make your own gilded business cards

Awhile back, I shared these gilded business cards at Eat.Sleep.Make. I love this project and thought I’d share the how to here on kojo as well.

This project started with some basic striped business cards.

Since we all know that I have a hard time leaving good enough alone, I decided to gild the edges.

And now I love them even more.

Even better? Turns out, DIY gilding is super easy! All you need is a can of metallic spray paint. Want to try it?

First, stack your cards/paper as close together as possible. Really pack them in. Secure them in place (I used a box and filled the empty side with extra paper, smashing them tightly together with no wiggle room at all). Then spray that edge with the lightest coat of spray paint you can muster. Two important things- clumps are your enemy here, so really shake the spray paint can. Also, if the paint pools at all, it’ll leak onto the faces of your cards and make a metallic mess. So spray the first coat as lightly as possible. Then after you give them a good decent chunk of time to dry, and spray (LIGHTLY) again. And again. Repeat until there is a solid metallic coat of paint on one side. Then repeat with the other three sides.

Even though it’s a little finicky, the gilded fabulousness is totally worth it.