Using precious metals on your projects helps add that extra special touch. Your projects take on such a rich and elegant feel but Leafing isn't just for special occasion cards or elegant events like Weddings and such. Touches of gold,
silver, copper and variegated Leafing sheets and flakes make striking additions to distressed and grungy projects too!

 

So whether you're a newbie or an old hand to Leafing I've got a Compendium of Leafing Techniques for you to play around with. For Blockheads October Technique Challenge you can select any of the following techniques to try your
hand at. Or you can mix and match and incorporate as many techniques as you want!

 

My demo photos cover the next 3 major holidays from Halloween to Winter/Christmas. So whatever your taste or style I'm sure there's a technique or two here to suit everyone. Let us know which techniques you use so we can
marvel at how varied and fun each one turns out :0)

 

Then keep an eye on the Blockheads blog and Facebook group to see the tutorials for my completed projects as well as projects by my fellow design team mates and all your wonderful challenge entries. The challenge ends on October 21st.

So who's up for the challenge?!

 

Precious Metals - A Compendium of Leafing Techniques

You will need the following supplies:
Gold, Silver or Copper Leafing Sheets or Flakes
The Essential Glue Pad and Re-inker
StazOn stamp cleaner
Quickie Glue Pen
Red Liner or similar double sided tape in various widths
Soft but firm bristle brush for removing excess Leaf
Soft bristle Paint brush for painting
Some kind of sharp pointy tool like a pick or a pin will do
Post-it Notes
Rubber stamps: I used Blockheads' Leaves stamp set
Solid design rubber stamp
Detailed design rubber stamp
Embossing Folders plus a die cutting/embossing machine - I used the Snowflakes
design from Cuttlebug's Winter Wonderland set.

 

Technique 1- Distressed Solid Stamping using a Glue Pad

Using The Essential Glue Pad and stamping with a solid image rubber stamp is super easy and fun. The Essential Glue Pad recommends using vellum or coated cardstock for best results but you can get a wonderful distressed effect if you use uncoated cardstock. To minimize wastage of the precious leaf I do suggest testing the cardstock you want to use before committing to it! Plan your design and then stamp one image at a time with the Essential Glue Pad and immediately apply the Leafing. For my Fall themed example card I stamped each leaf separately and applied gold Leafing flakes to each leaf before stamping the next. I was able to control the distressed look by using flakes instead of the sheets. This way you can use as little or as much Leaf as you want depending on the amount of distress you want your design to have. Its best to apply the flakes while the glue is still wet and tacky and allowing some areas to dry more than others determines where the Leaf will adhere to. If you only have Leafing sheets then just pull some small bits off and make your own flakes before you start stamping. My specialized tool of choice for brushing away the excess Leaf is a cheap cosmetic lipstick brush :0) As long as the bristles are soft but firm any old brush will do. Even stenciling brushes will do the trick too.

 

Once you're done stamping clean your rubber stamps with StazOn's stamp cleaner to remove all the sticky glue!

 

Technique 2 - Create a faux patina card mat using a Glue Pad

You can create a wonderful faux patina effect on mats for your cards in the same way (shown on right). For my Fall themed example I made a folded card from dark hunter's green cardstock and randomly applied the Essential Glue to the edges with the direct to paper method. Don't waste your Leafing by covering the whole mat or folded card especially if you're only going to see a narrow border! Apply the gold Leafing flakes the same way I described for Technique 1 making sure to leave some areas bare so the dark green cardstock shows through for a cool faux patina effect. Neat huh ;0)

Technique 3 - Detailed Rubber Stamping using a Glue Pad

You can achieve beautiful results with a detailed image as well! Stamp the image with The Essential Glue Pad and immediately apply the Leafing flakes. Whether you want complete coverage or a distressed look depends on how much Leaf you apply to the image before the glue dries. I took a photo to show you the
'messy' process just in case you've never worked with gold leaf before. You will be seeing gold specs all over your work space for weeks and you'll end up looking as gilded as your projects by the time you're done ;0)

 

For this Fall themed example I combined gold and copper Leaf for a variegated effect on the leaves but unfortunately I just couldn't get it to photograph nicely so you can't really see how pretty the two metals look. But you can kind of make out a difference in the finished project photo.

 

Tip: When using larger flakes or pieces from a sheet of leafing you might find that gently brushing away the excess Leaf doesn't break the vacuumed effect that forms in the negative space of a detailed image. This happened in some of the small areas of the leaf veins. Just simply use something sharp and point to scrape at the leaf to tear it. I like to use a pick I have for poking out the detailed areas in die cuts but a pin or a needle will do the trick too.

Technique 4 - Writing and Drawing with a Quickie Glue Pen

Sometimes a card you're making needs a little gold detail or you'd like to hand
write your own sentiment or add a word or two. The Quickie Glue Pen is the perfect solution for customizing your projects!

 

I used the Quickie Glue Pen to hand write the word 'Fall' on my Fall themed example. I started off by lightly drawing my word in pencil first to make sure I was happy and then traced over it with the Glue Pen. In this photo you can see the glue puddling the surface of the cardstock. Wait for the blue colored excess glue to absorb before applying the Leafing flakes or sheet. If you apply the Leaf while the glue is puddled like that you'll end up creating a wider line and the writing won't be as clean and defined.

 

I also used the Quickie Glue Pen to draw a free form border around my design. It is best to work on small sections at a time because you don't want to find that the glue has completely dried by the time you're finished applying Leaf to the area you drew first. But you can get things moving along nicely by drawing one section and while you wait for the glue to dry a bit you can draw the next section. Then go back to the first section and by the time you've applied the
Leaf the second section will be ready. But before applying the Leaf to the second section draw in the third section so you've got a production line going.
The Quickie Glue Pen is then perfect for touching up any areas where the glue might have dried too much and the Leafing isn't sticking!

Technique 5 - Adding Leaf to Embossed Designs using the Glue Pad Re-inker

Everyone is creating with Embossing Folders these days and you've no doubt applied inks to the embossed areas with the direct to paper method or sanded the embossed areas for that fabulous distressed look. But how about adding Leafing to the embossed areas too! Depending on how detailed the embossed design is and how picky you are about how clean the finished effect looks you might have success applying the glue to the embossed areas directly with the glue pad. I tried that method but kept getting glue in the debossed areas too. The result was quite grungy and you will see a project using that piece soon so stay tuned for that ;0) But I wanted a clean result for this demo and decided to use the Essential Glue Pad re-inker and brushed the glue directly onto the embossed design with a soft bristle brush. I recommend doing sections of the design at a time and apply the Leaf before adding glue to the next section. For my Winter example I used Silver Leaf sheets and embellished just two of largest snowflakes and applied metallic blue and silver Rub-on Creme to the rest of the design.

 

Stay tuned to see what I plan to make with this Wintery background too! Clean your brush with StazOn's stamp cleaner to remove the glue and then with a mild soap detergent.

Technique 6 - Using double sided tape to create a plaid design

I decided to show this demo last to kick off the start of the most haunting month of the year! My DominoART blog is celebrating Halloween all month long with our 2nd annual 31 Days of Halloween and Blockheads Paper Arts is sponsoring the grand prize, an awesome $50 gift certificate! To start the celebrations I will be sharing the finished project I've made using the really cool plaid design background I'm about to demo. So pop by the DominoART blog (http://DominoARTblog.blogspot.com) on Oct 1st to check it out!

 

 

Create interesting patterned backgrounds for your projects using just double sided tapes in various widths. Blockheads' little Goth Girl rubber stamp is the star of my project so I created this plaid design just for her ;0) Start by adhering strips of tape vertically on a black folded card.

 

 

Peel off the paper backing on just one strip, apply the gold Leaf and brush away the excess. Peel off the next one and so on until you've added gold Leaf to all the strips. Adhere thinner tape strips along side each gold stripe and apply silver Leaf to each following the same method used on for the gold stripes.

 

It really helps to keep silver Leaf from sticking to the gold Leaf if you mask each strip of tape with post-it notes as you can see in the photo. Once all the silver vertical stripes are done lay in the horizontal stripes and apply gold
leaf and then add the thinner stripes and apply the silver leaf.

 

Here's a few more Tips before you dash off to enter the challenge:

Make sure you burnish the Leafing down onto the tape especially along the edges with your finger before brushing away the excess. You might also discover that the negative spaces between all your leafing is covered by microscopic sparkling bits which can look really pretty and enhance your project if you're okay with that. Otherwise just take a small piece of regular sticky tape and 'sticky
roll' all the areas to remove the stray bits.

 

     

I hope you've enjoyed my Compendium of Leafing Techniques! I look forward to seeing all your precious metal enriched Challenge entries! Don't forget to visit the DominoART blog starting Oct 1st to see my Halloween project featuring the plaid design and keep an eye on the Blockheads Blog for my other projects and fellow design team mates too ;0)

Happy Holidays!

Leigh S-B