Should I dye or paint?

[Should I dye or paint?]

Thank you all! 

[Should I dye or paint?]

Hello everyone. I am a new leather worker and I am going to be starting a big project soon. I am planning on making a leatherbound journal for a gift. With this journal, I shall have a border and details carved/pounded in. I would like the journal to be black and the details to be red, however I am not sure how I should go about coloring the details.

If I dye the details first and then do the base, I'm worried the black would sink in to the details, so I'm a bit wary about that tactic. If I paint the details, first I'd need to know the type of paint but then I'd also need to know how natural it will look. I also am unsure what I should use to seal the dye for each idea.

This shall be on vegetable tanned leather.

If anyone has any advice, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much for your time reading this.