Bat Earrings DIY

These bat leather Halloween earrings are perfectly eerie!

It’s easy to make this bat earrings DIY with the help of a Cricut machine. In this post, I’ll link the items I used to help you repeat the project with the same materials. I’ll also share how-to basics for creating faux leather earrings with a Cricut machine. You can easily cut faux leather and genuine leather on a Cricut Explore Air or Cricut Maker. Cut the leather materials and add hooks and you’re ready to go.

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Check out my favorite earring essentials on Amazon here!
Check out my favorite earring materials on Amazon here!

Watch my bat faux leather earrings diy video below for details on this project. In the video I focus on how to cut Hobby Lobby faux leather ribbon from Ribbon Boutique.

Supplies for this Bat Earrings DIY

supplies for Halloween faux leather earrings bats

I made a couple versions of these earrings. One pair was made with a double-sided black faux leather. Another was made with the Hobby Lobby fine glitter faux leather from Ribbon Boutique.

double-sided black faux leather – This is the faux leather that I used for my bats. It comes in a set with many colors (from Amazon). I LOVE this double-sided faux leather kit. I have ordered this item A LOT! I love it because it cuts very nicely on my Cricut and it looks great on both sides!
Cricut Machine – I recommend the Cricut Explore Air 2 or the Cricut Maker.
Earring supplies – earring hooks, jump rings, pliers, jump ring tool. This is the kit that I bought on Amazon and love it! It has a bundle of faux leather sheets as well as all of the tools you’ll need to make earrings.
Cricut Cutting Mats – You need new or very sticky cutting mats.
- Bulk transfer tape
- Standard Green Mats -for faux leather, cork, and HTV.
- Stronggrip Purple mats – for genuine leather
Basic Cricut Tools
Cricut Brayer
Huge Cricut tools Bundle
Leather hole punch (Larger holes, smallest is 2)
Leather hole punch – This leather punch makes much smaller holes than the one above.
Leather Scissors
Here is what I use to smooth my leather edges.
Crafter’s Pick Fabric glue or Aleene’s fabric glue
Heat and Bond
Cricut Transfer Tape, Strong Grip
Cricut Transfer Tape, Standard Grip
Earring Backs
Earring Cards
Plastic bags for earrings

SVG File

You can find many templates for your earrings on Design Bundles, Pinterest and Etsy. Some bloggers offer them for free and others are available for sale on various websites.

I used this Halloween svg set file for this project. I completed another project with the pumpkins from this same svg set. The pumpkin earrings turned out so cute! See them here.

Materials Cricut Settings

Click on the Browse All Materials link to see the menu of materials options on your Cricut.

When I use non-Cricut faux leather, the Shimmer Leather option normally works best for me. For this bat earrings diy, I used this setting when I cut my double-sided fine glitter faux leather.

Selecting a material from the Browse all materials menu on Cricut Design Space for your Cricut machine

For the double-sided black faux leather, I used the Genuine Leather setting. If you’re using a double-sided leather and don’t have a deep cut blade, you won’t be able to use this genuine leather setting. In these cases, my recommendation would be to use the Shimmered Leather (more presure), but you’ll probably have to cut the leather as it likely won’t cut all the way through.

I often use the genuine leather setting when I use Heat n Bond to adhere two thicker pieces of faux leather together (making double-sided faux leather) before I make my cuts.

Star Wheels

The Cricut machine has star wheels to keep materials from shifting during cutting. However, when cutting thicker materials, the star wheels can leave track marks. When you select a material from the browse menu that is thicker, the Cricut machine will prompt you to move the star wheels to the right. Be sure to move the star wheels when cutting genuine leather so that you don’t get track marks on your genuine leather.

Placing material on the cutting mat(s)

The approach you use to place the material on your mat plays a big role in your material cutting success.

Getting material to sick to the mat

Using an extremely sticky mat is one of the most important keys to get a good cut in the material. Some people attach the material to the mat with tape. I’m not a big fan of this because while it keeps the leather down on the edges, this approach doesn’t help the hold on other parts of the leather. For this reason, you won’t see me use tape very often.

That said, I always use tape any time I am cutting chunky glitter faux leather and fine glitter faux leather. I do this because the chunky glitter faux leather will not stick to the mat, regardless of how sticky the mat is.

fine glitter faux leather taped on a Standard grip Cricut mat with painters tape

Regardless of the material type, I always start by putting transfer tape on my mat. This approach keeps my mat clean and it also holds the material down really well (with the exception of glitter sheets which doesn’t stick, even with new transfer tape) because it’s super sticky .

I used this bulk transfer paper tape to hold my leather down onto my mat. I often use strong grip transfer tape for more challenging cuts and standard grip for other cuts.

a piece of of transfer tape before it is put on the green standard grip Cricut mat

transfer tape on a standard grip Cricut mat

Shop Cricut for great deals on Cricut earring supplies

How to place material onto the mat – good side up or down?

I used to always face my materials on the mat with the good side facing down. But a lot has changed for me over the years, and more specifically recently as I’ve begun to cut more printed and soft textured leathers.

There is nothing worse than buying beautiful printed leather and pulling it up from your mat to find that some of the print has pulled off. For this reason, I’ve begun to place these items (printed leathers) onto my mat with the good side facing up. But beware, if you don’t have transfer tape on your mat you will leave a BIG mess behind.

For chunky glitter, I place my faux leather glitter sheet onto the mat with the glitter side facing down and then tape the piece onto the mat.

I normally place my faux leather onto the mat with the good side facing down. And when cutting cork sheets, I most often put the material onto my mat with the good side facing up. I’ve cut it with the good side facing down as well, and it works that way too. Often, my material is adhered back to back prior to my cut (with Heat n Bond), so a good side has to be facing down.

Using a Cricut Brayer

After placing the material on the mat, I always use a Cricut Brayer roller to press it nicely onto the mat. Again, getting a good stick of the material onto the mat is SUPER important for a good cut.

Size of Earrings

The size of earrings is a matter of preference.

For this project, I made the front ghost 1.75″ long and the back ghost 1.8″ long. The great thing about diy faux leather earrings is that you can make them as big or as small as you like!

Making Earrings Two Sided

The back of some faux leather and faux suede earrings aren’t very attractive because they are often canvas or felt. I often cut an extra faux leather or faux suede piece for the back of the earring and I glue a second piece to the back of it. This way if the earring turns, the felt or canvas isn’t exposed.

Be sure to check out this double-sided faux leather and this double-sided glitter faux leather. It makes it super easy to cut earrings that look great on both sides. I have ordered each of these sets more than once because they cut nicely on my Cricut. And calculate the cost per sheet and it’s awesome! Below I’ve turn the bat earring so that you can see the back of it in the photo below.

No worries if you don’t have double-sided leather, you can create earrings that look good on both sides by taking one of the approaches outlined below.

Sometimes I cut the earrings and then glue them back to back. To do this, I glue two earrings together using either Crafter’s Pick Fabric glue or Aleene’s Glue. Don’t forget if you’re cutting the backs, you need to duplicate the bat and click on the Flip button to reverse the image.
I adhere two pieces of faux leather or cork sheets together using Heat n Bond BEFORE I cut the leather. This is my new FAVORITE way to work. By gluing them together before I cut, my cuts are beautiful and it saves me a ton of time.

Steps to Make Double Sided Faux leather

Cut the size of faux leather needed. I first reference the size of the cut on the mat and make sure I have enough for two pieces that size.

Hobby Lobby faux leather ribbon from ribbon boutique

I cut a piece of Heat N Bond the same size of the piece of faux leather.

cut Heat n Bond for the faux leather ribbon

Put the Heat N Bond onto the piece of faux leather with the textured side facing the back side of the material.

putting heat n bond on the back of the faux leather

I then used my Cricut Press to adhere the Heat N Bond to the material. It only takes about 10 seconds or less (at about 280 degrees).

Then, I cut the piece into two.

Heat n Bond on the back of cork to make double sided cork for diy earrings

One the material has cooled, I pulled the backing off of each piece of material.

Then I put the two pieces together with the glitter sides facing out.

Hobby Lobby fine glitter faux leather from Ribbon Boutique

Then, I covered the fine glitter faux leather with parchment paper.

making double sided faux leather with hobby lobby faux leather glitter sheets

parchment paper on top of the fine glitter hobby lobby faux leather before Cricut easy press

Once covered, I put the Cricut Easy Press on the project for about ten seconds.

Cricut Easy Press, used on top of two pieces of faux leather with Heat N Bond in between

Once the two pieces are adhered together, let the material completely cool before putting it onto the mat to cut.

double sided faux leather made with fine glitter Hobby Lobby faux leather ribbon from Ribbon Boutique

Cutting the Material on a Cricut Explore Air or Cricut Maker

You can cut faux leather, faux suede, cork, and leather on the Cricut Explore Air and Cricut Maker. When cutting faux leather, cork sheets, and faux suede, you can use the Cricut standard fine point blade. If you’re cutting genuine leather (or using the genuine leather setting), you’ll need to use the Cricut deep blade. When I am working with a really thick glitter sheet, I do sometimes change to a deep cut blade.

bat faux leather earrings, with bat cut from Cricut Maker

Trim any felt, fuzz, or glue from the earrings.

Using a pair of leather scissors, trim fuzz from around the earrings. Be very careful not to cut any of the earring, you’re only cutting the fuzz off of your leather earrings.

You can also smooth the earring by using this burnishing agent. I apply it with a tooth pick along the edges. It’s great because it smooths the leather and helps better define the edges.

Place a hole in the top of the earring.

I use a leather punch to put the holes in my diy leather earrings. The tool linked above cuts through multiple layers of the earring at the same time and punches larger holes (2mm is the smallest) . Here is an option for a smaller hole leather punch (on this one 2mm is the largest hole it punches).

using a leather hole punch to put holes in the bat earrings diy project

Add ball wire hooks to earrings

For this bat earrings DIY, I chose to use ball wire earrings. These are super easy to use because you simply pull the earring onto the hook. I normally don’t even need pliers to work with these kinds of hooks.

bat earrings diy to make Halloween leather earrings

And that’s it! This bat earrings DIY is finished!

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