2 Days in Paris - Mini Album

I sure hope that the Design Team has been inspiring you with all these amazing projects using Southern Ridge Trading Company's  amazing chipboard & wooden embellishments! I love seeing what other people do with this great product...

For today's project, I made a mini album for my daughter who's away on an exchange to Europe. She spent two days in Paris, hence the title of the mini, so this little album (ALB-084) was the perfect choice for decorating. I just covered the chipboard album in a coordinating paper collection & inked the edges of the pages with a soft brown chalk ink. Once she's home with her camera, I just have to print the photographs out & finish this little mini off!

For the cover, I used the FRA-118 frame & covered it using the Viva Decor Inka Gold product in the colour of Haematite. The Inka Gold covers the chipboard amazing! The mini Eiffel Tour chipboard (TRA-296) will be available on the website in April. I also covered it using the Inka Gold and LOVE how realistic it came out. (I also covered the little wooden "love" heart with the Inka Gold to see how it would cover, & it worked like a charm too! It's not on this project, but it shows an example of using the Inka Gold on the wood embellishments as well!)

I hope you enjoy my creation! I had a blast making it! Until next time -- Cheers!

Mary Had A Little Lamb

Can't begin to tell you how much fun I had coloring Mary and her little lamb created by Sylvia Zet.  I'm hoping to see some improvement in my coloring as I'm taking the Skin and Hair Class by Alyce at Kit and Clowder.  I've been so absorbed in the class and practicing that  I haven't been doing much card making.

I just love this frame made by Karen at Southern Ridge Trading Post.  You can get this frame FRA-135 and many other beautiful pieces of chipboard HERE.  Hop on over and take a look at all of the gorgeous pieces she has for you or check us out on Facebook.

The flowers are a combination of Prima, WOC, LLC,and  Kort & Gort.  I've colored the image with the following Copics:

Skin:  E000, 00, 11, 04, 21 - R20

Hair:  E50, 53, 42, 57

Bonnet & Shoes:  R10, 81, 83

Dress:  V000, 01, 04, 06, 09 - C00, 01, 04

Lamb:  C00, 01, 04, R22

Flowers:  BG000, 13, 49

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon.

Hugs, Carol (Granny)

Heart Border on a Wedding LO

Hi again! It's Cheri here with another sample of what you can make with some of Southern Ridge Trading Co.'s gorgeous laser cut chipboard! I had the honour recently of being Matron of Honour for one of my dearest friends (who's blog you can find HERE) at her small beautiful wedding. I also took photos for her! At the end of the evening she had the topper from her wedding cake at the table with us and I had an idea! So I asked if I could take her cake topper and she said SURE! The idea I had was to use the topper in a shadow box with some of the pictures I had taken.

Her favorite colour is of course BLUE! haha! And so, I took 2 of my favorite photos' from the ceremony and made them black and white and just added alittle pop of blue to them. Then I made this layout using some paper from Studio Calico and some lace. I had picked out this lovely heart strip from SRTC and I coloured it with Liquid Pearls Ocean Spray blue.

I love using liquid pearls like this on chipboard, if you fill them in with a sort of swirling motion it makes the most gorgeous pattern to it. and this strip really popped off the page. I also used one of the new banners from SRTC and did the same, filled it with the pearls and then I outlined it with a black copic and wrote the date January 31 in a white gel pen.

The white numbers are from American Crafts Thickers, and then I added the banner across the bottom of it. I was really happy with the whole project. The cake topper I simply used some hot glue to glue it into the frame and I even made her a floral bouquet to hold onto with the picture frame! I gave this to Carla and Trevor today and they loved it! And she was happy to see her cake topper again! LOL

Thanks for looking! Happy Crafting friends!
Cheri

Western Tags

Hello and welcome to the Southern Ridge Trading Company blog!  

I want to show you these really cute tags that are made of chipboard!   They are found in the store here TAG-049 and there are more designs too!  I decorated both sides of the tags and I can use them on gifts or in my scrapbooking pages. 

This tag came with the steer skull and I frantaged it in 2 colors on both sides. Then I glued on the paper and metal embellishments.

This tag is completely left original as I love the colors the chipboard arrives in. So keeping it in its natural color I only frantaged the wagon wheels. This is very old crocheted lace I glued on and then added the other two chipboards on top. The window is found in the store here HHP-182. 

This tag is for a baby boy. I Frantaged the horse shoes and added the paper with angel wings and Prima lightbulb.  The back has a message on it.

I love the tags and there are so many ideas for decorating them!  I hope you are inspired to order them and share your creativity with us on our Facebook Page here.

If you would like to see the other sides of the tag please go to my blog.

Have a great day,

Kelly

Top O' the Mornin to Ya ...

Bit of a theme today, with it being St Patrick's Day and all: a Good Luck card using a Southern Ridge Trading Co wooden horseshoe piece. I loved working with it, it is so robust. Thought I'd test that by coating the piece in gel medium (to limit the absorbency of the ink into the wood), inking it up and stamping with it. I had to press hard, and I also put a foam pad under where I was stamping. I loved how the stamped horseshoe came out, you can see the details of the wood grain. It gives quite the distressed look, perfect for any western themed projects.

Lots of 'lucky' elements in this card, shamrocks, horseshoes, good luck wishes ..... the recipient is going to reap the benefits hopefully. That could be you, or me ... can I send it to myself ? Lol

Happy St Patrick's Day
Nikki x

Chipboard borders - Scrapbooking Style!

I was so excited to be asked by my friend Karen to be a part of her Design Team for Southern Ridge Trading Company. I offer a bit of a different perspective for Karen as I am a retail scrapbook owner & am able to offer her direct commentary about what my customers needs are in regards to chipboard products. 

I am an avid scrapbooker & mini album lover first, but I do dabble in making cards & other paper crafting projects. My first project for the SRTC blog is a scrapbook page, using one of the star borders (Xmas-144) & the star shapes (Xmas-141), found in the Christmas & Holidays section of the website. I also used the circular centre of the frame (FRA-118) as a "puck" full of stars from the Frames, Borders & Corners section. 

As you can see, I left most of the chipboard pieces "raw". They don't always need to be covered up & made too fancy for these wonderful pieces to look good on your projects. Personally, I love the fact that they look "distressed" already just from the laser process! Saves me a step in the "finishing" and as a busy mom, I appreciate any time saving steps LOL! I did cover the "puck" with coordinating patterned paper to pull the layout together. As a final touch, I used a pop up square to add a star to the middle of the word MOM to add some dimension to the title.

I hope you enjoyed my first project and that I gave you some different ideas on using this amazing product. I'll be back in a couple of weeks with another project to share with you! TTFN! :)

My Love,, Where Are You?

I'm so excited to share my first post for Southern Ridge Trading Company with you and sure hope you like it. I've used the gorgeous Maja Vintage Autumn Basic DP and cut out this handsome gentlemen from one of the pages  Don't you think he is patiently looking and waiting for someone special?  I do, and that is what gave me the inspiration for this card.  I've had this card completed for a couple of weeks and just needed to get it photographed before posting.  I think I saw something similar this week using this gentleman, but I don't remember where or who designed it.

This chipboard frame (FRA-099) is stunning and is the main focus of the step-card with chipboard flourishes (FLO-251) on each side.  I painted each piece with Gesso before attaching.  The flowers are a combination of Wild Orchid Crafts, Magnolia, Kort & Gort and Prima.  This beautiful lace is from LLC and I've added pearls to give it that special touch.

Below is a different view so you get a better look at this delicate and sturdy chipboard.

Thanks so very nuch for stopping by and we hope to see you again soon.   Please don't forget to LIKE us on Facebook and stop by to see wonderful designs from some of our fans.  We'd love to have you and see what you create with SRTC Chipboard.  

Hugs, Carol

Mixed Media Creative Canvas

Hello everyone! Cheri here!! With my first post on the new Southern Ridge Trading Co. blog! Whooo hoo!! Have you been enjoying the projects by my talented team mates? Made with this awesome new Canadian company's chipboard shapes? I am over joyed to have joined this team and I am so happy to show you this project. As many of you are as well, I have been having a BLAST with the new mixed media sensation that has hit our crafty paper crafting universe and it's ALL I've wanted to do for some time. And these shapes from SRTC are PERFECT!! I was inspired by the colours of another mixed media artist on Pinterest (psst... I'm a Pinterest JUNKIE....come follow my boards here) and anyhow I found this GORGEOUS canvas and wanted to use this as inspiration. Here is mine....

So I am addicted to quotes and word inspirations... and then I make these wall hangings. This one if its hard to read, says I'm Creative. You can't Expect Me to be Neat too! I started off with gesso and gel medium to glue down cheesecloth and then layers of flowers and fun chipboard!!! Check out these cool flourishes!!!

After laying down all of the embellishments there is layer after layer of paint and spray mists from Lindy's Stamp Gang and Tattered Angels. The title letters are from American Crafts Thickers. I sure hope you like what you see here, I will be starting some YouTube videos of my canvas art very soon, be sure to pop over to my blog Graphicat Creations to be sure not to miss them!

Art journalling Southern Ridge Trading style ....

I was fortunate enough to encounter Karen at a craft event recently, and spent time looking through her baskets of wonderful-ness, various wooden and chipboard die cuts in all shapes and sizes, some delicate and intricate, others more sturdy - it was exciting.  Possibly you will get to experience this too :)

One little bird caught my eye. He was bagged up with his little friends but was desperate to feature in my next art journal page, so I enabled him ! lol

The inspiration for this page came from a poem I had recently read about acceptance, and in particular accepting ourselves for who we are. I would like to think we all have the freedom to sing and simply 'be'. This bird was perfect, he looks confident and was the perfect size, especially with his washi tape musical road.

A close up of my bird :

He is quite thick, sturdy chipboard. I put a layer of clear gesso onto him to get a little tooth for my gelato's and so I could work with a wet medium. I colored him with chocolate, butterscotch and tangerine gelato, and used my aqua painter to blend and move the colors around. As you can see, he has red lips /beak.... yes, he is a very fortunate whimsical bird. lol. A couple of layers of clear embossing powder put the finishing touches to his appearance. Isn't he cute. 

Hope you found some inspiration here, Nikki x

Romantic Canvas

Welcome to the Southern Ridge Trading Company Blog!

We are going to show you different ways we have used Southern Ridge Trading Companies chipboard pieces throughout the month so I hope you stop by often. You will love the versatility and quality of Karen's chipboard pieces available at her store here.  I have used several pieces on my canvas that I made that I would like to share with you.

You cannot tell but I used a oval canvas and mod podged my romantic papers on to it and then embellished it with 4 pieces of chipboard.  I use Glossy Accents glue to adhere the pieces to the canvas, which is available in the store here.

See below are the words Love Letters, well the shape is a chipboard piece that I used to mount the paper and the other chipboard piece onto. The butterfly branch INS 255 is painted with gesso and then painted with my Copic Markers. I slightly Frantaged  some edges and added the pearls.

The below flourish is Frantaged in Shabby Pink and can be found here Flourish FLO 254.  It comes in sets of 3.

My butterfly came with the other Butterfly Branch INS 255, you get 4 pieces in this set.  I Frantaged the butterfly in Aged Rose and then added a pearl.

I hope this inspires you with ideas in how to use your chipboard. There are so many things you can do with Karens chipboard pieces, scrapbooking, altered art, canvas, cards, she offers a nice variety of sizes.  Karen also changes her inventory around and if you want a custom order just ask her!

Southern Ridge also has a Facebook page for you to share your creative ideas with us.  Please join our Facebook Page Here as we would love to see your work with our chipboard!

Have a fabulous week and happy creating,

Kelly Neis

WELCOME!

Thanks so much for visiting our blog...I say “our” because there are so many talented and committed people helping me with it....Please take the time to read up on each and every designer posted here as they each have there own style and a ton of amazing creativity to share with you!!! I am truly ecstatic and feel blessed to be apart of such a great team  I can’t say enough about these ladies!

For the very first project on this blog, here is my “LOVE LACE TAG”.  I was trying to figure out what to do as a make and take at a crop.  I knew I wanted to demonstrate what you could do with chipboard as many people buy it then never use it, as they are unsure just what to do with it...so educate I will!  There are so many fun ways to make this versatile product “pop” and be a feature, or be subtle and add quietly to your project.

 

 

For this project I wanted it to be “Bold and Beautiful” like a jewel!  I wanted the rich colors to identify themselves by tone and intensity, so chose alike colors.  I started with a filigree chipboard tag that I designed specifically for this kit.  Painted on “gesso” to seal it.  I created the 3D brick wall by using a stencil and molding paste.  After it was dry, I blended several of my favorite water based acrylic colors including metallics and embossing powders. The “magic” happens when all your acrylic colors are blended and dry, when you add a layer of magenta or purple liquid transparent ink...OMG! You have to try this you will absolutely be addicted!!! 

 

Pieces are all included in the LOVE LACE TAG KIT, which will be the first kit to be added to my line of die cuts. This kit comes with brick wall on it. Happy creating!!!

Shoot for the moon and you might land amongst the stars!

 

I’m following this advice!  Stars are good.  I have just recently launched my new website of chip board and wood die cuts, designed by myself.  It has taken three long years to get to this point and I would have traded any of them....the growing and learning has been absolutely essential to be where I am right now! 

 

And I am here!...A design Team? What is that?...I asked that question just 6 months ago...NOW I HAVE ONE!!!  Sometimes you don’t even realize what is “best” for your business, but someone else usually does. (Thanks Eulanda!) Armed with a website, Facebook page, and a great blog I know we are going to have a lot of fun!!! 

For me it’s a business I can really sink my teeth into as I have been an avid scrapbooker and cardmaker for over 10 years.  I love to visualize what goes well on a page or a card...and create it!  I have close to 20 years experience in graphic arts which makes it possible to create the designs I love.

 

So hopefully we can inspire you to your own wonderful creations.

 

Thank you!

Karen Beaupre