Using gold leaf for crafts is an awesome way to add pizzazz to otherwise boring and humdrum craft pieces. There are so many ways to turn normal items into fun projects with results you’ll love just with the quick application of a little gold foil to make your project pop.
In this post, we’ll cover some of the coolest projects we’ve found using gold foil for crafts. Most of these crafts aren’t very expensive to take on, making these projects and activities fun and easy to take on at home. Ready to learn how to create something glittery, gold, and awesome? Join us as we learn how to decorate crafts using gold foil!
Table of Contents
- Gold Leaf Crafts
- How Do You Use Gold Leaf for Crafts?
- Is Craft Gold Leaf Real Gold?
- Gold Leaf For Crafts: So Many Awesome Ideas!
- FAQs
Gold Leaf Crafts
You don’t need to take a full-on course to learn how to create an art piece or craftwork containing gold foil. One of the beautiful things about gold foil is that despite its regal look, it can actually be used at home any time you want in order to create a fabulous new project with very few steps involved.
We’ve scoured the internet to find fun art and craft style projects and other similar things to help you make your next project truly special. Check out what we’ve found!
Gold Leaf Projects
- Gold leaf shoes: Ah, we thought these were insanely stylish, and we just know you’ll agree! Over at Brit + Co, they’re cooking up such awesome ideas, and gold leaf shoes were definitely one of them. They show you the steps for taking transfer gold foil and ironing it onto plain canvas shoes. We adore this fashionable craft and we’re certain you will too. Best of all … it’s incredibly easy to do. Go figure!
- Gold leaf planters: Tired of old moldy-looking terracotta plant pots? Why not dress them up with a little bit of gold foil? That’s right. With just a few simple steps, the folks over at Gold Standard Workshop have managed to give you a complete breakdown of how you can complete this fun and easy project on your own at home. You only really need a few supplies to get started, so pop on over and check it out to add a little extra pop to your existing plant pots.
- Gold leaf journals: If you’ve got a thing for writing, you’ll definitely love this next craft. Take your favorite journal with an interesting design and add to it a whole new look by adding gold foil. Learn the step-by-step process for achieving this over at Damask. We love it!
- Gold leaf totes: Yep, it’s the folks over at Brit + Co again, and this time they’re adding gold foil to canvas totes! We all know how easy lugging large canvas totes stuffed full of all of our favorite things we need on the go are. Make a blank or patterned canvas bag your own by adding special phrases, shapes, or designs to it using the gold foil transfer method. Smart!
- Gold foil tee shirts: Create awesome new t-shirt designs and ideas using iron-on foil. Over at Lovely Indeed, they show you how to take a plain t-shirt and turn it into something that’s uniquely you. Of course, their step-by-step tutorial includes a project on how to add a giant gold heart to your tee, but honestly, you can do whatever design print you want.
How Do You Use Gold Leaf for Crafts?
It’s fun to search the internet for cool crafts and activities, but sometimes you want something quick and creative right at your fingertips. If that’s you, don’t go anywhere.
In the upcoming segment we’ve provided you with a step-by-step guide for how to create a gold foil mug for your own use at home. Let’s get started!
Gold Foil Mugs
Got an old mug? Why not add a bit of gold foil to it to restore its appearance? Believe it or not, you can actually adhere gold foil or any other metal leaf type to coffee mugs fairly easily.
Follow these steps to do so!
Tools
- Gilding size (may be water-based or oil-based size, also known as gilding adhesive)
- Gold foil (preferably transfer leaf which has a wax backing for ease of application)
- A few soft brushes
- Stencils if using
- A mug
Directions
- To begin, make sure that the surface of your mug is clean, dry, and free of debris.
- Dip one of your soft brushes in gilding size and apply it to your mug in whatever manner you wish. If using a stencil, you’ll apply the size using the stencil to guide you in the design process. If you don’t want to create a design per se, but instead want to cover the bottom of the mug or mug handles in gold foil, simply apply your adhesive there instead.
- Once your adhesive is applied, allow it to dry according to the time indicated on your gilding size label. The purpose of this is to allow your size to come to “tack” which will help with creating a smooth and overall visually appealing final gild.
- Once your size has come to tack, take your gold foil transfer leaf and lay it against the areas that have adhesive. The gold leaf will naturally stick. Peel back the leaf and brush away any excess with a brush. Continue the process until your gold leaf adheres to all the areas you’ve applied size.
That’s it! Continue to brush away excess using a lean soft brush and patch up any areas needing repair with additional adhesive and gold leaf.
The result should be a stunning new look! We hope you love it!
Tips
- Gold foil will stick wherever adhesive is laid, so be neat and intentional with your adhesive when applying it to the mug.
- Try not to apply adhesive and gold leaf to the portions of your mug where your lips will touch. Same goes for the inside of the mug where any beverages will be.
- We don’t recommend washing this dish in the dishwasher once lain with gold foil.
- If you want to hand wash the dish, do so carefully; however, this may cause the foil to lift or change color, especially if you aren’t using pure gold.
- Use this method with other dish types too, but know that gilded dishes are often best used as decoration rather than frequent dining use.
Is Craft Gold Leaf Real Gold?
Craft gold isn’t real gold unless it says so on the package.
There are a variety of gold types that you can choose from when you are taking on these projects, and we won’t presume to tell you which you should and shouldn’t use.
Of course, real gold will be more costly than imitation gold, but if you are taking on fun simple at home projects frequently, imitation transfer leaf gold may prove more cost-effective in the long run.
Gold Leaf For Crafts: So Many Awesome Ideas!
All in all, there are a ton of ways you can use gold foil to jazz up everyday items, many of which you may have never even thought of.
We hope this post helped to steer you in the right direction concerning which ways you can use gold leaf to provide a little more oomph to everyday items and other craft projects.
Until next time!
FAQs
The best glue for a gold leaf is typically gilding size. There are a variety of other adhesive types you could also potentially use; still, gilding size is specially made for use with gold leaf and other metal leaf types.
Gold leaf can be used on a variety of surfaces including wood, glass, marble, concrete, plastic, canvas, and much more. Edible gold leaf can even be applied to food using plain water. There are a ton of things you can do with gold leaf. We encourage you to take the time to explore all of its benefits!
