Stamping and carving designs

I would like to see how everyone applies designs such as roses,oak leaves,etc. to the leather.Do you use a template from Tandy or freehand it?Sandy got me thinking about this after emailing me a picture of a beautiful holster he had done.
I myself have tried it both ways with varying degree's of success.Dave

Dave---I draw ALL of the designs for my knife sheaths, holsters, belts etc. that are of a FLORAL nature. I do not follow Mother Nature1's patterns too closely as they do not seem to produce the flow I desire. I am fond of the scrolling flow as you can cover every nook and cranny of ANY area without being "choppy". I consciously try to avoid straight or angle cuts except for the borders. Curves are pleasant to the eye and are easy to cut with your swivel knife. Figure carving is another ball game. Unless you are very artistic it is difficult to draw a human or animal sketch that will be satisfactory. But this world is full of people that can and do beautifully. Keep on the lookout for things you would like to carve--fish for fillet knife sheaths--- deer, bear, wolves, etc. for your hunting knife sheaths. Do not be concerned that the size of the object is too big or too small. That problem is easily solved. Any good copy machine will enlarge the subject or shrink to the size you want. You can build a fine collection in a very short time and the material is unexhaustible. When you have what you want for a project, transfer on to a good quality of tracing paper. By doing so, you can see the correct positioning on the leather and by turning over the tracing, can go from a left to a right handed drawing. This is great if you need a left handed sheath or holster. We do have a lot of south paws amongst us! Reversing the tracing paper also changes the direction the subject is facing which often fits the area better. I would not worry about copyright violations in the tracing of photos or illustrations that do not show a copyright logo. 99% of the material available is in the public domain and is yours for the taking. Very few leather craftsman are able to free hand their carving with any degree of success. Making a tracing is the way to go. It lets you edit the design without destroying the leather!!! Sandy