Monday, February 27, 2017

Happy Birthday Card with Corina Finley


Hello & Welcome!

Thank you for joining me. I have created a Happy Birthday Card using pattern paper, paint, ink, Crazing, flowers and my favourite Chipboard products from Southern Ridge Trading Company!


I started my card off by cutting my paper to my desired sizes. I decided to create a card that would fit into a #10 envelope. I then layered pieces together, used a paper distressing tool to the edges and added stitching using my sewing machine. I took the two smallest pieces and gave them both torn edges.


I used a light Distress Paint dauber to add paint to both the Chipboard Film Strip Frame and the Birthday Greeting. Once dry, I added a layer of Crazing on top of both using a paint brush.


As you can see in the picture above & below: the coat of Paint, Crazing and brown ink rubbed into the ridges gives the Film Strip Frame and Greeting an Old & Vintage look.


I add flat back pearls and an assortment of flowers to my card front for a finishing touch!

Southern Ridge Trading Company Products Used:


Remember to take a look at the Southern Ridge Trading Company website - Chipboard.ca for great Chipboard designs for your next card for project!

Thanks for joining me today!

Take care,

Live, Laugh & Create!

Friday, February 24, 2017

Life's An Adventure Canvas with Deb Riddell

Hello and thank you for stopping by, it’s Deb here with you today.  I’d like to share with you a canvas I made for Creativation 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona that was displayed in Southern Ridge’s trade show booth in January.


I wanted to share my love of nature and the outdoors so used Southern Ridge’s Spruce Tree Cluster, Plump Spruce Tree, Adventure Word, Small Bird Mix and Friends Of Nature chipboard.  I don’t have any step out photos I’m afraid as I was making several projects at the same time when I made it in December but can share some close up photos with you and describe my process.  Hope you will enjoy seeing them!

I started out with a 6” x 8” flat artists canvas and primed it with gesso.  Stenciling came next with Ranger texture paste through several of Tim Holtz’s layering stencils, you can catch a glimpse of Tracks, Chevrons, Linen and Dot Fade in the picture below.


The canvas was then coloured with multiple washes of Distress stains in various shades of blue and once it had dried more stenciling was added through the mini Industrial Layering stencil with Old Paper Distress paint and some second generation stamping was done here and there with Tim Holtz’s Tree Line stamp and Ground Espresso Distress Archival ink.


The edges of the canvas were coloured with Ground Espresso Distress crayon and blended with my finger.

The Spruce Tree Cluster and Plump Spruce Tree chipboard pieces were coloured with multiple shades of green Distress Spray stains plus a bit of Picket Fence Distress spray stain to tone down the colour a bit.  They were adhered to the canvas with wet adhesive.


Three birds from the Small Bird Mix were coloured with Pitch Black alcohol ink and adhered to the top of the canvas.


The Adventure Word was painted with black acrylic paint and then heat embossed with multiple layers of clear embossing powder.   The word was mounted onto small pieces of black fun foam and adhered along the bottom edge of the canvas.


And finally, the grizzly bear from the Friends Of Nature set was embossed with Weathered Wood embossing powder from Emerald Creek Craft Supplies that I tinted slightly with some Ginger alcohol ink to tone down the white accents in the powder.  The bear was also mounted onto black fun foam and positioned on top of the Adventure Word.


As a final step, the back of the canvas was covered with a piece of scrapbook paper from my stash and I die cut a Small Easel die for displaying the finished canvas.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my Life’s An Adventure canvas, I love how it turned out and was thrilled to bits to have it displayed in Southern Ridge’s booth at Creativation, thank you for the opportunity Karen!


Southern Ridge Trading Company Supplies Used:


Other Supplies Used:

- Tim Holtz for Ranger Ink: Distress Ink, Distress spray stain, Distress crayons, Distress paint, Matte Texture paste and Alcohol ink
- Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous: Layering Stencils (Tracks, Chevron, Dot Fade, Linen, Mini Industrial) and Tree Line stamps
- Emerald Creek Craft Supplies: Weathered Wood embossing powder
- DecoArt: Americana Acrylic paint
- Miscellaneous: black fun foam and wet adhesive

Thanks again for stopping by today and as always, happy creating!

Deb xo







Thursday, February 23, 2017

Shine Bright with Sandy McTier

Karen and I are excited to introduce our last talented Decorative Painter,  Sandy McTier, today on the blog.

Sandy McTier is sharing a beautiful piece with you today, so read below as Sandy shares with you her Shine Bright project. Make sure to leave her some love and give her a warm welcome to the team.

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Hi Y’all!!
So excited to be here on the Southern Ridge Trading Co. blog!

My name is Sandy McTier, and I live in the state of Georgia in the United States with my hubby and darling dachshund – Becks. I’m the proud momma to three amazing boys – ages 22, 21, and 20 J I’ve been fortunate to travel teach around the world, sharing what I love to do with others!!

I love painting and creating everything from crafty to fine art! I was beyond thrilled when asked to be a part of the SR Design Team and look forward to creating with all of the AWESOME SRTC products!!!  It was like Christmas opening up my first box from Karen! The brain went into overdrive, and I couldn’t wait to get started!!! 

I’m happy to share my first design with you ~ Shine BRIGHT!

My palette inspiration came from some pictures of beautiful rusty metals. The burnt oranges, turquoise and browns spoke to me – don’t you love it when that happens.

I knew I wanted to create some texture in the background so I used a brayer and rolled on some Gesso over the entire surface. Then I painted the entire surface with some gorgeous Burnt Orange and Quinacridone Gold Fluid Acrylics. 

TIP: Lay the surface down on some Press’n Seal (kitchen wrap) and press down. This helps keep the piece in place as well as keeping the colour from going through the fret work and onto the other side.  This works especially well for tiny chipboard pieces, words and more!


Whilst that was drying, I created a butterfly out of a manila folder. I glued the folder closed, drew out my butterfly design and painted it up with a mix of Quinacridone Magenta and Quinacridone Gold. Added some accents on the wings with Titanium White, Vermilion and Carbon black along the edges. Outlined everything with an Identi-Pen and added some yummy Bronze Metallic Lustre to the wings. Added some softness to the edges by rubbing a bit of Titan Buff along the edges. I finished it up by painting a nice thick layer of Crackle Glaze on the wings.

TIP: Do all the painting on the butterfly before cutting out the shape. It’s much easier to hold the edge of the folder, keeping your fingers off the butterfly as you are painting it.




I envisioned a scrolly, swirly type center to go along with the gorgeous rim on this surface. I had this stencil which was perfect and exactly the picture I had in my mind when designing this piece. I mixed up some Cobalt Teal Hue, Cobalt Turquoise Hue, Blue Green Light and a touch of Titanium White to get a pretty shade of turquoise/aqua and stenciled it and taaaadaaa – loved it!




Sometimes the perfect thing to finish off a background is paint splatters! It adds another layer of interest, and it went great with the initial inspiration of the speckled look of rust. Of course the butterfly wings needed some splatter too J .

It needed a saying, and I just got this Shine Bright piece at Michael’s, so painted it up with a brighter colour, highlighted it and shaded around the edges with Staz-On ink pad. Added some of the same highlight colour around the rim here and there and finished with scuffing up the edge of the rim with the ink pad.


I finished by sealing the entire piece and gluing the words and butterfly on with E6000 glue. I wanted the wings to stand up a bit more so popped a couple glue dots underneath the wings right at the body. Oh… and he needed some antenna’s so painted those on too!

So in love with the dimension achieved with the butterfly and the colour combination. Hope this piece inspires you to create something fun today!




Southern Ridge Trading Company Supplies Used:


Other Supplies Used:

- DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics
- DecoArt Media Crackle Glaze
- DecoArt Media Matte Medium
- DecoArt Media Gesso
- Manila Folder
- Identi-Pen
- E6000 Glue
- Scissors
- Glue Dots
- Rebecca Baer Stencil
- Dynasty Brushes (Available from TheBrushGuys.com – use promo code: sandymc for an additional discount)



©2017 Shine Bright by Sandy McTier, all rights reserved


Y’all have a GREAT day!!

- Sandy