Day 3 of 61 Days of Summer

Faux leather journal

Materials needed for steps 1-4: Kraft paper, Heat n Bond, iron and acrylic paint: a dark brown or black and another color of choice.

Step 1: Take a piece of Kraft paper and crumble it then open it, repetitively, until the firmness of the sizing has softened. This will involve crushing then opening of the paper....maybe 7 or 8 times. Try not to tear the paper. The end result is a sheet of wrinkled paper that's almost as flexible as tissue paper.

Cut a sheet of 'Heat N Bond' no sew/ fusing paper and iron onto one side of your wrinkled Kraft paper. My Kraft paper happens to have print on one side which will help you decipher the front and back sides of the paper as I'm directing you. I've fused the Heat N Bond to the backside of my Kraft paper. For you, it will not matter which side you iron the adhesive on. The purpose of the Heat N Bond is to freeze the wrinkles in place so that you may paint on your paper without changing those wrinkles.

Using a dark colored acrylic paint, cover the whole piece of paper. You may rub it on or brush it on but do not add water to your paint beforehand. This technique is considered to be 'dry-brushing'. Dry -brushing is when you do not wet your painting tool before or during the painting process. When applying paint, you may allow some of the paper's natural color to show or you may completely fill in the whole sheet so that none of the original color remains.

Once your dark acrylic color is completely dry, you may add your primary color. In this case, your primary color is the focal color of your journal. The color that will stand out the most when viewing your journal. Apply your primary color using a brush, soft towel or paper towel. Do not load your applicator:(brush/soft towel/paper towel) with paint. Instead, load only a small amount of paint and gently rub that color atop the dark color you've already applied. The ridges in the wrinkles of the page will grab that paint first. Do not rub that colored paint into the cracks and crevices of your wrinkled page because you want those dark area's to remain. If the acrylic paint isn't opaque enough to really accent the ridges in your sheet, reapply but make sure that color doesn't seep into the cracks. If you make a mistake, once the paint is dry, try it again. It should look like extremely colorful leather that has many deep, dark wrinkles in it.

Steps 5-8 tomorrow.