Falling in love again with my A6 Captain America TN

I have constantly been struggling with choosing the right size for my TN and I have gone through many changes through the years: from Field Notes to LMC to A5 to A6 and finally to RS. I have now gone one step back to A6.

I have reviewed my A6 TNs and my Captain America TN was housing my Hobonichi. I moved it back to its original cover and I created 2 brand new notebooks.

It's really difficult for me to find a shop that stocks some really nice scrapbook paper that I usually use for my covers. So I had to get creative and I found a good way to make my covers pop. Since the notebooks were going to be used for specific purposes, I decided to google some pictures that I could later print and stick on the covers and it worked like a charm!

I am really pleased with the results!

Long Time No See!

These past few weeks have been really busy for me and my family and things are slowly getting more manageable. We have gone on holiday and I took my traveller’s notebook to document our trip. We spent a few days in the Spanish island of Menorca. This was our second time there and we had an amazing time. We picked the same town and the same hotel. The people from the hotel remembered us and it was nice to see them again.

We left with suitcases full of souvenirs, our heads full of memories and my TN was full of memorabilia, stories and drawings.

Before leaving, I had bought a new regular sized TN from Lady Falcon (link to the left). This was totally an impulse buy and I have to say that I was absolutely not disappointed. The colour, the size, the material were all perfect and I have fallen in love with the regular size. I had had my doubts from the beginning (since I discovered Midori's TNs) and I am completely loving that size. Of course, I probably wouldn't use a broad tipped pen but with a regular or fine nib, it works like a charm.

I also decided to test a Micron pen. I had discovered that they were being sold in one of the few arts and crafts shops in my area and I felt it my duty to at least try them. And I love them... Now I hope and pray that they will continue to stock them. I got a 0.1 in black and I did many of my drawings free hand (as in not using the pencil first before inking). It was both scary and exhilarating. When I came back, I started painting my drawings with watercolour and there was no smudging!...

Without further ado, here are a few pictures of my travelling companion:

These two pictures were taken when my TN was freshly receive. On the second picture, you can see the TN next to its best friend, the Pencil Case. This is probably the most perfect accessory to a busy TN. It holds enough pens for on-the-go missions and it's not too big that you need to bring every single pen/pencil you own. So you basically take just the bare minimum and it doesn't weigh you down. The most exciting feature about the case is that it opens completely flat so no need to rummage around it to find that particular pen that always seems to be hidden at the bottom. Here everything is simultaneously on show so no more wasting time going on search parties!

Back from holiday looking all chubby!

As you can see, my TN is definitely not as pretty and as well decorated as most TNs. For many years, I've admired beautifully decorated and washi taped TNs (and Hobos) that I found on many sites. I kept wanting to learn to do the same on my own TNs but I never really got the hang of it. I felt frustrated because I didn't seem to have an eye for detail. Then this holiday, I just went back to basics and let my instincts rule and I love what I came up with. I managed to make it mine.

I still have quite a lot of pictures to paint and I'm probably going to post more pictures as I go along, so watch this space!

Transformation - Part 3

After I let the final layer of marker dry, the end result looked pretty good so I decided to leave it at that. I smoothed in some olive oil and let it dry overnight. Then I got some colourless shoe cream and I applied it on the leather. I have to say that even though I was really disappointed at first, I am loving the end result! It's a bit rough around the edges but I think it's perfect!

Here's a multitude of pictures to show how gorgeous it has turned out:

 

And here it is now together with Lil' Wade:

 Right now, I'm using the Captain America TN with my Hobonichi and Lil' Wade has 2 notebooks that I use for random note taking and project prepping. I'm thinking about maybe swapping notebooks and covers.

One last thing I would like to add if I find what I'm looking for would be red elastic band for closure and for holding the inserts. Now how cool would that be?

Transformation - Part 2

After the TN dried and after getting what I needed to continue, I finally got started. I made a vector drawing of what I wanted to do on Inkscape and when I was done there, I worked on it further with Gimp in order to get the right size for printing.

This is when I realised that my printer wouldn't work... I wanted to print a stencil but it just wouldn't let me.

So because my design is mainly concentric circles, I decided to go old school and unearthed my very basic and limited geometry drawing skills and drew the sketch directly on the cover. Of course, the pencil I was using didn't mark the leather all that well and I had to tweak some of my tools... I got out a Frixion pen, did a test to make sure I could delete the marks afterwards (I could) and got started.

Once I was done with the initial sketch, I took out my alcohol-based markers. I know this is not the traditional tool to use when applying colour on leather, but I had some great results on the bookmark I did with a Deadpool design so I thought I would give it another go on a bigger project.

I started colouring the main sketch (concentric circles) and it looked good. Then I coloured the background completely with a blue Edding marker. And this didn't look good at all... I was really disappointed although I did expect it might do something like that. I had colouring marks everywhere... This is definitely one of my pet peeves when using markers, despite the fact that I love working with them...

I waited a while for the original colouring to dry and I went through it again with my marker and to my surprise, the marks were less pronounced the second time around!

I have to say though that the marker I used for the design is different from the marker I used for the background. For the design, I used a red marker from the brand Graph'It.

I already have 2 shades of grey of the same brand and I love them. Unfortunately, I cannot find them in shops in Germany so whenever I go to France, I make sure to get a few markers before leaving! They are really good and almost half the price of the Copic pens. I don't know how they compare with Copic pens in terms of quality but I really like the Graph'It ones.

The marker I used for the background is a blue Edding pen that is available pretty much everywhere and it feels maybe a bit less 'juicy' than the Graph'It pen but it is still very good.

This morning, I went over the cover a third time and the marks are still there, although less pronounced than after the second go.

One thing I noticed, which should be obvious, is that the cover feels more rigid or at least drier than it did before I started this project. But this is hardly surprising since the alcohol contained in the pens will have contributed to the drying of the leather.

And here is the finished (for now!) product:

I will wait a little while before moving ahead. I'm still not sure whether it needs one more layer of markers or whether I can just leave it as it is and add some product to soften the leather. I could also give it a vintage feel as well and it would take the emphasis away from the marks. Decisions, decisions...

Transformation - Part 1

I have introduced my natural untreated leather cover a while ago. This was the very first cover I ever did and it is clearly my pride and joy. This is the cover that houses my Hobonichi Techo (A6) and it's a cover I use every day.

A few months ago, I also made a bright red A6 and LMC sized cover with a Deadpool design on it. I documented this largely in this post and this one.

I have temporarily removed my Hobonichi and placed it in the Deadpool A6 cover while I work on the plain leather one.

Before I start drawing on it, I need to prepare the leather, which means I need to give it a bit of a clean because over the weeks, it has developed some marks and I need to have those removed.

I have removed the closing elastic band and I have wiped the cover clean with a damp cloth. I have seen different instructions recommending to use mild soap and then some form of conditioner but all I want really is to remove the main black marks and freshen it up a little.

This is now done, so I will have to wait until it fully dries. In the meantime, I'm going to start working on the actual design and I will be gathering my supplies.

The Deadpool Traveler's Notebook Project - Part 2

LMC TN - Almost finished!

Little leather charm I made for the LMC TN

A6 TN that will be called Lil Wade (front)

A6 TN that will be called Lil Wade (back)

One on top of the other

From top to bottom: Lil Wade, natural leather A6 TN, Big Wade, Original Morgan LeFae's Trinkets LMC

All filled with notebooks

This was quite a journey and I learned a lot on leather and how to use it. I doubt I have learned everything there is to learn about it but it's still a very good start:

- Already treated leather is REALLY hard to work on and modify, ever after filing it...
- Markers seem to suddenly die when they are used on treated leather...
- I can use kitchen scissors to cut leather circles!
- A 50 Cent coin is the right size to make a charm.
- China ink is a good replacement for markers although many layers are needed.

I wanted to wait for a while before I completed the red LMC TN (Big Wade) because I originally wanted to do a lot of sketching inside the cover but because it was so time consuming and more or less pointless to do this on a treated surface, I have given up on the idea. One thing that I wouldn't mind trying is spray paint. I would create a stencil and then spray some paint all over. Ideally, if I'm skilled enough and if the spray paint sticks to the leather, I would love to do something like this across the front and back cover of Big Wade:

That would look pretty amazing!

However, if I do that, I will have to wait for the summer to do that so that I can do this outdoors. So watch this space as there may be more to come at a later date!

The Deadpool Traveler's Notebook Project - Part 1

Before going to see the Deadpool movie and since discovering that you can actually use markers on leather, I had been thinking about making myself a traveller's notebook (TN for short) in red with some Deadpool illustrations. I wanted to do one in large Moleskine size (LMC) and so I started to take some measurements. I already have one TN in LMC size from Morgan LeFae'sTrinkets and I really love how the size is so portable and still big enough to doodle, paint and write. When I measured my TN it was slightly bigger than A4 size by half a centimetre. The difference was too big to just wing it with an A4 piece of leather and I definitely needed something bigger. So I looked for the next size, which is A3 and once I did some calculations, I figured out I could definitely pull off an LMC TN as well as an A6 one!

I went to all the textile and furniture shops that I could find in my town and the general answer I got was that it was difficult to find the thickness of leather I needed for my project.

So I turned to eBay and found what I was looking for.

I ordered my leather and when it arrived, I noticed that the 'inside' of the leather was not suede, like I usually see on other pieces of leather and discovered later that the top side was also treated and polished.

My project isn't finished yet but I wanted to post a few pictures of what it's looking like so far.

Back side of the piece of leather. Completely waxed!

Right side, looking really bright!

The 2 A6's

After the drawing

Both the A6 (top) and the LMC (bottom)

I guess I should have known that the top side was waxed but the penny didn't drop until I started drawing on it and that the marker started to go all funny and stopped working all together. I finished the drawing with some China ink and this morning it's looking slightly sticky. I would love to do a little Deadpool logo in the back of the leather and maybe also write Deadpool above the main drawing but first, I'm going to have to test on the leftover bits of leather.

I'm planning on cleaning the leather with some acetone and then using a file to make it a bit rough. I wonder how it's going to look once I finish to use the file... I hope the paint is not going to leave the drawing. But if it gives it an edgy style, I might try it on the LMC...

Watch this space for more updates!