Make these darling snowman earrings with Cricut faux leather and Hobby Lobby faux leather ribbon.
DIY faux leather earrings are really easy to make and they’re always so cute. This pair of DIY snowman teardrop earrings have the special added touch of a snowman cut-out. I chose black and white buffalo check faux leather to make them wearable through February. This DIY earrings post will share A LOT of project photos to help inspire your earring material choices. I’ll link to my materials, where I can. Scroll to the bottom of my projects and you’ll find detailed instructions to work on the project!
My website contains affiliate marketing links, which means that when you make a purchase after clicking my links, I may receive a small commission for any sales made from links you click on. This doesn’t change the price you price for the items.
Check out my favorite diy earring essentials list here!
If you’d prefer to watch a diy faux leather earrings tutorial, see my YouTube video below.
Snowman Earring Project Photos
Hunter Green and Black Buffalo Check Cork Faux Leather (out of stock)
Black Double-Sided Faux Leather
Limited Edition Plaid Faux Leather
Black Double-Sided Faux Leather
Plaid faux Leather
White Double-Sided Faux Leather (I cut this on genuine leather setting)
White Double-Sided Faux Leather (I cut this on genuine leather setting)
Plaid faux Leather
Red and Black Buffalo Check Faux Leather
Silver textured faux leather
Red and Black Buffalo Check Faux Leather
Double-sided silver glitter faux leather
Black textured faux leather
White criss cross faux leather
Black textured faux leather
Maroon Tweed Faux Leather
Mini Black and With Buffalo Check Faux Leather
Black textured faux leather
DIY Faux Leather Earring Essentials:
- Cricut Machine – I recommend the Cricut Explore Air 2 or the Cricut Maker.
- Cricut black faux leather (I love Cricut brand faux leather because it cuts intricate details better than other faux leathers). And you can make a lot of earrings with one roll!
- Buffalo Check faux ribbon from Hobby Lobby (shown below in photo)
- 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 contact paper
- 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)
- Small 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
- Strong Grip Cricut Transfer Tape
- Cricut Transfer Tape, Standard Grip
- Earring Backs and Earring Cards
- Plastic bags for earrings
HOW TO MAKE DIY EARRINGS
Select an earring template and upload it into Cricut design space.
You can find many templates for your earrings on Pinterest and Etsy. Many bloggers offer them for free and others are available for sale on the Etsy website.
I used an SVG cut file that I bought on cutcraftdiy.com. Here is the single snowman file or you can buy it as part of a winter teardrop bundle. I have the bundle and use several of the cut files. Be sure to check out links to other DIY earring projects at the bottom of this post.
Pick the materials/colors for your faux leather earrings.
I decided to use a solid black faux leather (from Cricut) for my back earring and a black and white buffalo check faux leather (from Hobby Lobby) for my front earring. I love how these look together!
Open Cricut Design Space and start a new project to make your diy faux leather earrings.
Insert the earring cut file image.
Upload the cut file for this project, using the upload icon on the left and navigate to the file on your computer.
I always recommend adding tags when uploading new files. If you think you’ll make a lot of earrings, add tags like “earrings” and “snowman.” This makes it much easier when you’re looking for the file in the future.
After uploading the SVG file, insert it 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 “uploaded.” To do this click on the images button until the menu below appears. Then click on Ownership.
Then click on Uploaded.
Select the cut file you want to use. Then, click on the insert image button in lower, right-hand corner.
Select the cut file you want to use. Then, click on the insert image button in lower, right-hand corner. See the cut file for this project below (see blue arrow).
This is what it looks like after being added to your project. It’s very BIG.
Re-size the diy faux leather earrings, if needed.
It is often necessary to re-size earrings when the file is added to the canvas. The earrings in this cut file come in EXTREMELY big so you will need to re-size them.
To fix it, I just typed 2.5″ into the height field to resize it.
Add the second teardrop earring component (the one that will hang behind your snowman teardrop) to your mat.
Once you re-size the first earring teardrop (with the snowman cutout), add the other teardrop to your mat.
Click the Images button again.
Select the 2nd file and click the Insert Images button.
This is the file that makes the back teardrop earring component. Also, notice the snowman underneath the teardrop. I’ll share information on that in a minute.
Re-size second earring component as needed.
This file also came in gigantic, creating the need to re-size it as well. I changed the height to 5 inches so that I could see the file on the screen.
Remember, this is not the height of the teardrop, it is the height of both of the items in the file.
The extra snowman is part of the file. You’ll want to decide if you want to cut it for use in another project. I’m going to cut mine and show how I use it later in this post.
Deleting the snowman
Click on the image and then click on the Contour button.
After selecting the contour button, you’ll see a screen showing each part of the file. Click on the snowman so that it is shaded. This is hiding the snowman from your canvas so that it won’t cut. Then click the x to exit out.
Change earring components to the right color.
Changing the images to the right color keeps things clear when you’re putting different colors of materials through the cutting machine. Sometimes, the components are grouped together so you have to Ungroup them before you can change colors. (The Ungroup button is in the upper-right-hand corner. We don’t need to do that for this project. We can just go ahead and change the colors. I changed the front layer to red so that I could see it on top of the black (since there isn’t a buffalo check color option).
Once Ungrouped, change the color of each earring component.
Confirm sizing is right.
Often, you will do an estimate on the sizing on the back earring so you’ll want to be sure you like how the components layer.
Sometimes when you try to take a look, the front earring component won’t show on the front of the stack. Notice how the red (front layer) is showing up behind the black earring instead of in front of it.
To fix this, right click on the image that you want to move and you’ll see the menu below. If the image is in the back, you’ll see an option to send it to the front. If the image you’ve clicked on is in the front, it will show an option to send it to the back.
Once the front layer can appear on top of the back layer, you can see how the sizing works out. If you want the more of the back layer to show, simply make the back layer bigger or the front layer smaller.
If you want to see more of the earring on the side, you can unlock the proportions on the teardrop file a little. See the padlock icon in the image below and notice it appears unlocked (because I clicked it). Then I made the teardrop have less width by entering a smaller width dimension in the W field. Notice you can see more of the back piece on the sides.
Duplicate images, as needed
You will need to duplicate the earring to make the second earring in the pair. To do this, click on the item to select it. Then, click on the Duplicate button in the upper-right-hand corner.
You need to make one copy of the front earring.
Take a look at the back of the back earring to see what the material looks like. Sometimes the back of faux leather isn’t very cute, and sometimes the back of the earring shows. For this reason, some people cut a second set to glue back to back.
The canvas below shows all my duplicate pieces.
Flip the snowman image, if desired.
When cutting items that are a set (such as earrings), you will want to consider how you want to handle images that aren’t symmetrical. In this project, the snowman is not symmetrical because he has a scarf facing off to one direction. If you want one earring to be be the reverse of the image, click on the snowman and then click on the FLIP button, which is on the top menu. Select Horizontal Flip from the menu. I chose not to flip mine for this this project.
Notice how the scarf changes after you click the flip button.
MAKE IT
Once your mat has all the earring components ready to cut, click on the Make It button.
On the left you’ll see the different mats that will need to be cut, one for each color of faux leather or faux suede in your project.
Mirror your design, if necessary
I always mirror my images if the good side of my material is facing down on the mat for my cut.
MAKE IT
Make sure you have the machine on the right material setting.
If you’re using a Cricut Explore with a dial, turn your dial to custom. If you have a Cricut Maker, you can skip this step.
Select the right material from the materials menu in Cricut Design studio.
Click on the Browse All Materials link to see the menu of materials options on your Cricut.
If you’re using Cricut faux leather, choose the Faux Leather (Paper Thin) option. The Cricut icon on the left indicates that the setting is for a specific Cricut material product. Once the green arrow appears to the left of the material, click on Done.
I’ve found that when I’m using a non-Cricut faux leather or a sheet of cork that is 8mm-1mm thick, the Shimmer Leather option normally works best. Once the green arrow appears to the left of the chosen material, click on Done. I used the shimmered leather option for the Hobby Lobby buffalo check faux leather used on these diy snowman teardrop earrings.
If you’re using genuine leather, select either the Genuine Leather or Metallic Leather option. Metallic leather is a little bit thicker so it is important to select that if you’re using it. Once the green arrow appears to the left of the chosen material, click on Done. I also tend to use the Genuine Leather option when I’m cutting double-sided faux leather due to the thickness of the material.
Move the 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.
Push the wheels to the right. They may be on there tight so put some strength behind it. You won’t be prompted to do this step for faux leather, but just in case you select a faux suede option (if you’re trying to cut through something thicker), I’m including this information in this post.
Make sure you’re using the right blade.
You can cut faux leather, faux suede, cork, and leather on the Cricut Explore Air and the Cricut Maker. When cutting Cricut’s faux leather, cork and faux suede, you can use the Cricut standard fine point blade. If you’re cutting genuine leather, you’ll need to use the Cricut deep blade. Make sure when you buy a deep cut blade that it will work for your machine. Some deep cut blades only work with the Cricut Explore.
Place the material on the cutting mat.
The approach you use to place the material on your mat plays a big role in your material cutting success.
How to get the material to stick to 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 painter’s 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 glitter faux leather will not stick to the mat, regardless of how sticky the mat is.
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) because it’s super sticky .
Before placing my faux leather on my mat for this snowman faux leather earrings diy, I cut a piece of transfer paper the size of my material and put it on the mat.
How to put materials onto mat
I normally put faux leather onto the mat with the good side facing down. However, I don’t like to do this when cutting more soft, textured leather, cork faux leather, or printed 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 glitter faux leather, I place my faux leather glitter sheet onto the mat with the glitter side facing down (on top of the transfer tape) and then tape the piece of glitter faux leather onto the mat.
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.
I cut the extra snowmen for my project to play with them. See below for what I did with them.
Making Earrings Two Sided
There are two approaches I take to make my material double sided.
- Sometimes I cut the earrings and then glue them back to back (as I did in this project). To do this, I glue two earrings together using either Crafter’s Pick Fabric glue or Aleene’s Fabric Glue.
- 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.
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).
For this project, both of the earrings had pre-cut holes, making it super easy and unnecessary to punch a hole.
Gather necessary earring components and tools to finish your diy faux leather earrings.
It doesn’t take much to put together earrings. You either need a couple of pairs of pliers or a jump ring tool and one pair of pliers. You can get the two tools below along with a full kit of earring hooks and jump rings AND sheets of faux leather in this inexpensive DIY earring kit on Amazon. It is the perfect starter set. Great for you if you’re getting started and a great gift for anyone that likes to DIY
Open the jump ring.
A jump ring isn’t closed. This means with the right tools, you can open it to put on the earring components.
These are the two tools that I use to open and close my jump rings. They’re both in this awesome starter kit.
I hold one side of the jump ring with my pliers. With my other hand, I use my jump ring tool to push one side of the jump ring back (to open). It is important not to open the jump ring by pulling them to the left and right. If you do it that way, it will be hard to close the jump ring, while keeping the shape. Instead, push the ring back/front to open the jump ring.
Note: If you’re using the jump ring tool, find the slot on the tool that is sized right for the jump ring.
Put the your earring components onto the jump ring.
Then attach a jump ring to the earring hook. I like to do this because it helps my earrings to face the front versus twisting/sideways facing earrings.
Attach the jump ring that you attached the earring hook to the jump ring that your earring components are on, making sure your hook faces the right direction before closing the jump ring.
Using the pliers and jump ring tool, close the jump ring.
And that’s it! Your diy faux leather earrings are done!
Wondering what I did with the snowmen cutouts?
I made the cutest earrings with the snowman cutouts. I used my Cricut weeder tool to poke a hole in them and then hung them in front of a basic teardrop earring. They’re darling.
If you enjoy making diy faux leather earrings, check out my other posts below.
Everyday Earrings DIY
- Pinched Leather Earrings DIY (Narrow)
- Painted Feather Leather Earrings
- Leather Hoops
- Disney Inspired Mouse Earrings DIY
- Leather Earrings with Chains
- Circle Cut Out Earrings with Strap
- Leather Bar Earrings DIY
- How to Emboss Leather Earrings
- DIY Angled Fringe Earrings
- Leather Circle Earrings
- DIY Fringe Leaf-Shaped Earrings
- Cross leather earrings
- FRI-YAY Leather Earring DIY
- Leather Bar Earrings DIY (with metal charm)
- How to Make Genuine Leather Earrings
- Statement Earrings
- Teardrop Cork Earrings
- Hollow Faux Leather Earrings – Teardrop and Leaf Shaped
- Faux Leather Tall Stacked Earrings
- Leather Circle Earrings
- Split Teardrop Faux Leather Earrings
- Faux Leather Stacked Marquise Earrings
- Stacked, wavy earrings – KSU
- Faux leather leaf cutout earrings
- Leather earrings with fringe
- Faux Leather Teardrop Earrings
- Bar Earrings
- Faux Leather Leaf Earrings
Sports Earrings DIY
- Football Earrings – Teardrop with football cut out
- Stacked Football earrings
- Chiefs Football Teardrop Earrings
- Heart Chiefs Teardrop Earrings
- Arrowhead Shaped Chiefs Earrings
- Chiefs Arrowhead on Teardrop Earrings
My Favorite Leather
My Favorite Faux Leather
- Cork Sheet Haul
- Beans and Peanuts (cork faux leather sheets)
- Art of Fabric Folding
- Pink Antler Sparkle
Valentine’s Day Earrings DIY
- 40 Great Valentine’s Day DIY Earrings
- LOVE Leather Earrings DIY
- Valentine’s Day earrings DIY (heart shape)
- Iron On Heart Earrings DIY
- Heart Earrings DIY (with heart cutout)
- DIY Valentine’s Day Earrings
St. Patrick’s Day Earrings DIY
Easter Earrings DIY
4th of July Earrings DIY
Halloween Earrings DIY
- Boo Teardrop Halloween Earrings DIY
- Bat Halloween Earrings
- Halloween Faux Leather Earrings (Pinched Earrings)
- Skulls Halloween Faux Leather Earrings
- Halloween Faux Leather Earrings Pumpkins
- Ghosts Halloween Leather Earrings
Winter Earrings DIY
- Snowflake Cutout Teardrop Faux Leather Earrings
- Snowman Leather Iron On Earrings
- Buffalo Check Snowman Cutout Earrings
