DIY Gold Leaf Christmas Print + Giveaway Winner

First I want to congratulate Kaleigh C. for being the winner of the Evermore Paper Co. giveaway!! And thank you to all of you who entered the giveaway, shared which cards were your favorite, and for following Home Sweet Ruby in general. I feel so fortunate to have the best readers ever!

I don't know about you all, but I'm loving all of the gold foil prints you can find on Etsy. The problem is, I'm not spending $20 or more on an art print, at least not now. Call me cheap or blame it on paying for Christmas gifts and a Europe trip... either way I found this tutorial and decided to give it a shot.

I'm happy with the way it turned out considering I also don't have $300 for a silhouette machine. That would have made this much, much easier. It's actually possible to get the gold more smooth than mine looks, but my hands were getting sticky and I figured that would do! Also, with this method you are limited as to what kind of font to use and your design so eventually I may end up purchasing a gold print after the holidays. 

Without counting the picture frame with mat, this project cost me $4.35 and I have tons of gold leafing paper left for more projects.

What you need:
2 Pieces of Cardstock Paper: $0.75 (One piece will be covered in gold foil so it doesn't matter what color it is)
Exacto Knife: Owned (You can get these for a few bucks at any craft store or use a box cutter if you're desperate, just be careful!)
Cardboard: Owned, this is only used to protect your surface while cutting the paper
Gold Leafing: $3.60 (with 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby)
Spray Adhesive: Owned

First print your design on your cardstock. I used a thick, but relatively simple font from Word. You don't want anything too thin or cursive because if you're like me, you'll totally lose your patience when cutting it out. I changed my font color so it was a light grey outline and it wouldn't be too noticeable if my cutting wasn't great. Which, in case you're wondering, I'm terrible at regardless of which tool I use!

Cut out your letters with the exacto knife, making sure to save the little pieces of paper from the inside of certain letters, like the "R" in my project.

This is where I stopped taking photos because I figured the spray adhesive and my camera were not a good combination! It's pretty self explanatory though...

Once you have all of your letters cut out, lightly spray your other sheet of cardstock with spray adhesive. Be careful with the gold foil, it will stick all over your hands and will break apart easily. I used the paper sheets that come in between each leafing sheet to press it to the sticky cardstock.

Spray the back of the cardstock with the text, and stick it to the paper with the leafing.

Finally, spray the back of the pieces from your letters and stick those in place. You may be able to use some other kraft glue, but I was too lazy to get it out and just dealt with the stickiness of these itty, bity pieces of paper. A tweezer helped me get them in the right spot.

Put in your frame and display. Festive!

Anyone else loving the gold prints out there lately?