sent for all of us to copy and use (previous post).  I ended up putting a copy in my scrapbook today, but instead of a photo, I added two columns clipped out of the newspaper this week. They are both written by Lori Carson, who was the host for the Romantic Decorating Tips I did for the local news station (here and here). She used the tips for her column too, and gave credit to my blog.

Yep, I'm pretty lucky.  Thank you to everyone who comes by my blog to keep me company and to all the great blog friends that I've met.  Thank you for 3 years of fun. My blog means a lot to me, and so does your company.

I hope you'll continue keeping me company as I blather on in the future!

A Valentine Calendar for you to print

How beautiful is this???? My Sissy made it for you.  Click on the image to save it and print it.  I am going to put a copy of it in my photo album and use it as a mat for a picture of Sugarwings in her Valentine dress.

My little fairy baby has an ear infection and fever, so we are having a cuddly movie day together, watching  her buddies, Pooh, Nemo, and of course, Alice In Wonderland.  I need to study up on that one to get ready for the big swap-a-roo.

The swap is still open, details in the previous post, just scroll down. We have about 30 people since yesterday!  The more the merrier, I hope you join too.

And please remember you still have time to enter the drawing for a Grumpy Fairy book that I am giving away to celebrate 700 posts and a 3 year anniversary. (comment on any post to enter)

How cool that they are going to be occurring on the SAME POST!  You can't plan those sort of things, can you?

Gotta run, there is a tiny little nose that needs help blowing.

Guidelines for the Alice Tag Book Swap

Guidelines for the Alice Tag Book Swap

For this swap, you will create 6 tags with the theme of "Alice". Your tags can be inspired by Wonderland or Looking Glass. Please use approximately 4-1/2" by 2-1/2" tags.  You don't have to be exact, but do try to be in that ballpark so that your tags will fit well with the books.  An inch or so either way will work, because variety is nice.   

Also, feel free to cut your tag out of any material you want to use.  You DO NOT have to use a pre-made shipping tag.   You may fabricate your own from fabric, metal, chipboard, etc.  You have the option of finishing both sides of the tags as elaborate as you'd like to.  Or leaving the back plain, its up to you.

PLEASE SIGN YOUR TAG!  If you have a blog, please include the address. But you DO NOT HAVE TO BE A BLOGGER TO JOIN IN.

Once the tags arrive at my cottage, I will sort them into piles that look cute together and assemble the books from 6 different tags, plus add a cover that I have made.  You might receive your own tag back in the book you get.  

Please have your 6 tags to me by March 10th.  Along with your tags, please send $6 for postage and supplies. Also include your address written onto a label for the the package.  It doesn't have to be a sticky label, a piece of paper I can tape down is fine.

If you have a blog, here is a button you can add.

If you'd like some vintage Alice materials for your tags, please click on these pictures and pages to enlarge them before printing them off to use.

Sign up by email only, not through comments.  [email protected]

Please include your name, email, and blog address, if you have one.