Have you noticed how popular gold has become again? You’ve probably noticed it in the blogosphere a lot too.
Today I want to show you how easy it is to add some gold sparkle to your own blog text, graphics or backgrounds!
Psst! Want to skip doing it yourself? Download my free gold and glitter social media icons now!
Free Gold Textures to Download
First, let’s start by downloading a texture or two to play with. You can download one of these free gold textures below. Be sure to read the terms of use before using any of these downloads. Click the image to access its download page.
Gold Metallic Texture by Thor
Gold Texture by Pauline Moss
Brushed gold metal texture by PSDgraphics.com
Gold leaf texture 06 by hypnothalamus
SparkleTexture by Breezyxox
Premium Gold and Glitter Textures to Download
If you prefer a nicer premium gold or glitter texture, I can’t recommend Creative Market enough. Here are a few of my favorites:
Note: these are affiliate links which means I’ll receive a small commission if you make a purchase through my link. Read my full disclosure here.
This is the set I used for my free social media icons. You can download the icons here.
Gold Rush Metallic Textures by Studio Denmark
Rose Gold Silver Foil Bundle by Summit Avenue
Gold Glitter Texture by Point and Poem
Antique Gold Textures Digital Paper by Origins Digital Curio
Rose Gold Digital Paper by Origins Digital Curio
Gold Confetti Overlays/Backgrounds by Studio Denmark
Let’s Add a Gold Leaf Texture to Text!
Since not everyone has Photoshop,* I’ll show you how to do this in the free web app, Pixlr, but if you’re using Photoshop, the instructions are pretty similar so you should still be able to follow along.
- Go to Pixlr.com.
- Click Launch Web App.
- Click Browse to open an image from your computer and select your gold texture.
- You may want to rotate the image to landscape if it isn’t already.
- Resize the image if it’s too large. Ideally you want it no larger than 1000px wide for a web image. Keep ‘Constrain Proportions’ checked.
- In the Navigator window at the top right, change the view size to 100% and click Enter.
- Select the Text tool and click in the center of the image.
- Type your text in the box that pops up and adjust the font, size and style to your liking. Ideally you want to select a thicker font and make it as large as possible. The color of the text does not matter.
- Move the text so that it’s positioned how you want it, most likely centered on the page.
- Once you have the text situated the way you want it, go to the Layers palette to the right and right-click the text layer. Select ‘Rasterize layer’. This will turn the text into shapes and is no longer editable.
- With the text layer still selected, click the Wand Tool.
- Using the Wand Tool, select all the text. You may need to hold down the ‘shift’ key while selecting all the pieces. You’ll see the white marching ants around the letters which indicates they are selected.
- Now double click the lock icon on the Background layer in the Layers palette to unlock it.
- Click on the Background layer in the Layer palette and then click the ‘Add layer mask’ button at the bottom of the Layers palette.
- The gold background should now disappear and you’ll see a red box on the background layer in the Layer palette.
- Now uncheck the checkbox for the text layer.
- Tada!
- Now you can crop the image around the text (the crop tool is the top left tool in the left toolbar) and save it as a .png. This is important as we want to keep the background transparent. DO NOT save as a .jpg unless you want a white background.
Add a Gold Leaf Texture to Shapes and Icons
You can also add the gold leaf effect to a shape, such as an icon for your logo or a banner. Follow the same rules from above only replacing the text layer with a shape like a star or flower. It should be a solid color shape.
Add a Gold Leaf Effect to a Patterned Background
You can also apply the gold leaf effect to a patterned background, such as chevron or stripes. Here’s how:
- Follow steps 1-7 from above.
- Find a pattern you like that has definite and clear differentiation between the foreground and background.
- Place that pattern in a new layer over the gold layer by opening the file up in Pixlr. (Go to File > Open Image to select an image from your computer).
- Click Ctrl+A to select the entire image. Click Ctrl+C to copy it, then click on the gold image and click Ctrl+P to paste it on top.
- Then using the magic wand tool, select the part of the pattern you want to be gold leafed.
- Once the entire selection has been made follow steps 13 – 18 from above.
Wasn’t That Easy?
You’ll probably want to play around with this a bit more, trying different fonts or font sizes or even different textured backgrounds. Try this out with a glitter background, a watercolor background, or any type of texture you want to apply to text, a shape or pattern!
Download Free Gold and Glitter Social Media Icons
Not everyone has the time to DIY so if you want to add a bit of sparkle to your blog now, download these two free sets of social media icons! Click the image below for instant download.
*Please do not redistribute or re-sell these free icons. They are for your own personal use on your own blog. Attribution is not required but not discouraged 🙂 If you are able, please link back to this post, thanks!
Got questions? Go ahead and leave me a comment below and I’ll be sure to answer!
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Aww, thanks so much Marianne. This is perfect. Just what I was looking for. I didn’t know it was so easy. I’m gonna go make my gold pieces soon. 🙂
You’re welcome, I’d LOVE to see them Mel. Please come back and show me a link!
OMG Marianne, You are FABULOUS!! I can’t thank you enough for sharing this tutorial! I’ve been trying to create customized Printables for my daughter’s room and this was just what I needed!! Thank you again, You’re the BEST ~Jessica
Oh how awesome Jessica! I would love to see your printables when they’re finished! I appreciate you sharing it on Twitter as well 🙂
Thanks so much!!! I just used this to make a Christmas printable to give to one of my friends!!! So helpful!
Hi Toyin, awesome! I would love to see it if you’d be willing to share!
I’m looking for a instagram and Facebook logo for the the business card I’m trying to make. I really like your gold ones, but I wasn’t sure if it would be ok to use for that.
Hi Lizzie, sorry for the late reply. Yes you can definitely use them for that, thanks for asking!
I’m trying to add the gold texture to a heart. How do I add a specific shape instead of text?
Hi Pooja, as stated above, you can add the texture to text, shapes or patterns:
Follow the same rules only replacing the text layer with a shape like a star or flower. The shape should be a solid color shape rather than one with some sort of pattern or gradient..
This is a great tutorial. However, I’m getting stuck on step 14. I’m on Mac and can’t get the wand to select the letters only.
Did you work out how to do it on the Mac by any chance? When I right click the text layer and select rasterize the text completely disappears!!
Hi Regina and Ore, I just redid the tutorial on the mac and there is no difference in the instructions, it works just the same. You need to make sure that the text layer is selected in the layers palette before trying to select them with the wand. That may be why you’re having trouble selecting.
I was able to rasterize the text with no problems so I’m not sure what may be going on. If you could perhaps try and tell me step by step what you’re doing, I may be able to help you further. Or you may be accidentally missing a step in the tutorial.
Sorry I’m not more help at the moment!
Hi Regina, I’m not familiar with using Pixlr on the mac so I can’t say offhand why it wouldn’t be working. When I return to work next week, I can take a look and see what the difference is. I’m guessing you have to hold down a different key instead of shift or something like that.
Thank you.
I’ll keep practicing as well.
Thanks so much for this awesome tutorial! I appreciate and glad I found your blog via Pinterest!
Hi Kamela, thanks for saying so! I’m really glad you found me too! 🙂
Thank you for this helpful article! I have a question. I’ve gotten through all the steps successfully, but my final product is turning out with jagged edges around the text. I want it to look clean and smooth. Am I don’t something wrong? Thanks!
Hi Jessie! Try playing around with the magic wand tool and its tolerance (upper left of screen). Your tolerance may be too low and so it’s not selecting all the pixels that should be selected. Try that and let me know if it still doesn’t help.
Thank you for sharing this tutorial! Is easy and quick!
Awesome Sinziana, so glad it was easy for you!
That was so awesome, thanks so much for sharing!
You’re welcome Haidee, thanks for reading!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
You’re welcome Joan. I’d love to see your project!
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I wish I’d tried this method before I spent hours poking around in Paint. This was SO EASY.
Oh yay so glad you found it so easy Sara and sorry you hadn’t found it earlier!
Hiya, im having trouble with step 11/12! I cant seem to get the wand to highlight just the words.. it creates a box round the words! can you help please
Hi Hannah, I think you may have skipped part of step 10 where you need to Rasterize the text layer. Try that and let me know if you’re still having trouble.
hi marianne, I just had to drop by and tell you how useful your tutorial was for me! It is perfectly concise, and easy to follow. I just used this tutorial to make a digital save the date card. Thanks once again!!
Oh yay I’m so happy to hear that Ayesha! Thanks for taking the time to let me know, it makes my day!
Thank you!!! I was looking for this tutorial for years! Can’t wait to try it. I’m so excited!
alexandrasparadise.blogspot.com
Hooray Alexandra! So glad you found it here. Thanks for checking it out and I’d love to see what you create out of it 🙂
HI
MY PIXLR IS SET OUT DIFFERENT TO YOURS AND I CANT FIND THE LAYERS OPTION OR THE MAGIC WAND OR THE RASTERIZE LAYER CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME I AM SUPPOSE TO HAVE THIS DONE BY FRIDAY
THIS WEBSITE IS REALLY GOOD THOUGH ITS SURE TO BE MY NEW FAVOURITE!
HI Nafeesah,
I just went into Pixlr and followed the steps and all the options were still in the same place as when I created this tutorial. If you aren’t seeing the layers palette, click View at the top and then select Layers to open that palette up. To rasterize the text layer, you have to right click on the text layer and select “Rasterize layer.” The wand tool is still in the same location as in the screenshot above in the Tools palette (third from top on the left).
If you don’t have these options in your Pixlr, perhaps you’ve changed some settings from the default. Try using Pixlr in a different browser so that it’s reset to default. Hope that helps.
Thank you 🙂
Hi Marianne this is a great tutorial, but when I do it the marquee tool only selects the block of text, not individual letters. I’ve tried five times, I’m not skipping any steps. I get a block of gold with the transparent text in the middle. Is there a setting I need to change or something?
Viviane, it sounds like you are on the gold texture layer instead of the text layer. Make sure you have the right layer selected in the layers palette before making the selections. Hope that helps!
Hi Marianne,
Thanks for responding! I wasn’t doing the shift button properly. I finally got it and will have gold everywhere! Thank you so much.
Oh yay I’m so glad Vivian! Thanks for coming back to let me know 🙂
I’m having the same issue. I have a block of gold and the letters are “invisible”. I have tried using the shift button on my mac and while using the wand button and still getting the same issue. any help? Thanks for this tutorial.
OK…I figured out the issue. In step 14 when you say to select all the text, I select the entire text box. So this has the marching ants around the text and the text box, which will not yield the same results. When I should do is to select each individual letter and use the shift button to make sure each all individual letters are highlighted. This fixed my issue. Thanks so much for the tutorial!
I’m so glad you worked it out Aisha and sorry for not seeing your question earlier. I’d love to see your work, feel free to share a link!
I love your blog! been so helpful as I try to revamp my 10 year old blog. I was just wondering what the name of these two fonts…1. the one that says “Hi I’m Marianna” and the one that says “Book Boss”.
thanks
sorry typo! meant to write “Hi I am Marianne!
No worries Chiomah! Glad to hear you’ve been finding DYOB helpful!
The first font is Veryberry Pro: http://designyourownblog.com/veryberry
The other one I’m not sure. That graphic was created by Abby Lawson of Justagirlandherblog.com so you may want to check with her. There are tons of fonts that are similar however on CreativeMarket.com if you search for brush scripts.
Many thanks!
Hi I love this!! However, I am currently stuck with a android tablet to do this process and it’s very confusing to try and find all the tools needed. I am using the pixlr app which is found on the Google play store. I did try to use pixlr in my browser on the tablet and tried just changing from mobile version to desktop version through my internet settings, I was rejected because it requires a version of flash player not compatible with tablets, I am stuck please help!!
Lauren
Hi Lauren, I’m sorry, I’ve never used Pixlr on a tablet before. Unfortunately, the tablet app might be more limited compared to the desktop version. Perhaps you can try Pixlr support https://support.pixlr.com/hc/en-us Good luck!
I can’t seem to unlock the background layer. Double clicking doesn’t work, and can’t find this option in any of the drop down menus. I should have checked before purchasing!
Also, do you know if there is a way to add fonts?
Hi Lisa Marie,
Unfortunately, I have not used the purchased version of Pixlr, nor the new version of the free web app. I took a quick look just now and it looks like things have changed quite a bit since I created this tutorial. I will try and update this in the future, but do not have a date yet as to when I will be able to. My apologies. Hopefully you can find some help at Pixlr support here: https://support.pixlr.com/hc/en-us in the meantime.
I absolutely love being able to add gold foil elements to my blog! Thank you! Now my question is…how do I use the elements in my blog? I am on wordpress and I am thinking I will need to insert each one as an image and link it back to my fb, twitter, ect pages. Do I just use the link from my page? Thank you!
Hi Elizabeth, I am working on a tutorial for that coming up soon! Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when it’s published 🙂
I would love to have rose gold social media icons! Could you please make them for downloading?
Still I’m gonna first use these gold icons. They are so fabulous looking. Love your blog.
Hi Sudheeksha, I’m glad you enjoy the gold ones! Unfortunately I probably won’t have the time in my schedule to make new ones, however the tutorial is super easy to follow so that you can make your own! Enjoy 🙂
These icons are beautiful!!
Thank you! I appreciate that Annki
What a great tutorial thank you 🙂 I love playing with gold foil/leaf and digitally so this is fab 🙂 Love the rose gold and glitter especially!
That’s great Kate, thanks for using it!
Very nice and awesome number’s gold texture.
Very good step by step tutorial!
If you haven t figured out already, I m fairly frugal, so I don t have Photoshop. Â Luckily, you can achieve the same gold leaf or glitter effect with Pixlr. Â If you do happen to have Photoshop, the blog I got my inspiration from says that the process is fairly similar
Thanks, the tutorial actually does walk you through using the free Pixlr 😉
Thanks for this! Which package did you buy that has the gold flakey texture you use in the example? It’s the exact texture I’ve been looking for!