How to Gold Leaf on Glass

I have a crazy amazing technique to share with you today about how to gold leaf on glass! It looks something like this…

On Monday night, Jessica, owner of Prime and Polish, and I held our second DIY class. This one sold out, in fact it oversold! We welcomed in 17 lovely ladies after store hours on a very chilly Minnesota evening. While they warmed up with Flirtinis and dessert, Jessica taught a segment on decorating the dining table for the holidays and I led a gold leafing demonstration.

Our goal with the tablescape decorating was to share some easy and practical tips for decorating the table for fall and then transitioning into winter.

Fall Dining Table Decorating Tips:

1. Use a burlap runner (cut from a couple yards of burlap) down the center of the table
2. For floral arrangements, these two tips are key:
   1. Stick with one color for all your flowers
   2. Buy a lot of just a few types of flowers/fillers
3. Don’t be afraid to mix metals, we used copper and gold accents for fall
4. Add dimension with decorative objects, we used my DIY gold leaf stars
5. Sprinkle something extra on the table, we used gold leafed leaves (see below for the how-to)

Winter Dining Table Decorating Tips:

1. Skip the runner and make one with nature, we used spruce tree clippings
2. Birch tree rings add gorgeous texture and give extra height to your shorter vases
3. Mix even more metals, we kept the gold and copper, and added in mercury glass
4. Sprinkle something extra on the table, we used gold and copper leaf glass ornaments

Tips for Transitioning from Fall to Winter Decor:

1. Use the same vases and candles, in both looks we used our DIY gold and copper leaf vases
2. Change out your florals/greenery for the season

Throughout the decorating portion of the class we used gold leafed vases, leaves, candles, and ornaments. For the last half of the class, I taught our guests how to gold leaf and they got to take home a decorated candle and a few ornaments.

How to Gold Leaf on Glass

I have never before seen this gold leafing technique.  Rarely do I amaze myself any more with DIY projects, but these seriously blew me away!  Together with my tip to use spray adhesive, instead of gold leaf sizing, and Jessica’s idea to spray directly on the gold leaf, we developed this amazing method for gold leafing on glass.

Normally, you apply gold leaf sizing to the piece to be gold leafed and then wait 20 minutes to apply the gold leaf.  Using Elmer’s Craft Bond Spray Adhesive instead of sizing eliminates the wait time.  The challenge is, you don’t want to spray an entire glass surface with tacky spray glue.  The parts not covered by gold leaf will be covered in glue residue.

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Here are the steps we followed to gold leaf on glass:

Supplies:

• Ready Gold Leaf (make sure it is ready and comes with the paper backing)
• Elmer’s Craft Bond Spray Adhesive
• Glass vase, glass candle, or glass ornaments
• Scissors
• Optional: Gold Leaf Sealer

Step by step:

1.  Cut your gold leaf to the shape or size you want.  For our vases, we cut the gold leaf into strips.

2.  Lightly spray the gold leaf with the spray adhesive.

3.  Apply the gold leaf, glue side down, to the glass.  Press smooth with your fingers.

4.  Peel back the wax paper backing from the gold leaf.

5.  Optional: Brush gold leaf sealer onto only the areas that are gold leafed.

Gold Leafed Leaves:

If you need a little pick me up, this is an amazing project.  It will definitely brighten your day!  We did this with both gold leaf and copper leaf.

1.  Lay your fallen leaf flat on a plastic drop cloth, right side up.

2.  Lightly spray a whole sheet of gold or copper leaf.

3.  Turn the gold leaf over and press it on top off the leaf.

4.  From the stem peel up the leaf.

5.  Skip the sealer.  These are more of a disposable decoration.

Gold Leafed Ornaments:

We made two types of gold and copper leaf ornaments.  We used the striped method above.  We also used a whole sheet of gold leaf wrapped around the base of the ornament, like so:

1.  Lightly spray a whole sheet of gold or copper leaf.

3.  Set the bottom of your ornament directly into the adhesive on top of the gold leaf.

4.  Wrap the corners of the gold leaf up and around the ornament.  Taking the ornament in your hand, gently press the gold leaf into place.  (Be careful not to press to hard on glass ornaments…I broke one.)

5.  Peel off the wax paper cutting.

6.  Gently brush off any loose gold leaf flakes.

7.  Skip the sealer.  We figured ornaments won’t be man-handled too much, so the sealer felt like an unnecessary step.

How amazing is that?!  I was already in love with gold leaf, and now I am head over heals.  The possibilities seem endless now.  Our students blew us away with their creativity.  They started making gold leaf chevron vases and glass ornaments with gold leaf stars.  It was so much fun!