gold leaf numbers

[arhash 0]

[move]I AM SURE THERE IS A BETTER WAY TO DO THIS.  IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS LET ME KNOW[/move]

FOR MORE PHOTOS GO HERE:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/arhash/sets/72157594482100956/

step one cut out and weed vinyl.  Make one larger than the other by adding a stroke weight in adobe illustrator and re-rasterizing it and then use auto trace.

step two apply transfer tape

step three apply gold sizing/glue.  BE CAREFUL NOT TO GET IT ANYWHERE BUT INSIDE THE NUMBERS!

apply gold leaf with a soft dry brush(a high quality shaving brush works well for big stuff and a really soft natural hair paint brush works well with the small stuff.  You can also just use the paper backing that came with the gold leaf.

clean up edges.  its okay to leave it a little bit messy we will clean it up later. You can use an exacto to scrape the glass close to the numbers. 

It should look something like this. Make sure there is no gold leaf around the edges of your numbers

apply second sticker on top of what you done.  You only get one shot at the this so you have to be carefull.  If you pull up after it has set you will pull up the gold leaf with it

clean up with windex and you are all done!  Its really nice to have the window in front of you when doing all of this.  I have done a few in place and they are really tricky. just go slow and be patient.  -good luck

When you are done it should look a lot like this:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/137/370006284_729fca6977_o.jpg

[JoeCamaro 11]

Hey arhash that was one great tutorial. Thank you for sharing!

That Looks great!

JoeCamaro

[kenimes 42]

Indeed, thank you for sharing. Another way to earn $$ with your USCutter!!

[JoeCamaro 11]

Hey I tough I would add a little advice, a tutorial in a tutorial thread.

There is no need to do this "Make one larger than the other by adding a stroke weight in adobe illustrator and re-rasterizing it and then use auto trace."

Whenever you have an artwork made out of lines only you can make it cuttable in Illustrator fair easy. Just select the line or lines in the design then go to the OBJECT drop down menu at the top menu and select EXPAND. This will imediately convert the line into an object and that way it will be cuttable.

So if you have a number with a stroke and no fill, select it and click on expand and Voila!

I just found out of this about a month ago and tought this may help many of us.

I might make a tutorial thread about how to do this in Illustrator, Freehand and Corel, cuz I think this is a great tool.

Joe

[arhash 0]

thanks.  the expand tool is great but you still have to make the backing number larger so it will cover the gold leaf on the inside of the window.  Adding the stroke weight expands the numbers just enough in order to give you a 1/4 of an inch or so to adhere to the window itself.  If you just expand it it does some weird stuff (adding extra cut lines at cut lines at intersections).  Doing it the way I suggested will make sure your numbers are lined up when they are cut out(the most important thing!)  Thanks for the input though.

[JoeCamaro 11]

Ohhhh I understand better now. Thank you very much for clering my mind. That was helpful

Joe

[mdbarone 0]

I think it is very nice that people are willing to share their ideas and their work. 

This "project" turned out beautifully. Thank you again for sharing.

It's going to take me a VERRRRRYYYY long time to figure out the SB software....I don't know if I'll ever get the hang of even the simplist of projects.

[arhash 0]

I use sign cut.  But mostly I do everything in Illustrator. I just use the sign cut to line everything up and make sure its to scale.  Here is a new project for halloween I just finished.

:

[JoeCamaro 11]

Thats so cool! Funny!

[badpenguin 0]

Great tutorial.

Have you tried to do this to anything besides glass?

I would love to make a goldleaf sticker for my numberplate on my motorcycle. 

After a little practice I'm going to try and use this technique, I'll post my results.

Thanks!

[slopchops 1]

Then again you can use SIGNGOLD (real gold) and knockoff about 3/4 of the time.

[arhash 0]

is SIGNGOLD  gold leaf or actually something you can put in the vinyl cutter?  This seemed the easies way to do this.  The black vinyl creates a masking for the sizing of he gold leaf.  I don't know if you have used gold leaf but that was my second time and it was a bear.  Any suggestions would rock. -arthur

[slopchops 1]

is SIGNGOLD  gold leaf or actually something you can put in the vinyl cutter?  This seemed the easies way to do this.  The black vinyl creates a masking for the sizing of he gold leaf.  I don't know if you have used gold leaf but that was my second time and it was a bear.  Any suggestions would rock. -arthur

Yes Signgold comes in several styles. It is real gols embedded into vinyl. You can make a black outline and zip, your finished.

Ask your local supplier for it. It's expensive but so is gold.