Faux Silver Leafing

By Julie Warner,  for FireCrackerDesignsbyPamela

Supplies Needed:

1. Tissue Paper (I used white, fuchsia and silver)

2. Clear Embossing Ink, either in a bottle with a sponge dauber top, or an Embossing Pen

3. Silver Embossing Powder

4. Heat Gun

5. (Optional) Silver Ink Pad & Rubber Stamps (for Step 6)

6. White Cardstock  and a Glue Stick

Step 1: Tear strips of your tissue papers. They can be as wide or narrow as you want. On my  example, I tore the bottom edges but made sure to have the top edges straight as I did not want excess to show through as the tissues were layered onto my cardstock. Tearing both edges and overlapping the layers is another option and you can decide which look you want.

Step 2: Using either a dauber top bottle or a clear embossing pen, run the embossing ink along the torn edge.

Step 3: Coat the edge with the silver embossing powder. (I did this over a large coffee filter in order to contain the powder.)

Step 4: Heat the embossing powder. Note: since the tissue is so thin, the powder will melt immediately. It also helps to hold down one side with a pair of tweezers. This photo shows two strips after the heat embossing.

Step 5: This is all 3 of my tissue colors after heat embossing.

Step 6: I used a silver ink pad and one of the stamps to further embellish some of my tissue paper strips. These were also heat embossed with the silver powder.

Step 7: Cut a white piece of cardstock to the size you need. (My example measures 4.25″ wide by 5.50″ high.) Apply adhesive to the bottom of your cardstock. (I used a glue stick which goes on purple and dries clear. I found that glue sticks work the best for this as they allow you to smooth the tissue without tearing it.) Smooth a piece of tissue over the glue and wrap the bottom and sides of the tissue onto to the back of the cardstock and secure. Continue layering the tissue strips until the entire cardstock is covered. In my example, I only overlapped the embossed edge over the top of the previous strip so that it did not show through the one on top.

Step 8: Here is my sample after the cardstock is completely covered.

Step 9: Here is a finished card using the Faux Silver Leafing background I created.

I hope you enjoyed Julie’s tutorial, and that you are inspired to try your own creations!!

TFTI

Pamela