Make and Design with Carina Gardner

Fellow Riley Blake designer Bev McCullough joins Carina for some insights on her recent fabric collection. To see some of the samples Carina and Bev talk about in this episode, please visit Carina’s youtube channel at www.youtube.com/carinagarder .    Learn more about Bev and her new book at instagram at @flamingotoes. __________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About...

Do you love the idea of becoming a designer but worry that you don’t draw well enough to make it work? Listen in as Carina debunks some misconceptions about how good you have to be at illustrating in order to make it as a designer. There’s a *lot* more to being a surface pattern designer than being able to draw with pencil and paper. Listen in to find out why you don’t need to know how to draw to...

Have you ever wondered how a fabric designer approaches creating a new fabric collection? Today Carina talks with fellow Riley Blake designer Amanda Niederhauser about her process for designing a new line. Her daughter Ella is involved in the process and they make a great team! Amanda also talks about her love of cats and cat fabric. Settle in for this fun and insightful conversation about fabric...

When was the last time someone told you how valuable you are? Carina gets real today about how important it is to feel valued. You probably don’t hear it often enough from the people in your life. Carina hints at tough things she experienced in her childhood and tells a very vulnerable story about the first time that her intrinsic value as a human being was described to her in a way that made her...

Every Halloween, Carina takes her kids trick or treating and then settles in to watch one movie as she hands out candy. Find out what Halloween movies Carina loves to watch! Traditions can be comfortable, memorable moments and Carina shares some of her favorites for Halloween!   __________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here:...

Carina talks with fellow sewer April Cobb today! April has owned her own product based businesses including handmade goods and a digital fabric printing company. April shares the first steps you should take when building a creative business.   __________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY   ________...

What does it take to become a great designer or to do something great in anything you do? Find out as Carina talks us through the kinds of sacrifices in time and money it takes to level up or do something great. Have you ever thought about whether time or money is more important? Carina shares her thoughts on which is more important and why.   __________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips No...

Today Carina talks with fellow fabric designer and Design Suite Member Diane Rooney. Diane talks about all her experiences in the crafting and sewing world. Carina and Diane talk about life lessons and making your passion a career. As you’ll hear, it’s never too late to start following  your passion!   __________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surfac...

What are your favorite things to make with your Silhouette machine?  On today’s Make + Design, Carina walks us through her favorite things to cut on the machine. And what could be more fun than doing it countdown style? Check it out to hear what Carina’s #1 thing is!   __________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://ee...

Have you ever wondered about the serendipitous ways that seemingly-unrelated things connect in a way that makes them both more meaningful? On today’s Make + Design Podcast, Carina is joined by free motion quilting expert and weight loss guru Dara Tomasson who tells us the surprising connection between learning a new skill like free motion quilting and weight loss. Hint: it’s about learning to love...

Do you ever struggle with confidence? Whether we are well-trained and experienced or just starting out, a nagging lack of confidence can affect any of us. Today Carina gives us some tips on surrounding ourselves with people who will give us a boost in confidence. __________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.c...

Have you ever wondered how to balance mental health with having a successful design career? Today, artist and calligraphy expert Melissa Esplin joins Carina to discuss some of the ways to approach maintaining your mental health. Whether it’s getting a new pet or starting formal therapy, Melissa and Carina share their experiences.   Designing is a beautiful way to share wonderful things and fill th...

On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina delivers strategies on how to approach the last 90 days of a year. Even though it’s fun to start a new year with new goals, Carina finds a lot of power in starting new goals on October 1st every year. This process helps her visualize what she would like to accomplish by the end of the current year. The momentum from the last 90 days of her year would hel...

On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina walks us through a quote that she recently read from leadership guru Stephen R. Covey: “I am not a product of my circumstances, I am a product of my decisions.” She feels like it’s a freeing thought to be a product of your decisions because it frees you from playing the role of victim. When we’re a product of our circumstances then we are the victim and...

On today’s Make + Design Podcast, Kelly Wayment returns to talk about some of her favorite paper crafts projects and to give general advice about how to create beautiful, intricate projects using a cutting machine like a Silhouette. She and Carina talk about how to position tabs, when it’s a good idea to hand cut something, and where to store the projects that you create. There’s tons of inspirati...

On today’s Make + Design Podcast, Carina talks about the power of setting really big goals. Carina’s not on camera today because she just got back from running a race! Carina compares the process of training for and running a race to improving anything in life. If you strive for a lot more then falling short is still a win. It is better to make bigger goals because achieving half of a huge goal of...

On today’s episode of the Make + Design Podcast, Jeanie Dickinson returns as Carina’s guest star to talk to us about how process can get you through the hard times as a designer. Jeanie likes to think about art as creativity and creativity soothed her soul during various tough periods in her life. Jeanie tells us about a time that the scrapbooking she owned burned down. On top of that, her home wa...

On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina tells us why the timing is perfect for launching Ink Club, an idea that she’s been thinking about for years.  Carina recognizes that designers, by nature, often work alone and may even be introverts. Although working on our own can be satisfying, sometimes we as makers, crafters, and designers want a community where we can show our work to other makers,...

On today’s episode of the Make + Design Podcast, Carina walks us through three ways to evoke a feeling in our design work.  Tip 1: Color. This one is obvious for a reason. Carina talks about how the use of color in a fabric line she’s been working on changes the feelings that the line conveys. When you change up color it totally evokes a different feeling. Tip 2: Texture or the lack of texture. So...

On today’s episode of the Make + Design Podcast, Carina gives some thoughts about social media and how important it actually is for a designer. Carina finds that it doesn’t matter how big someone’s following is, social media still leaves one feeling a bit empty. One things she does is debunk the perception that having a large following equals making a lot of money. Carina has seen people with smal...

On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina answers a question that she gets a lot: “How long does it take to design a fabric collection?” Carina talks through the difference between fabric lines that take a long time and lines that come more quickly. Her current fabric collection project, which is set to release in late 2022 or early 2023, is one that has taken a long time because she has specifi...

Amanda Niederhauser returns as our guest star on today’s episode of the Make + Design Podcast. She and Carina take a look at Amanda’s quilting book, “Playful Precut Quilts,” and take a deep dive into what Amanda did to get the book published. Playful Precut Quilts is a “how to” book that gives step-by-step instructions on how to make quilts with pre-cut fabrics. You’ll want to check out the YouTub...

On today’s episode of the Make + Design Podcast, Carina runs through the reasons why *writing* is so important to developing ideas. For her, most great ideas start with paper and pen–this is one of the reasons that her membership group is called “Ink Club.” Carina recalls that on Episode 21 of the Podcast, calligraphy expert Melissa Esplin taught us about bullet journals. Both Melissa and Carina u...

Carina begins today’s episode of Make + Design by telling us about Ink Club, which launched originally on October 1, 2021. Ink Club is for every creative so that you, as a creative, can find community. The announcement about Ink Club fits today’s podcast topic, which is all about community and, specifically, two ways that having a community can help you feel supported in what you’re doing.  The fi...

On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina is joined by business owner and expert collage quilter Emily Taylor. Emily designed many fabric collections for Riley Blake Designs and started a company called that allowed people to design their own quilting patterns online and gives some insight into how a business failure propelled her to strike out into the new territory of collage quilting. She lau...