The making of a leather "Journey" Travelers's Notebook...

December 13, 2014 14 Comments

And the mess it creates. A while back I got a request for an A5 Traveler's Notebook by a lovely lady. Who made the mistake of giving me free reign in making it. Luckily she loves to create art as well. With that in mind and the fact that she planned on using it as an art journal I figured I could play a little. I first tested the idea on a Traveler's Notebook I felt I ruined with some wrong stamping... I couldn't make it worse, right. It turned out great, better even then expected.... and it left my whole Kitchen counter looking like a disaster area. I don't have a special art room and since I, obviously, was to enthusiastic and eager to try it, I didn't take any precautions. Which I should have, because I sprayed the leather dye... and I have sprayed inks before, so I should have known. I did take some pictures while making this, so I'll try and explain what I did, should you want to try this at home. Please remember the leather dyes I use (and are suitable to do this) are permanent inks. It will create a mess, so please protect the surroundings of your project... thoroughly! I started with pouring the leather dye into a spray can and placed the TN in a box to keep the spray from spreading. Notice the papers in front of the box...those are needed as well! I masked the word with some letters I had and several templates. The corners were masked with some torn paper kitchen towels.  In some places I moved the templates to a different spot after spraying and rubbed the dye into the gaps. The light brown color is the natural undyed leather color. I removed the letters with some tweezers, because they were too small to pick up by hand and I didn't want to get any dye onto the undyed parts. I felt the natural color was a little too light, so I dyed the entire TN with the a yellow color. To add some extra interest, I used several stamps in coffee color. Which, I think, made it all come together. Then for the standard finishing touches, I finished the edges with an edge slicker to make them nice, smooth and shiny. Brushed the inside with a suede brush, as I do with all my TN's, because I like a soft inside. Sprayed some suede conditioner on the inside and oiled the outside. Added some elastics and booklets and the TN was ready for use. That was easy right? And this time only the inside of the box looked like the dye exploded. Here's the finished Traveler's Notebook with inserts. With some extra elastic in the little envelope. And a few A5 inserts I made. It's ready for use... As an art journal, or anything else she would like to use it for. Almost forgot to mention, I also darkened the edges of the TN with the same coffee ink I used for the stamps. To give it a more vintage used look. I feel the edging makes it come to life. and gives it just that little extra ;-) I hope you enjoyed this and maybe even try it at home. Remember I cannot be held responsible for any mess you make when trying this... did I say it is permanent ink... because it is ;-) Have fun trying this and if you do, please let me know the result. Have a lovely weekend.
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