MissAmy |

Here’s another fairly easy way to embellish some old shoes that you’re bored of.  Gold leaf!  I worked with this stuff when I was doing decorative & faux painting.  It’s a little counter intuitive.  You need to let the “glue” dry before you press the leaf on.

Anyway, this is what the shoes turned out looking like:

I found them at the thrift store & really liked how the cork texture would play off the shiny gold.  Plus there were flecks of gold already in the cork which I thought would also complement.  Here’s the step by step:

1. Assemble your supplies: Metal Leaf Adhesive Size & Gold Leaf (both of which can be found at Joanns, Micheal’s or probably any other craft store), shoes, low tack painter’s tape (find at Home Depot).  Lay down newspaper to catch all your gold dust.

2. Tape off parts of the shoe that you don’t want the gold leaf on.  I stuck with the subtle stripes  that ran through the cork.

3. Paint on the adhesive & let it dry.  The bottle says 1 hour but I usually just wait until it becomes clear.

4. This is the fun part.  While wearing gloves you will apply the golf leaf & tap it on with a clean, dry brush.  The gloves are so that oils from hands do not tarnish the gold.  Also, if you handle the leaf with you bare hands any moisture can stick to it & make a big mess.  The gold should stick to the dried adhesive.  You’ll want to burnish it in further with the dry brush.  If parts don’t stick you can go over them again with the adhesive & more leaf later.

One interesting note about the cork that I was using: It took double coats of the adhesive before the gold would stick.  Why?  Because cork is very porous so I had to build up the adhesive.  Just a note, in case you like the cork idea.

5.  Gently peel the tape away from the shoe.  As I did it, I tapped the dry brush on the edge to prevent the gold from peeling from where it was supposed to stay.  Once you do this once or twice you’ll get the hang of it.

With mine, I got a patchiness on most of my stripes which I rather like.  If you want a perfect shiny gold look you may have to go over it a couple times.  The gold will layer right on top of the existing glue once you add more adhesive.

I may use this technique on other accessories as well – purses maybe & all sorts of  jewelry for sure!  What can you picture adding some glisten to?