I made these after watching a video on Youtube by Sheena Douglas.
Sheena used distress inks on craft paper, but I don't have either of them so I tried the technique with S U inks and card. Sheena also uses Spray and Shine to finish off the leather look. I don't have that either so I used what I have.
I used S.U s crumb cake card stock. Half an A4 sheet for a small booklet.
I mixed about one tablespoon of gylcerine with roughly 1/4 of a pint of water in a small spray bottle.
I sprayed the card well on both sides and gently crumpled the card stock into a ball.
I repeated this several times until the card was very soft and pliable. The softer the card gets the easier it tears, so you have to be really careful each time you open up the wet ball of card.Once the card was creased all over I used an embossing folder to add the embossed pattern.
The card is too big to emboss it all in one go ( unless you have A4 embossing folders) so you have to emboss one half then do the other half.
Now you need to let it dry.
I draped my card over the radiator and cranked the heating up for ten minutes to speed up the drying time.
The next step is to apply two complimentary inks to the cards stock.
I used Soft Suede and Lucky Limeade on the tree booklet.
Early Espresso, Baked Brown Sugar and Tangerine Tango on the other two booklets along with a touch of red on the Birds and Swirls booklet.
Now at this point I had to find an alternative for the spray and shine.
I used a matt finish acrylic varnish used for varnishing paintings. There is no shine on this booklet, but I really like the look and the feel of this one. I tried crystal effects, but that required so much brushing to spread it out evenly, it disturbed the ink so much it looked very muddy and the effect was lost.
I then tried Mod Podge, if you like very glossy leather then use Mod Podge.
I applied a thick coat of Mod Podge with very little brushing so not to disturb the inks too much.
The finished result was a very glossy, almost plastic looking card stock that feels quite durable. But personally, I prefer the Matt Acrylic varnish look.
The beauty of the Spray and Shine is, it doesn't move the ink about as much as brushing on a wet varnish. once the varnish has dried glue a piece of cotton fabric to the reverse allow to dry completely, then trim back the fabric and card stock. Punch the corners to round them off. Stitch the pages into the book through the cover.
Go to youtube to see Sheena's tutorials on faux leather.
Sheena also shows you how to stitch the pages into the book.
I think, this project could be taken a step further to make this even more professional looking by making a pocket using the same technique to protect the book while in your handbag.
