DIE CUT PROJECTS (SILHOUETTE & CRICUT)

Project Mania…An entire month of projects!

9 Comments / Design Lessons, Digital Scrapbooking, My Minds Eye, Stuff I Love, Tutorials, Two Peas in a Bucket /

projectmaniamonth_carinagardner1

img_6708_smWe’re getting started a bit early here (Project Mania officially starts on September 1st!), but I wanted to make sure that everyone has a chance to participate! I’m giving everyone a head start here so that if you have any big projects that need starting or need to clear out your schedule to make way for some great projects in September, you have the time to!

This is a BLOG HOP! Here on my blog, I’ll be posting a plethora of new projects, tutorials, and free downloads to help inspire you. If YOU have been working on some things and want to share OR if you’ve needed a kick start, this is it! Time to get your hands dirty and get going! We all want to see what you’ve done! Whether it is scrapbooking related, sewing, home decor, home organization, crafts…if you’ve been meaning to do it, let’s get it done this September and post it on our blogs! You’ll definitely see plenty from me on these fronts all September.

So you think you want to share what you’re going to be doing September 2009? We’re starting a list right here! First thing you need to do is grab this html code and the little banner to put on your blog. It will relocate you back to this post for the most up-to-date list on blogs/websites participating in Project Mania.


<a href=”https://carinagardner.com/2009/08/06/project-mania/” target=”_blank”><img class=”alignnone” src=”http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee297/diginirvana/projectmania1.jpg” alt=”” width=”200″ height=”150″ /></a>

Next, you need to send me the name of your blog and the link you want it to go to so that we can all drop by and see what kinds of things you are getting into! Send it to carina@diginirvana.com.

Here’s the list of everyone participating! Go visit and see what these Project Maniacs are up to!

Carina Gardner Studio (Me)

The Project Girl

Mean Mom Digital Productions

Brought to You By The Letter B

live laugh LOVE scrapbook

Life’s Little Moments

Naomi’s Space

Sophia’s World

My Creative Space

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Free Download During Chat Tonight!

2 Comments / Digital Scrapbooking, Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, Giveaways, Two Peas in a Bucket /

carinaandjen_2ps_pinklemonadefreebieprevAs a fun gift to everyone who joins the chat, Jen and I have put together this darling little freebie! You will need to post in the chat tonight and we’ll send you a peamail with the link which will only be downloadable during the chat. Be sure and drop by and get it! Visit us in the CHA Summer Forum at 10pm CST.

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CHA Summer 2009

1 Comment / My Minds Eye, Two Peas in a Bucket /

img_5517_2CHA is in Florida and I won’t be going. In fact, I’ll be headed the opposite direction in a couple of days for a vacation with my family. So, to celebrate CHA, Jen and I are doing a little chat on 2peas today. Come join us in the CHA Summer Forum at 2peas for scoops on what Jen and I are up to, giveaways, and more! Meet us over there 8pm 10pm CST.

BTW, just added a new header to the studio front page and I’ll hopefully have a chance in the next couple of weeks to get together some great halloween projects with my new line The Spider’s Web.

See you at the chat!

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Fabric, CHA, AND a Chat

6 Comments / Digital Scrapbooking, Fabric, My Minds Eye, Two Peas in a Bucket /

6a01053647c676970c0115709fa84b970cYes, this is it. The big news! I recently signed a fabric deal and you will be able to find my designs in fabric in early 2010! Unfortunately, I have to be very vague about the release because we haven’t even begun first rounds of strike-offs (I will be sure to keep you updated!)! It’s been my busiest summer yet with putting together my first fabric collection and lots of new scrapbooking stuff coming out from My Minds Eye! Next week is CHA and you’ll get to see my Spider’s Web Line which is a sophisticated take on Halloween! I can’t wait to show you how I use them for halloween decorating projects and more!

I also wanted to give you a heads up that Jen and I will be hosting a chat in the 2peas forums (in the digital scrapbooking forum) on Tuesday, July 28th at 8pm CST. It will lots of fun! chat4You are welcome to quiz us about digital scrapbooking or paper scrapbooking (and anything else you may like:). Jen and I are also both doing giveaways throughout the chat! It will be fun that you don’t want to miss!

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It’s Another Thursday…

Digital Scrapbooking, Family, Giveaways, Two Peas in a Bucket /

I’ve been meaning to post this link for some time now, but have managed to forget with all the craziness (and loveliness) in my life! The winner of the PhotoCuts Giveaway on my blog posted some layouts using the Overlays on her blog called http://paperscissorsandglue.blogspot.com. You can check out she uses the overlays there:). The whole blog is very scrap-a-rific with tons of digital and paper layouts.

This will very likely be my last post of the week. I’m getting my 2peas submissions in today and getting ready for a lovely weekend in Park City with my husband. It’s been a long time since it was just the two of us and I’m pretty excited about the break. I know I’ll have tons of things to post next week. I have big announcement to make, pictures from the weekend, and an awesome post I’ve been working on that you won’t want to miss!

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Winner of the Garden Vignettes Collection is…

2 Comments / Giveaways /

randomDoing my early morning announcement of the winner via Random.org. And the winner is… COMMENT NUMBER 11.

Gennifer says:

Since I said Midnight Blooms on 2Peas, I’ll go with Cards here.

Seriously, though, love them all!

Congrats Gennifer! Just email me at carina@diginirvana.com and we will get you hooked up with those cards!

Thanks to everyone who played and be sure to check out the new collection at 2peas today!

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Garden Vignettes Collection Giveaway!

17 Comments / Giveaways /

It’s here! Another collection and another giveaway! On Tuesday, the Garden Vingettes collection will premier at 2peas. There are 4 paper packs and 5 accessories. I wanted this to be a super-digi-scrap-friendly collection so you’ll find that I’ve made multiples of the accessories like the buttons (even in grayscale so you can recolor for other layouts), easy to use brushes (like the alpha, which makes life SO much easier! Plus there are .abr upload instructions!), and fun cards in both color and black and white. The papers are very distressed and absolutely delicious! There are 10 unique papers in each of the sets.

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So how do you enter the giveaway? Easy-peasy! Just comment on this thread the “item” that you want. Winner will be announced Tuesday morning as the products hit 2peas! You can also go and enter the 2peas digi blog giveaway for a second try at this giveaway!Go here to enter it:

2peas Digi Blog

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Giveaway Winner for PhotoCuts and Collections Team Call

1 Comment / Digital Scrapbooking, Giveaways, Two Peas in a Bucket /

Hooray! It’s Tuesday morning and as promised I have the giveaway winner along with some other news. I do this the old fashion way so I was up this morning cutting out the paper and writing out names. lol. And the winner of the blog giveaway for photocuts is:

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siriandherflower1Just email me at carina@diginirvana.com and I will try to get a hold of you as well and we’ll arrange for you getting your free product! You can find all the new PhotoCuts Collection digi kits at twopeas here. Here’s a layout I did using a mask from the new collection and a paper from a collection that hasn’t been released yet called Garden Vignettes! Look for it in a few weeks. Here’s a peek:

More business to attend to! I am finally opening up a new creative team call for a collections team! Yes, this is big news as I haven’t done a call for a long time. My wonderful publications team has been amazing (you guys rock!) and I’ve decided that I need a second team to take care more of the layouts for this blog and for new collections. You’ll love my darling CT Manager Theresa and you’ll get a collections team blinkie to boot:). What does it involve? Read this:

collectionsteamcall

So how does it work? You will receive 1-2 kits per collection along with some started kits to give you some “goods” to get going. The collection team will know about collections that will be released and will have a week or so to put together a layout to be posted at 2peas, etc. It will be no more than 4 layouts a month with the average being about 2-3 layouts a month. We are a friendly group at the studio:).

Oh, and speaking of blinkies, grab this one for your everyday wear:

and keep an eye out for the publications team and the collections team wear:

Here’s the html for the fan blinkie for you to copy:

<a href=”http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/shop/digital-kits/carina-gardner/” target=”_blank”><img class=”alignleft” style=”margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;” src=”http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee297/diginirvana/fan_carinagardner.gif” alt=”” width=”150″ height=”50″ /></a>

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PhotoCuts Giveaway!

21 Comments / Digital Scrapbooking, Giveaways, Two Peas in a Bucket /

My new line Photocuts hits 2peas on Tuesday, but I thought to introduce the line, I would do a giveaway! So here’s a peek at the first four digi kits of the line:

firstfourrelease_carinagardner So what do you need to do in order to win one of these great photo-enhancing kits? All you need to do is comment on this thread which one of these kits you would REALLY like to have. Easy-peasy!

Top-Left : Filmstrip Frames

Top-Right : Taped Off Frames

Bottom-Left : Masks

Bottom-Right : Overlays

I’ll announce the winner of this blog giveaway on Tuesday morning!

And, if you want another try at winning one of these, I’m doing a seperate drawing on the 2peas blog. So go over there and enter too! Good luck!

Also be sure to check out the new PhotoCuts digi kits during the next several weeks of 2peas releases as there will be plenty more!

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New Studio Website!

Digital Scrapbooking, My Minds Eye, Two Peas in a Bucket /

blogimage1You’ll notice a couple of changes around here:). While not all of the blog is finished (the links to my free downloads, tutorials, and  new flickr groups are not up yet), the studio site is! I’m so excited to introduce this great new resource for those of you looking for my designwork. The Studio is place to find my newest paper crafting releases from My Minds Eye, digital scrapbooking collections at Two Peas in a Bucket, where to buy my designs, and the latest design news! There’s also a fantastic new project gallery that will be updated with design projects regularly! Probably my favorite new thing that will be coming to the blog in the next couple of days is an open group on flickr for you to upload photos of your projects using my paper craft supplies and digital scrapbooking kits! The group is called Your CG Creations and you can go ahead and start uploading stuff…it just hasn’t hit my sidebar yet. I’m excited to see what you create! 

So go ahead and take a gander at the new site!

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New Website

Digital Scrapbooking, My Minds Eye, Stuff I Love, Two Peas in a Bucket /

If you’ve noticed an absence of blogging it is because I have been trying to get together a new website that hopefully will be up and running at the end of this week! It will be a great resource for my design news, projects with products, new paper crafting products, digital scrapbooking products, and where to buy them. The blog will get a new makeover as a result as well! There will be new flickr groups and more:). So excuse my absence a bit for this coming week and I’ll have this new website up and running! I’m pretty excited about it! You’ll even get sneak peeks of my new products coming out WAY before they actually hit CHA and stores! 

Happy Sunday!

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Giveaway! Peony Place Extras!

18 Comments / Digital Scrapbooking, Giveaways, Two Peas in a Bucket /

Hello everyone! It’s a giveaway week! The new line of Peony Place extras hits this week with these first three digital kits at Two Peas in a Bucket tomorrow. 

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Then more EXTRAS come out next week…here’s the sneak peek!

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So here’s the giveaway! For every 30 comments on this post, I will giveaway 1 of these Peony Place Extras! Just comment on this thread and say which of the digi kit EXTRAS you wish you could have and you will be placed in the drawing. Easy peasy! 

 

This giveaway will end on this Friday! And the more comments (1 comment per individual for this giveaway) the more I will giveaway! It’s a win-win!

>>Go back to the home page for the most up-to-date posts!

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Interview with Designer Holly Jones & Giveaway from My Cute Stamps

44 Comments / Design Lessons, Giveaways, Interviews /

I have a very special interview with designer Holly Jones today! She is the owner and creator of My Cute Stamps, an absolutely DARLING store with her beautiful clear stamps! She also has a fabulous blog Creating Cupcakes. She’s also offered a darling stamp set to be given away to someone! Let’s meet her:

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Carina: What kind of “designer” do you consider yourself? 

Holly: I started out as a graphic designer but as I worked at various jobs, I soon realized that I preferred Illustration over design. Now I consider myself an Illustrator.

Carina: Do you consider yourself a “creative” person?
Holly: Yes, growing up my dad owned a small print shop. I preferred playing with his trash (discarded papers, glue, inks, & etc.) more than I enjoyed playing with any of my toys. I love to learn new creative skills. I enjoy drawing, stamping, paper crafting, knitting, jewelry making, the list goes on & on.

Carina: Do you always feel creative?

Holly: Most of the time. Most days I feel like there isn’t enough time to create everything I want to create.

Carina:  What kind of jobs have you had?

Holly: My 3 favorite jobs include: 1) Working at the computer lab it college. This is where I learned to use the computer & graphic design programs. I didn’t have a computer of my own until a few years ago, so it was fun to be able to use one everyday at work. 2) Being a “live in Nanny”. I got to explore the Eastern states with a great family whom I still keep in contact with. 3) Designer & Illustrator for Stampin’ Up! I worked here designing papers, products & stamp sets. I really enjoyed the environment and my fun and creative co-workers.

Carina: Tell me about being a mom and your “design work”.

Holly:  I work at home with my 2 cute girls. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, It can be challenging at times. My girls are both young and demand a lot of attention, so I really don’t get much work done until they go to bed at night. My oldest daughter is 4. She loves crafts, she has recently been interested in drawing her own stamp sets. She keeps asking when we will be selling her cute designs. I don’t think it will be much longer before she’s ahead of me in her creative skills.

Carina: What do you do now?

Holly:  Right now my husband and I have two businesses, Vinyl Wall Art & My Cute Stamps. He does most of the orders & technical stuff, while I do all the design work and marketing. I’m currently designing some new Reposition-able vinyl for Vinyl Wall Art, and getting our display for the Stamp business ready for the Salt Lake Scrapbook USA expo which takes place next week.

Carina: Tell me more about My Cute Stamps? What made you get started with that?

Holly: Initially, I started doing Wall Art because I had a 2 year non-compete contract with Stampin’ Up! I still enjoy designing wall art, but I missed designing for the craft industry. My non-compete contract with Stampin’ Up! ended in October (the same month as my birthday) My husband thought it would be fun to order me some stamps that I designed in celebration of both occasions. I really loved designing the stamps, and had forgotten how much I love to design products for the crafting industry. I posted some of my stamp designs on the internet, and the response was fabulous, so we decided to set it up as a business. I’m really glad we did. I’m having a great time coming up with new set ideas & new product ideas (coming soon.)

Carina: What is your favorite stamp set?

Holly: It would be Eek! A Monster!

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Carina: Where do you see yourself in 10 years with your designwork?

Holly: I hope to have an entire line of products within the next 10 years. More than just stamps, perhaps coordinating papers, and craft kits.

Carina: What makes My Cute Stamps Unique?

Holly: When I design new stamps, I really try to keep in mind how the stamps will be used. I try to make each set as versatile as possible. I want the end user to be able to use each set for multiple occasions and projects. 

GIVEAWAY FROM HOLLY!

A big thank you to Holly for doing the interview! And she has been really generous to giveaway this darling stamp set: Spunky Nature Stamp Set! It’s my favorite set! 

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spunkynature

 

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What do you have to do to win it? Comment on this blog and your name will be entered into the drawing! If you go over to check out My Cute Stamps and tell me your favorite set, I’ll put your name in twice! Easy! This giveaway will end on Saturday at 9AM MST and winners will be announced on Saturday morning at 10AM MST.  Good luck!

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And the Winners of Peony Place Are…

3 Comments / Digital Scrapbooking, Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables /

Thank you to everyone who participated in this giveaway! I really loved hearing your comments and hope you will keep coming back for design projects and more! Be sure to stop by tomorrow for another giveaway and an interview with a fantastic designer, Holly Jones!

Winners announced! I will be emailing the winners in just a second! I used random.org:). Drum roll, please!

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21- Manic Mother

56- Michelle in AR

13- Lena Loo

Congrats Ladies! I’ll be contacting you with your winnings!

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Free Task List Design and Peony Place GiveAway!

75 Comments / Card Nirvana, Digital Scrapbooking, Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, Two Peas in a Bucket /

It’s a freebie day! If you’re like me, you are all over the place all day long: kids, work, dinner, shopping…the list goes on and on! And sometimes I’ll think of something TODAY, that I need to remember TOMORROW…so I came up with these cute little task lists that are SUPER easy to use. They are formatted on a 8.5 x 11 paper and you just need to cut it right down the middle. I put the tasks into boxes with lines because I sort of like to categorize what I’m trying to accomplish…home stuff, work stuff, etc. It’s also sorted into TODAY and TOMORROW.img_1419

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Download the TASK LIST here.


Hope you enjoy this freebie! Today is sort of a “double take” because the SITS girls is having their Spring Fling and I’ve decided to fling some digital scrapbooking your way! All you have to do to be entered into this giveaway is comment on this thread. Easy-peasy!

I’ll do a drawing for the winners…for every 20 commenters I will draw a name and you get to choose ONE KIT from my new Peony Place collection! So get people to visit and comment! I’d love to give out a lot!!!! Here are the kits you get to choose from!

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I will be announcing the winners on Wednesday morning at 10am MST! So check back:)!

Also be sure and check out the 20% off coupon and $40 gift certificate we are giving away at the SITS girls for Card Nirvana!

Need the SITS GIRL discount at Card Nirvana this week: CODE: SITS20MARCH

cardnirvana_sitsgirl20coupon

And the last thing that you need to know is that I have a very special interview and free gift that I will be giving out on Thursday! So be sure to check back for that giveaway! Happy Tuesday!
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Tomorrow’s Freebies!

5 Comments / Card Nirvana, Digital Scrapbooking, Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables /

I’m here to post about the wonderful stuff going on tomorrow here at my blog, card nirvana, and the SITS girls! The first thing is happening right here!!!! I am giving away for every 20 commentors, 1 digitial kit of my new digital scrapbooking line (which hits Two Peas in A Bucket next Tuesday…it’s not even out yet!), The new line is called Peony Place and it’s a collection set up in digital scrapbooking sets. Not a digital scrapbooker? These papers are still great to print out for hybrid projects like cards and holiday projects! All you have to do is comment on TOMORROW’s thread and you will be added to the drawing! I will draw one person for every 20 people who comments ( so if 40 people comments, I’ll draw 2 people and so on). How easy is that? I’ll also have a new freebie card up for you to pick up, so you should dash by to at least get the details on that! So everyone wins:).

Tomorrow’s winners gets to choose from these:

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Perfect for spring, don’t you think? Here’s a layout I did of my daughter Siri using the Floral Fantasy!

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Okay, so at card nirvana, you are going to be able to pick up a freebie tomorrow! So check here first and then you are going to want to hop over there.

Finally, Card Nirvana is giving away a $40 gift certificate (that’s a lot of cards!) with the SITS girls. You’ll need to check out their site tomorrow to be available. They also have the coupon code for a 20% off discount at Card Nirvana! If you have had your eye on something, now is the time to buy it! Head on over there and see what you can see!

Can’t wait to see you tomorrow!

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My New Mini-Office Space & Free Tag Download

5 Comments / Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, UPDATES FROM CARINA /

I have to call it a space because that is what it is. It’s not a room. It’s not a studio. It’s a space. A 4 feet x 6 feet bit of space to be exact (if you count all of the rug). It located in my bedroom (something I don’t recommend, but under current circumstances could not be helped) and it was a strain to get a vertical shot of the thing! But here it is, in all it’s mini-glory!

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Basically, I tried to use things I already had around the house. I supplemented it with stuff from Ikea, Antique Shops, and Home Goods (for my budget). I tried really hard to stick to the basics—storage and lighting. I added the numbers because I was inspired by a page in a Pottery Barn decorating book. I REALLY wish I could paint the wall to give everything a nice pop…but since I can’t paint, I’ll try to bring in color other ways (for example, I’d love to paint that wood table I have that is acting as my desk).

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My big bargain buy was a total accident! I got that new chair for $12 down from $150 at Home Goods. It’s a great basic color and I can see recovering it in the near future. I’m also in love with the lamp!

This is the top view of the shelves. I bought the shelves from Ikea. Since I have so little space, I worked my way up to utilize space.

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My desktop…lots of sketching, facebooking, and designing happen here.

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Here was my “number” inspiration to help tie things together a bit. It makes it all a little more graphic:). I printed numbers, used sign stickers, and house numbers.I need a seriously big number to put on the wall but haven’t found one yet.

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51

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Here’s the inspiration for the numbers: A Pottery Barn decorating book.

inspirationpottey1My tray on the desk keeps me “organized”. Well, sort of, I just dump things in it. It makes the desk less cluttered. It also holds my ugly hard drive (hidden under my Arts & Crafts book!).

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Here are my easy-peasy tags for my jars. I used My Minds Eye Rub-On Alphas and printed out the tags from these templates I made. You can download them here:

Tag Templates Download

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They are the same tag, set up for print-ready.

These are the My Minds Eye RubOns.

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Setting it up on my computer:

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img_11621I love the rubons because they are so simple and really take all the work out of this project.

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Hope you enjoyed! I’m sure I”ll be changing this minispace as I find more “stuff.” I especially want to add more color. Have a great Saturday!

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Valentine Gifts for Preschoolers

2 Comments / Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, Holiday Projects /

I posted my valentine freebie from card nirvana earlier, and we actually used  them today for Siri’s preschool class! I printed them out back and front, Siri wrote in all her schoolmates names. We then attached the heart lollipops to the cards by punching a little hole in the corner. Fast and sweet…just the way it should be!

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A note about the chocolate cards—we used a white gel pen to write on them! You can write on them with black ink, but it’s a little hard to read.

Want to grab these free cards? Grab them here from Card Nirvana, my digital invitation store!

**The Card Nirvana download is no longer available! You can now download them directly from this link:

https://carinagardner.com/valentineskiddiecard.zip

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Kitchen 123: Valentine Project and Heart Freebie

7 Comments / Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, Holiday Projects /

As Valentine’s day is approaching, I decided to be festive and actually do a project. You know, one where I am not on the computer. Ya, that doesn’t happen a lot. lol. If you want to make this heart tree, it’s SO easy and really inexpensive. Use any paper you like…my paper is the Bohemia line from My Minds Eye. I made 9 little “heart trios” as I call them, but you can make any number you like. So here’s the project: I took branches from outside and placed them in a vase. I used a piece of scrapbook paper, rolled it, and stuffed it in the vase. Then I put on these little heart trios. Here’s how to make them:

First, download my heart freebie here. Print is out as your template. Then you are going to want to cute out hearts from 3 different types of papers. I actually folded my heart template in half and folded the scrapbook paper too so my hearts were symmetrical. Then you want to glue stick three of the hearts together so they look like so:

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I then punched a little hole in each of these with a “baby” hole puncher. and hung then on string. I think ribbon would be cute too, but at the moment I don’t have ribbon thin enough for this project. So string it was!

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I did tie a little crochet lace around the top of the vase. I love how graphic this paper is because it feels so organic. I’d also suggest painting the branches white. I didn’t because I like the natural feeling of the branches, but I think that it could be a cute alternative.

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Here’s my Kitchen 123 Recipe card I made to file away this project (See the recipe card post).

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Grab the heart template freebie at my 4shared link: Heart Freebie Template

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Valentine Day Card Freebies!

5 Comments / Card Nirvana, Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, Holiday Projects /

Jen and I both got up our Valentine Freebies at Card Nirvana! I think you’ll like these cards! Jen put up this fun striped valentine’s day card and I have up some mini 3 in.x 4 in. cards that I made for my daughter’s preschool friends. I probably will attach them to heart lollipops or some other treat (I’ll post it when I do them), but for now, we thought anybody who wanted to use them for Valentine’s Day could grab them in advance! The Valentine Stripe card is for photoshop users and the small cards (Valentine Kiddie Cards) are set in a pdf. You can just print as is (there’s a cute heart wallpaper to print on the back of the cards) or use the Card Nirvana pdf to TYPE IN YOUR INFO. It’s SO easy.

js-stripevalentine

cgvalentineskiddiecards_index

This is what the files look like that you get:

valentinesexample

Happy Heart Day! Have fun with the freebies! If you use them at all post the link here so we can see what you did with them! You can download from 4shared just one card. I’d recommend just going straight to Card Nirvana to pick all the freebies up at once though:).

**The Card Nirvana download is no longer available! You can now download them directly from this link:

https://carinagardner.com/studio/freedownloads/valentineskiddiecard.jpg

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Christmas Cards

DIE CUT PROJECTS (SILHOUETTE & CRICUT), HOLIDAY /

If you are like me, you are probably starting to think about getting your Christmas cards together—the card type, the photos, and the most dreaded thing of all—getting together the addresses on my list! So today when I went to Costco, I found this AWESOME new size that I think is FANTASTIC! And what a great deal: 

6×7½ photo greeting cards
Creating a photo greeting card is fun and easy. Choose from many designs and add your own personalized message. Each order includes envelopes. Available for pickup at Costco warehouse only.
$14.99 set of 50
$5.99 additional sets of 25

I think that turns out to be 29 cents a card…plus they throw in the envelopes! What a great deal! I’m tempted to print this size because it is so cute! I also got an brochure from snapfish today. They have a deal for 20 free prints (sounds good to me!) and after that they are only 9 cents each. Not bad, huh? What really caught my eye in the brochure where the coasters (this pic isn’t as cute), but I am certainly tempted by them:

So what am I doing for my pics this year. Last year we took photos of the girls on the antique white piano and the girls wore brown velvet dresses. his year, my little sister SuiKim is coming down to take photos of the girls. I have dresses for them, but I’m sort of thinking of taking more whimsical photos of them in their tutus. We’ll have to see. I’ll let you all know how they turned out! Of course, whatever card I design for myself will also probably get sold on cardnirvana so you can be watching for it:) (You can see last year’s card here.

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Giveaway at DST

Free Digital Downloads-Freebies-Free Digital Printables, UPDATES FROM CARINA /

There is a cardnirvana giveaway going on a DigiShopTalk right now! Just click on the link and it will take you right to the thread! We’re giving away gift certificates to pick up some of the new digital cards in the store. Go head and submit to the thread! 
Check out the new French Boutique Collection that I just put up last night:

You can see them individually in the designer collection or general party categories.

More invitations being uploaded daily so keep checking back!

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Project with Scrapbook Papers

3 Comments / DIE CUT PROJECTS (SILHOUETTE & CRICUT) /

This is one of those projects that has been mulling around in my head, but I hadn’t gotten around to doing. Finally, today I decided to buckle down and do it with Siri, my 4 year old. I had a lot of papers from the Laundry Line from My Minds Eye Scrapbooking company. The papers are BEAUTIFUL—they have a thin layer of glitter on them and I can’t believe how sweet they are. Anyway, I went through my craft boxes and found some brass brads, masking tape, a ruler, and some crocheting yarn (I was hoping to find some twine, but to no avail). I made these little flags for the girls’ room. We are renting right now, so anything like this makes the room look a little better. 
I cut out triangles of the scrapbook paper (I cut out the paper with one on the front and one of the back so that they matched up evenly). I just used masking tape to get the triangles together (I thought about using some good glue, but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle). I wanted really cool, glittery opposite sides so this worked out nicely. I also liked the thickness of the two pieces of scrapbook paper. Then I made holes—one inch from each end of the flag. I put the yarn into the brad and then put the brad into the paper. Sorry if this makes no sense (as I write it, it doesn’t make much sense to me)…so just look at the photos!





OKay you can see the brads in the photo. The string is just strung along the front through the brads.

Here you can see the backs (with the brads).

Wait, did I mention that Siri was helping me? It was fun although she ended up just cutting up the same piece of scrapbook paper into little tiny bits and trying very hard to follow the lines (because Ms Wendy says that cutting on the lines is a good thing to learn). So be warned, your kids room will be pretty, but your kitchen will be a mess when you are done with this project!

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My Minds Eye

CRAFTS, DIE CUT PROJECTS (SILHOUETTE & CRICUT) /

So I was with my friend Jen B. (Art Director at My Minds Eye) yesterday and she gave me a peek at the new line at My Minds Eye (that’s a scrapbooking company for all you non-scrappers out there). Holy cow, it is BEAUTIFUL. They have all these gorgeous elements with glitter letters and glitter paper. Normally, I am not a “glitter” person, but she COMPLETELY converted me! The stuff is fabulous and will be showing at the CHA conference this weekend. If you want to peek at the lines, look here: mymindseye.com.

It’s pretty awesome to look at on the Internet, but wait until you HOLD the stuff! It is awesome!

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The Digi Scrap Club

2 Comments / DIE CUT PROJECTS (SILHOUETTE & CRICUT) /

Hi ladies! For anyone I have talked to about starting a Digi Scrap Club, I have two new polls up for you guys to answer! Take a look and we will talk! If you have any other suggestions on the Digi Scrap Club, be sure to post them here! The first one will be at my house and I will give a tutorial on Adobe Photoshop Elements at the beginning for everyone just getting started! Bring your laptap!

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Fourth of July

2 Comments / DIE CUT PROJECTS (SILHOUETTE & CRICUT) /

We had a great fourth of July! We went to Kaysville to be with family and check out the water parade. We then had a quiet BBQ at Mary’s house and walked to the Sugarhouse fireworks (If I had any idea it was going to be a mile there and back…I don’t know if I would have agreed!).

here’s some pics!

Flissa and her second cousin Austin getting in the pool clothing and all!



Siri, cold and wet.

Uncle Nate, cousin Lola, Siri and Flissa and fireworks!

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