New to leatherworking

[Wzrdflame]

So I just started to make a leather vambrace for my step daughter. It's extremely cheap veg tan leather I bought from hobby lobby. I am trying to raise the main feature which is a hummingbird and I'm not sure how to get it to pop. My beveling stamp seems to be really really big and the small detail in the head is killing me both in carving and stamping. This is an extreme rough draft so holes and edges and border are all not properly aligned.

[kiwican]

Stamp down the area around the carving using a background tool so that the carving will stand out in relief 

[Boriqua]

To add to what kiwican said .. there is also a beveler that is pretty narrow that I have used with really tiny spaces. Tandy B935

[DJole]

From what I can see in the photos, I think you are not  using the beveler correctly yet. 
Take a look at the crude diagram below--
The top line is a side view of what I think I see on your leather. You have made cuts, but you seem to be using the beveler to just widen the cuts, into a wider Vee-shape. 
The bottom line is what a beveler is meant to do: push down one side of the line into a smooth slope, making the other side of the line (the "cliff" in the diagram) appear to stand out from the surface. 

Also, ditto on the different sizes of bevelling tool sizes from the commenters above. 
Also, you might look into textured tools and see if you like the way those look. 

Edited August 18, 2017 by DJole

[Wzrdflame]

Thank you all for the comments. You are correct in that the beveler was wrong and not just the angle. I was using the tool in the opposite way I should have been. Instead of sloping outwards from the design I was sloping towards it. Going to practice more carving and beveling. Now, I will dye the carving using a lightened forest green, yet the carving doesn't take dye in the beveled spot which is good. However do I leave that original leather color or find paint or something to fill it. Btw you guys are awesome 

[Northmount]

1 hour ago, Wzrdflame said:

Thank you all for the comments. You are correct in that the beveler was wrong and not just the angle. I was using the tool in the opposite way I should have been. Instead of sloping outwards from the design I was sloping towards it. Going to practice more carving and beveling. Now, I will dye the carving using a lightened forest green, yet the carving doesn't take dye in the beveled spot which is good. However do I leave that original leather color or find paint or something to fill it. Btw you guys are awesome 

Doing the beveling like you did, inside versus outside, is called inverted beveling.  There are various inverted carving patterns around.  It can be advantageous to use for a different effect.

Tom