Leather Notepad Cover

Have you seen the NEW! ClearSnap 2013 Catalog?
In addition to being able to see all the FAB-u-lous products that ClearSnap offers, 
you can view lots of fantastic projects using them!

Check it out ...

HERE!

Hi! Hostess Tami here with a little something different for you today.

 ClearSnap has released 12 NEW! colors of ColorBox Crafter's Ink...

8 of which are offered in Mini 4 Packs...

ColorBox Crafter's Inks are the perfect ink to use on many of your craft projects. They work great on fabrics, wood, polymer clay, canvas, felt and many other surfaces. They are permanent when heat set, so they are a ideal choice for wearable art.

I was inspired to try them out on leather by one of my youngest's Christmas gifts. Chris was given several leather crafting sets and tools to use with them. Chris is a BIG TIME crafter! While helping him with one of the projects, I started thinking about how I could incorporate inks and stamps. Of course, the new ColorBox Crafter's Inks immediately came to mind as THE inks to use.  So I purchased a bag of leather scraps and started experimenting. 

Here is the project I designed using leather and ColorBox Crafter's Inks; it's a cover for a $1 notepad...

I stamped the designs on the leather using ColorBox Wicked Black Archival Dye Ink, burned them in and then filled in the designs using the ColorBox Crafter's Minis.

The result was bright, playful flowers that really stand out against the white leather. And since the designs were burnt in, there is texture and dimension as well...

If you'd like to try this technique yourself, I've put together a short 2 minute video 

that shows how to do this project step-by-step...

And although this project is fresh and graphic in color and design, these techniques work equally as well with a more "distressed" color scheme and theme. You can find leather in a variety of textures and colors. I recommend using a medium to heavy-weight leather for this project. Light-weight leathers work well for covering books and journals. You can also replace the leather burning with leather embossing, or skip it all together and just fill in the stamped design. The precision tips included in the caps of the Crafter's Minis let you get into the tiniest areas; so filling in your designs is easy.

Be sure you heat set your project after applying the inks to set them. And depending on the "slickness" of your leather, you may need to heat set your stamped image as well.

If you want to go free-style and "paint" a leather surface, think about using the ColorBox Crafter's Ink Full Size Inks applied using the ColorBox Stylus & Tips.

SUPPLIES:

Clearsnap Products:

• ColorBox Crafter's Ink Mini 4 Packs: Foundations and Sassy {colors used were Aruba, Spiced Plum, Limon, Jungle, Snow and Night}
• ColorBox Archival Dye Ink: Wicked Black

Other Products:

• Hero Arts: Dotted Flowers
• Beacon Adhesives: Fabri-Tac {works great on leather}
• Scrap Leather
• Scrap White Cardstock
• 5 X 7 $1 Notepad
• Ribbon

Tools:

• Heavy Duty Scissors, Leather Burner, Paper Drill, Kraft Knife, Bone Folder, Ruler and Heat Gun