We’ve had such a tremendous response to the hybrid section of the Quarterly Newsletter that I have decided to open it up to anyone who would like to submit projects they have done using my fabric, digital, or paper. This is very exciting for me since I love seeing everyone’s creativity!

Our first deadline is for Issue No. 6 Dec 2011-Jan 2012, which we expect to release mid-January. Submission Forms are due by December 15, 2011. Please download the form and look over the project guidelines. You can also check out previous hybrid projects done by the Creative Team in Issue No. 5.

Deadlines for future issues will be published on the Newsletter Page (as well as the download forms).

We’d love to publish your fabulous fabric, paper, and digital work so submit!

Hugs! Carina

Layout by Carey Bridges

Layout by Laurel Flechtner

Layout by Susan Haglund

Layout by Stephanie Andre

Spraguefest is October 7-10, 2011 and there is a registration fee of $80 for classes and materials. I know there are going to be goodie bags (yum) and some fantastic teachers! This year we are in Las Vegas and  I’m sure that whatever happens in Vegas will stay in Vegas. That means a lot of late night craziness.  Oh alright, maybe some daytime craziness as well (I might have done a little dance in the street last year).

The second event is my brand new Paper and Digital Designer Workshop! Think elegant girls-trip-meets-intense-design-school. Yep, it’s going to be that kind of weekend!

We’ll be in Salt Lake City working on your paper and digital designer skills (and possibly your shopping skills, manicure skills, nunchuck skills…).  It’s going to be a super intense experience that will help you explore your creativity! We are staying at the Little America Hotel , who will also be catering nearly the entire event. The Little America is well known for being a luxurious Four Diamond Hotel and their menus and decor are impressive! Get ready for a glammed-up girls weekend that will also define your design career!

Registration for this event is capped at 20 people and is first-come, first serve.

Check out our workshops page to learn more and register!

I hope to be able to hang out with you at one or both of these events!

Mostly, I have been working on Art of Digital Design 2. While the class has been fully written and all the images drawn, it’s the videos that have been time consuming. And while students don’t make the exact paper set I make in class (the class is technique and theory based), I couldn’t help but show you what I’ve been up to. For those of you taking the class, get excited! (Or I’ll just get excited for you since I know what you will be up to!)

I’m going to keep plugging away at these videos!

In fabric news, I’m told that my three new lines are on route. My quarterly newsletter hasn’t gone out because we have been holding out for those lines! So June-July won’t get to you until August.

That’s the way we are rollin’ these days.

And by the way, WHERE is summer going? August is a couple of days away and I can feel myself going into shock. Hoping I can squeeze in a couple of visits to the pool and zoo this coming month.

Hugs-Carina

Today is the debut of my July collection Le Petite Paperie at Jessica Sprague.com. I feel like this is a line that sort of takes me back to my roots—super sophisticated, super grungy, and easy-to-work with.

(Layout by Susan Haglund)

I’m excited for you to see this collection revealed every week the rest of this month! Check out the release sale of 25% off on Mondays. Enjoy!

If you have stopped here first, you can find the beginning of this blog hop at Jessica’s blog.

Be sure and check out the awesome sale going on including 35% off all the digi shops and 20% off the classes.

Once you’ve gotten your freebie here, move on to STOP #11.

THIS FREEBIE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. THIS WILL BE IN THE JS SHOP JULY 11, 2011.

JessicaSprague.com is FOUR! To celebrate, they’re throwing a HUGE Birthday Bash & Summer Sale. From June 13-26, you can save 20% off of every self-paced class (think Illustrator, hehe), and 35% off of ALL digital products. In addition, grab all 27 episodes of Jessica’s amazing Photoshop Friday tutorials for just $1 each before they’re retired on June 26! As part of the celebration, starting on June 24, you can participate in an incredible 47-person blog hop (including a great freebie from me!), picking up a sweet digital freebie at each stop! Best of all, on June 26 Jessica will be making a special announcement of a brand new class coming up in July. We only put our site on sale two times a year, so don’t miss out on this GREAT savings opportunity! For all the info on the Summer Sale, Photoshop Fridays, blog hop, and the new class, just click here!

Off to finish off my new pattern! Be in next week with my freebie!

Hugs! Carina

Today must be “ABC” day because I also have a set of ABC Templates up in my digital scrapbooking shop. It’s 25% off (as all my new products are on Monday). I mention the templates because I recommend seeing my original blog post on these templates, which has a couple of yummy photos of the book I made.

Today I’m shipping out more of my new sewing pattern line. You’ll be able to purchase this line from your favorite online retailers pretty soon. We are hoping to have the list up by the end of this week. You should also see them at your local quilt shop within the month. Hip Hip Hooray!

I guess I am.

I’ve been dying to spill all the work that has been going on in my studio for the last month and a half. We have been busy, busy, busy putting together a line of children’s sewing patterns due out in the next month. Fingers crossed I will be able to officially let you in on all the good news, but for now, all I have are little peeks into the process.

Today we took photos for one of the patterns and the photo to the left is the little clutch that goes with the one of the dresses. Both of my girls have been playing with their versions today (Thankfully even the “sample” versions are still great play things for my girls.)

Somehow the photo shoot today has made me more excited than usual to “spill the beans” on this new venture.

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Here’s a few things I’ve learned so far about the wonder of putting together sewing patterns:

• * It takes a lot more time than I had any idea…by the time I have proofed it, Jamie’s proofed it, the printer’s proofed it, and then I have proofed it again…wow.
• * I spend an awful lot of time looking for props for the photo shoots.
• * Much longer than the actual photo shoot.
• * I learned that it’s much better just to ask on facebook and the “ask and ye shall receive” effect happens.
• * I combed antique shops for the eclectic tea set I put together for today’s photo shoot.
• * You can barely see it in the final photo.
• * I don’t care because I adore the silly set so much now.
• * Antique shops make me think of more patterns I wish I had time to make, but don’t at the moment. Sigh.
• * A flower shop has passed through my house.
• * I have completely enjoyed having that many fresh flowers in my home.
• * I have learned to easily tear apart my living room in 10 minutes or less and put it back together in the same amount of time.
• * Siri likes it when I do this because it means she can use her roller blades in the only open space in the house.
• * I can sew together samples faster than I had any idea I could at ridiculous hours into the night.
• * I’m having so much fun that I’ve having a hard time pulling myself away from my sewing machine.
• * Which means my house is a perpetual mess.
• * And my studio is much worse.

Excited to show you more very soon!

XOXO, Carina

P.S. All the fans on my facebook page will be getting a new mini digi kit (yet to be revealed) once we hit 120o fans. Have you joined the page yet?

This week, the new releases are items that have been released for $1 in the past. Why the re-do on the $1 kits? Because we have decided as a store that no new kits should be released on Wednesdays and that kits have to be at least 8 weeks old to hit the $1 Wednesday. However, I feel very committed to you folks who go out of your way to buy my new releases on Mondays. That’s part of the reason I put everything up for sale (25% off) on the day of the release and that’s also why I don’t release items on $1 Wednesday unless the product is AT LEAST 6 months old.

So if my Wednesdays look a little familiar for the next couple of months (or why I choose not to release anything at all), you’ll know why. Instead, I will choose to inundate you with fabulous digi products every Monday for 25% off! Oh ya, and we are starting a whole new round of Hybrid Projects for $1 on Fridays, so you can be looking for that!

And if you are wondering if these photos have anything to do with digital. I can tell you that indeed, they do not.  This happened to be my project of the day (finally hanging some artwork in my bedroom). I even did a tiny sketch of a peony to add to the set. Now if only I could get around to sewing curtains…

Don’t forget to comment on the Love Nest post at a chance to win a little fabric!