Leather Journal

I have been making leather journals for many months now but rarely show them on my blog because they are generally gifts to family and friends.  In Eileen Hull's Fan Club on Facebook there have been quite a few questions about using leather to make journals.  I thought I would try and answer some of those questions with this short tutorial on how I create a leather journal.

If you visit and read this tutorial and you still have questions, please leave your questions in the comments, along with a way that I can get in touch with you and I will do my best to answer them.

Here is my latest embossed leather journal.

I gathered together the items that I wanted to use to make the journal, these are:

  Eileen Hull's Passport die by Sizzix (660331)

 Eileen Hull's Embossing Folder by Sizzix - Waffle (659879)

A piece of good quality red leather

  Red cardstock to match the leather - for lining the journal and also for signatures

 A Premium Crease Pad (by Sizzix) - I only use my Crease Pad for leather as there is less tendency for the die to cut completely through the leather on the score lines

Leathercraft Glue

TIPS

1.  You do not need to buy expensive leather, I use between 1.5 and 2mm where possible.  If you are based in the UK, you can buy excellent quality leather from www.artisanleather.co.uk - An A4 (8.1/2" x 11.1/4" approx) piece of leather will make one Passport sized journal, with a little left over.

2.   I glue cardstock to the 'fuzzy' side of the leather, this gives the leather a little more stability.  I found that if I did not glue cardstock to the leather, it 'stretched' when die cut.

3.  It is not essential but I always use a Premium Crease Pad when cutting leather as there is less tendency for the die to cut completely through the leather on the score lines.  If you do not have or don't want to invest in a Crease Pad, and the die cuts right through the spine, you can add some Washi tape, or regular cardstock to the inside of the spine to hold it together.

4.  I strongly recommend that you use a good quality leather glue and that you follow the instructions carefully.  I always leave the glued elements overnight to ensure good adhesion.

Top left - die cut the leather pieces (in my case, backed with cardstock)
Top right - leather embosses beautifully with standard embossing folders
Bottom left - the embossed leather
Bottom right - embossed front and back but no embossing to the spine

TIPS

5.  Embossed leather is very beautiful but it can be tricky!  It is a good idea to 'practice' on an off-cut of leather before committing to embossing your die cut leather pieces.

In the above example I used a Big Shot to cut my leather, using the base plate and also the A plate, and passed the embossing folder through without the two cutting plates.  It embossed beautifully and quite deeply.

For thicker leather you may need to adjust the plates that you use, it really is trial and error, but be careful - if it doesn't go through your machine, stop and try a different configuration of plates.

6.  When gluing the spine to the front and back of the journal, especially if you have embossed it, it is a good idea to leave it to set, overnight if possible.

Once you are satisfied that the glue is completely dry, go ahead and add bindings of your choice. A view from the outside.

A view from the inside, ready for the signatures.  I usually add a pocket to the inside back cover to hide the elastic closure.

I created three signatures, using the Passport die to cut the inserts for each signature and then made covers from red cardstock, slightly larger than the inserts.  The beautiful images on the signatures are from Alexandra Renke's gorgeous design papers and Washi tape range.

One final look - I always add charms to the side of my journals, using hinge clips.  You can also create a loop to hold a pen, which is always useful when you want to keep notes!

Thanks for looking, I hope you picked up a tip or two.  Hope to see you
again soon.  Hugs, Anne xx

Stampotique and Eileen Hull Designs - The Crafter

Hello Friends!

This month, Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team have been playing working with some fabulous Stampotique stamps!  I chose 'The Crafter' and several other stamps by Daniel Torrente, along with Kassa Hayelden's fabulous flower stamp - Kassa's Bloom.  I used them to decorate Eileen Hull's Passport die cuts.

I used some calico fabric for the covers of the Passport and decorated the front and back.

I stamped the images using Ranger Archival Ink in Watering Can, using my new Tim Holtz Stamp Platform which gave a nice crisp stamped image.

I coloured the stamped images using Eileen Hull's ColorBox Blend inks in Stop (Red) and Black. The inks colour beautifully onto fabric, with no 'bleed'.

I coloured the spine and the inside covers of the Passport with the ColorBox Blend inks.  The stamped fabric was attached to plain white covers with Multi Medium.  I brayered over the fabric to get rid of any bubbles and left the covers to dry naturally.

I attached the covers to the spine and then glued the red inside covers on top to hide the fabric edges.

I prepared three signatures, each signature has three pages.  I added some tissue tape to the spine of each signature cover.  The images were all coloured with various shades of Eileen's ColorBox Blend inks.

Now it was time to decorate each of the signature covers.  On the first one I used Kassa's Bloom and Art is the Energy stamps.

For the cover of my second signature I used Kassa's Bloom again and also the Art Definition stamp.

For the final signature I used the Lovely Wings stamp and some Tim Holtz Idea-ology pieces.

To finish off I bound the signatures to the cover using thin black elastic and decorated with a felt heart and black multi faceted bead from my stash.

It was such a pleasure to use these Stampotique stamps and I can see myself getting a lot of use from them in the future.  Thank you Stampotique!!

The Inspiration Team and the Stampotique are featuring their choice of stamps and Eileen Hull products, each week on Eileen's BLOG and also Stampotique's Facebook page.  Please do check out the wonderful creations there!

Thanks so much for your visit, I hope to see you again soon!

Hugs, Anne xx

Stampotique Stamps Used

The Crafter

Daniel's Hearts

Kassa's Bloom

Art is the Energy

Art Definition 

Lovely Wings

Kunin Felt and Eileen Hull

All of this month, Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team are using the beautiful Kunin felt with Eileen's HeARTfelt dies.  Since Eileen's new Journal die has completely sold out in America and has yet to reach the shores of the UK, I have improvised and used another of my favourite Eileen's dies - the Passport die (Sizzix 660331).  I created a holiday booklet.

I started by cutting the booklet from card and again with the beautiful Kunin felt.

I glued the felt to the card with some Decoupage glue (DecoArt) and left this to dry.  I concentrated on the spine piece, using red cotton string to create a blanket stitch edging.  I then glued the front, back and spine together and left them to dry.

Next I die cut the three 'signature' pages for the inside - using the Passport die.  The pages had been coloured using Distress Ink in Blueprint Sketch.  I simply smooshed the ink on my craft mat, spritzed it with water and dragged the signatures through until I was happy with the colour.

The butterfly was cut using Eileen's HeARTful die (Sizzix 661901).  The little hearts at the top are from the butterfly, I didn't want to waste them!  The stickers are Tim Holtz.

The signatures were attached using the same red string that I did the blanket stitching with.  The beads and felt heart are from my stash.

I have enjoyed working with the Kunin felt so much, I bought some more and created something to share in a another few days time, something related to 40 days and 40 nights of rain....  Surprising enough, this usually deluged by rain part of Britain has been dry and sunning for several days!!

Thanks so much for your visit, Eileen will be sharing lots of the team's makes and also those by the Kunin Design team all this month HERE.  I hope you will check it out if you have the time.

As always, thanks for taking the time to look.  See you again soon!

Hugs, Anne xxx