Personalized Leather Journal - DIY with Cricut Maker

Personalized Leather Journal – DIY with Cricut Maker

Create your very own leather journal with this super easy tutorial. These make great gifts for dad, teacher, mom, or even the boss. You can personalize these leather journals with vinyl to make them even more special. This tutorial features the Cricut Maker but you could use scissors if you don’t have a cutting machine. Here is a personalized leather journal DIY.

Personalized Leather Journal – DIY with Cricut Maker

The Cricut Maker is great because you can cut leather. If you are new to Cricut check out THIS POST first! (See these leather earrings that I made recently.) You can also use faux leather if you are not interested in working with real leather. You can get either the faux leather or real leather sheets precut to fit the Cricut mats.

Use THIS template to cut the rounded rectangle out of the leather. Then resize the image in Design Space to make it a bit smaller for the paper that will go inside the journal. Use a heavy cart stock and not printer paper for the inside of the journal. It will hold up better to the stitching and journal use. With the yardstick you will want to use no more than 5 or 6 pages so that you are able to sew through all the layers. Fold the leather in half and crease the edge (as pictured below.) This will give you a good guide for sewing your first line of stitches.

Use binder clips or mini wonder clips to clip the paper to the wrong side (or the inside) of the leather. This is when you want to be meticulous and measure all sides to be sure that the paper is evenly distributed and the journal will have a polished finished look.

Using a heavy duty leather sewing machine needle sew one straight stitch from the top of the leather to the bottom following the crease line you created. You will sew on the leather side with the paper facing down. Then sew two more lines, one on either side of the original line of stitches. This is optional but it gives the journal more stability and it also looks nice.

Now fold the journal in half and use a heavy book or clip the edges together to help set the binding crease.

You can add an image on the front with permanent vinyl. I like THIS 651 vinyl from Expressions vinyl for permanent applications. Get the goal digger file HERE.

Now you have an amazing gift idea for SO many occasions. These would be great for Father’s Day, graduation day, Mother’s Day, Teacher Appreciation Day, and so many more!

Will you make a personalized leather journal? Share with me in the comments below.