Southern Ridge Trading Company: Spring Joy Mixed Media Reverse Canvas with Deb Riddell

Hello everyone, Deb Riddell here with you today to share a mixed media reverse canvas I made with Southern Ridge Trading Company’s Pussy Willows, Elegant Vintage Flourishes, Berry Branch Set and Bare Branches chipboard.

I started out with a 6” x 8” stretched artists canvas I had in my stash from a previous project that hadn’t gone quite as planned!

I finished off the edges of the wrapped canvas with some lengths of Tim Holtz Design tape.

The butterflies on the background of the canvas recess made me think of Spring so I painted Southern Ridge’s new Pussy Willow chipboard with Gathered Twigs Distress Stain. While the stain was still damp, I added dabs of diluted Yellow Green Light and Titanium White DecoArt Media Liquid acrylic paint to the buds on the pussy willows for a ‘fuzzy’ appearance. The white was a little too stark so I toned it down with a bit of Golden Titan Buff.

A Berry Branch got the same treatment and I also added some dabs of Liquid Glass to a few of the berries for a little shine.

And finally, a Bare Branch was also painted in the same manner but only a few touches of Yellow Green Light and Titanium White were added to this piece.

Two Elegant Vintage Flourishes were painted with Titan Buff and then a bit of DecoArt Media Interference Gold was added overtop for a touch of shimmer.

The best part of Spring for me is the return of the songbirds, so I decided to add a wee robin to my canvas. A Fragment was inked with a combination of Mushroom and Latte alcohol inks and then a drop or two of rubbing alcohol was added to the middle of the inked Fragment to from a ‘window’.

A bird stamp (this is from a discontinued Crafty Secrets stamp set) was stamped onto the Fragment with StazOn Jet Black ink on the same side as the alcohol ink.

After the StazOn had thoroughly dried, the bird was coloured here and there with alcohol inks (Rust, Red Pepper and Ginger) with Ranger’s Alcohol Ink Blending Pen on the same side as the stamping.

To continue the bird theme, some vintage bird and egg images were printed and punched out with a ¾” punch and made into tags with Tim Holtz’s Tag Press. The Tap Press rings were coloured with Rust and Ginger alcohol inks before compressing them with the Tag Press.

Typography letters to spell the word ‘Spring’ were coloured with Ginger alcohol ink and adhered to one of the long edges of the reverse canvas.

A Quote Chip was coloured with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress ink and adhered to the opposite long edge.

One of the Elegant Vintage Flourishes was adhered to the top edge of the canvas and a couple of paper flowers were inked and added to each corner. A tag was added to the center of each flower. For a bit more shimmer, a touch of Indian Gold Nuvo Mousse was brushed onto the Elegant Vintage Flourish.

A piece of light beige paper was added to the back of the Fragment with Glossy Accents and once dry the Fragment was adhered onto the top right corner of the reverse canvas recess.

The Pussy Willows, Berry Branch and Bare Branch were added under the bottom edge of the reverse canvas. I had some Nuvo Mousse left over on my craft mat so I diluted it with some water and spattered it over the canvas, also adding a few touches of Platinum Stickles Glitter glue here and there on the Pussy Willows, Berry Branch and Bare Branch.

And finally, the second Elegant Vintage Flourish was added along the bottom edge of the canvas along with a couple more paper flowers and the remaining tags.