Hybrid Project Submissions Now Open!
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 [...]
Carina Gardner Quarterly Newsletter (Issue No. 4)
FINALLY! We’ve finished our fourth issue of our newsletter! Better late than never, right? I think this is our best issue so far. First of all, there are a LOT of photos. And tutorials. And photos. And an announcement (which links to ANOTHER digital magazine). And did I mention photos? It’s seriously delicious! Susan has [...]
A Bit Ruffled
…in the best way possible of course! Susan says I get bonus points for the pom poms on top (They are kind of hard to see on the top of the lamp in these photos). This lamp shade is a breeze to make. I think I got the shade from IKEA (a couple of years [...]
How to Make a LumJum Body Pillow-Free Download
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 [...]
How To Make a Halloween Banner-Free Download
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 [...]
How to Make a Halloween Countdown Calendar-Free Download
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. [...]
Hybrid Card Tutorial
I’ve been meaning to post this awesome tutorial from CT Member Joyce. This is a fantastic tutorial showing off how easy it is to take digital products and turn them into cards. Take it away, Joyce! 1.Create your cardstock pieces with a program like Photoshop Elements. I created 4×4, 5×5, and 4×5 shapes and clipped [...]
Happy Fabric Flowers-Just Add Velcro
I was invited to a craft night with a whole lot of mid-western gals. Who knew there were so many Minnesotan’s in Utah (escaping the cold no doubt)? The theme was t-shirts so I brought T’s for the girls and myself with tons of fat quarters, lace, and buttons. Inspired by Whippy Cake’s headbands (introduced [...]
How to Brighten a Skimpy Wreath
I love a white wreath on a black door and I found a really skimpy wreath marked down at my local craft store. Luckily there was also a few white flowers marked down. If you want a cheap wreath (and don’t want to create one from scratch), this is the best way to go! Start [...]
Dirty and Clean Dishwasher Tag—Free Download
I’ve been meaning to make this for myself for sometime now—A magnetic dishwasher button that tells everyone else in the house if the dishes are clean or dirty. Here it is for you too (should you also have the problem of everyone asking you if the dishes are clean or dirty). I’m going to laminate [...]
How to Change a Skirt into a Dress
I found these darling skirts at Gymboree clearanced out. So of course, the only sizes left were 9 and 10…a bit big for a 3 and 6 year old (and I wasn’t about to let these bad boys sit idly in a closet for a few years!). So I made these skirts into dresses. With [...]
Sewing with A Ruffler
I have to take a little minute to chit chat about my new Ruffler. This amazing little device can save you minutes, nay hours of hand-gathering! I got this little baby when I started working on a children’s pattern with an absurd amount of ruffles (I just can’t help it! I adore ruffles!). The ruffles [...]
On the Subject of Family
Sunday night we got together as a family at Liz and Tim’s house. It was fun, the food was good, and the company was excellent. Liz also had me up late to help refresh an old chair. I couldn’t help but show it off here because the final result was amazing. I should have taken [...]
ABC Book Template
I’ve been working on this new hybrid ABC Book for a couple of days now. It’s a little present for my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day…shhhhh! Don’t tell! She even gave me a little time to work on it while she hauled my kids to the aquarium for a little “grammy” time yesterday. I had to [...]
It’s a Project Day
Ahhhhh! I love a good project day! I’m off the computer designing for a day (after finishing up my new collection Daisy Jane™ for DHD last night) and getting paint on my face! I found a steal of a deal at Tai Pan the other day, and it’s been waiting for me to give it [...]
Valentine’s Day Card for Kids-Free Download
I’m a sucker for Valentine’s Day. And while we are still three weeks away, I’ve got some great little projects put together for this very pink holiday. If you haven’t picked it up yet, the Love Nest glitter book is available at Hobby Lobby, and I’ll be doing a few projects with those papers and [...]
Craft Project-How to Make an Easy Octopus Costume
Yes, my daughter wanted me to make her an octopus costume for her birthday. So how could I refuse? I kept it simple by buying a t-shirt (with the gems already on it) and women’s long socks. Add some filling, a t-shirt transfer kit and my sewing machine and I was set. The only problem? [...]
Easy T-shirt Project-How to go from Digital Product to Iron-On
Creating great projects from digital products is easy! For example, my daughter’s birthday party was last week and we did an underwater theme. So my gifts to all the little guests were mermaid shirts with matching hair color for each girl. My daughter wanted to be an octopus, so I simply ironed-on an octopus illustration [...]
Neighbor Gift Tags-Free Download
I just finished up my neighbor gifts—easy-to-make chocolate dipped pretzel rods. The girls helped me and we managed to make quite the mess. All you need to do to make this gift is melt carmel candies, dip pretzel rods in the “goop,” let them cool, and then dip them in chocolate. We also dipped ours [...]
Paint a Tree In Your Kid’s Bedroom-Free Download
I’ve been a busy girl. I’ve been working on my little girl’s bedroom since moving into our new house last month. It has been so satisfying to finally be able to paint! While I don’t feel like it is fully finished, I still thought I’d share what I’ve done with you. And, if you are [...]
Sharing a Bit of Halloween with You
Just thought I’d share a little photo montage of our family’s halloween with you! Tinkerbell and the Fab Witch had a wonderful halloween and I hope you did too!
Dress Design for Shabby Apple dresses
I saw this contest and as I’ve started designing for our first fabric photo shoot, I decided, “What the hey!?” So here’s my entry to the Shabby Apple Dress Contest. Boooonnnuusss (That is me singing it. Unfortunately you can’t get the full effect via blog.): I’m using fabrics from my new line CoquetteTM for Northcott. [...]
Spider’s Web Papers – Batty Wreath
Halloween is just a week away and I finally have finished my Spider’s Web Bat Wreath. I used my paper version (produced by My Mind’s Eye), but you can also pick it up digitally. I picked up this wreath from Michaels. These twig wreaths are relatively inexpensive ($4, I believe). I then had my silhouette [...]
Printing a Digital Book
I finally did it! I printed my very first digital scrapbook. I remember when I use to explain digital scrapbooking to people, they’d say, “Digital?…does that mean you just look at them on the computer?” And I’d have to tell them you could but the point is to have it printed and have a BOOK. [...]