little notebooks

[ClayB]

Here are a bunch of little notebooks that my wife and I finished up today. She got a bunch of orders for these from people at her work for Christmas presents.

The leaves on a bunch of these were pressed in from dried leaves, or even silk flowers. I found out on a different one that didn't fit through her machine that you can press the leaves in the leather with a rolling pin if the leather is cased right.

[Roger]

really nice clay!

i will have to try that some time. it amazes me how much detail ends up in the leather from the leaves

[freak]

Those are really nice man. Glad to see she's still at it. I really like dreams and the one below it, ALOT .

[abn]

Well done! I like 'em all!

[indypbear]

Clay,

Those are really unique and besides i like them ALL also! What's the secret for the florals and lettering, etc? :scratchhead:

Indy

[Regis]

ClayB & Mrs ClayB,

As everyone said, very nice. Is that antique only or did you do anything else? Looks like the color I get with the new med brown gel.

[MikeG]

Clay,

What kind of machine are you using (and please don't say a rolling pin)?

Very neat idea!

-- Mike

[ClayB]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

The machine Stacy used to press the leaves into the leather is called a Cuttlebug. You can see it here http://www.provocraft.com/products/index.p...hp?cl=cuttlebug

She got it to use for scrapbooking but has been finding uses for it with these leather notebooks. We did one other cover that was too wide for the machine so I set the leather on my marble block, set the branch with dried leaves on top of that, covered it with a piece of plexiglass type plastic, and then pressed the leaves into the leather by rolling a rolling pin over the plexiglass. It worked surprisingly well. I was really surprised how much detail from the leaves transfers into the leather, and was even more surprised how antique brings out the detail. Most of the darker coloring was done with Fiebings dark brown paste antique. On the lighter ones, either light brown or tan antique was used. On some of the really light colored ones, I just oiled them and then finished them with a coat of neat lac. I usually finish over antique with tan coat. After that, Stacy played with several things trying to get different effects. I am not sure what all she did, but I know she used some eco flow dyes on the outer edges of some of them to give them some contrast. I think she tried inks from some of her rubber stamping supplies also. The letters and some of the swirly things are also rubber stamped on. Then the last two notebooks were done differently (the ones without the leaves, seeds, or grass). She ran the leather through the machine with either circles or flowere shapes to get impressions in the leather. On the circles, we then used a background tool to get texture. Then she cut out the leather shapes with some cutting dies for the machine. I dont think it cut all the way through the leather and she had to finish up with a scissor. Then the shapes were attached with brads or rivets. It's kind of fun to see how all her rubber stamping and scrap booking supplies can be used on leather.

Hope this answers most of your questions.

Clay

[CitizenKate]

Wow, those are beautiful... very original - you two are a great team!

Kate

[HorsehairBraider]

Wonderful work! Thank you so much for sharing, it was inspiring.