Faux Vintage Leather Binder

I needed someplace to keep all my research papers, so I bought a huge binder.

Everything was perfect except for the cover, stark white.

Well, that just won't do!

I decided I wanted it to look like old vintage leather.

Grabbed some supplies and went to work.

Here we go!

I started by striping the white tissue paper,

then scrunching it all up to get a nice wrinkly effect.

I tore the tissue paper into smaller pieces, which made then easier to adhere.

Working a section at a time, I covered the outside of the plastic covered binder

with a coat of Mod Podge and added pieces of the tissue paper. There's no right

 or wrong way. You want it to look wrinkly so no worries about smoothing it out.

I applied another coat of Mod Podge over the tissue paper.

Here's what the front looks like when done.

I repeated the same process to the sides and back of the binder 

allowing for drying time in between coats.

Once the entire outside was covered with tissue it was time to paint.

I gave it a coat of Burnt Umber craft paint because it's what I had on hand. 

I wanted some dimension so I added a few drops of Black craft paint. 

While the Burnt Umber was still wet I swirled in the black randomly

I kept swirling until I reached the effect I wanted.

Here's what the front looks like when done with the painting.

I repeated the same treatment to each of the outside sections, 

allowing each to dry properly before moving on to the next section.

Once I was sure the outside was thoroughly dried, I started working on the inside.

I wanted the inside to look finished. It has 3 pockets on the inside front and back cover. 

I didn't want to lose the ability of using those.

I brought the tissue paper and paint combo inside to frame the binders edges for a 

framed look. Found an image I liked, printed it out and slid it into the top pocket.

Being able to see through the pockets gave me the advantage of cutting the

image where I needed to so I could apply the correct size to cover the top of the pockets.

After cutting the image (I used my craft knife), I removed each piece.

I adhered each image to the top of their correct pocket, making the pockets still useable 

with a finished look. 

After a thorough drying time I made sure the pockets worked as anticipated.

And they did.

I repeated the same process to the other side, 

continued the theme down the inside of the "binding" 

and added some small images to the narrow part of the "binding". 

I happened to find a small bit of black trim and 

decided to add along the inside bottom.

Thought it looked cute and I used that small piece of trim

 I had been hanging onto forever!

Once the inside was completely dry I moved on to embellish the cover.

The fun begins!

I mixed some Mod Podge with a little bit of  brown craft paint.

I used this tinted Mod Podge to adhere cheesecloth to the outside cover.

I stretched the cheesecloth until it kind of looked like netting.

I let it reach beyond the edge of the binder and once it was dry, 

I just trimmed it to fit with scissors.

I found a piece of black ribbon with gold stars and added it to the "binding".

A perfect fit, yay another remnant gone!

I took brads I found and cut off the prongs.

I adhered the tops along the ribbon to make them resemble

 rivets or something to that effect.

I added some swirly die cuts to look like "hinges"

and a few images that I had to the front.

I added clay trim, that I painted black, and a piece of burlap

at the bottom, then topped with old keys.

It took me about a month to finish this -

a lot of the time was in the drying, and I only was able to 

work on it when I had the time. Which was few and far between.

I'm sure it would go faster when a person had ample time to

work on it regularly.

Here is the finished product along with another I made.

More here