CD Calendar - November - Perfect Pearls - Faux Leather

Another very fun and very easy technique that yields really cool results! I know not many people have or use the Perfect Ink Refresher because they figure they will just buy a new ink pad when the old one goes dry. Well seriously the Perfect Ink Refresher does work....give your ink pad a few squirts and let it soak in for a few minutes. Your ink pad will be revived!

Now, even though that's the intended purpose for Perfect Ink Refresher it's not the ONLY use for it! I don't know why this works, I only know it really does! You can turn regular old cardstock into faux leather with just a few short steps so let's give it a try!

CD Calendar

November

Perfect Pearls/Perfect Ink Refresher

Faux Leather

Supplies:

Perfect Ink Refresher

Perfect Pearls

Cardstock

Heat It craft tool (optional)

Stamps- Inkadinkado (optional)

Archival Ink (optional)

Embellishments

Instructions:

1. Saturate your piece of cardstock with the Perfect Ink Refresher.

2. Work the Perfect Ink Refresher into the cardstock by rubbing it into the surface with your fingers. I like to really rough it up ~ doing so really adds to the finished paper.

3. Now wad the paper up into a little ball, open it up and do it again.

4. Flatten the soaked, wrinkled paper and apply a layer of Perfect Pearls. I am using Perfect Copper and Green Patina for this project.

5. Work the Perfect Pearls into the surface of the paper.

6. Let dry naturally or speed drying with the Heat It craft tool. Now, I'm not sure how it works but when the paper is dry it will really look and feel like leather! It's pliable just like leather is and it's got a great shimmer which doesn't show up in the photo. It's so hard to get good photos of PP's on lighter color cardstock but trust me, it does show up in person.

7. Stamp and embellish as desired.

8. Mount on your CD and November is history!

Now as I mentioned before you just will not get the full effect of this technique unless you feel it in person. It really is amazing how much the paper feels and looks like leather when you're done. This works not only on brown cardstock ~ I just used this to match the month ~ but it works on all colors of cardstock. I have made faux leather look purse cards using this technique paired with pink and purple cardstocks ~ they turned out WAY cool. I've also made a vintage looking travel trunk using this same technique and a darker brown color of cardstock which again was very realistic in so many ways.

So, even though it may mean another purchase ;) lol!! I highly recommend giving this technique a try!

You won't be disappointed!