HOW TO MAKE FAUX LEATHER

This is an update of a post I made on my old blog ten years ago. For this project, I made two sheets, intending to use one as a masterboard to cut up and use in different projects, and the other as a photographic background.

Introduction

Faux leather is amazing. It looks and feels exactly like leather – quite different from the original card from which it is made. The transformation of one material into another is astonishing, and so easy to do. The only thing it lacks is that distinctive leather smell but I expect one day someone will bottle that and we’ll be able to spray it on for that ultimate authentic touch!

Materials

Some people start with kraft card (which is a dull buff colour) or brown cardstock, and then add some colour and dimension with Distress Inks, but I prefer to start with whatever card I have handy and then paint it with acrylics. In the past I have used recycled card with printing on it – if you are going to paint it, it really doesn’t matter what colour it is or what is on it, so if you have any patterned card that you don’t like, for instance, or any old bits of junk card for recycling, that will do fine. The better quality card, the less likely it is to fall apart, so you don’t want anything too thin and flimsy. I have seen faux leather made from toilet paper cores, and this is usually pretty poor quality card, but it works fine – it just requires fairly careful handling.

Techniques

I have looked at various different techniques for making faux leather and combined different aspects of each, to develop my own slant on this. There are various tutorials available on Youtube and elsewhere online, and you can use inks instead of acrylic paint if you wish.

Faux leather embosses very well, too, using embossing folders. You can leave the painting until after it is embossed if you want, so that you can emphasise the peaks and troughs in the texture with lighter and darker shades, to give the effect of tooled leather, which looks extremely realistic.

The card has to be altered to soften the fibres in order to give it that soft, flexible feel so characteristic of leather. Not only does it handle like leather, but the surface has a soft, suede-like feel almost like chamois leather. Painting and sealing gives it the more normal leather finish. With ink, you could probably retain the chamois finish, but I haven’t tried this.

Softening the fibres and creasing the card

To soften the fibres, I took a small spray bottle and poured a little glycerine into it – glycerine is very inexpensive and easily obtainable from your local pharmacist. This is diluted with water in approximate proportions of 1:6 glycerine to water. Shake the bottle to mix the solution.

Lay out the cardstock on a non-stick craft sheet and spritz it well with the liquid. It needs to be pushed into the card so that it is soaked up by the fibres. To begin with, it is fine to rub it gently with your fingers but as the process goes on, it is important not to damage the surface too much, and a patting motion with the fingers outstretched and the palms flat works best.

Here is the card after the first spritzing.

Once the solution has been sufficiently absorbed, it is necessary to scrunch the card up. After the first spritzing it is still quite stiff, so I scrunched and unfolded it twice, the first time emphasising the widthwise direction and then the lengthwise, taking care not to tear it when flattening it out again. This becomes increasingly important as the process advances as it becomes ever more fragile the wetter it becomes.

Here it is scrunched up for the first time.

The next picture shows the second spritzing carried out.

You can see that the label on my bottle is not surviving this process very well! I had the glycerine solution all over my hands and it started to break down the fibres of the label too.

The card scrunched up after the second spritzing.

You can see that it is now possible to scrunch it up quite a bit more tightly.

Here it is flattened out and the third spritzing applied.

Observe how much more creased the card has now become.

Here it is after the third scrunching – quite a tight ball.

It is important to take your time when unscrunching it at this stage because it has become very fragile and will tear easily. Spread out, this is what it looks like. Lots of creases running in every direction. I patted it well to flatten it out.

It has a slightly translucent appearance while it is still wet, and it is very floppy and soft, and needs careful handling. I laid both sheets out in the airing cupboard to dry overnight.

Painting

Once dry, I could apply the paint, and then it would really start to look like leather.

For brown faux leather, you only need a fairly limited colour palette – a darker and a lighter brown are all that are required, but when I did this the first time, I felt that the addition of a little yellow ochre lightened it a bit and gave it a little more interest.

I worked on my non-stick craft mat as this is so easy to clean up, even when the acrylic paint has dried on it. Starting to paint the first layer of burnt umber, I used quite a large brush and added a touch of water. It is best to use a combination of stippling and short, multi-directional brush strokes in order to push the paint into all the creases in the faux leather. I went fairly carefully with the first coat, as I did not want to break up the surface of the paper, which although much stronger now it was dry, was still vulnerable if wet.

The first coat of burnt umber complete. You can see that the cover is inadequate, and some of the whiteness of the card is showing through the paint layer.

At least two coats are required, depending on the coverage and the quality of the paint; I think three coats is best. Here is the faux leather after the application of the second coat. You can see that the coverage is a lot more even now.

The third and final coat complete. It now has a good, overall coverage in a rich, dark brown.

It could have been left like this – it now had the look of leather, but the finish was a little flat, and with some highlights it would appear much more like the real thing. You can see that the paint leaves a slight sheen – in the above photo the paint is still a bit wet, and it dries slightly less shiny.

To finish the piece, some lighter brown (in this case, burnt sienna) and then some yellow ochre, were dry-brushed on. The minimum of paint was applied; it is much easier to add more than to remove too much! It requires a very light touch, just enough for the paint to touch the tops of the creases.

The burnt sienna being applied.

The piece with the burnt sienna dry brushing laid over the original piece to compare. Unfortunately the photos don’t really pick up the difference very well.

The burnt sienna dry brushing complete. I think you can see that it now has a reddish tinge.

Dry brushing with yellow ochre. Again, the piece being worked on is laid on top of the piece with just the burnt sienna dry brushing, to compare.

The Finishes

Once both sheets were dry, I applied the finishes. I decided that with the piece I was going to retain as a photographic background, it would be better if it had a matte finish so that I wouldn’t be troubled by reflections. This is where I made my mistake. I thought that if I painted on some soft matte gel medium with a foam brush, this would dry crystal clear and that I would just get a nice matte finish, but the wretched stuff dried quite milky, and it’s not a success! You live and learn… I would have done better to use a matte spray varnish.

For the other piece, which was going to be used as a masterboard and cut up for different projects, I used one single liberal coat of acrylic wax, again applied with a foam brush. I have had success with this before on faux leather.

It has a lovely sheen, and brings out the colours and texture well.

Here are the two finishes compared. I may still be able to use the matte one but it hasn’t come out as intended! I am very pleased with the other one, though.

The pieces are quite floppy and flexible and have the feel of real leather.

The finished masterboard.

I deliberately left this masterboard unembellished. When cut up, I could emboss the pieces if I wanted, or add some gold highlights with gilding wax, or whatever else was required for the individual project. Leaving it in its original state made it more versatile.

Different colours

Here are some examples of different coloured faux leathers.

The colours I used for the green faux leather were Hooker’s green and sap green, with some gilding wax applied gently over the raised areas, and for the red one, alizarin crimson, cadmium red deep, cadmium red and mars black. This one also had some gilding wax added. The gold highlights really give the faux leathers a rich look.

Uses for faux leather

Faux leather can be used for cards, covering boxes, making book covers… its uses are endless, and limited only by your own imagination. The colour can be anything you like, and if the surface is further plasticised with the addition of wax or varnish to seal it, it is actually quite durable. It is very useful for making man cards and gifts, as it has a nice masculine look!

Faux leather in use

Here are a couple of books I made, with faux leather covers.

The second one used a slightly different technique, but close enough!

Hard to believe that this started out as humble plain cardstock, isn’t it.