Faux Leather Ledger Book (with tutorial)

I have had Tim Holtz's kraft glassine paper for some time, today I was inspired to play with it.  Here is what I made.  Faux leather!

I have seen a few examples of what can be achieved with this paper, so I knew I wanted to incorporate wrinkling the paper.  I decided to use one of the first altered techniques I learned and make faux leather.  You can do this application with a heavy paper bag instead of the glassine paper if you don't have it on hand.*

Here goes my first stab at a tutorial, please excuse my messy crafting area and simple photos.  I think I may need a tripod and better lighting!

Timspired Faux Leather

Supplies:

Kraft Glassine paper*

Grungeboard

Distress Inks

Spray bottle filled with water

Yes Paste

Semi Gloss Medium

Paint Brushes

Edge Distresser

Brayer

I started by crumpling up the glassine paper and spritzing it to soften it a bit. 

I then did a direct application of Distress Inks.  



I used rusty hinge, wild honey and vintage photo. I spritzed with water to get the inks to activate and bleed into the wrinkles of the paper.

You can play at this stage for a bit until you are satisfied.  Please note if you are using a paper bag it will get quite fragile and rip if you are not careful.  I had no issues with Tim's special paper.  Your hands will get really inky, beware!  I avoided using a heat gun with the Kraft paper, as I did not want to activate the wax coating.  If using a paper bag, let dry or use a heat gun before the next step. 

Now add a couple of rather thick coats of gel medium.  I typically wait a bit in between coats and put them on in opposite directions.  Three coats seems to work well for me. 

This is when I had my epiphany to add this to grungeboard to increase the leather like quality of the project!  What do you know, Tim made each supply in the very same dimensions...

Now, on my first page I attempted to glue the layers with gel medium, that did not work.  The grungeboard seems to be very thirsty as I think it absorbs the medium.  I stepped it up with Yes Paste and that worked great. 

 I used a brayer to smooth it out.  Be sure to get your edges really good.  

 

I then added a sheet of paper to the back and distressed the edges.

Last, I applied ink to the distressed edges.

When your done you have a fab piece of faux leather that really bends and moves.  I think the possibilities for this altered Kraftboard are amazing!

For the book, I simply made two pieces of  leather Kraftboard, lined with pretty paper and cut up some vintage ledger paper for the inside.  I punched holes with my Cinch and tied to bind with silk ribbon I hand dyed.  The bookplate is by Tim as is the Journey stamp.  I did a really neat trick of sandwiching my floating ledger paper "journey"  in between two pieces of acetate packaging. 

I hope this entry finds you well and inspires you do do something new!  I can't wait to try this with the grungeboard with dots on it, I think I can create a faux ostrich leather....

Cheers,

Rhea