Personalizing my Filofax: Beginner Leather Pyrography

Well, hello again everyone!  

We, here at The Patch, hope that you are enjoying this magical time of year with the lead up to Christmas and New Years!  The feeling in the air is always so warm and welcoming (regardless of the weather), as we look forward to reconnecting with kin over big, hearty meals.  It's also the perfect time of year to get your planner organized for 2016 and that what this blog post is all about! 

Today, I wanted to share with you how I have begun personalizing "Jack", my Limited Edition Filofax A5 Original planner for 2016.  This has been an ongoing process and a ton of fun!  I welcome you to come along this journey with me as I succeed, fail, and try try again.  

Do you remember this beauty? Well, I've got some serious plans for her :D

I must preface this post with the admission that I am in no way a professional pyrographer.  In fact, I have only tried pyrography a few times with minor success.  That being said, the great thing about this project is that there is a ton of room for mistakes, because I am planning on distressing this bad boy!  The wonderful world of distress is oh so forgiving!!  I mean, lines like, "Oops, I inked that side too much!" or "Oh no! that line wasn't straight!" aren't things that you really have to worry about when imperfection is the key, so yay!

   

Jack in all her glory!

 So to get started with the leather pyrography, I have a few tools.  These include:

Leather planner

Wood burning tool

Hot stamps

and that's it!  

Tools: leather planner, wood burning tool, hot stamps

 Disclaimer: If you are planning on trying this yourself, I will warn you to make sure that your hot stamps are compatible with your wood burning tool and that your wood burner has a lower heat setting for leather and other more delicate materials.  Some wood burners only have one heat setting, while this one, from Walnut Hallow, has multiple.  Also: please ensure that you follow the instructions on your tool and that you always keep these tools away from children since there is a major risk of fires or burns while using wood burning tools.

If you'd like to see the entire process in video format, please feel free to click on the link.  Skip below if you'd like to see the final result in picture form for those visual folks like me!

Ta-duh!

Here she is in all of her pyrographic glory!  (I'm not even sure if that's a word haha!)

Pyrography complete on Jack's front cover

What I had chosen to do with the pyrography was to follow the existing lines of the Union Jack flag on the planner's front and back cover.  The end result is a rather subtle one at this stage, but I really just wanted to create some texture on the planner to help breakup the pristinely flat surface. Here is a closer look with a side view of Jack's cover.  The texture is a bit difficult to capture in photographs evidently, but alas, I have tried.

Closeup!

 Since the overall look is distressed, I most definitely was not worried about the lines being straight, as you can see by these closeup photos.  This also is great since my hand movements are clearly not straight or sure haha.

Another closeup!

So, apparently I had forgotten to photograph the actual hot stamp at this point, so I have included a little sneak peek at the finished front cover to show you what it looks like.  A simple monogram M is all that I wanted for the inside front cover.

Hot stamp monogram M on inside front cover

Please stay tuned until next time when we delve into the world of alcohol inks on leather!  It has a major WOW factor!

And that's all for now folks.  Until next time, we bid you adieu here at the Rasberry Patch. 

Cheers,

Mrs. Rasberry and the clan