Leather and metal - a whole lotta crafty fun napkin rings!

I haven't crafted in a long, long time. 

I haven't sewn in a long time either, but that is a whole other story.

I made these napkin rings. Now I can't wait to use them. Who wants to come over for dinner?

I went to Tandy Leather Company for some leather.

I wanted some of the oil finished leather in the scrap bin, after all , I didn't need half a hide to make a dozen napkin rings.

but I found none.

Instead, I found this piece that was already embossed.

 

Grabbed a quilt ruler and my rotary cutter to do the cutting on a self healing cutting mat. 

Only way to go!

Measured each strip so that it was 5" by 1.5".

Please never lay your rotary cutting tool down with the blade open. 

I just wanted to grab this shot!

 Cut the desired number of strips.

I used an easy-to-use Eco gel dye from Tandy Leather to dye to piece to my desired shade of brown.

I used a soft rag, a very liberal amount of dye and let it sit.

I dyed each strip, one at a time instead of dying the entire piece first. This colored all the cut edges also.

Once they were all dyed, I used a clean soft rag and rubbed like the dickens to give them a nice sheen.

See the top one, it's still dull and not very pretty.

The bottom piece has been rubbed to within an inch of it's life. 

Nice. Shiny.

At this point, you might want to put a sealer on the leather. 

Forgot to buy some, so I didn't.

After all, how much wear are these going to get? Really?

Then I used some craft tacky glue -Aleene's Fast Grab tacky glue - to overlap the short ends of the napkin ring 1/4". Held them in place with small clamps until dry. Another option is a glue product called Leather Weld, love it, I was out and so was Tandy's. However, the Aleene's did a fabulous job!

Then I did just what the Tandy guy said.. I used Loctite Epoxy gel. 

Two layers of it.

First layer a dab on both the back side of the metal flower and the seam of the napkin ring.

I wanted to adhere the flower over the seam, but since that was going to be uneven, I knew the adhesion would not be very secure.

So I made sure to place the flower on the overlapped leather only. 

Use the Loctite as directed on their instructions. Let the first coating dry completely.

Then dab on the leather and the flower again, wait as instructed and then place the flower on the ring.

Using your clamps again, leave the napkin rings to dry.

Go out of the room, close the door.

Do not fiddle with them.

The next day, draw your napkins into the ring and admire your work!

These look equally well with lace napkins....

...as with plaids or solid colors.

I found the metal flowers at a local store, Coyote Candle Company. The ones I used HERE did not have this glaze on them but were either plain tin or already rusted.

What have you made lately?

Linking up to to Metamorphosis Monday at Susan's and to 

Cuisine Kathleen's Wednesday Party - Let's Dish! See you there.