Fee Fie FAUX Fun

I did it.  I made Martha proud.  I dove into her groovy paint techniques kit and gave the cover of my journal the faux wood treatment.  It was so quick and easy.  Here's how I did it:

My journal is a spiral hard-bound, with a blue paper cover.  Thinking that a slick surface would make it easier to drag the wood grain tool, I first glossy mod-podged the whole thing.

Vertical strokes, but they don't have to be perfect, since it won't show when done.  I made sure to cover the edges too.  I let it dry for about an hour.

Next, I just happened to have almost the same exact blue color in an enamel acrylic paint leftover from another long-ago project.  (isn't it great when that happens?)  So I thought the blue-on-blue woodgrain would be subtle yet beautiful.

Now I had to work quickly because the paint dries pretty fast.  Good thing I had the slick mod-podged surface to help keep things moving.  I applied the paint fairly thick, again in long vertical strokes.  Then I quickly grabbed the woodgrain tool and started dragging it vertically, while rocking it slowly back and forth.

I didn't use the tool along the side edges because, cleverly, Martha provides another tool, with variegated tooth edges, that you can use to fill in bad spots, edges, whatever.

So I used the toothed tool along the edges and in a spot where I wanted a little more texture.  Pretty cool.

I let this dry thoroughly for a few hours, some of the painted spots being pretty thick.  Then, another thick coating of mod-podge (yeah, I'm a podger!) to seal it all and give it a nice finished surface.

Now I let it dry overnight.  I did both the front and back.  But of course, I wasn't done.  Though I am drawn to simplicity and minimalism, I just can't let a good thing be - gotta decorate!

I gathered some fabric, patterned paper, wide ribbon, metal frame, and cut out a textured gold bird shape.  Glued down and mod-podged the whole thing, and, Voila!

My art journal.  Suddenly I see lots of things around me that need to be "faux'd"!!!!