This is the 10th Stop on the Jessica Sprague Bloghop Freebie!

June 24, 2011 by carina 75 Comments

Thanks for making it to my stop on the Jessica Sprague Birthday Party Bloghop! Just click on the image below to get your freebie for me that coordinates with all the other designers at JS!

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.

Free Digital Scrapbooking Kits

March 16, 2011 by carina 3 Comments

I have a couple of new free kits that I am giving away to everyone. I love digital scrapbooking, and I haven’t had a lot of time to work on layouts recently! Making these new kits did a world of good for me as I “shabbied” paper to my heart’s content.

Spring Fling is the kit I am giving away to everyone who is part of the Facebook CG Page. Join up and when we hit 1200, I am going to send it to everyone’s inboxes. After that, it will go on sale at Jessica Sprague with the rest of my digital products.

My second kit coordinates perfectly with this Spring Fling kit. It’s called Hippity Hop (do you see the springtime theme going on here?) for the little bunny that made it into the papers.

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You can download this kit for free at my upcoming Designer Sale at Jessica Sprague. The sale and free kit will be available from March 25- 27 (Friday through Sunday).

Okay, listen to how good this sale is…All of my products will be 25% off, my Hybrid Projects will be $1, and my Desktop Calendar class will be 40% off! And then of course, you ought to get on and download this happy little free kit!

Hope you all have a chance to download these kits! I loved making them and making myself a couple of layouts for my scrapbooks (that seem to always be incomplete).

Will be around to blog soon!

XOXO-Carina

Love Nest Flag Quilt – Free Download

February 3, 2011 by carina 11 Comments

After a weekend of quilting, I finally have the Love Nest™ Flag Quilt instructions for you! It’s a such a beautiful quilt (if I do say so myself) and the flags make it fun and modern. I’ll be making a second one this weekend (both girls want one). In fact, Siri liked it so much that she stole it off of Flissa’s bed once the 3-year-old had fallen asleep. Sneaky!

All of the patterns and measurements for this quilt is included in the pattern. Happy Quilting!

XOXO-Carina

Partridge Bird Pattern – Free Download

December 14, 2010 by carina 2 Comments

As promised, here is my cute partridge birdie pattern. I’ve got these little darlings sprinkled all over my Christmas tree this year, but I see a future for these birds in other rooms in my house. And not just in felt. Oh no. These birdies will be perfectly pretty in fabric…

Pattern and instructions can be downloaded below! Happy sewing!

XOXO-Carina

Reversible Ballet Bag Tutorial

November 18, 2010 by carina 6 Comments

I woke up this morning and ached for a bit of sewing. Just a little. I just wanted a quick little project that would brighten my two little girls’ day. Here’s what I came up with:

Using the samples I have from Love Nest™ (due out Jan 2011), I made both Siri and Flissa a reversible ballet bag. It was ever so easy and would also make the perfect church handbag, travel bag, goodie bag,… (you get the idea).

You don’t need much fabric (remember, all I have are tiny samples). It does help to have two fun coordinating fabrics so that you can flip the bag inside out for a little change-a-roo.

When I say “simple” I really mean it. You basically need 4 pieces of fabric (a piece for the outside, a piece for the inside, and two straps). My girls love it and I loved getting in a little project this morning.

Here are my little notes if you want to make this bag with a few extra pieces of fabric you have lying around your house:

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Here’s a picture of the birdie-brown bag reversed out (the blue flower calico print) and a peek into Flissa’s heart-circle baggie.

I think I counted 10 straight lines to sew to make this bag. In the words of Ina, “How easy was that?”

XOXO-Carina

Coquette Quilt-Free Pattern

October 28, 2010 by carina 3 Comments

It’s taken me a little longer than I wanted it to, but here it is! Instructions for putting together the Coquette™ Quilt. It’s meant for the beginner to intermediate quilter. I love this quilt because it is very forgiving for us newbie quilters. None of the seams line up and all of the blocks are nice and big.

The final patchwork is very pretty and sweet without being pink. Not that there won’t be a lot of pink in the future….

I have to admit that this is the first big quilt I’ve made. I desperately have been wanting to make a queen-sized quilt for my own bed and have been waiting for Coquette™ to come along.

What a little flirt of a quilt! The two of us snuggle very happily now as I watch Glee or Project Runway (I’m so excited about tomorrow’s finale!)

Of course, you can mix and match fabrics (especially if you are having trouble finding Coquette™ at a local quilt shop near you). It’s a very easy patchwork with fairly large blocks.

Download the instructions for this quilt below. I hope you have as much fun with it as I did!

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Haunted Giveaway Announced and Freebie!

October 11, 2010 by carina

I’m hopping on tonight to announce that the winner of the Haunted™ paper set is: #24 Amber Robbins. Email me at info@carinagardner.com, and I’ll send off that set! Congrats!

Two more things before I turn in for the night. First, Good Things Utah covered my Halloween line (Click on the picture on the right). Amber Packer has some awesome ideas when it comes to working with the line! Check them out on her blog here.

The second thing is that if you sign up for the newsletter, we are adding a digital scrapbooking freebie to the first issue (which will be sent out this weekend). Be sure and sign up for it here so you can get your free copy of my Little Princess Digi Kit. If you have never digi scrapbooked before, this is a great way to see the kinds of files and goodies you get in a kit. I’m also pretty partial to this kit because of my two little princesses.

I can’t tell you how excited I am about the newsletter. It’s almost done and my cup runneth over with happiness about how cute it is!

How to Make a LumJum Body Pillow-Free Download

September 22, 2010 by carina 5 Comments

What IS a lumjum you might ask? Growing up with a Chinese mom meant that we had some pretty weird words for some of our favorite things. However, the most loved item that my mom made each of us was a lumjum, aka a cylinder body pillow.

Growing up, this was the lovie we all took on every vacation with us (skip the pillow, bring the lumjum). My siblings can attest. You didn’t leave home without your lumjum-it would mean a bad night of sleep.

Even today, I take my lumjum with me. When I don’t I have to have 5 pillows to take it’s place (ask Deena and Jen). Ya, more information than you wanted I’m sure.

Mine is a little extra long with super easy instructions. You use ever bit of fabric, and it is fun for movie night or a cuddle. You can tell we’ve had some serious sewing time during the last couple of days. Oh yes, all these projects are made with my brand new bolts of Coquette™. The project madness has just begun…

Also wanted to give a reminder that the giveaway for my debit fabric line ends on Friday (a couple of days away) so be sure to put in your comment in the Coquette™ Fat Quarter post soon!

Click on the image below for the downloadable instructions for this easy body pillow.

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photographs in this post by Susan Haglund

A Big Ol’ Fabric and Paper Giveaway

September 14, 2010 by carina 153 Comments

You can image how excited I was when Coquette™ came to my door today! It actually got dropped off at my old address and has been sitting there for 4 days! I’m so happy to have it at my house now, filling up my tiny studio. It’s amazing!

You can find Coquette™ by going to Northcott’s website and checking out were it is being sold (click on the sidebar for locations). If it’s not near you or you need an online resource, you can check out the Fat Quarter Shop or eQuilter.com.

I’m also giving you a chance to win it here! I have fat quarters (all 13 fabrics!) already cut and ready to be shipped! How’s that for fun! Coquette™ is 100% cotton and will happily be made into anything your heart desires!

What’s better than getting these juicy fabrics? How about a paper pack, epoxy brads, and acrylic stamps from my Haunted™ scrapbook line? I also have a pair of simulated diamond earrings from Diamond Earring.org (they sent me a pair too and they are very cute), and a Picture Keeper USB for you (have you tried one of these? It automatically downloads all your photos from your computer by just plugging it in!). I’m throwing all of it into a package and sending it to someone who leaves a comment on this thread. I’ll do a random drawing and announce the winner on Friday, September 24th. Be sure and comment for a chance at this!

Want to always learn about giveaways like this one? Be sure and sign up for my newsletter either in the post below or the side bar.

XOXO, Carina

How To Make a Halloween Banner-Free Download

September 10, 2010 by carina 74 Comments

There have been spooky things happening at my house recently: Crows cawing, moss creeping, and mice scurrying along the old piano. It’s just enough to make you want to shout, “Happy Halloween!”

The spookiness has been so much fun that I made this banner using the Haunted™ Line. The instructions and pattern are below for you to download.

Another sweet creepy but easy Halloween project is just to tie pieces of Haunted™ paper with twine to dried branches. It’s cheap, easy, and chic all at once. Who knew Halloween could be chic?

Be sure and download the Halloween Banner tutorial below (all you will need is one pack of Haunted™, hot glue, black tissue paper, black ribbon, and black construction paper…it’s a whole lot of black:). I also have Illustrator files for those of you with a cutting machine. See below to download.

So what will I be working on next? My daughters have decided to be Sailor Moon (yes both of them) and I will be recreating a pair of red, white and blue outfits (hmmm, sounds patriotic). Let’s hope (for my sake) they don’t change their minds.

Illustrator File Downloads:

Halloween Flag Illustrator File

Halloween Pattern 1 Illustrator File

Halloween Pattern 2 Illustrator File

Download the Instructions:

You can also paste this link into your Internet Browser: https://carinagardner.com/2010/09/10/how-to-make-a-halloween-banner-free-download/

How to Make a Halloween Countdown Calendar-Free Download

September 7, 2010 by carina 3 Comments

It may seem a bit early, but Halloween has come to my house this last week. I’ve been happily crafting with my Haunted™ Paper Line. Lots of white pumpkins and scarecrows are visiting my living room (Photos coming soon!).

Here’s a fun project that you really need to do (and can easily do) in advanced. You will specifically need the Haunted™ Line because the reason it is so simple is because the journaling page in this line has this Halloween Countdown already to go! (simply cut it out!)

Once this fun little calendar is finished, all you’ll need to do is let your kids stamp a fun shape (The Haunted™ Acylic Stamps will be what we are using. I’m thinking we will be using white ink and that creepy, crawly spider.) or just draw a mark on each day as you countdown to a very spooky Halloween! It will be a fun way to start October 1st!

I have the tutorial for you to download below (seriously, this is a 20 minute project at best and the hardest part is making sure you have a photo of your family to add!) and you can certainly expect some more haunted crafting happening ’round here this week. Those cute, um, I mean spooky crows just love getting photographed!

How to Make a Butterfly Chandelier-Free Download

September 2, 2010 by carina 31 Comments

I made this fun little chandelier for my girls’ room a month ago using my Back to Basic’s digital line. It’s been a cute addition to their room, and it was pretty easy to make. Check out the tutorial below.

Want to cut it with your silhouette machine (or any other machine that cuts Illustrator files?). Download the ai file here (not for commercial use or resale).It’s already set up with 6 butterflies to a sheet.

ILLUSTRATOR FILE DOWNLOAD

If you want a pdf version of all six butterflies already setup for you (if you need to cut them out by hand), don’t worry! I’ve hooked you up too.

PDF FILE DOWNLOAD

Download the tutorial with instructions here:

Designer Weekend Sale—Daisy Jane and Informed

June 23, 2010 by carina 2 Comments

Today is release day. I have a couple of new releases today (30% off today only), but my favorite is my Americana, which I made in honor of Independence Day.

If you’ve been looking for a digital scrapbooking sale from me, here it is! My designer sale going on this weekend at DHD. There will be a free kit (You’ll want to jump on and download it!), and two $1 kits. All of Daisy Jane and Informed with be 25% off on Saturday and Sunday ONLY.

I also have a special code for my blog readers! This coupon code is for 25% off the FRESH PICKED MEGA COLLECTION on Saturday and Sunday only! Your code at check out is: BLOGLOVECG

And finally, come join me for a chat in the DHD Scrap Room at 9am MST on Saturday, June 26th. If you’ve ever wanted to see the pure mayhem of chatting through a forum for 1 hour, you should come join in for it!