Wood Frame with Gilded Chipboard Leaves and Rhinestone Swirls

It can be easy to look at chipboard embellishments and imagine how you would use them on a card or scrapbook page. But I think its fun to look at the same embellishments and find ways to use them to create home decor. When I designed the Leaves and Acorns Embellishments for Want2Scrap, I had home decor in mind.

There are 15 leaves (4 different styles) and 3 acorns in this set. They are small, about 1" tall (2.5 cm), so you can squeeze them in to tight spaces. They work great on cards and scrapbook pages, but they also make wonderful charms and great embellishments for gift boxes, tins, lamp shades, frames and more!
This tiny frame is a fast project that can easily be adapted to match the colors of your home. The leaves are easy to gild and really sparkle in the light. While I decided Mars Black was the right background color for me, I think this would also look fantastic on any color from a fall palette - Burnt Umber, Indian Red Hue, Yellow Ochre - and so on.
Here are the steps:

• Paint the frame with an acrylic paint. I used Mars Black Perfect Pigment from USArtQuest. I found the frame at a scrapbook yard sale for only twenty-five cents, but I've seen similar ones for about a dollar at big box stores. My frame holds a photo that's just shy of 3" square. The overall frame is only about 5" square.
• Apply Duo Adhesive from USArtQuest to the leaves, acorn bottoms and acorn tops using a small paint brush (like a #4 round). I just dabbed the brush in to the bottle and "painted" the fronts while they sat on a piece of Studio Paper. You could work on a non-stick craft sheet instead. Don't worry about the sides or backs. What makes Duo Adhesive special is that it dries tacky. While wet, it's white and sticky. When it dries clear, it's just tacky enough for gilding, powdered mica pigments, foiling or even glitter. They saying goes; "When it's white, it's not right. When it's clear, it adheres!"
• Once the Duo Adhesive is dry (and clear), apply Leafing Metal or Mica D'Lights. I used gilding for the leaves and Mica D'Lights for the acorn tops and bottoms. Use a texture sponge to burnish the gilding and remove any excess (called "fines"). The Mica D'Lights adhere easily to the tacky Duo Adhesive.
• Adhere the leaves and acorns to the frame using your favorite liquid adhesive. Perfect Paper Adhesive (PPA) from USArtQuest works great for this!
• To finish off the frame, apply rhinestones. I used self-adhesive amber Swirls Maxxi Girl Rhinestones from Want2Scrap. I love how the swirls are built right in!

Susan Pickering Rothamel has a great YouTube video that shows how you can use Duo Adhesive to apply gilding and Perfect Pearls. It's the same process I used to gild the leaves.

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Happy Crafting!
Joe Rotella