Golden Flakes of loveliness?

When I think about golden flakes it is usually with fond memories of a cereal bowl filled with golden flakes of corn, drenched in ice cold full fat milk (preferably a new bottle with the cream at the top) and a generous sprinkling of sugar direct from the sugar bowl.  A standard supper when I lived at home with my parents.  Alas, I can no longer re-create that supper not least because we don't have milk from a bottle and the full fat milk in plastic just doesn't give the same results.

But, no, I'm not talking about those delicious golden flakes.  This week I had my first foray into gilding flakes.  Now, I have hung my nose over this alchemy for years, initially seeing Indigo Blu demonstrate them on C&C.  I just never got round to trying them.  Goodness knows why because I have all sorts of odd stuff, that I have bought on impulse, in my craft stash.

When my Tonic Craft Kit #15 arrived, I was thrilled to see a little pot of gilding flakes and knew this was my chance to create something spectacular.  I bit of research online and I was good to go.  Adhesive sheet? Check.  Gilding flakes? Check.  Suitable die cut to 'gild'?  Check.  Woo hoo.

The first thing I didn't bank on was how light they are.  The second thing I didn't think of was how to spread the damn things evenly without the right tools.  Apparently fingers just aren't good enough. 

Anyway I diligently peeled one side of the double sided adhesive sheet (took ages to find the corner!) and applied it to the back of my die cut, sticky side peeping through the apertures ready for flake heaven.  I opened the pot of flakes and sprinkled those beauties over my project and started to spread them out.  Some stuck, others just moved around.  Remembering that I had watched someone using a sort of scrubbing tool (which I didn't have) I dug under the kitchen sink and found a new scourer.  Yay!

Actually 'Noooooooo!'

To start with it sort of did the trick but then it started to scrub off the flakes which left non-sticky gaps.  I know, I thought, a bit of glue here and there should do the trick.  Brain not working, but optimism driving me forward, I applied a thin layer of wet glue to the gaps and tried to tap some of the flakes onto it.  Not only did they not stick (apart from to my fingers) the glue just spread over the edge of the apertures.  Project halted.

The resulting item is not fit for what it was intended but the lesson is that practice makes perfect and I need to have another go.  Craft Carnage members have offered some really good advice such as using a glue pen, getting a Rub it, Scrub it and applying a light layer of flakes.  I am not giving up.

As for my gilding flake 'masterpiece' - a well placed embellishment or two may just save it!

Thanks for reading.
Sarah x