You can make super-cute faux leather earrings using your Cricut! This tutorial shows you how easy it is to make these great gifts.
While I don’t wear earrings anymore myself, I know many people who do. And I had a blast designing these earrings for you! And they were so easy to make, too! When I made my cutwork leather journal, I found it a little tricky to cut leather… but faux leather is a breeze to cut! I am super pleased with these faux leather earrings and I think you will be, too!

Faux leather is really quite thin, so you can cut it on both the Cricut Explore and the Cricut Maker with a regular fine-point blade. You can even cut faux leather with scissors. It’s a very simple, fun project and when you’re done you get cute earrings to wear or gift to others.
Much gratitude to many readers who requested this project (Lois W., Dori L., Pam C., Melissa P., Kara, Nena H., Helen L., Sarah B., Meredith B., Karen, Sandy, Julie M., Kristie G., and Dianna F.).
Key concepts taught in the video tutorial include how to mirror a design in Cricut Design Space, how to cut faux leather, and how to iron foil vinyl on faux leather.
See exactly how to make Faux Leather Earrings on a Cricut in this tutorial video below:
So let me show you how to make some cute faux leather earrings! This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)! Read my full disclosure policy.
Materials for the Faux Leather Earrings
- Faux leather (I used Cricut brown pebbled leather)
- Foil vinyl (I used Cricut Rose Gold Iron-On Vinyl)
- Earring hooks (I used rose gold hooks)
- Jump rings (I used rose gold jump rings)
- Another option for hooks and rings if the others listed above are sold out.
- Needle nose pliers
- Leather punch
- A way to iron-on your foil vinyl (I used the Cricut EasyPress)
- A way to cut your faux leather and iron-on vinyl (I used the amazing Cricut)
- Design #118 – My free SVG/DXF/PDF cut files/patterns (available in my free resource library—get the password at the bottom of this post)
How to Make Faux Leather Earrings with a Cricut
First, pick out a design. You can download my earring designs (Design #118) from my free resource library (you can get a password for it at the bottom of this page). If you’re going to cut the stencil out on your cutting machine, upload the file to your design software. If you’re not sure how to upload an SVG cut file to Cricut Design Space, watch this helpful video training series I made. If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, here’s how to download and upload SVG files to the Cricut Design Space app.
My earring designs have two layers — one is intended for the faux leather (the brown layer) and one is intended for a foil vinyl iron-on layer (the pinkish layer). If you don’t want to do the iron-on layer, they’ll look good with just the faux leather layer.
Note: When you cut the faux leather layer, be sure to select “faux leather” as your material and mirror your image. The foil vinyl layer should be set to “foil vinyl iron on” and also mirrored.
If you do decide to cut out the foil vinyl iron-on layer, you’ll want to weed the vinyl and then iron the designs onto your earrings before you go any further. I did this using my Cricut EasyPress. For faux leather and foil iron-on with the EasyPress mat, the recommended temperature is 255 for 30 seconds. Once you press your iron-on, let it cool before removing the protective liner.
Now some of the earring designs have pre-cut holes, but a few do not. Those that do not are this way on purpose so you can choose whether you want them to hang straight or curved. If you want them to hang straight, just punch a hole at the top with the leather punch and you’re good to go.
If you want your teardrop shape earrings to curve, fold the top of the earring in half (gently!) and use your hole punch to make a hole through BOTH sides of the leather.
Now it’s time to put a jump ring through the hole(s) of your earring. Use your needle nose pliers to open up a jump ring and place the end of the ring through the hole.
Now just put your earring hook through the jump ring at the top (double-check that the hook is facing the right way) and close the jump ring with your pliers. Now just rinse and repeat with your other earrings.
And that’s it! Wasn’t that easy?
Of course, you don’t have to make these earrings with the foil vinyl — I just thought they looked really pretty that way. And, you can resize these earrings to suit your taste. Right now they’re definitely on the large size, but I see no problem making them smaller.
Get my free SVG cut files and patterns for the Faux Leather Earrings
If you make any of these faux leather earrings, please share a photo in our Facebook group, or tag me on social media with #makershowandtell.
See all of the projects, tutorials, and free designs in The Great Maker Show and Tell Challenge! There is one for each day of the 25 Days of Christmas! This is my gift to you for the tremendous support, enthusiasm, and love you’ve shown to me and my little blog over the past two years. To “open” a gift, hover over the day’s image and click the download icon.
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Love,
Making faux leather jewelry is one of my favorite things to use my Cricut for! I had not thought about tassel earrings, though I have made tassel keychains.
I always wanted to make these earrings!! Can’t wait to make my own. BTW, I have the same heat press!!
Fellow WoWer and Cricuteer here…I love your blog and videos. You make it as painless as possible. Thank you!
For the faux leather earrings, did you use a regular blade or a deep cutting blade?
I used the regular fine-point blade.
I tried to do this according to directions, but my fine point blade did not cut through the faux leather even when I ran it through my maker twice. any other suggestions?
I have a few suggestions that might help! Make sure you type in “faux leather” in the materials section! Then, also make sure that “mirror” is turned on and the faux leather material is face (shiny side) down on the mat. Change the pressure from “default” to “more”. Also, Cricut has a great article on what leather can be cut with their machines and you can read more here at their site!
I had a cricut expression years ago, and used it strictly for scrapbooking and cutting letters for my classroom bulletin boards. I was just gifted this beautiful explore air 2 by my mom, and I’ve made a t-shirt with iron on transfer and a water bottle with vinyl. In feeling a little overwhelmed with where to start, I stumbled upon you on YouTube, and so glad I did! I’m so looking forward to making these for myself AND as gifts! They’re beautiful, thank you for sharing, so generously, your creativity and knowledge! I can’t wait to check out all of your other content! You’ve gained a subscriber for sure!
Thank you so much, Kimberly!
Made it in my cricut explore air 2. Few designs did not came well but the rest were amazing.
Jennifer, do you ever have to put anything on the back of them? or is okay with just the single piece of faux leather? Thanks!
I am unable to find these in your resource library. Did they get deleted?
Hi Heather, these are still in my library. They are listed as Design #118!
Hi, I am looking to try my hand at faux leather earrings on the Cricut Explore Air. I subscribed once to your site, but have misplaced the password. May I please have it again? Or should I just resubscribe?
Hi Jean, the password for my library is at the bottom of almost all of my crafting newsletters. If you don’t have any of my emails, you can reach out to my communications heroes at [email protected], and they’ll be happy to help!
Do you have to use foil iron on? Could you just use a permanent vinyl?
Absolutely, Cristal! You can use any iron-on material that you would like.
Love this site.Helps me so much.
I am so happy to hear it! Thank you!
Hello! We are thinking about making leather earrings. We are just concerned about whether the hooks and jump rings tarnish. Thank you.
Hi Lorelei! Stick with stainless steel and you should be good to go!
Hi Jennifer, Can I cut this using the Joy machine?
You can cut paper thin faux leather with your Joy machine.
What size leather did you use? 12 x 12?
You can use any size you like, Suzanne.