Faux Leather Tutorial with Gel Press

Good Morning Creatives!

Welcome to our “Just For Him” blog hop with Gel Press™!  Please take time to hop through all the great blogs of our designers for inspiration. After you’ve hopped all around,  head back to the Gel Press blog and leave a comment as to which blog gave you the most inspiration!  We will draw a random winner from the comments to win a prize from Gel Press™!!!

Here are the amazing Gel Press Designer Blogs:

Ann

Bix

Cindi

Cyndi

Elena

Kathy

Keri <—You are here

Lea

Sandee

Teresa

Father’s Day in The Creative Life Studios

For my project, I wanted to finally use these fun little white pillow boxes that I found at Hobby Lobby last month.

I turned this plain white box into….

My goal in the project was to turn my white box into a leather  finish.

Ingredients

6×6 Gel Press Gel Plate 

Deco Art Dazzling Metallics & Americana Acrylics

Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylics

White Pillow Box

Brayer

Prima Flowers

Butterbee Scraps Metal Gears

Drywall Tape

Corrugated Cardboard

Misc: Glitter Feather, Wooden Blocks, Domino, Hemp Rope

How to get your leather finish…

Here’s how I made my project.

(1) Start with your 6×6 Gel Press Plate.

(2) Start by using a bronze metallic paint like Deco Art’s Dazzling Metallics.

Press your white pillow box on to your plate. It’s ok to use your brayer to push the box down and remember to do both sides!

(3) Next add another color of brown to your plate, this time using a reddish-brown. This time, when you press it down on to your Gel Press Plate, use a light touch to allow some of the other brown to show through.

(4) The next 3 colors will be done using the same technique, layering 3 colors.

Start by laying another brown color onto your Gel Press plate with your brayer.

Then, using a crumpled piece of butcher paper or wax paper, dab your paint, revealing your Gel Plate beneath.

Press your box into your plate.

Continue these steps with 3 more colors: (1) Brayer on your color (2) remove some paint with a crumpled piece of paper (3) press your box onto your plate. {You’ll note in my pics, I didn’t clean my plate between colors.}

Here are the colors I used and the order I did them in:

Color 1

Color 2

Color 3

Finished Base

Here is my finished base:

As you can see, using this technique of pressing the crumpled paper onto the Gel Press allows all the layers of paint to show through and give that leather look I was going for.

Finished Project

Here is another look at my finished project:

I layered Prima Flowers, Butterbee Scraps Metal Gears and Watch Parts, and wooden blocks over a glitter feather, painted drywall tape and corrugated cardboard.

Here is a couple of closeups:

I am super happy with the leather texture I ended up with on my project!

Closing Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed today’s project and you are inspired to try this leather technique.

Don’t forget to hop all around the my fellow artists before heading back to the Gel Press Blog  for your chance to win some amazing Gel Press goodies.

Want more inspiration?

For more inspiration, head to Gel Press Junkies on Facebook and Gel Press Pinterest!

Until Next time!

XOXO,

Keri