Wild and Free Card with Deb Riddell

Hello, Deb here again to share another project with you for our August Anything Goes challenge.  For today’s project I decided to make a card featuring the new Circle Decor Frame, the Small Bird Mix and the Intersecting Circles Stencil.

I’ve a few step by step photos on how I made it, enjoy!

I started out with a 6” x 6” piece of manila cardstock and coloured it with Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky Distress inks along with some spritz and flick with water.

I then embossed the coloured cardstock using the intersecting circles stencil and my Sizzix Big Shot.  The sandwich I used to emboss with the stencil was: platform 1, standard cutting plate, silicone mat, the cardstock, the stencil and the impressions pad (the black hard plate that comes with the silicone mat).  After embossing, I highlighted the raised areas with Broken China Distress ink.

I then trimmed the embossed cardstock down to 5 ¾” square, tattered the edges and inked them with Stormy Sky Distress ink.

The circle decor frame was coloured with Weathered Wood Distress paint and after it had dried, I painted it again with Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Glitter Paint in Obsidian. I don’t know if this paint is available any longer but you could easily get the same effect by adding some glitter glue with your finger.

On to the small birds!  I chose three different sizes of birds from the mix and gave each a coat of gesso and after it had dried, painted them with DecoArt Americana Raw Umber acrylic paint.

After the acrylic paint had dried, I lightly sanded the edges of the birds (an emory board works beautifully to sand these small delicate chipboard pieces!) and finger painted each of them with the Martha Stewart Glitter Paint, this time using the colour Brownstone.  Again, if you can’t find that particular paint, glitter glue will do the trick.

I coloured a piece of 110 lb white cardstock with Weathered Wood Distress paint and after it had thoroughly dried, printed out my sentiment using my computer printer.  The font that I ended up using is called Mardian Demo (I printed it out with two different fonts initially to see which one I liked best).

After the printer ink had dried, I cut out a fishtail banner, painted the backside with the same Weathered Wood Distress paint and gently formed a curve into the banner as the paint dried.  The edges were inked with more Stormy Sky Distress ink.

Next I coloured four star brads with alcohol inks in Stone Wash, Stream and Mushroom.

And then I got on a roll and forgot to take any more in process pictures so will show you some close ups of the finished card, sorry about that!

I cut a piece of kraft coloured corrugated card 6” square and adhered the embossed cardstock to it and then used my Cropadile to punch holes in each corner and inserted the star brads.

The circle decor frame was centered onto the embossed cardstock and glued into place and the birds were adhered inside of the frame. The fishtail banner was then positioned along the bottom of the frame and glued onto the card front.

The whole assembly was then mounted onto a kraft coloured card blank and  I stamped a wee flying bird from a discontinued Crafty Secrets stamp set on the inside.

I hope that you have enjoyed seeing how I made my Wild and Free card, I love how it turned out!

Southern Ridge Trading Company Supplies Used:

Chipboard:

- Circle Decor Frame

- Small Bird Mix

Stencils:

- Intersecting Circles

Other Supplies Used:

- Tim Holtz/Ranger - Distress ink, Distress paint, Alcohol ink, Distress Archival ink

- Sizzix - Big Shot

- Martha Stewart - Multi-Surface Glitter paint

- DecoArt - Americana Acrylic paint

- Michaels - Recollections Star brads, 65 lb kraft cardstock, 110 lb white cardstock, kraft corrugated cardstock

- Miscellaneous - Cropadile, glue, tape runner, scissors, paper trimmer, computer and printer, ruler, emory board

Hope that you will be inspired to join in our August Anything Goes challenge, you have a chance to win 4 designs from the online store - chipboard.ca - a $20.00 (before tax) retail value of YOUR OWN CHOOSING!  Can’t wait to see what you link up, have fun and happy creating!

Deb xo

Crazy Cat Canvas with Karen Bearse

Today I have a super simple cat canvas tutorial. I have this Siamese cat, Arwen and wanted to create a photo canvas of our cranky little family member who is sometimes sweet. It fits perfectly with our Anything Goes challenge so come join us and you could win!

The end result looks much harder but trust me super simple! In my quest to use from my stash I had a 6x12” canvas so I fit my project to that size.

Playing with Southern Ridge stencils was a good place to start. Simply put your stencil down and with a spatula scrape product through. Light molding paste, and Distress Grit-paste. I choose a few different stencils making sure to add some paste on to the sides of the canvas. Wash your stencils immediately or set in water until ready to clean. I just use an old tooth brush to get the wet paste off. Set your canvas aside to dry.

Once the paste was dry I spritzed with my favourite colour mists. I am stuck on blues and greens so I went with that. Choose a few colours that if they mix they create a 3rd colour. This will prevent you from making mud. Also choose colours that will make your pictures pop.

Once the mist was dry I added in Glimmer Glam using a paint brush. This has good coverage and glitter as an added bonus. This was used to paint the sides of the canvas and blend areas where more colour or a pop of glitter was needed. You can also use acrylic paint if you prefer, or spritz your mist on a palette and paint on with a brush. Water will re-activate the mist so be aware of that when adding to your canvas.

For the kitty cats I wanted them to really stand out so I used a black Glimmer Glam (you can also use acrylic paint) to paint the chippies adding different products to each. Running kitty got mica flakes and micro beads, sitting kitty got fire-opal flakes and crouching kitty got a mix of different emboss powders. Glam is sticky and products adhere to it easily but just to be sure, once it is dry, add a thin coat of decoupage glue.

Use whatever you have on hand. A few ideas are seed beads, glitter glass, or leave your kitties with paint and highlight with a metallic colour like copper.

You have a choice now. Either leave the remaining chippies natural or do a quick and simple stain with distress. I decided to colour the fish & title with distress stain & cover with a layer of clear emboss powder as I wanted it to shine. Again I wanted the fish to really pop so I used a colour that would stand out against my background. Wrapping wire around the tail and attaching it hanging from the canvas added a nice element. You can also just use thread or twine. I did the same colouring for the title “Crazy” and distressed the edges with paint.

The rest was just assembly. Move the chippies around until you find a good placement for them and then adhere. As a final touch distress the edges of your canvas with paint or archival ink. I hope this tutorial helps you to make a fun photo canvas!

Southern Ridge Trading Company Chippies Used:

- 6 Cats

- Cat Tags #2

- Crazy Word

Southern Ridge Trading Company Stencils Used:

- Bubble Wrap

- Rain Drop

- Fish Net

Other Supplies Used:

- Tattered Angels: Glimmer Mist- Bahama Blue, Aquamarine, Jazz Blue,

Chalkboard- Inchworm

Glimmer Glam- Mermaid, Caspian Sea, Organic Garden, Stiletto

- Ranger Ink: Distress Paint- Black Soot, Mustard Seed, Foss. Amber,

Distress Stain – Wilted Violet, Abandoned Coral,

Distress Grit-Paste, Glossy Accents, UTEE

- Golden- Light Molding Paste

- Archival Ink- Jet Black

Remember to play along in the monthly challenge over on the Southern Ridge Trading Company blog. Each month enter for your chance to win 4 designs from the online store - chipboard.ca -$20 (before tax) retail value of YOUR OWN CHOOSING! 

- Karen

Love Layout with Charlene Byrd

Hello Bloggers!

This is one of my most favourite paper collections by Kaisercraft! I just love the colours! And how perfect are these Prima flowers that I’ve had in my stash for years! I must say I am truly enjoying designing for Southern Ridge, it allows me to design with my favourite products. For those of you that don’t know me personally, I owned a retail store in Medicine Hat, Alberta for over 11 years. So over the years I attained quite the collection of everything! If there ever was a downside to owning a store it would only be that I couldn’t design with my favourite papers all the time, I felt horrible displaying a layout that had product on it that I didn’t have in my store. So I always designed with the new products while hoarding my favourites at home! So look into your stash of products to find your old time favourites!

I wanted all 3 chipboard pieces to be a bit different from each other. The Love title started with a coat of modelling paste. I then added some Pumice Stone and Black Soot distress ink on the top until I got the desired colour I wanted. To finish it off I lightly sanded the top of the chipboard to expose some of the white.

The chipboard clock is my favourite. I stumbled across a Glimmer Mist that was the perfect match to the teal in the papers. After spraying it and letting it dry I daubed some white acrylic paint here and there and then inked the edges with Black Soot ink. I love how it has a patina look to it!

The birdhouse chipboard piece was simply stained with Black Soot Distress stain. But what I want to point out in this picture is the definition. It’s an actual definition from a dictionary. I took a piece of scotch tape, pressed it on top of the word and gently pulled the tape off the paper. Voila! Off comes the definition with some torn edges on the bottom.

I hope I’ve inspired you today to go digging into your paper stash and pull out some of your favourites…and complete it with a beautiful chipboard piece from Southern Ridge!

Southern Ridge Trading Company products:

- Heart Scroll Cages (2 pieces per package!)

- Love Word

- Fine Clock Face (2 pieces per package!)

Other Products Used:

- Kaisercraft Paper

Prima Marketing Flowers, Butterfly and Pearl Swirls

- Paper Doily

- Washi Tape

- Dictionary Paper

Remember to play along in the monthly challenge over on the Southern Ridge Trading Company blog. Each month enter for your chance to win 4 designs from the online store - chipboard.ca -$20 (before tax) retail value of YOUR OWN CHOOSING! 

Thanks for joining me today!

Happy Creating!

- Charlene

Love Mixed Media Canvas with Katelyn Grosart

Hey there Southern Ridge Trading Company fans, Katelyn here, I'm up on the blog today to share with you some more inspiration for our current monthly challenge which is "Anything Goes".  I love the anything goes challenge and I can't wait to see what you will share with us. Today I've got a love mixed media canvas for you that will be sure to inspire you. You'll want to grab a cup of coffee or tea while you learn how I transformed my chipboard pieces to create the perfect additions to my love mixed media canvas.

To start, you'll want to grab your Chicken Wire stencil. Place the chicken wire stencil in the bottom right hand corner of the canvas. Using a palette knife, apply a thin layer of texture paste over a portion of the stencil. Pick up the stencil and place it in the top left corner. Using a palette knife, apply a thin layer of texture paste over a portion of the stencil. Once your finished with your stencil, immediately clean it along with the palette knife. Note: My canvas was going to be for a different project, that's why it's blue. Let canvas dry for 20 minutes.

With the stenciled images being dry on the canvas, apply a couple of coats of white gesso to the entire canvas, including the sides. You'll want to cover the stenciled areas on your canvas with white gesso. Let the gesso dry on the canvas.

Once the gesso has dried, apply a couple of coats of Vintage Rose paint to the entire canvas including the sides. Once the two layers dry, apply a layer of Blush paint to the entire canvas including the sides. After the Blush paint has dried, lightly apply white gesso randomly over the entire canvas. Set aside the canvas to dry.

After the layers of paint have dried, apply VersaMark ink to a script stamp of your choosing. Start by stamping the script stamp in the top left corner. Continue apply VersaMark to the stamp and continue stamping on the top of the canvas, until the entire canvas is covered with the script image. Once the stamping is finished, cover the top of the canvas with Soft Fallen Snow Embossing Powder. Tap off excess and emboss with a heat tool. Don't worry if you only see parts of the script image on the canvas. As you can notice, I only had parts of the stamped script image showing on my canvas. 

With the script images now being embossed, randomly spritz Mister Huey's - First Kiss, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - Silver and Ranger Ink Perfect Pearls Mist - Perfect Pearls on to the top of the canvas. Add as much or as little of each colour. This part is completely up to you on which colours you want to highlight more on your canvas. Set the canvas aside to dry.

With the background on the canvas being done, it's time to move on to the chipboard pieces. To start, you'll need the Elegant Victorian Corners. Start by covering each corner in two coats of Blush Paint. Once the blush paint has dried, take a piece of paper towel and dab it into the white gesso. With white gesso on your paper towel, randomly add little streaks of gesso to each corner. You'll need to dab your paper towel into the white gesso more than once. Set chipboard pieces aside to dry.

With the corners being done, we'll now work on the Love word from the Wedding Love set. Apply two coats of Vintage Rose paint to the love word. Set the love word aside to dry.

The next piece you'll use is the Barbed Wire Heart Frame. Apply two coats of Silver Spoon paint to the heart. Once the paint has dried, cover the entire heart with a coat of VersaMark Ink. With VersaMark ink being on the heart, cover it with Ultra Thick Embossing Powder. Tap off excess and emboss the heart with a heat tool. When embossing the heart, don't let the embossing powder completely melt, this will give you the bubble effect like I got.

The last piece of chipboard you'll need is the Swirling Heart. When you purchase the swirling heart, you'll notice that there is a flourish designs underneath it, cut the heart away from the flourish design. Keep the flourish piece as you'll be able to use it on another project. Apply two coats of Silver Spoon paint to the heart. Once the paint has dried, apply a layer of VersaMark ink to the heart. Once the VersaMark ink has been applied, cover the heart with Ultra Thick Embossing Powder. Tap off excess and emboss the heart with a heat tool. When embossing the heart, don't let the embossing powder completely melt, this will give you the bubble effect like I got.

Your canvas background should be dry now, so you can adhere all of your chipboard pieces to the canvas. When you adhere your chipboard pieces, you'll want to use Glossy Accents to make sure the pieces stay in place. To finish off the bottom right and top left corners, I added an assortment of flowers and in amongst the flowers I added some keys. Add as many flowers and embellishments as desired. To adhere the flowers and keys, use Glossy Accents to make sure that they stay in place. Allow at least an hour for the Glossy Accents to dry before sitting your piece up right.

Here is my finished piece with all of the elements together.

Southern Ridge Trading Company Supplies Used:

- Elegant Victorian Corners

- Barbed Wire Heart Frame

- Swirling Heart

- Wedding Love

- Chicken Wire Stencil

- 10mm Pink Roses

- White Carnations

- 40mm Pink Roses and White Flowers

Other Supplies Used:

- Emerald Creek Craft Supplies: Soft Fallen Snow Embossing Powder and Metal Key Charm

- Ranger Ink: Glossy Accents, Ultra Thick Embossing Powder, Texture Paste and Perfect Pearls Mist - Perfect Pearls

- Ranger Ink/Dina Wakley: Palette Knife

- Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous: Random Quotes

- Prima Marketing: Heavy White Gesso and Acrylic Paint - Metallic Silver Spoon and Vintage Rose

- Tsukineko/Imagine Crafts: VersaMark

- Paper Artsy: Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paint - Blush

- Tattered Angels: Glimmer Mist - Silver

- Studio Calico: Mister Huey's - First Kiss

- Misc: Canvas & Heat Tool

Remember to play along in the monthly challenge over on the Southern Ridge Trading Company blog. Each month enter for your chance to win 4 designs from the online store - chipboard.ca -$20 (before tax) retail value of YOUR OWN CHOOSING! 

Until Next Time!

- Katelyn

Koh Lipe Mixed Media Project with Ava Gavloski

Koh Lipe (Island of Lipe)

South Andaman Sea

Where do you ask? Thailand has 3 very distinct areas and this is in the southern part of Thailand sharing the Sea with Malaysia.

Hello and thanks for stopping by to experience the view seaside. It's Ava here today to share a mixed media project with you for our Anything Goes challenge. Can you feel the breeze from the sea? Can you see how well the chipboard from Southern Ridge Trading Company can embellish the beauty of these photo's?

I started out with my favourite chipboard pieces from the Miniature Collection, called “Mini Ocean Set, followed by the “Fishnet Pattern” within the Pattern Collections. To prepare these chippies for this 2 page spread, I sprayed water onto the chipboard pieces, sprinkled each piece with shimmering pigment ink from Primary Elements. Brushed the pigment into the chipboard pieces with some more water and let the chipboard dry.

Next up was to build a layered background. Modeling paste, a stencil, glimmer mist and glam from Tattered Angels really helped embellish the look of the photo's.

I added some sequences, shells, beads, cheese cloth and glitter with liquid adhesive and you can feel that sea air against your skin.

Lets take another look at each page. The chipboard adds so much texture to these pages and really takes you seaside within these photo's.

Southern Ridge Trading Co. Supplies Used:

- Mini Ocean Set

- Fish Net Pattern

Other Supplies Used:

- Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Glam

- Primary Elements Pigment

Hope you have been inspired to join in our August challenge, Anything Goes, you have a chance to win 4 designs from the online store – chipboard.ca. Can’t wait to see what you link up, happy creating!

- Ava