Tooling Leather with Your Cricut

ever wanted to do cool leather work with your cricut hi i'm k of cleversumday.com and that's just what i'm going to show you in this video thanks for joining me in addition to my blog and youtube channel i run a facebook group for qriket engraving and one of the most common questions i get is can i engrave leather up to now my answer has been something along the lines of sort of a little bit not very well and or i'm working on it since at least 2017. finally i'm happy to say the answer is yes you can engrave leather beautifully with a cricut maker or an explorer i'm going to broaden the phraseology a little bit because what i'm going to show you doesn't fit neatly into the engraving embossing or stamping categories of either the cricut or the leatherworking vernacular so i'm going to call it tooling to represent both the type of leather and the multiple processes used here's a disclaimer i'll be the first to tell you that i'm not a leatherworking expert i've worked hard to learn as much as i can in hopes of not embarrassing myself and with the goal of putting together a simple process for beginners if you are a lifelong leather worker i hope you can learn something about the cricket part from me without cringing too much what do you need to get started tooling leather with your cricut i'm not going to take the time for a comprehensive supply list in this video but you'll be able to get to that along with purchase links from the video description below i do want to touch on the most important items that you might not already have though right here at the start with more info to come later in the video you will need veg tan tooling leather this is critical you can't use faux leather or genuine cricket leather or that scrap you salvage from a beat up sofa i'm using and recommending up to six ounce leather for maker and up to four ounce leather for explore the next critical thing you need is the cricut foil transfer tool with the medium tip oddly the foil tool isn't currently supported on the design space mobile app so unfortunately as of right now anyway you will have to work from a computer you will need some sort of high-tech clear self-adhesive film i'm using qriket strong grip transfer tape but protecto film or packing tape will also work last on our critical list is leather stain which will enhance your patch not just by adding color but by adding contrast to the tooled areas i tried a lot of options and settled on an initial recommendation based on beginner friendliness contrast and color a wool dauber is the chosen applicator because its fine fibers carry the stain into the recesses of the tooling the best there are a few other items that aren't deal breakers but are highly recommended for the best possible outcome for maker owners that includes the cricket engraving tip with quick swap housing to be used in concert with the foil tool for both maker and explorer users the deep point blade in the black deep point housing will mean the difference between having the cricut cut all the way through the leather versus having to finish cuts by hand you not only get a longer cutting surface because of the steeper angle of the blade but the deep cut housing provides the additional clearance needed for the leather as well lastly while the stain i am recommending has a finish built in an additional sealer or top coat will provide an extra measure of protection there are so many cool projects you can make with leather like key fobs bracelets earrings coasters bookmarks hair barrettes wallets and so on that i had a hard time picking a demo project to teach this technique i decided on a hat patch because patches are fun popular unisex and relatively simple so we'll need to add a blank ball cap and some adhesive to our supplies list there are many choices for adhesives but i'll be using both a white glue suitable for leather and a super glue picking the right design is key to good results and was really the last piece of the puzzle to fall in place for me so let's talk a little about good designs for leather just like when writing with pens in the cricut single line or open path designs are going to look best this includes cricut writing style fonts and drawing images fortunately cricut access has lots and lots of them to choose from unfortunately they remain hard to find elsewhere despite my years of hounding designers while open path designs are great for drawing foiling engraving and leather tooling they do have some significant drawbacks when working with them in design space in that they can't be sliced or welded and often can't be offset either your only real option then for editing them inside design space is to use contour which can be challenging on a complex image so keep that in mind when you're planning your design in terms of detail a rule of thumb would be if you can draw it with a regular sharpie at that size and still make out the details then it should work well for leather too let's go on over to design space and put together a design for our leather patch we'll go to images and type in our search term i knew i wanted something with a van so that's what i'm typing in i'm going to click on operation type over on the left and check the cut plus draw box it's not mandatory to use a cut plus draw image but the advantage is they typically have an offset you can work from when you might not otherwise be able to create one for a draw only image scroll to check out the options i see the one i want and select it then click add to canvas this is a particularly nice image as it has these wonderful parallel fill lines i'm really happy to see more and more like this in access so if we look at the layers panel we see we have the operations pen and basic cut just as we would expect based on the filter we used there are two pen layers because this image was originally designed to draw with two different pin colors but it will still work nicely for our leather work i want my hat patch to be about two inches tall so i'm going to type two into the height box and making sure the lock is on i click return since i'm on a mac or that would be enter on a windows pc now i'm just going to move this down and zoom in so we can see better you can see that the cut line on the outside in black is outside a small amount from the pen design which is in blue and turquoise for a patch i prefer the cut line to be a bit farther out from the interior design because this smoothes out the outline and makes it easier for cutting and applying with the design selected i'm going to click the offset button which will open the offset dialog box i've already experimented and decided i want my cut line an additional .05 inches further out for this design so i'm going to type .05 into the distance box and press return which will give me a preview i'll leave the other settings at their defaults round corners and with weld offsets checked and click apply once i do that you will see a new black layer appear behind the design with it still selected i'm going to change its color to white so we can see better all the way through the remaining process from the layers panel i'm going to go ahead and delete that original cut layer shown as solid light blue so it doesn't trip me up later that leaves us with two draw layers that are still attached to each other and the new larger cut line we created the next thing i'm going to do is select the pen layers and change their operation from pen to foil medium you will see their color change to gold because that is the default foil color this is a good time for you to save your design it's also a good time for me to ask you to subscribe to my channel and to thank you if you already have with the basic design done we can shift our attention to our leather for a bit if you haven't already now is the time to decide what size leather you need by using pieces sized for just one or two cuts at a time it will be easier to wet the leather and you won't risk larger sheets in case something doesn't go as planned while you're learning you want plenty of margin so i'm going to suggest adding at least a half inch extra on both width and height this will give you an easy target and also allow room for tape if you need it my van image is about 3 inches wide by 2.1 inches high with the new offset so the 3 and a half by 5 inch piece i already have cut should work fine to cut your leather mark it on the back with a pencil and cut with several passes of an exacto knife or box cutter against a straight edge it doesn't have to be perfect but square edges do make it easier to position the leather on the mat the next thing i'm going to do is back my cut leather piece with cricut strong grip transfer tape this helps it stick better and protects the mat from debris the sticky side of the tape goes against the fuzzy or flesh side of the leather you'll notice the film is a little larger than the leather which adds a little buffer for protecting my mat i'm using a scraper to make sure the film is secure i'm going to place my leather two squares down and two squares over on the mat that's arbitrary except that you want to stay away from the rubber rollers and give yourself room for tape if necessary so i will go at least one down and one over ignore the transfer tape and be sure you are lining up the edges of the leather with the grid on the mat carefully press the leather and the excess film down firmly to the mat and speaking of match you will need a regular or strong grip mat preferably brand new or close to it if you have a clean brayer use that to help be sure the leather is well secured the next thing we're going to do is wet the leather this key step primes the leather so it can be tooled more deeply and consistently across the entire piece but it's a bit of an art that relies on feel and intuition as such everyone approaches it a little differently and you kind of have to develop what works for you i use a clean kitchen sponge soak it in a small tub of clean water and wring it out just enough so it doesn't drip onto the leather using even strokes and light to medium pressure i go across the leather several times until it has all changed colors and then maybe a couple more strokes for good measure you'll be able to see that the leather absorbs water quickly damp but not soggy is the rule of thumb i learned from a classic tandy video i will link up for you dab up any stray drops outside the leather with a paper towel so it doesn't seep underneath we want to give this time to absorb and even out so for this thickness of leather i set a timer for 10 minutes let's finish up everything else we can do in design space so our file will be ready to go when our leather is you will remember we finished the basic design but it turns out that to tool and cut leather we need some repetition beyond what the material settings will give us on their own since we can't dictate the number of passes on the foil tool setting directly we're going to use the stacking trick to get the number of passes we need and since i'm already in that mindset i'm going to do the same thing for the cutting passes based on on testing there needs to be two copies of the cut layer so i'm going to select it by itself right click and select duplicate then right click on the new one and select send to back i've found four copies of the interior layers as optimal if you recall these are now set to foil so i'm going to select them and click the duplicate button 1 2 three times now optionally for those of you who have a maker and the engraving tool make one more copy and set that one to engrave under the operations pull down to quickly clean up this mess and put everything back where it belongs i'm going to select all of it and choose center from the align menu this is a good time to double check the layers panel to see that you have the right number of copies one copy of the engraved set four copies of the foil set two copies of the basic cut everything checks out so i'm going to go ahead and attach all of it it's another good time to save the file incidentally i'll be sharing this file publicly you can grab that link from the video description below click make it the operations list next to the mini mat on the left should say engrave medium foil and basic cut if you are using a maker with the engraving tool or just medium foil and basic cut if you are not once you have verified that position your design on the prepare screen based on where you have put your leather on the physical mat remember that my leather is placed two squares down and two squares over so i'm going to go about a quarter inch down and to the right of that 2 2 intersection i'm also going to be sure that the right and bottom edges of the design are within a safe distance of the bounds of the leather piece on my mat click continue and click browse all materials to see the list of materials design space will let us choose from based on the operations we have set you see i only have a handful to choose from your list will be longer than this if you aren't using the engrave operation but in neither case will you see tooling leather on the list that's simply because we are using the foil operation and fortunately there's an easy work around i've done quite a bit of testing and found that the craft board setting with more pressure works beautifully so select craft board from the list and click done and then set the pressure pulldown to more if you're set up for the optional engraving step you will see that it is asking for you to load the engraving tool first if you are not using the engraving tool it will ask you to load the foil transfer tool with medium tip first in either case you will ignore references to gold foil sheets leave your a side empty and install the first tool indicated in the coming up list you will see the fine point blade listed because that is the default for the craft board setting if you have a d point blade leave the settings as is and simply insert it when prompted for the fine point blade as this will double the number of passes to 4 and give you a clean cut through on 4 to six ounce leather everything is ready now and the cricket is waiting for you to load the mat so it's time to check on the leather you will know the leather is ready to work with when it returns to its original color but is still cool to the touch the exact time this takes will depend on the thickness of the leather the amount of water you applied and environmental factors if your leather is still too wet give it more time if your leather is too dry apply some water and give it a little time to absorb you may find that the moisture has caused the edges of the leather to curl up if so or if you just want extra security tape the edges with painters tape staying clear of the design area before you load the mat into the cricut make sure that your star wheels are clear of the path the leather will travel and slide them out of the way if necessary double check that the position of the leather on your mat matches the mini matte image on the left double check that you have the material set to craft board with more pressure and that you have the correct tool loaded click the load map button press the go button the maker will do a mat check and then if you are set to engrave it will do a blade check then begin engraving your entire design on the leather once after that it will pause with the map scrolled out and ask for the foil tool install it and press the go button at this point everything else is basically the same whether or not you have engraved or if you're using an explorer the cricut will perform four passes with the foil tool this is going to take a little bit so let me use the time to elaborate on some of the things i mentioned before and answer some questions i anticipate you having one thing you need to know about leather is that it takes time and patience to get a project completed this isn't something you want to do when you're in a rush you need to plan several days for a project to come to fruition because there's lots of steps with dry times in between let's talk about the leather itself as i said it needs to be veg tan tooling leather and it needs to have a smooth not embossed finish and its natural color as with any other material running through these machines the maximum safe thickness for leather in the maker is 2.4 millimeters and for explorer 2 millimeters even thicker leather tools better so you want to stay close to the limit for your machine unless you specifically need thinner leather for a given project now this gets complicated because leather is measured by weight not by thickness and product descriptions are sometimes incomplete inaccurate or conflicting i'm linking up some products i have personally tested in the video description in hopes of simplifying the buying process for you but keep in mind that natural leather just doesn't lend itself to the precision we are used to in the cricut world moving on to tools you may be wondering why we are using the foil tool or why we are using multiple tools while the debossing tip would seem the obvious choice for debossing leather its tiny rolling ball just can't extend far enough into the leather before the shoulder drags so we need something with a deeper dwell enter the foil transfer tool it has the depth shape and smoothness needed and its accompanying operation provides ample pressure all working together to make crisp impressions on wet leather and it works on both the maker and the explorer there is another major benefit of the foil operation you might not have thought of because the cricut pauses with the map fully extended before and after each foil operation we gain full access to inspect and re-wet if necessary the fine pointy engraving tip doesn't have much impact on leather by itself but when paired with the foil tool and leather stain its value becomes evident an engraving path slightly scores the leather so that the stain penetrates better and because the engraving goes first it also clears the path so to speak so the foil tool can go a little deeper basically the foil tool gives you dimension and the engraving tool gives you contrast so by using the tools in tandem you get both dimension and contrast for the best possible result as for blades the fine point blade will cut about halfway through the leather leaving a clean guideline for you to finish by hand simply fold back the wet leather little by little so you can insert sharp scissors down inside the ditch as cindy pope calls it cindy is a pioneer in doing leather work with a desktop cutter and this is one of many things i learned from her you need to go slowly but it isn't difficult and the results are quite good however the deep point blade when installed in the black d-point housing will cut cleanly all the way through on its own saving you time and ensuring crisp uniform edges if you haven't tried cutting leather with the deep point blade i think you'll be surprised at how well it works what about the knife blade you might ask limited detail blade overcut when cutting face up and long cutting times are good reasons to avoid the knife blade in this case in addition engraving foiling and knife blade operations cannot all be done in the same run which complicates the process when the foiling passes are finished you will be prompted for the blade install the deep point blade if you have one or the fine point blade if you do not and press go to continue you'll note it is doing four passes here one clockwise and one counter clockwise for each of our stacked layers if we had edited tools to specify the deep cut blade it would have only done one pass for each of our layers one interesting thing i noticed when cutting leather is that you can hear the blade cutting with a distinct raspy sound which changes back to normal when it is cut through when the cutting is complete unload the mat you can remove the patch now taking care not to stretch it or wait until it dries a bit first so it is less stretchy if the plastic film cut through and comes up with the leather go ahead and remove it the patch will need to dry completely before you stain it give it at least four hours or overnight if you can any scraggly bits of leather fuzz around the edges can be cleaned up with sharp scissors you will need to work quickly once you start applying your stain so be sure to prepare and organize your workspace before you start cover the area with plastic then several layers of paper set your stain a wool dauber paper towels and a pair of gloves out fold the paper towel in half several times to form a flat pad toothpicks and cotton swabs are a good idea to have close by too make sure you have good lighting and room to maneuver you may even want to practice on a scrap piece of leather to be sure everything is in order when you're ready to stain your patch first gently bend it back and forth to open up the grooves lay the leather flat on the work surface grain side up put on the gloves to protect accidental dyeing of your own hands apply the stain liberally to the leather with a wool dauber work quickly in a circular motion paying special attention to press the stain down into the tooled areas but also to apply an even coat across the untold areas there are no particular ventilation requirements for the stain i am using but be sure to check the manufacturer's recommendation if you are using something else immediately wipe off the excess with a paper towel pad the idea here is to wipe across the top surface of the leather rather than pressing down so we leave as much stain down in the impressions as possible next stain the edges trying to minimize spill over to the top surface carefully inspect the tooled areas for spots where the stain did not penetrate and press more stain into those areas a toothpick may be handy for this touch-up wipe away the excess again and repeat as necessary i'm not sure which is more magical seeing the cricket tool the leather or seeing the stain transform the tooling when you're done staining set the patch aside to dry for at least several hours then buff it with a soft cloth apply one or more coats of water-based top coat per the instructions on the bottle while this is optional with the all-in-one stain i used the extra protection seems like a good idea for something that will be on a hat there are many ways to apply a patch to a cap and what's best for you will depend on the adhesives and equipment you have available the configuration of your cap as well as personal preference unless you have a cap press you will likely need to do some improvising for both the initial placement of the patch and for securing it to dry as with the staining i recommend a dry run to be sure you have everything in easy reach i used both allen's leather and suede glue which is a white glue for the overall adhesion and super glue for extra reinforcement along the edges especially where the outline protrudes any paint brush will do but i found that these silicone brushes are particularly well suited for spreading glue as for my improvising i used my own bended right knee as a hat form when placing the glued patch on the cap initially thankfully for you that was off camera then i carefully held the patch in place until i could place the cap patch side down on a bag of rice i had placed at the edge of a table and somewhat shaped into a curve to match the front of the hat a second bag of rice was placed inside the cap to put weight across the entire surface of the patch as it dried turns out my rice vice worked quite nicely so there you have it great leather tooling with a qriket explorer maker for a professional looking yet handcrafted end product if you appreciate this video don't forget to subscribe like share comment and shop my affiliate links in the video description to keep this kind of unique content coming thanks so much for watching

Channel: CleverSomeday

Views: 259,566

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Id: ryhplBTcF_I

Length: 27min 5sec (1625 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 07 2022