I am doing a "rustic" baby shower cake.  Not specifically a "western cowboy" cake but the friend thought a tooled leather look under his name with a simple rope border would be cute.  I'm a hobby baker so I need some guidance for this technique.  The embossing is not my concern - I have several stamps.  I would like to know what you mix together, tools needed and the steps.  Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you so much!

I did a western baby shower cake where I made a fondant "leather" belt and buckle, as the topper.  When I dyed my fondant, for the belt, I mixed it haphazardly, so there were variations in the shades of brown.  I then stamped/carved my designs into the belt.  After I was happy with the looks of it, I mixed some brown gel food coloring with a little water and painted it on, letting it collects in the designs. I used both a wiping and dabbing motion to remove some of the food dye, leaving it heavy in some places and lighter in others.  I was really happy with the outcome. 

Not sure if this is any help.

http://cakecentral.com/t/711576/how-to-make-fondant-look-like-old-leather-any-tips

To give you the leather texture, try scrunching up then opening and flattening out a sheet of tin foil and use that as a kind of embossing sheet for your fondant. The link below is actually for polymer clay, but it works just as well for sugarpaste ... Hope that helps :) x

http://www.polymerclayweb.com/Tutorials/FauxEffects/FauxLeatherTags.aspx

Thanks, guys!  All of your advice has given me more confidence.  It appears to be simple but I was making it more difficult in my mind.  I can't wait to try this technique and I hope the recipient of the cake will be pleased with my efforts.

As always, the CC'ers have come to my rescue!

I did this cake this past summer. I colored the fondant brown and rolled it out. I let it rest for a couple of minutes on the table for it to firm up a bit. Then I started stamping. I just bought a random large floral clearance stamp from Michaels for like 1.00. Anyway, once the cake was covered with the stamped fondant I gave it a couple of hours to firm up then I re-stamped the whole thing again. It doesn't need to be perfect. This is what worked for me to get the aged leather "tooled" look. It was SUPER easy. 

HTH

http://cakecentral.com/g/i/2382184/a/2383184/i-do-not-know-what-it-is-about-this-cake-but-i-loved-the-design-the-bride-picked-you-cannot-see-it-very-well-but-all-of-the-tiers-are-tooled-to-look-leathery-i-am-very-happy-with-how-this-cake-looked-and-just-the-simplicity-of-it-is/

Hi guys,

Since you all were so helpful with your suggestions, I wanted you to see the "weathered boards" on my Western Baby Shower Cake.  I hope I followed your suggestions properly.  The recipient was pleased so Im happy.

Great Job!

I used the crumpled foil technique for a leather bible this weekend. It worked a treat but I didn't get a good enough photo to share.