Why wear boring earrings when we can be in style with this easy beginner’s Faux Leather & Foil Iron-On earrings Tutorial? If you’ve been wanting to try to make faux leather earrings with your new Cricut Maker but you aren’t exactly sure what to do, I get it! I have been there myself and it wasn’t that long ago. This article will walk you through a step-by-step process on how to make Faux Leather Earrings with our Cricut Maker.
I was introduced to the Earring Making Goddess, Amy Romeo. She has helped and guided me in most of my earring creations and I just fell in love with making Earrings. She explains everything in such great detail! If you have not heard of her, I highly recommend giving Amy Romeo a look! Her tutorials are wonderful and very thorough.
Earring accessories are a great way to update any outfit and this is especially true for any season. So if you want some tips on how to make these trendy pieces of jewelry from scratch then you are in the right place!
Make sure to follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook and tag me so I can see your awesome creations!
I am so thrilled to teach you how to make these DIY Faux Leather & Iron-On Earrings with your Cricut Maker! This post may contain some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you! Read my full disclosure here.
Making DIY Faux Leather Earrings using our Cricut Maker
Before we get into this exciting earring tutorial I want to give you an overview of what we will be doing.
I have provided the SVG file below. Make sure you download it and remember where you are saving it to.
We will edit the SVG cut file in Cricut Design Space, send it to our mat preview, cut the Faux Leather and Foil Iron-on, weed the design, Heat press it, and assemble the Earrings together. WOOHOO!
We are now ready to get started so make sure you download the SVG file. 😉
DIY Cricut Maker Breathe TearDrop Earrings- Material List
- Breathe Faux Leather & Iron-On Earrings SVG Cut File
- Design Space
- Cricut cutting machine
- Faux Leather of your choice- I will be using a deep turquoise and a teal
- Foil Iron-On of your choice- I will be using silver
- Cricut Strong Grip Cutting Mat
- Blue Painters Tape
- Earring Hooks
- Small Jump Rings
- Flat Nose Plyers– 2 pairs
- Earring Hole Punch-1/16
Cricut Design Space
Alright so once you have that SVG downloaded, the one I provided above, we are going to log into Cricut design space and start a blank canvas.
Still learning Cricut Design Space? No problem at all Check out my Ultimate Beginners Guide to Cricut Design Space
Uploading the File into Cricut Design Space
So you have now downloaded the SVG file and have Design Space open with a new canvas started. On the left side panel there is an icon called upload, click on that, then click on upload image like the first picture shows. That will take you to a screen like the second image.
Now we are going to hit the browse button (1) and a pop-up appears. This is where you are going to locate the file you just saved. Breathe Earrings-AmandasCraftCorner is the file name you will be looking for.
Once you have located the file, select it, and then you are taken to a page that says Name and Tag Pattern. You can rename it or place a tag on it for easy finding later on. Then once you are done hit save in the bottom right-hand corner. (see image below)
Now that new SVG file will be saved in your recently uploaded images. Select the Breathe Earrings SVG file and insert it onto your canvas. (that little aqua button in the bottom right corner)
The Breathe Earrings SVG file will now show up on your canvas area in Cricut Design Space.
Resizing the Breathe Earrings SVG
This SVG will need to be resized.
Let’s start by selecting the SVG and heading up to the right-side panel where the ungroup icon is and ungroup it.
Now let’s go to the top panel where the size icon is, make sure it is locked, and size each earring to 1.822 (W) x 2.818 (H). Once you put in the 1.822 W the H should automatically change and match the measurements.
If you wanted to change the color of any of these earrings, now is the time to do that.
How to change the color
- Select one of the earrings (all layers will be selected)
- Head to the right panel
- Click on what layer you want to change- If you wanted to change the turquiose back you would click on that layer in the side panel and head over to the color panel and change it
- Do the next color change the same way.
We are now ready to cut these awesome Breathe Earrings!
Hitting the Make it Button
Oh, we are soooo close, I am getting super excited!
Let’s head up and hit the Make it button, top right side panel-aqua button.
Prepping Our Cutting Mats In Cricut Design Space and Cutting the Material
Here you can change your material size to the size you are using. I usually always leave it at 12 x 12 but some don’t like doing that!
Now as you can see we have three different cutting mats. This means we will have 3 different pieces for our earrings. The word Breathe is getting cut in foil and the two earrings are going to be cut in Faux Leather.
- First Mat – Breathe in Foil Iron-On
- Second Mat- Earring with cut out in center- Faux Leather
- Third Mat- Solid Earring (back)
VERY IMPORTANT– The mirror icon needs to be on (mirrored) because we are working with words in our design.
So before we go any further let’s toggle the mirror on underneath each mat.
Now here is where I also like to gather and cut my material to size. So let’s grab our Foil Iron-on, Faux Leather, cutter, or scissors.
If we look at our cutting mats we are going to cut our material a bit longer and wider than the design.
- First Mat- Material Size- a little over 1 and at 3 (Foil Iron-On)
- Second Mat- Material Size- a little over 3 and at 4 (Faux Leather)
- Third Mat- Material Size- A little over 3 and at 4 (Faux Leather and Foil Iron-On for the back of the earrings)
And again, make sure you look at your mats in case our sizes are different.
Now let go ahead and press the green continue button (bottom right side)
Selecting our Materials
First, we are going to select the machine in which we are working with. I am selecting the Cricut Maker.
Next, we will be selecting our material. For the first mat, it will be the Foil Iron-On option. You may have to browse the materials and type in foil and the foil iron-on option will appear.
- Step1- Click on the browse all material and a pop-up appears
- Step 2- In the search bar type in foil and hit the magnifying glass
- Step 3- Find the Foil Iron-on option and click it, then head to the bottom right corner and click done
The pressure is always set to the default, but for this project let’s go into pressure and adjust it to more. (right underneath the base material set to. (see image below)
Did you know you can star materials you use all the time?
Did you know if there are materials you always work with, you can star them as your favorites so that you don’t have to look for them each and every time?
If you move your mouse on top of the material block a star appears in the right top corner. Star it and it will be there each and every time you come to this screen:)
Now it’s time to prep the actual mat for cutting:)
Prepping our first cutting mat & cutting the Foil Iron-on
We are now ready to place our piece of Foil Iron-on shiny side down onto our purple cutting mat in the upper left-hand corner.
Then take your blue painter’s tape and tape down the piece of Foil. Everything is mirrored and we are good to cut.
If you need more information on Cricut cutting mats you can check out my article on The Differences between the Cricut Cutting Mats-All you need to know
Loading the mat into our Cricut Maker
Make sure your Cricut has the fine point blade and we are ready to load our mat in our machine.
The arrow light will be flashing, so let’s press that and it will load the mat. Once that is done, your Cricut button will be waiting to be pressed. OFF your mat goes to be cut by this incredible machine.
NOTE: I did run the design twice to make sure the foil Iron on cut all the way through. So when it gets done cutting the first pass do NOT unload your mat, but hit the Cricut icon again and it will recut the exact same cut it just did.
Quick steps to running a two cut pass on your material
- Let the cricut cut one pass and it will tell you to unload the mat—- DON’T
- Instead hit the cricut icon again and it will recut the same exact cut it just did.
- Once it cut the second pass and is done, you can now unload your mat
After the second cut, you will go ahead and unload your cutting mat. Peel off the tape, then remove the foil iron-on from the mat.
We are now ready to prep our second cutting mat and cut that one together. WOOHOO
Prepping our Second cutting mat & cutting the Faux Leather
We are ready to grab our first color of Faux Leather and place it on our purple cutting mat, material side down.
Then take your blue painter’s tape and tape down the piece of Faux Leather. Everything is mirrored and we are good to cut.
Loading the second mat into our Cricut Maker
- Make sure your white wheels on the maker are pushed all the way over to one side so it doesn’t indent our material.
The arrow light will be flashing, so let’s press that and it will load the mat. Once that is done, your Cricut button will be waiting to be pressed. OFF your mat goes.
This mat should only need one pass, but you can always check to make sure.
Once it is done cutting, before you unload the mat, lift the material cut with a sharp tool and see if it is completely cut through. If it is, unload the mat. If it is not, hit the Cricut icon to make another pass.
Peel off the tape, then remove the faux leather from the mat.
How exciting does your second cut look? Are you getting excited? I know I am!
WE are now ready to move onto the third cutting mat.
Optional Step for the third cutting mat-
For this mat, I used one of Amy’s AMAZING Tricks and this is totally optional.
Amy recommends adding a backing to the faux leather before we cut. This adds more sturdiness and structure to the back and prevents them from curling.
You can use whatever material you wish here, but I will be using the foil iron-on. But feel free to experiment with Iron-on, Glitter Iron-on, foil, etc.
If you want more details on this Amy Romeo has a video on the different ways you can put a backing on faux leather earrings. Her YouTube Video- What to put on the Back of Faux Leather Earrings.
Layering the Faux Leather and Foil Iron-on and heat pressing them together (optional)
Step 1
First, let’s set our heat press to 255 degrees and let that heat up. (that setting is with an Easy Press 2, heat press material Foil Iron-on and base material as Faux Leather.
If you are using a different material, I am linking Cricut’s Heat Guide so you can put in the material you are working with as well as selecting the heat press you are using.
We are going to grab the Foil Iron on or whatever material you chose to work and cut it to the same size as your Faux leather piece.
Step 2
Now that we have our foil Iron on cut, let us take the two pieces (Faux Leather and Foil Iron-on) and line them up.
The Faux leather will be facing down and the shiny side of the foil will be facing you (foil iron-on to the back of the faux leather).
Lay them together, line them up, and we are going to cover them with a sheet (butcher, Teflon, parchment paper) and press them for about 20 seconds.
Step 3
Peel the cover sheet off of the Foil Iron-on and let cool.
We are now ready to set up our cutting mat.
Prepping our Third cutting mat & cutting the second piece of Faux Leather
We are ready to grab our Faux Leather with the Foil Iron-on on the back and place it on our purple cutting mat, material side down/ shiny foil side facing you.
Then take your blue painter’s tape and tape down the piece of Faux Leather. Everything is mirrored and we are good to cut.
Loading the third mat into our Cricut Maker
- Make sure your white wheels on the maker are pushed all the way over to one side so it doesn’t indent our material.
The arrow light will be flashing, so let’s press that and it will load the mat. Once that is done, your Cricut button will be waiting to be pressed. OFF your mat goes.
Again, This mat should only need one pass, but you can always check to make sure.
Once it is done cutting, before you unload the mat, lift the cut material with a sharp tool and see if it is completely cut through. If it is, unload the mat. If it is not, hit the Cricut icon to make another pass.
Peel off the tape, then remove the faux leather from the mat.
We should now have 3 cut pieces. One is the word Breathe out of Foil Iron-on, one Faux Leather, and one with Faux Leather and Foil Iron-on. We are now ready to assemble and piece it all together.
Weeding our Earring Design Out
The Faux Leather cuts should just fall right out of the cut. Like the image below shows. The Breathe word, we are going to weed everything we do NOT need. And the word Breathe should be left.
Pressing the Foil Iron on word Breathe onto our Faux Leather
So our heat press should still be up to temp, but if it’s not let us heat it back up to 255 degrees.
Let’s gather the faux leather with foil Iron-on on the back and the word Breathe. We want to figure out the position of the word on the faux leather. (see image below)
Once you have the positioning where you want it, let us lay it down, cover it with a sheet (butcher, Teflon, parchment paper) and press it at 255 degrees for about 10-20 seconds. (May need longer, but I always check around 12 seconds.)
Now we are ready to carefully pull the cover sheet off the word and assemble them.
NOTE: If the design is not stuck to the faux leather, lay back down, cover it, and press for a few more seconds.
Punching the Holes for the Earrings
Now let us get our 1/16″ hole punch to make the earring holes.
To do let’s gather both faux leather pieces (one earring) and line them up. Now take the hole punch and punch the hole at the top of the earring, but make sure it isn’t too close to the edge. You do want a little gap between the top edge and the hole you are about to punch.
Now it is time to attach the Earring hooks to our INCREDIBLE Faux Leather and Foil Iron-on Earrings
Attaching the Earring Hooks to our Faux Leather & Foil Iron-on Earrings
To attach the Earring hooks we are going to need small jump rings, earring hooks, and a pair or two of flat-nose pliers.
The first thing we need to do when assembling our earrings is to make sure they hang the right way. So we are going to take the earring hook and turn the bottom loop sideways. (see image below)
We are going to grab the top of the hook with our thumb and index finger while the flat nose pliers are pinching the bottom loop.
Now you are going to carefully twist our wrist that is holding the pliers about 90 degrees or until it looks like the last picture below.
Repeat until you have two- one for both earring
So our earring hooks are now the right way for them to hang properly. We are now ready to get that jump ring onto the hook.
Opening the Jump Ring
We are now ready to open our jump rings!
Grab your two pliers and pinch each side of the jump ring. If you don’t have two pairs of pliers you can grab one side with your fingers and the other side with the pliers.
Amy suggests that you make sure the opening of the jump ring is facing up in the 12:00 position. Now we are going to twist one of our wrists to open the jump ring slightly but be careful not to distort the circle shape of the ring.
Our jump ring is now open and ready to be put together.
Adding the Faux leather Earrings to the jump ring and Hook
So our jump ring is open, let us grab our faux leather and foil iron-on earring and slide it onto the jump ring. Once that is on the jump ring, we are going to add the earring hook.
NOTE: When you add the hook, make sure it is facing the right direction so your earring is not backward! I have done that so many times. LOL
Now that the earring is together, let’s take our second pair of pliers, grip both sides as we did before, and twist the jump ring until it is closed.
We are going to repeat the same steps for the second Earring.
Congrats!
You just made these AMAZING Faux Leather & Foil Iron-on Earrings with your Cricut Maker!
Don’t forget to Pin this or share with someone you know could use this article!
More fun and amazing projects
