Personalizing a gift for a friend who loves to travel - and some tips to create something like this yourself.

I wanted to give my friend a journal to document and dream about her many travel adventures, so I personalized a journal with a plain black faux leather cover by adding an image in metallic iron-on. The image is free in Design Space with a Cricut subscription. The image dimensions were modified to look better for the front of a 6" by 8" journal. If you want to learn how to make something like this yourself, I have included some tips below.

Because the cover of the journal is slightly textured faux leather, I used iron-on material, also known as heat transfer vinyl, to make sure the design adheres better and does not peel off easily. 

TIP: When using iron-on for a project, the image needs to be mirrored before it is cut. If you chose iron-on as the material to cut, Design Space makes sure that you have used the mirror function (but as an old school crafter, it always makes me feel better to double check myself that mirror function is on).

To make sure that the iron-on sticks correctly and avoid burning or overheating the cover, I looked up the faux leather settings and time information in the Cricut heat guide online. I used my Easy Press Mini so that I could see how the letters were adhering and address small areas that might need some extra pressing.

TIP: I also used a pressing sheet to help avoid too much direct heat on the faux leather material. Particularly when pre-heating the surface for a few seconds, the pressing sheet helps protect the faux leather cover from getting burned and helps add some extra protection over the iron-on's liner sheet when applying the image.

TIP: When removing the iron-on liner sheet, let it cool a little so that you can handle it without burning yourself and then very gently start to peel off the liner sheet. Do this gently and slowly so that you can see if any piece is not sticking correctly. If any little piece looks like it is not stuck on, you can apply extra heat and a little pressure in that area with the Easy Press Mini.

And voila, here is the finished project. 

You can see the actual image, in case you want to make one yourself (or maybe make something else with that image) by pulling up my project in the community projects section in Cricut Design Space. Here is a link: https://design.cricut.com/landing/project-detail/684d07ded67cd80c2153e2a2