LEAFING FLAKE GEL PLATE BACKGROUND

 So it's been a while since we've had the pleasure of getting leafing flake all over the place, so I thought I'd give my cleaner a bit of a treat by gilding my classroom with shiny, floaty stuff. (That's hubby; he's the cleaner. 😉)
Instead of the usual adhesive method, we'll use a gel plate to apply the flake, or leafing sheets, before using acrylic paint as normal to do the pull. It's certainly a different look and can only be appreciated in the flesh because of all the shiny goodness of the leafing flakes. As you can see from the samples, you can use a lot of the leafing flake, or hardly any at all. It all works well. Remember to click on the first
picture, then click through them as you'll see a much better image.

"Some wear black"

"Stay wild"
(This one has a gorgeous variegated leafing flake.)

"Kindness is free"

"Emotionally attached"

"Be brave"

"Alternatively alive"

EMBOSSED LEAFING FLAKE

 Black gloss card can be used for various techniques and it works really well for this particular one, along with the addition of leafing flakes.  There are a few colours available of leafing flake (also called gilding flakes) and of course, you can mix 2 or 3 colours together to create your own colour combo's.  I used a Zig glue pen to go over the raised (or recessed) embossed design on the black gloss card which means you can choose which areas to highlight and which ones to leave black.  Apologies for the variations in the black gloss card.  It can be really difficult to capture the depth of the black background compared to the shine of the leafing flakes.  Try this technique out for yourself to see how great it looks in real life.  It'd make a great card background!

"Oxygen"

"Journey"


"Anty bodies"
(I've been wanting to use this
quote for ages.  😏)

"Ginfinity"

"Key"

"Warrior"

DIE-CUTS & LEAFING FLAKES V2

Not so long ago we used die-cut shapes cut from double-sided adhesive paper and applied leafing flakes to them.  This technique is the reverse of that where you cut your die shapes from paper or card and apply them to the double-sided adhesive that totally covers the backing card, then apply the leafing flakes.  So the leafing flakes are going on to all the exposed sticky areas of the adhesive.  This gives you a gorgeous leafing flake background so you can appreciate the shine of this beautiful product in all its glory.  These are all quite simple atc's as I wanted the leafing flakes to take centre stage.  Once again, this is a technique best viewed in real life as the computer screen does the backgrounds no justice at all.  

"Decompose"... 

"Groot"...

(love this movie!)

"It was me"...

(I had to take the picture of this one from further

away so you could see how the edges of the

frame hang over the atc.)

"Balance"...

LEAFING FLAKES

Leafing Flakes or Gilding Flakes as they're also known are making a come back in the craft world.  They will stick to anything that's sticky and some would have you believe that you must use a specific type of glue for them, nope...untrue.   A tacky surface is all that's required for the flakes to adhere to but some work better than others.  If you look at my samples below, the first 3 and last 1 all have used die-cut shapes cut out of JAC paper (double-sided sticky paper) and this is the absolute easiest way to use the flakes.  I have a tub of gold, silver & copper all mixed together but I also have one of just gold and one of just silver.  I store them in a 1.5-litre lunch box as it's really easy to just dip your card in with the sticky exposed, press the flakes on and brush off the excess, all within the confines of the container.  This stuff floats EVERYWHERE!!!

The 4th sample below (Music speaks) is one that I have used by Zig glue pen to trace around the edges of the drips, wait a good 10 minutes for it to get tacky and clear (it goes on blue), then press on the flakes.  Perfect!  Of course, double-sided tape works really well with gilding flakes.  

As an experiment, I also tried out using clear embossing ink and the sticky embossing powder with a stamp.  I was the least happy with this as it was a little patchy in areas though if you were after a random background effect it'd work ok.  Just be really careful to not overheat the sticky powder as it won't be sticky if you heat too much.  It's a fine line.  😉

"Enchant"...

"I'll wear black"...

"Life is short"...

"Music speaks"...

"Stay creepy"...