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She set her laser on fire. Then she wrote the safety lesson herself. 🔥

Episode 275 of The Riley Black Project is a real episode with a real guest! Crystal and John sit down with Carissa Wiley of Sprinkled with Glitter. She’s a paper crafter turned laser maker, a retired nurse, a full-time YouTuber, and she used to fly coast to coast to sell crafts live on HSN.

Carissa tells the whole story of the fire in her Mira 9 Redline: a piece of cardboard she’d forgotten under the honeycomb, mirror acrylic, and a husband who showed up four minutes after she started yelling. Laser fires are quiet, and they can start while you’re in the same room. That’s why you should never walk away from your machine, even for “just a minute.”

We also get into:
✨ What working HSN craft days was really like while she was still doing 12-hour nursing shifts
✨ Why a plug-and-play studio setup frees you up to just create
✨ Going from a Glow Forge (which paid for her laser outright) to a Mira 9, and why you shouldn’t be scared to upgrade
✨ Engraving copper from an 1800s shipwreck 😬
✨ Why test grids aren’t wasted material, and why material quality matters for lasers and cardstock
✨ Dogs who eat everything (yes, including underwear)

If you’ve ever left your laser running “just for a sec,” this episode is your reminder.

👉 Find Carissa:
Website: sprinkledwithglitter.com
YouTube & Instagram: @CarissaWiley
TikTok: @theCarissaWiley

💎 This episode is sponsored by Monarch Pine. They carry premium laser blanks, jewelry findings, and laser-tested stainless chains and links. Use code RILEYBLACK for 10% off. Patrons get an even bigger discount!

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If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon!! You can check out the tier options and perks here: https://www.patreon.com/TheRileyBlackProject

Check out my Linktree for my social media links & all the different things I have to offer! https://linktr.ee/RileyBlack

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This episode is pure Riley Black Project live chaos.

John and Crystal sit down with Alexis from 1819 Madera for a fun, honest, and very relatable maker business conversation about life after Next Level Maker Conference, creative freedom, custom awards, name badges, business partnerships, parenting, conferences, Zumba, and the never-ending “after the event” to-do list.

Kendra couldn’t make the start of the episode, but don’t worry, she was absolutely still part of the chaos.

In this episode, we talk about what happens after a big maker conference when you think you’re finally going to get a break, but instead the orders, events, deliverables, and business opportunities keep coming. Alexis shares what 1819 Madera has been working on, including a big full-color badge order, custom event awards, and the lessons that come from trying new products that take way more time than expected.

We also get into one of the best parts of being a creative business owner: when customers actually trust you with creative freedom. From custom name tags and acrylic pieces to awards for major events, we talk about why the best projects often happen when clients give makers room to do what they do best.

Of course, we also recap some Next Level moments, including the MakerFlo Success Lounge, Zumba that John and Crystal absolutely intended to attend, late-night networking, trade show exhaustion, and why conference weeks are both amazing and completely draining.

Support the show

If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon!! You can check out the tier options and perks here: https://www.patreon.com/TheRileyBlackProject

Check out my Linktree for my social media links & all the different things I have to offer! https://linktr.ee/RileyBlack

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of The Riley Black Project, John and Crystal sit down for a solo life and business update after a wild stretch of travel, trade shows, content work, and real-life chaos.

We talk about Next Level Maker Conference, the validation that comes from seeing your community in person, and why events like this matter so much for makers, laser owners, creators, and small business owners. Online comments are great, but hearing people say “we see what you’re doing” face-to-face hits different.

From there, we recap our last-minute trip to UV Energize in Nashville, why we decided we needed to be in the room, and how showing up in person created real opportunities for Riley Black Studios. We talk about trade show content, vendor outreach, why emails get missed, why face-to-face conversations still matter, and how we ended up working with Mimaki USA on product overview videos for two newly launched machines.

We also get into testing live stream coverage at events, filming machine launches, working alongside marketing teams, the chaos of shooting on a busy show floor, and why trade shows are such a huge opportunity for brands to create content that keeps working long after the event is over.

Fair warning, the second half of this episode gets more personal. We talk about some heavier life stuff because that has been part of our reality lately too. One of the goals of this podcast has always been to remind people that they are not alone, whether you are building a business, running a laser, raising a family, grieving, struggling, growing, or trying to do all of it at the same time.

🎙️ The Riley Black Project
Lasers, life, business, content creation, and all the ish in between.

Support the show

If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon!! You can check out the tier options and perks here: https://www.patreon.com/TheRileyBlackProject

Check out my Linktree for my social media links & all the different things I have to offer! https://linktr.ee/RileyBlack