Gold Leafed Canvas

Artwork brings such life and interest to a room, but unfortunately our current budget doesn’t leave much room for starting a collection of my own. So until we reach that point, I’ve decided to tap into my “inner artist” to add some interest to our walls.

I’ve had some old canvases for awhile, but haven’t had the courage to try my hand at painting yet (am I the only one completely intimidated by a blank canvas?) So I thought a gold leaf project would be a great place to start!

This project is super easy – all I used was a blank canvas, sponge daubers, a clean brush, gold leaf size, and gold leaf sheets (you can find gold leafing supplies at most craft stores).

I dipped the daubers into the size and sponged them onto the canvas.

Using each of the different sizes, I focused most of the dots at the bottom of the canvas and dispersed them towards the top.

After allowing the size to dry for 20 minutes, I began laying the gold leaf on the canvas. The gold leaf sheets can be difficult to handle because they are so thin and delicate. It takes a little practice, but with a project like this it isn’t necessary that all the sheets lie completely flat. It’s art, so it doesn’t have to be perfect!

The gold leaf only adheres to the areas with size, but there were a lot of gold flecks left on the canvas, so the brush helped loosen them and clean things up.

I love how simple and fun this project was, and I can see creating a whole collection of these gold canvases!