How to use a Glue Stick with Leafing

Hello!!!  Happy Monday and Happy Anniversary for the hubs and I.  We have now been married for 35 years.  Wow!!!  

Autumn has arrived and the leaves are looking beautiful, however yesterday felt much more like winter outside and it even spit a bit of snow.  Thankfully the rest of the week will be more like fall than winter.

 I've started today's project with a tag from my stash that was already colored.  To tell you about the background already on it would be a total guess.  I'm thinking it's Distress Spray Stain along with Mica Spray but it's possible I'd have that wrong.  Either way I thought it was a beautiful start to an Autumn tag.

I've used glue stick with foil or leafing before but I'd never done it with a stencil/. I was thinking that it should work and had to play.  The stencil is the Leaf and Snowflake Spray (QF / ECD).  I placed it on my tag and dabbed over it with the glue stick being careful not to get globs in the design.  I then used my finger to rub the glue around pulling what was on the stencil into the cut outs, hoping to get good coverage. 

I was going to use my container of left over leafing but the colors were so similar to the tag that I chose to go with some plain gold.  I pressed it onto the glue and then rubbed over the tag to remove the excess leafing putting the pieces into my container.

As you can see, I didn't manage to get glue everywhere in all the areas.  This would look great if you were just going for the suggestion of falling leaves and I'm thinking an art journal page is in my future.  However, I wanted the whole design on my tag.  I almost started over with a whole new idea but then decided I would continue and take you along on the journey.  So what to do....

I decided on Embossing Powder on top of Embossing Paste.  Before beginning I used an anti-static bag over the tag to be sure the powder only stuck to the paste.  The stencil was placed back on lining it up with what was already leafed, Texture Paste Transparent Matte was applied with a pallet knife, the stencil removed, Queen's Gold Embossing Powder poured on the wet paste, and dump off the extra.  At this point you can allow the paste to dry with the powder on it and once the paste is completely dry then heat to melt the embossing powder.  This will create a smoother look.  If you like a more textured look then you can heat the powder to melt right away which will cause the paste to bubble.  Be sure to have adequate ventilation when heating acrylic mediums.  

Yes, I chose to heat right away and get lots of texture in my leaves.

Back to the glue stick.  I rubbed glue stick onto the edges of the tag, pressed all the edges into the little pieces in my container of leafing, and then rubbed over the edges to burnish the leafing and remove all the excess. 

The quote is from the new Autumn Collection of stamps.  It is stamped with Versamark Ink and embossed with Weathered White Powder.  

Some twine and a metal leaf to finish it.  The leaf was gold and color added with Alcohol Inks.