Welcome! You are in for a treat today! You’ve either stumbled here because of one of the other fabulous bloggers sharing handmade gifts today, or not. Which means you’re either enjoying loads of great handmade gift tutorials, or you’re about to be! My handmade gift idea is these darling little cutomizable gold leaf embellished trinket plates.
What You’ll Need:
Square white plates, Painter’s Tape, Vinyl Letters and Numbers, Permanenet Marker, Adhesive, Gold Leaf, and Sealer
The Process:
A lot of this process involves playing around with your options until you like how it’s turning out. I had a lot of fun creating my plates’ designs, but I changed my mind a lot to get to what they’re at now.
The Numbers Plate is actually the house number for one of my giftees. Use vinyl numbers and dots (the period stickers) and stick them straight to the plate. Following the direction for the adhesive, paint on a thin layer and wait until the adhesive is clear and tacky. Then, just lie the gold leaf onto the adhesive and use a brush to press it all down. Then use a stiff dry brush to flake off all the excess. Coat the plate with the sealer and set aside to dry.
The Marker Marks and Gold Triangle plate was the only success out of my permanent marker attempts. I tried out metallic permanent markers and just wasn’t wowed enough with the effect. For the record: I used a generic permanent marker from the dollar store and it didn’t specify whether or not it was oil based. Just make little tick marks in pairs in alternating directions over half the plate. Place the plate in a cold oven, then set the temperature to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Bake for 30 minutes.
Once the plate is cooled (I let mine cool in the oven overnight), you can take it to your work surface and tape out a triangle. Follow the same directions for using the gold leaf keeping within the triangle. It helps to really run the brush along the edges of the tape to ensure a clean line when pulling the tape back.
The Gold Square plate is easy. Tape out a square shape and follow the directions for the gold leaf adhesive and sealer process.
The Gold Stripes plate is almost just as easy. Tape out a square and then tape across the square twice. Follow the directions for the gold leaf and sealer process and BAM!
The plates make adorable additions to a watch or bracelet gift. Or on their own. Trinket trays are perfect for placing keys, accessories, and wallets into. Although the sealer holds everything down pretty good, it is not food safe. If you’d like to replicate the process for food items, you would need to pick up a sealant that is food safe.
I wrapped a few atop some christmas gifts I’d already picked up. I get pretty stoked for Christmas and start my shopping in the summer. I wrapped the gifts in fun red glitter wrapping paper and tied everything together with the natural cotton twine. The trinket trays look adorbs as gift toppers!
Now, here’s the great part! 14 more Handmade gift tutorials! Before you go, please leave a comment, follow For My Love Of on social media, and share! There are too many good ideas here to keep them to ourselves! (links below are in the order they’re pictured 😀 )
Romantic Stamped Clay Pendant – Whistle and Ivy
Handmade Rustic Coaster – Making It To The Mountains
DIY Key Holder – Hawthorne and Main
Family Memory Card Game – Sum of Their Stories
Texture Infinity Scarf – Persia Lou
DIY Felt Stuffie – Feathers Flights
Bow Earwarmers – The Cwafty Blog
DIY Copper Pipe Tray – Upcycled Treasures
DIY Gold Accented Trinket Trays – For My Love Of (you are here!)
Burberry Bag – Delineate Your Dwelling
DIY Miniature Wall Hangings – The Gathered Home
Leather Accented Cutting Boards – Sisters, What!
Hand Painted Recipe Box – Anderson and Grant
Kristi says
Oh wow, SO pretty!!! I’ve never worked with gold leaf before, but this might be just the kick in the butt I needed to try it! LOVE!
CorinnaAshley says
I still kindof hate working with gold leaf (it’s super messy!). But the result is SO pretty, I’m working on finding fun ways to finish up the book I’d bought. I’m sure you’ll find it’s worth it!
Havalah says
I’ve been wanting to try some projects with gold leaf, but now I have a good reason. Those are so cute!
CorinnaAshley says
You really ought to try it out! Gold leaf may be messy, the the result is so pretty!
Brynne@TheGatheredHome says
I love these! You know I’m a gold leaf fanatic, so of course I’d be thrilled to receive a gift like this! I think the one with the black lines and gold leaf is my favorite one!
Trisha D. says
Oh my goodness Corinna, these are absolutely perfect! I want some for my house STAT!! Thank you for the tutorial, I’m off to go pin it EVERYWHERE (because its nothing short of awesome) and slap it in a couple secret boards so I never forget!!
Thanks for linking up to Outside [the Box], I love seeing your projects- keep ’em coming every Tuesday!!
CorinnaAshley says
Thank so much Trisha! Your comment made me smile! I can’t wait to see how yours turn out!
Trisha D. says
P.S. We loved your dishes so much we featured it last week! Hope to see some more fab projects linked this week!
Julie says
Oooo, I love how the gold leaf came out, it’s such a classy soft gold colour. I do love a bit of gold here and there and a place to pop your special bits and pieces is just good sense. Lovely.
CorinnaAshley says
Brushing it with a stiff bristled brush is what gave it that soft focus look (I’m sure I forgot to mention that). Lots of brushing smoothed it out and I love the effect it gave.
Thanks so much for commenting!
Vanessa says
I love this idea. It’s lovely. I stopped by from the 365 days craft link party. Enjoyed looking around your lovely blog.
CorinnaAshley says
Thanks Vanessa and welcome!
Jamie @ anderson + grant says
These make such a perfect gift. Who doesn’t need a little gold in their life 🙂
CorinnaAshley says
I need a lot of gold in my life, haha! I’m so happy you like the plates!
Barb says
Fantastic idea! Love those little square plates. I bet a series of these done with ‘2015’ would rock a New Year’s party. Thanks for inspiring.
CorinnaAshley says
That’s a really great idea Barb! Thanks for visiting!
alexis @ Persia Lou says
These are super cute, Corinna! I think I like the one with the black hash marks best. ^Ooh – and great idea from Barb!
CorinnaAshley says
Isn’t that such a fun idea?! The hash marks one is fabulous. I hope my sister loves it! Thanks Alexis!
Kristy says
These turned out beautifully! Adorable gifts, I’m inspired 🙂 Pinning to remember & sharing.
CorinnaAshley says
Yay! I know you’ll love them if you try it out! Thanks for sharing!
Ida says
WOW! I love these. These are such a perfect gift. I have little trinket trays all over the house. They are super useful!
Thanks for linking up on Merry Mondays!
CorinnaAshley says
Thanks Ida! I love a pretty little trinket tray in a convenient place!