Embossed Leather Earrings DIY

Emboss leather earrings using a Sizzix machine.

Making this Embossed Leather Earrings DIY is easy with a Sizzix machine (which is super cheap)! In this post, I’ll share multiple phones and explain how I made DIY leather earrings using various types of leather and multiple embossing folders. I’ve also linked a video for the full tutorial.

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

Details for making this embossed leather earrings DIY can be seen in my YouTube video below.

EXAMPLE PROJECTS

What You’ll Need to make this Embossed Leather Earrings DIY

Embossing Machine
Embossing Folders
- Weave Embossing Folder
- Diamond Embossing Folder
- Scroll Embossing Folder
- Damask Embossing Folder
Cricut Machine – I recommend the Cricut Explore Air 2 or the Cricut Maker.
Genuine Leather
- Black genuine leather
- Leather Bundle – red, silver, black, gold (with deep cut blade & mat
- Red genuine leather (Cricut)
- Cricut Metallic Gold Genuine Leather
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.
Earring wire hooks with balls – I used this style of hook for these earrings. They’re super easy to use and won’t require jump rings or jump ring tools/pliers.
- Gold Plated
- 14K Gold
- .925 Sterling Silver
- 300 piece set silver
Cricut Cutting Mats – You need new or very sticky cutting mats.
- 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.
Glue to glue faux leather earrings back to back: Crafter’s Pick Fabric glue or E6000 glue
Heat and Bond
Cricut Transfer Tape, Strong Grip
Cricut Transfer Tape, Standard Grip
Earring Backs
Earring Cards – I use these because they are tall enough that my earrings can fully hang while in the jewelry bags. If your earrings hang longer than your cards, they will not look as good when you put them into the plastic bags.
Plastic bags for earrings

USING THE SIZZIX MACHINE

It’s super easy to emboss earrings on the Sizzix machine.

Sizzix Texture Botuque Embossing Machine

Embossing Supplies

Below you’ll see the embossing supplies that I used for this project. I used my Sizzix embossing machine and four different embossing folders.

Sizzix Texture Botuque Embossing Machine and Embossing Folders

Before embossing the earrings, cut your leather into whatever shape desired.

The picture below shows me putting a little bit of water on the leather earrings with a dauber. You can do a couple and compare results with and without water. I think they emboss fine without, but I often do as a habit. The idea is to soften the leather a bit.

putting water on leather earring to prepare for embossing

Simply put the earring into the embossing folder. Align it to the embossing folder to a part of the design you want on your earring. I often align both of mine the same way so that they match.

embossing folder with embossed leather earrings

I love how you can see where the design will be embossed through the clear embossing folder.

The folder is ready for the next step.

diy leather earring in an embossing folder

Place the embossing folder between the two plates that come with the embossing machine.

embossing folder with plates, ready for embossing machine

Here’s a view of the plates with the embossing folder in between.

Put the plates into the Sizzix embossing machine.

Turn the handle until the plates have gone all the way through the machine.

When I open the embossing folder, I like to do it slowly, while keeping the earring in place. I do this so that I don’t feel it has embossed enough I can run it through again. To run it through again, put it back between the plates, but add a shim (a little more thickness).

checking to see if leather earring is embossed before removing from embossed folder

Here’s a view of some earrings in the diamond embossing folder, before I put it into the machine.

Embossed leather earrings in embossing folder

If you find that the embossing folder, leather and plates create a thickness do thick to go through the machine, try to remove one of the plates. That worked for the weave embossing folder.

It wouldn’t go in/through so I tried it again with just the bottom plate.

Leather earrings in an embossing machine

And it came out beautiful!

You’ll find links to dozens other earring DIY posts at the bottom of this blog post. But before that, I’ve included the directions for making the teardrops on a Cricut machine, in case you need that information as well.

HOW TO MAKE DIY LEATHER EARRINGS ON A CRICUT

Select an earring template and upload it into Cricut Design Space.

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

For this embossed leather earrings DIY, I used an SVG cut file that is available here: SVG Cuttables – Assorted SVG Earrings file

Open Cricut Design Space and start a new project

Start a new project to make your faux leather statement earrings by clicking on the + icon.

Start a new project in Cricut Design Space

How to make faux leather earrings on a Cricut machine

Upload Image, if not already uploaded

Upload the cut file for this project, by clicking on the upload icon on the left and navigate to the file on your computer.

I always recommend adding tags when uploading new files. Pick word that you would type in if you were looking for the file. This makes it much easier when you’re looking for the file in the future.

Insert the cut file onto the canvas of your new project.

Click on the Images icon on the left.

Tip: To easily find my upload files, I usually filter by files that I have uploaded. Click on the Filter option.

Click on “Uploaded.”

Select the cut file you want to use. It will have a green box around it when selected. Then, click on the insert image button in lower, right-hand corner.

insert SVG file image in Cricut Design space

Once you’ve inserted the image onto the canvas, you can see the dimensions of the file you’ve inserted in the height and width field.

Note: when this file comes onto the mat there are earrings with holes and earrings without. You will need to delete the ones you’re not using. (Ungroup and then click the earrings you don’t want and click the X icon in the upper left-hand corner of the image. I deleted all earrings, except one.

I clicked the UNLOCK button (between dimension fields) an changed my dimensions to 2.5″ tall and 1.5″ wide.

You’ll want to decide the height of your earring based on personal preference.

Delete the top layer of the earring (with the scallop lines)

Ungroup the image.

Click on the earring and then click on Ungroup while it is selected.

Ungroup a faux leather earring image svg on Cricut Design Space

Move the top layer to the right of the bottom layer.

Click on the top layer and move it over on the canvas.

Delete the top layer of the earring.

While the top layer is selected, click on the X in the upper left-hand corner.

deleting an image on Cricut Design Space

Duplicate images, as needed

Now it’s time to duplicate your statement earring. Click an earring and then click Duplicate in the upper right-hand corner to make your second earring.

faux leather earrings on a Cricut Design Space Canvas

MAKE IT

Once your mat has all the earring components ready to cut for your earring components, click on the Make It button to cut your statement earrings.

On the left you’ll see the different mats that will need to be cut.

mats on Cricut Design studio, ready to cut statement earrings

Mirror your design, if necessary

Since the good side of your leather will almost always go onto the mat facing down, click on each mat where the material is facing down and click mirror. If the cuts on your mat are symmetrical it really doesn’t matter, but it’s probably a good idea to go ahead and click mirror any time your material faces down, as a good practice.

Set the Cricut machine on the right setting.

Turn your dial on your Cricut Explore to Custom. This lets you look at the long list of materials.

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

If you’re cutting genuine leather, the Cricut Genuine Leather option normally works best.

If you’re using the Metallic genuine leather, it is important to select the METALLIC genuine leather option because it is a bit thicker than the regular Cricut leather.

For your faux leather, if it is Cricut faux leather, you’ll select the Cricut faux leather option from the Browse materials menu.

If you’re using non-Cricut faux leather, the Shimmer Leather option normally works best.

Move the star wheels.

The Cricut machine has star wheels to keep materials from shifting during cutting. However, when cutting thicker materials such a genuine leather, 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.

Push the wheels to the right. They may be on there tight so put some strength behind it.

Make sure you’re using the right blade.

When you’re cutting genuine leather, you’ll need to use the Cricut deep blade.

Place your material on the cutting mat(s).

After placing the material on the mat, you can use a Cricut Brayer roller to press the leather onto your mat.

Using a Cricut brayer to make sure leather was firmly pressed upon the Cricut mat

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

Using a pair of sharp 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 earrings.

When I’m working faux leather, I generally prefer to use Crafter’s Pick Fabric glue to attach two pieces back to back because it doesn’t dry so fast and I have time to get my earrings situated/lined up better.

Place a hole in the top of the earring.

When my earrings don’t have holes, I use a leather punch to put the holes in my diy faux leather earrings. The tool linked above cuts through multiple layers of the earring at the same time. I recently bought a second leather punch that has smaller holes and I’ve been LOVING that one too. Or, if you don’t have a leather punch, you can try to use a Cricut weeder tool to put a hole through your material, but it is best to go through just one layer at a time if you do this.

punching a hole in the leather earring with a leather punch

Gather necessary earring components and tools to finish your diy faux leather earrings.

It doesn’t take much to put together earrings.

For these earrings, I used these earring hooks (shown below) that don’t require jump rings. You just put the earring onto the earring hook.

tighten the wire ball hook once in the diy leather earring

Or if you want to use the traditional hooks with jump rings and you are just getting started, you can get this inexpensive DIY earring kit on Amazon that has various hooks, jump rings, pliers, a jump ring tool, and even faux leather. It is the perfect starter set. Great for you if you’re getting started and a great gift for anyone that likes to DIY

Place the earrings onto the hook.

You can either push the earring through the ball on top of the hook or you can push it through the opposite side of the hook.

See Other DIY Earring Posts Below.

Everyday Earrings DIY

Sports

Football Earrings – Teardrop with football cut out
Stacked Football earrings
Chiefs Football Teardrop Earrings
Chiefs Heart Teardrop Earrings
Chiefs Arrowhead Earrings
Chiefs Arrowhead on Teardrop Earrings

My Favorite Leather

My Favorite Faux Leather

Valentine’s Day Earrings

St. Patrick’s Day Earrings

Winter-Themed Earrings DIY

Christmas -Themed Earrings DIY