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Sunday, April 26, 2009

I Suck at Gold Leaf

Or do I??

Well I did. I saw this beautiful post in my reader one day and felt it was a must-do craft.

At which point I discovered I'm not nearly as talented as fellow Texan Claire Chauvin. Her beautiful hand cut trees just stopped my heart.

I tried to recreate them by handpainting a tree with the gold leaf adhesive, but it's really runny and not suitable for precision. And I don't have Claire's patience so I tried to see what was within 18 inches of me (lazy) that I could use. And lo and behold - I was rewarded for my incompetence with my Martha Stewart punches! I also happened to have a few scraps of the sheet version of sticky strip. So first, I punched some shapes from a horrible card failure that was laying, well, within 18 inches. Another great reason never to clean your desk.

Then I traced them onto the backing sheet of the sticky paper and cut them out.

I peeled off one side and stuck the shapes to my river rocks (@ Michael's in the floral dept if you are interested). Then I carefully applied the gold leaf sheets, and used a soft paintbrush to clean up the edges. I was floored at how easy and pretty it was.
I took these photos prior to sealing them with the sealer that came with the gold leaf kit because I just knew it would ruin them. It did not. :) Now they look just the same except the rocks are a little shinier. What a fun little desk decoration. For smaller rocks, they would make beautiful magnets!

I'm tickled and grateful to Ms. Claire!

Now, let's talk about bad cats. This morning I walked a crooked little walk (avoiding pillbugs- it's pillbug season) on a grey day full of fun sights, and got back and was ready to craft up a storm. So, as is my custom, I turned on the space heater under my stamping desk (I told you I'm always cold, plus the AC is on 70!) and what happens?? Bad cat jacks my chair!! IMMEDIATELY. It's right by the heater and the two of us race each other to get there.

Karma punished her with a big piece of gold leaf in her fur. So there Maddie - you look stupid with gold leaf in your fur. My feet are cold. Actually, the leaf is kind of glammy. *Sigh*. Looking for socks...
Head over to Project Reanimate for the latest creation!

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3 comments:

  1. these are stunning! i'm trying to think what i'd put on one, if i were making gold leaf rocks...perhaps the three hearts from the 3 heart punch...that would be symbolic of my little fam of 3!

    the initial one was uber cool on poopscape...perhaps a ub for understand blue?

    sorry you have cold toes...i feel your pain. the a/c is on here too.

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  2. Interesting! I have never played with gold leaf. WHERE WOULD I PUT IT IN HERE? Ahem. Maybe if I ever work my way into The Other Room, I'll give it a try. Neat project!

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  3. Yay! So glad you tried it! Now don't you want to gold leaf everything in sight?

    Claire

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