New Intermediate Illustrator Class!

December 15, 2010 by carina

I know some of you are sighing, “Finally!” Yes, it’s taken me a year to get around to putting together Illustrator 201. As always, I was concerned with what would help you the most, inspire you the most, and bring you the most practical knowledge at this level.

So what’s in this class? A little for the paper and digi designer, a little for the fabric designer, and a little for the graphic designer…yes, I did a lot of squeezing to make it all happen but I promise not to disappoint!

Lesson 1 is all about technical work with gradients, meshes, and drop shadows. We create a small brochure to help you see how to put it all together. Lesson 2 is all about the pathfinder tool (we work with logos), which will be essential to Lesson 3 and 4…creating patterns in Illustrator!

Want to see the entire course? Check it out here.

This course (and all my courses) are currently on sale and will go live on January 10, 2011. It is current 20% off during December for the JessicaSprague.com site-wide sale (normal price $150, sale price $120).

Sick baby

March 28, 2010 by carina 2 Comments

I’ve been dealing with the croup for, well, not even the last 24 hours. My poor little toddler started hacking last night and got to a point where she couldn’t catch her breath. It was probably overly anxious, but Josh had dialed 911 before I knew what had happened. Of course, by the time the ambulance arrived, she was breathing steadily again. After a horrible night of sleep, lots of loads of laundry (because who knew all that gagging would result in so much vomit?), and an elevated fever, I ran her up in InstantCare. I’m in for the long haul for a couple of more nights.

Of course, my baby is most important, but during the periods of her little naps or Josh’s trips to McDonalds (that’s all she will eat right now-terrible, I know), I’m trying to stuff a few more things into my new Drawing Class currently being sold at Jessica Sprague (It’s also now being sold at a discounted price as a bundle with Illustrator 101). I also wanted to let you know that I will be doing a one time only WebCast for the class on April 15th for everyone who has registered. I’m excited for you to begin illustrating!

Here’s a few other things happening! Expect to see my new paper line, Meadow Lark, showing up from My Mind’s Eye soon! You’ll also like to know that you’ll be able to find two glitter books from me at Hobby Lobby and Michaels in the coming months. Yum Yum! And finally, I’m suppose to finish out this week by sending tons of files to China for my new Halloween paper line for My Minds Eye. I’ll announce it and give a peek as we get closer to summer releases!

Okay, one last thing before I run. This weekend, DHD is beginning their new designer releases, which begins with yours truly! Check it out because one of my kits will be free and a collection will be one sale. Oh, and I promised the decorators I’d get a Color Kit out. I promise, I’m working on it!

For now, I need to get back to tending my little one so we can be back on track for a festive Easter!

New Year’s Resolutions-A Day Late

January 2, 2010 by carina 1 Comment

coquette_blog

I’m just getting around to posting my New Year’s Resolutions. Not that they aren’t the same as most of yours…get in shape, give more time to myself, my family, document our lives (I’m hosting a 365 at DHD)…yada, yada, yada. Mostly, I just wanted to post because I am so EXCITED for 2010. It’s going to be a fun year. I can feel it. And I hope it will be for you too.

Here’s what’s on the horizon for designwork this year:

* Two fabric lines will hit quilting shops this year. Coquette will arrive in quilting stores in June (call your quilt shops this month to ask if they will be stocking this beautiful line from Northcott!) and Love Nest will come out later in the year. All of the fabric samples are up for your viewing pleasure!

* A brand new Carina Gardner™ Shop will be opening up! We will be offering limited quantites and fat quarters of the new fabric line and will also eventually carry all kinds of goods from my designs in scrapbooking and fabric. The Shop is set to open in June 2010. I’ll have more information on it as it gets closer.

* I’m at a new digital shop! This has already happened but it is such an exciting venture for me as I get to participate in Jen Allyson’s newest venture! She’s a pleasure to know and a fabulous designer! I think you’ll see that Design House Digital will be the fastest growing digital shop in 2010. It already has had some astonding traffic! I’m just proud to be apart of such a wonderful group.

* I’m pleased to be teaching again. It’s been two years since I stopped teaching at the University of Minnesota. I never thought that teaching would happen to fast for me again. You can find my newest adventure with Jessica Sprague teaching a self paced course—Illustrator 101.

* Keep checking back for my Paper Lines with My Mind’s Eye. I’m sure we’ll have several in the works this year.

And while there might now be a bullet point on this one, if you know me, there will be plenty of other good things happening in 2010 on this blog. I’m already working on a great craft project for my daughter that I’m excited to share with you (give me a week to finish it up!)! And with all the fabric hitting my studio in May, you know we will be sewing like MAD around here!

Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend and may you be happy in 2010!

Sweet Update

December 9, 2009 by carina 1 Comment

Thank you to everyone for the positive response to the Illustrator class! I’m excited for you guys to all get your hands on it!

I’ve had a design marathon this week trying to get together some Christmas lines. I also found out that two new fabric lines are in the the works (yes, and I know you haven’t even seen Coquette yet). A line called Soiree and another called Love Nest. The artwork from Love Nest will all come from the Glitter Book currently sold at Hobby Lobby. So you have a mini preview by just flipping open one of those books.

In the midst of of all this , the girls and I made gingerbread houses today. Nothing like the good-ole-store-bought gingerbread kits for me….what, you expect me to make it by hand? Hey, I’m not superwoman! So, we had a wonderful time messing up the kitchen and leaving most of it for Josh to clean up.

Okay, done with the blog break and getting back to it!

There Are Going to Be Some Changes Around Here! Illustrator Class & New Digital Scrapbooking Site!

December 7, 2009 by carina 8 Comments

It’s a season of change around my house. Josh started work with a new law firm, Siri has lost tooth number 2, Felicity has been trying out her new potty, and I’ve got some great new projects in the works. The first is this brand new online class for Illustrator, which goes on sale TODAY at Jessica Sprague.com! After teaching Illustrator at DSE, this last September, I was overwhelmed by the number of people asking for an online course. So here it is folks! A four week long Illustrator course that is completely self-paced and easy to use. The videos are broken into smaller tasks so it’s easy to go back to a tutorial. I’ve also included 3 Bonus lessons, digital scrapbooking kits, and vectors in the course.

While I created this course initially for digital scrapbookers, I would recommend it to anyone who is even thinking about getting into design. I’ve incorporated everything I would teach on Illustrator in a university-level introductory graphic design course.

So want to see what the class is going to be all about? Go straight to the Jessica Sprague site to see the introduction video, purchasing information, and the Lesson break downs. You can also go to YouTube to see the video. I recommend watching the video because it will show you a short tutorial of a class lesson along with everything you will need (aka technology requirements) to take the course.

With all change, there is also some sad news. I have decided to move my digital scrapbooking store from Two Peas. You will still be able to find all of my 2008-2009 digital designs there, but I will be moving to a new store come January 1st, 2010.

I’m pretty excited to have been asked to come to the new store (which isn’t even open yet) because it will be site with designers that are so amazing! The name of the site is Design House Digital (http://www.designhousedigital.com/) and the list of designers going there is UNBELIEVABLE! I can’t spill anything yet, but you ought to check out the place holder blog to grab the newsletter freebie (it’s FABULOUS!). And while you are at it, sign up for twitter https://twitter.com/designhousedigi since I was told that people will get updated with the new freebies and store updates there.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m working away at a christmas line for fabric and paper and enjoying my little ones during this holiday season. Hope you are having a happy December too!