Handmade faux leather book

I’ve previously made a ‘book’, to hold various ephemera, as a leaving present for the minister of my previous church. So when it came to putting together another bespoke binder for prayer flags, a photo book and collected digital photos, I built on my previous project and created a faux leather effect ‘book’.

The ‘book’ is just about the size of a sheet of A4 and about 1½” deep. Constructed from 2mm greyboard and 5mm foamcore board, the canvas cover is painted with a mix of rose madder and burnt sienna acrylic paints to resemble worn leather. The spine text is pressed in with an embossing tool to give an impression of embossed foiling, whilst the frontplate uses careful shading to achieve the same effect.

I covered the sides with paper to wrap the foamcore board, before painting with copper and then gold acrylic paint. Using a hard bristle brush for the final coat gives the impression of gilded page edges.

I lined the inside with scrapbook papers, and there’s enough room for all the prayer flags that festooned the leaving do back in August.

For the frontplate, I traced and then painted the embossed foil work. To make it look as if it was actually embossed (it’s completely flat) I added shadows with a Pitt artist pen.