Make and Design with Carina Gardner

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...

On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina is joined by Terri Johnson, an event planner who runs one of the biggest Silhouette events, “All Things Silhouette.”  Terri tells us about how she got started as a crafter. It began when she was young in sewing classes but really kicked into high gear when she had children of her own and wanted to sew clothing for them. Her passion led to working as a se...

On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina analyzes the kinds of things that can hold us back. It is very natural for us to hold on to things that hold us back. First, are we able to identify what’s holding us back? Second, can we identify why that thing holds us back? Carina runs us through the categories of excuses and mental blocks that can hold us back.  One of them is limiting beliefs. Based...

On today’s episode of the Make + Design Podcast, Carina tells us about the one little word that will change your life. The word is ACTION. Carina tells us how taking action helps her gain clarity, get unstuck, and build momentum when it comes to starting (or completing!) a project. Carina also walks us through some of the ways that she takes action to propel her forward. The first way she likes to...

On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina talks to us about color. Carina tells us what her university courses on color were like and about how hands-on a color class is with mixing and analyzing different colors of paint. Listen in to hear Carina’s thoughts on the 2021 Pantone Colors of the Year and how they relate to the Pandemic. Pantone’s description of the colors is a great case study on ho...

Carina is joined by artist and calligraphy expert Melissa Esplin on today’s episode of Make + Design. Melissa tells us about how she got into creative arts and how she tried to bridge the gap between fine art and graphic design as an undergrad and how that created tension between two halves of a department that simultaneously was jealous of and looked down on the other half of the department. Meli...

On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina takes a look at negative thoughts and negative self talk. In a world where we’re constantly trying to dial our creativity up, freeing ourselves from negative thoughts and self talk can lift a huge burden. Carina talks about the difference between people who get over negativity by diving into a work project and people who are immobilized by negative thoug...

On today’s episode of the Make and Design Podcast, Carina is joined by Dara Tomasson, a resident of beautiful Vancouver Island and professional long-arm quilter. Dara is also an author and has a new book called “Doodle School” about how to free-motion quilt. Dara also talks about her passion for working as a life coach for quilters. She helps them to lose weight and build confidence. Find out how...

Ever feel like you’re stuck in a rut creatively? On today’s Make and Design, Carina shares seven tips to help you get out of rut and boost your creativity.  Tip #1: Go somewhere new. Find out how Carina uses trips and changes of scenery to recharge her creativity.  Tip #2: Change your environment. Find out how this is different from the first tip. Hint: it has to do not with the micro level of whe...

On today’s episode of Make and Design, Carina continues her series of periodic book reviews by sharing four books that helped her to become more intentional.   The first book on her list is “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. Find out how this book helped Carina to become more self-aware about the steps that she took in falling into a particular routine and how that helped her to level up her habits....