It's not too late!

Ordinary candles, shall we make them special? 

Why not add a little gold.

You will need a few sheets of gold leaf and a bottle of 

size (glue).

All available in any craft store. 

Size (rabbit skin glue) comes in small bottles. 

  Pour a small amount of glue into a plastic container.

Brush on glue to lower part of candle. 

Wait about 30 minutes until glue is slightly tacky. 

Stays tacky for several hours.  

Lay gold leaf sheets onto candle. 

Polish with soft cloth or sheepskin.

While you wait for the glue to dry on candles why not gild a few acorns...it's the same technique. 

After gilding the candle you can scribe a scrolling pattern into the goldleaf with the handle of a paint brush.  

See how special. A few candles with gold leaf, a few pomanders,  and fresh greens and a centerpiece is born.  

Have I convinced you yet?

Thank you dear friends for stopping by.  I am always so happy to hear from you.  

Gina 

Repost from November 2015

Thanksgiving and Christmas without candles?

Oh no.


Shall we make them special? 

Why not add a little gold.

You will need a few sheets of gold leaf and a bottle of 
size (glue).

All available in any craft store. 

Size (rabbit skin glue) comes in small bottles. 

  Pour a small amount of glue into a plastic container.

Brush on glue to lower part of candle. 
Wait about 30 minutes until glue is slightly tacky. 
Stays tacky for several hours.  

Lay gold leaf sheets onto candle. 
Polish with soft cloth or sheepskin.

While you wait for the glue to dry on candles why not gild a few acorns...it's the same technique. 

After gilding the candle you can scribe a scrolling pattern into the goldleaf with the handle of a paint brush.  

See how special. A few candles with gold leaf, a few pomanders,  and fresh greens and a centerpiece is born.  

Have I convinced you yet?

Thank you dear friends for stopping by.  I am always so happy to hear from you.  

Gina 

Serendipity

It happens to me all the time.

Look at that Patina!

On the blue-green candles. 

To make candles more special I often apply gold leaf to them. 

 This time I added gold leaf to the lower half of a dark blue candle.  And added a few dried flowers to the middle. 

I wrapped the candles, two at a time,  into clear plastic and tied them with ribbons, ready to give as gifts. 

And then I forgot about them. 

The gold turned into this fantastic textural blue. 

Even if I tried I don't think that I could duplicate the magic. 

Wishing you a magic and happy Mother's Day day.  

Gina 

Little treasures of gold.

The golden Acorn

So appealing and special for Holiday decorations. 

My charming friend Sieglinde sent these extra special acorns to me from Texas. 

We decided that we liked them just the way they are.  

But, you have known me long enough to know about my penchant for gold. 

A simple 2 step process.

It is the gold leaf , $12 (actually called metal leaf in craft stores) I use for craft projects. 

The Genuine Gold Leaf  ($80) I use for more important projects. 

The difference, metal leaf will eventually tarnish.  Real gold does not. 

More information in an earlier post and a link to a more professional approach when using real gold leaf.

But I couldn't help myself, I had to add a bit of gold to at least some of the acorns.

I used a gold pen on the acorn on the left.  Not shiny enough for me. 

Pour a little glue (specially designed for gilding, available in any craft store), into a small container and paint each acorn. 

Acorns painted with glue will slowly turn from white to clear. 

After about 20 minutes,  acorns will turn shiny and tacky.  

You now have about an hour to apply gold leaf.  

Lay on gold leaf and polish with a soft cloth.

Even one little acorn is charming.

And you have learned a new and golden craft. 

By Easter time you are an expert. 

Have a lovely remainder of the week my dear 

Blogging Friends, 

Gina 

Your friendship is very important to me and I would love to see you here for a visit. 

Happy Easter

It's Easter, it means that Spring is finally here,

my favorite time of year.

 There will be lots of work in the garden.

Golden Eggs?  It's easy to do.

Paint egg with "size" (white glue)
Wait half an hour, lay on gold leaf, polish with soft cloth.
For more information:
http://www.gildedplanet.com/bole_colorcenter.asp

And paint a few eggs with acrylics.
All materials available in any craft store.

There will be many warm days and the air will be filled with a heady perfume.

And at the end of the day

there will always be 

a shady spot where cool refreshments will be waiting.

Come on over, there is room for you too.

Happy Easter my dear

Blogging Friends.

Gina

Hand Paintd Easter Eggs

It's the perfect time to get out your paints

And paint a few Easter Eggs 

I paint Duck eggs, they drop them willy nilly all around our pond.  We also supplement our chicken feed with Abalone shells.  Eggs are not as fragile.

Maybe throw in a few golden eggs, antiqued to make them more interesting

Place them into a bowl, hang them into a few forced blossoms or hide them under a cloche, on a bed of fresh moss.

 And if you have a little extra time why not gild a few eggs.  I will show you how

here and my goose that laid the golden egg here

Paint with a lot of different colors and don't forget the important white.

They don't have to be Faberge eggs, just begin and have a lot of fun.

Gina