I love the subtle gold touch that the gold leaf flakes and the gold embossing powder brings to this card.  I tried three other ways to add gold to the card and in the end, I love how this turned out.  First, I used a gold Signo Uniball pen and ruler to add a gold line around the edges.  I even made a template that I could draw the line on the center panel, 1/8″ in from the edge, even around the curved corners.  The pen didn’t flow smoothly enough and looked amateurish, even after several practice runs.

I also tried using 1/4″ Tear n Tape on the outer edges of the center panel base.  With the curved edge, there was always an awkward seam showing as the tape changed directions at the corners.  Even with gold leafing, it was still obvious that there were strips of tape.  Next, I tried just using a sheet of Gold Foil paper (and even Brass Foil paper).  But those were really glossy and were a little too in-your-face.

Finally, I settled on using a piece of the adhesive sheets that covered the entire surface of the center panel base.  It was overkill for adhering the stamped panel onto, but worked perfectly to provide a seamless substrate to apply the gold leaf flakes.  

There’s one last way to apply the gold leafing.  Included in the Fine Art Floral suite, there’s some sticky embossing powder.  You use Versamark ink and shake the sticky embossing powder onto it.  Then, you use a heat gun to melt the powder.  When it’s melted, it leaves a sticky surface that the gold flakes will adhere to.  Because I wanted this sympathy card to have a clean look, I didn’t want to take the chance that there’d be uneven coverage of the Versamark or the embossing powder.  In the end, I’m happy with how the adhesive sheets worked and would use them again.