Faux leather tutorial~

I found this box at a thrift store for $4 bucks (I know-- highway robbery!) anywho, I thought I could make it into a lovely leather covered pirate chest for my yearly pirate party (for my grandson's birthday) Here is a tutorial on how I did it. Faux leather tutorial~

Supplies: Tissue paper, foam or paint brush, modge podge (or glue & water) and an object to cover and of course some paint.Firstly, I spray painted the box as I couldn't stand looking at it the way it was any longer. You do not have to paint or seal the object your going to give the faux leather treatment too... this was just a personal choice. Now lets get started!

1.) Crumple several pieces of tissue paper, taking care not to tear it. Smooth the crumpled tissue paper out into a full sheet again and set aside.

2.) Working on one small section at a time, apply the glue to the surface to be covered. Lay the smoothed-out, crumpled tissue paper over the glued area and press into place. Dab the area with your fingers and then take a brayer and run it across a few times to smooth out any air bubbles. If you have applied to much glue the tissue paper will start to stick to your fingers & brayer and tear-- if this happens, tear a piece of tissue paper making sure all edges are torn (so that there is no straight edges) and patch the area that was torn. Once your object is covered, let it dry. Here is the top of the box finished, I folded and glued the paper over each edge and made mitered edges at the corners and cut away the excess tissue paper. 3.) Continue covering all areas in the same manor until everything is covered that your wanting covered. Let dry~4.) Re-apply another layer of glue same as before only this time lay a piece of un-crumpled tissue over the area. Once your object is covered allow it to dry thoroughly, trim edges with a razor to get a nice clean edge. Go over the entire object with a layer of Modge Podge or glue/water mixture. Here is my box covered twice with tissue paper. The first layer was crumpled, the second was a smooth sheet of tissue paper. Now, comes the fun part. Painting! I just grabbed several different half empty bottles of brown paint and started painting the box. You have to keep in mind that you are rewetting this tissue paper - even though it has modge podge on it...so it might tear, so be gentle with your brush strokes and let it dry between coats. I am a firm believer in "more is better" so I just kept adding more & more paint to get it to look like a dirty old leather pirate chest that has been around for ages! The first "layer" of paint consisted of 2 different colors of brown paint and some watered down black paint that I patted on around the edges with my finger tip. The second layer I used 3 different brown paints to add depth to the chest. I darkened around all the edges where you would expect to see dirt-- I hear those pirates were a dirty bunch of scoundrals~ Once your happy with your paint and it has dried, apply another coat of Modge Podge or spray varnish to really make the faux leather pop.I puchased two door handles (Home Depot $1.27 each) that have a look of forged metal....and just screwed those into the sides of the chest to help carry all the heavy loot.

As you can see...I have not added the faux leather treatment to the bottom of this pirate chest. I am going to keep this pirate chest indoors for my grandson to play with-- so I am going to add felt to the bottom. I spray painted the clasp (that was on the box when I bought it) black...and reattached it. Taaaaaaaa daaaaaaaaa all finished!Well, I am pretty darn happy with how this turned out. But... I can't leave well enough alone! Even though the inside is finished in a beautiful black velvet I'm eager to start making over the inside to match the outside!

Here is a link to the tutorial on how I have made over the inside of the pirate chest.