How to: 3d gold leaf sign

There are some amazing sign artists out there with mad skills, creating the most beautiful, intricate artwork. I definitely do realise I’m no pro sign writer and this is a much simpler version but once I get an idea in my head, I need to have a go. This is my go at making a gold leaf lettering sign on glass.

Frame:

Luckily I already had this frame that is perfect for the job. It has been in the loft getting very dusty for years. I had to remove some old family photos from it (yes I’m an ice queen and have no family pics in the house). I’m lucky that this frame is a box frame so the glass sits in front of the background, you could use any frame though.

Background:

I used the existing backing card to paint my background pattern onto, you could paint a pattern or find a nice bit of wallpaper (so much easier!) to stick on. Mine was a bit fiddley and took a while, I went for a circus kinda vibe.

Lettering:

Then the lettering, you might wonder why I wanted to do this as I don’t usually like word art, but as with most things, there’s always the exception that you love! Obviously the word had to be gold related. The easiest option would be to use an alphabet stencil but I didn’t have the patience to find one the right size with the right style of lettering and then wait for it to arrive. Google helped me find the 3D style of lettering I wanted, I measured out how much of the glass I wanted to be taken up by the letters and I needed them to be uniform in size. I drew out a square for each letter, all the same size and drew out each letter using the google image as a guide. The S was a bit tricky but the others were easy. I cut the letters out to create my word stencil. I then used a sharpie black pen to draw the outline of the letters straight onto the back of the glass, remembering to do them the wrong way round, blew my mind a bit to be honest! I went over it a few times to make sure it was really black and a bit thicker, then added the 3d shadows by hand, mostly using a ruler. You can of course make your life a lot easier and keep the letters as simple as you like. I then painted the 3d shadows with some normal emulsion paint, it will need a few coats. I’m sure you can get specialist glass or signwriting paint that would come out brighter. The best thing about this bit is that you don’t need to be neat on the edges, if you go onto the black outline you won’t see it on the reverse side anyway.

Gold leafing:

Then apply a thin, even layer of your gold leaf adhesive to cover the main body of the letters, making sure you go right onto the black outline otherwise you will see gaps when you turn it over. After about 10 minutes you can cover the letters in your gold leaf sheets. Make sure you press down firmly over all of the letter. You can then use a soft brush (make-up brushes are great for this) to remove all excess gold and reveal your perfect letters. Stick your backing on and turn over the reveal your blinging gold stunner!