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Friday, 15 April 2016

"Metallic" Effects with Liquid Leaf - Mini Book

Liquid Leaf Projects
        Hi crafters...this post is about a gorgeous product called "Liquid Leaf "which helps you to add wonderful metallic effects to any article be it metal, glass, ceramic, clay, wood, canvas etc .
Liquid Leaf 
        It is a versatile special effects paint from the famous company Plaid[ the manufacturers of Modpodge]
Liquid Leaf 
I chose to use it to decorate a mini book I made using the new Made in India Bob N Betty Papers  Ornate Annie stack being sold exclusively at Crafters Corner.
Mini Book Tutorial
The mini book covers were made using pattern paper and chipboard with the help of red tacky tape. 
Mini Book 
If you are interested in the detailed steps here are the 
Tutorial links
Pictorial version of the Mini Book Tutorial  - Show how to create mini book pages and the cover and add a strong fabric spine
Mixed Media Style Book Cover Tutorial -Shows tips on how to embellish in mixed media style
Here is the link to the video tutorial  : Mini Book video tutorial 
Mini Book 
Used whipped spackle and a stencil to create a subtle texture on the book cover.
whipped spackle
I wanted to keep the beautiful papers visible so didnt over embellish!

Liquid Leaf 
Now coming to Liquid Leaf ...what is it ?
In simple language Liquid Leaf is a paint ...but not the regular acrylic paint. Here are some salient features
  • It is thin and free flowing
  • It is highly concentrated yet free flowing and can be thinned and used or used per se
  • It can be diluted with xylene and put in a spray paint gun to use as a spray paint
  • It can be diluted and filled into a lettering pen for delicate elegant lettering!
  • The metallic effects are fantastic as the paint actual contains real metal ...eg the copper  paint contains Copper!
  • If you are going to use it on a porous surface such as canvas...prime it first with a normal paint basecoat
Liquid Leaf 
For the first product demo I tried Liquid Leaf with a variety of surfaces
  • clay- the yellow bow was made using air drying clay
  • metal- the small butterfly charm
  • pearl- the flat backed pearls you see above
  • wood- the chipboard frame you see below
Chipboard alteration with Liquid Leaf
The picture below shows the open Liquid Leaf bottle  with the gorgeous copper paint shimmering!
Liquid Leaf
      It was super easy to use...just dip a regular paint brush onto the lid or paint bottle and  paint your object....what I especially liked about it is that it is thin and free flowing so it was so easy to get a full coverage of the tiny areas of an embellishment!
Liquid Leaf on mini book
Painting even the  detailed scrolls of the chipboard frame hardly took any time at all!
Liquid Leaf
I have not added anything else on this book cover as I wanted the copper to shine through!
Liquid Leaf 
All the tiny pearls on the frame were added using my new tool the Crystal Katana [ boy does this new toy make crafting with tiny pearls fun!]
Crystal Katana and Tanto
Another word : the Tanto is the cheaper version of the two pick up tools and personally I like both but my young daughter claims Crystal Katana is superior !
And here is a video of her using the Crystal Katana to add pearls to the chipboard frame

Liquid Leaf
See how the Liquid Leaf totally changed the look of the clay bow! It looks so different doesnt it!
Liquid Leaf 
The Liquid Leaf painted pearls were transformed to look like copper knobs! 
I also tried the copper Liquid Leaf on a clear resin embellishment and got a beautiful copper metallic look as you can see below
Mini book with Liquid Leaf 
And here is the mini book with a resin crown and  copper embellishments all around!
Mini book with Liquid Leaf 
Cleaning your brushes after using them with Liquid Leaf requires a "thinner' like the one you would use with your normal home painting projects as it is not a water washable paint.
Liquid Leaf 
This little bottle of  Liquid Leaf packs quite a punch and I have made quite a few projects using it including the decoupaged container in the collaged picture...will be sharing more tutorials in the weeks to come.

Here are the list of Supplies :
Liquid Leaf Copper
Clay - Air Drying Clay 
Clay Molds- Martha Stewart
Chipboard
Metal Charms
Adhesives : Red Tacky Tape , Tom Bow Multi mono
Papers : Bob n Betty Ornate Annie
Texturing Media : Whipped Spackle
Stencils - Memory Box

5 comments:

  1. gold leafing used to be a well know technique many years back, its good to see that its coming back again

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes Divya seems to be quite the rage now!

      Delete
  2. very well explained sonia, beautiful project

    ReplyDelete

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