Leather Earrings with Chains

Adding chains to diy leather earrings gives fun flair!

It’s actually pretty easy to make leather earrings with chains when you have the right supplies. I use a Cricut machine to cut my earrings. A Cricut machine cuts faux leather, cork sheets, and genuine leather. I used jump rings to connect the diy earrings with pieces of jewelry chains. In this post, I’ll share highlights about how I completed this project. For full details, see my YouTube video below.

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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 leather earrings with chains can be seen in my YouTube video below.

My Favorite Cricut Machine Options

Cricut Maker 4 Smart Cutting Machine

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Cricut Explore 4 - Smart Cutting Machine

$198.51

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03/05/2026 12:15 pm GMT

Cutting Tool and Accessory Essentials

Must Have Earring Tools

Must-Have Earring Findings

Silicone Earring Backs

$3.99

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03/05/2026 02:14 pm GMT
Earring Display Cards with Backs and Bags

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Heat Press Essentials

Heat Transfer Vinyl

I used to only purchase Cricut brand HTV; however, the colors are very limited. I know enjoy the large range of HTV colors available on Amazon. Check them out here.

Example Projects of Leather Earrings With Chains

Black Leather with Silver speckled dots
Silver Chain

Turquoise And Black Streak
Silver Chain

Black with Silver Streak Cork
Silver Chain

Brown Leather with brown suede
Gold Chain

Grey and White Pattern Faux Leather
Silver Chain

Metallic Brown Leather
Gold Chain

Golden Pier Cork
Gold Chain

Selecting an SVG File

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.

This is a great fringe earring bundle, which includes many variations of earring shapes and fringe.

Selecting a Material on Cricut

Click on the Browse All Materials link to see the menu of materials options on your Cricut. Options vary between the Cricut Explore Air/Air 2 and the Cricut Maker.

The good news is that you can cut genuine leather, faux leather, and cork sheets with a Cricut machine. It’s just important that set the material correctly and use the right blade to cut your material

You will be prompted to select a material after you select Make it. When I use my Cricut Explore Air, I need to make sure my knob is set to Custom.

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

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

If I’m using non-Cricut faux leather (which is almost always), the Shimmer Leather option (shown below) normally works best for me.

Most of the time when cutting genuine leather, I select the Genuine leather option.

If you’re using using the Cricut brand – metallic leather, select the Metallic Leather option. It’s a bit thicker so you’ll want to use this Metallic leather setting to ensure that the cut goes all the way through. I also choose this option if my leather is a tad bit thicker.

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. I pretty much keep my star wheels to the right all the time (for leather, faux leather, and cork).

Make sure you’re using the right blade.

You can cut faux leather, faux suede, cork, and leather on the Cricut Explore and Cricut Maker. When cutting cork sheets, faux leather 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.

Place your material on the cutting mat(s).

Before I put the material onto the mat, I like to put something on it to protect it from getting all the fibers on it. I normally use Cricut standard grip transfer tape, Cricut strong grip transfer tape, or Dollar Tree contact paper.

This also helps ensure my material is nicely attached to the mat when I’m not using a brand new mat that may not be as sticky.

I put the transfer tape down onto the mat, sticky side up.

Remove the backing of the transfer tape or contact paper.

pulling backing off of the transfer tape

Then I put my material onto the transfer tape or contact paper, with the good side facing down onto the transfer tape or contact paper.

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

using a Cricut brayer to roll genuine leather onto the Cricut mat

Use the Cricut Easy Press to Apply Heat n Bond

When using faux leather, I often glue earrings back to back. My favorite way to use that is by using a product called Heat n Bond. There are a lot of kinds of it, and this is the one I use on faux leather earrings.

I do this before I put my material onto my mat (before I cut the earrings).

I cut a piece of Heat n Bond the same size as my faux leather.

applying Heat n Bond to the back of Hobby Lobby faux leather

Then I place the Heat n Bond on the back side of the faux leather. The textured side of the Heat n Bond should be facing/touching the back of the faux leather.

Heat n Bond for diy faux leather earrings

You can use an iron to apply the Heat n Bond; however I use my Cricut Easy Press. It’s super easy to use and it’s always on my craft desk.

Pre-heat the Cricut Easy Press

When you’re ready to use your Cricut Easy Press, turn it on and set the temperature.

I usually set my Easy Press to 300 degrees when applying my Heat N Bond and I leave it on my material for about 10 seconds.

I place parchment paper onto my Cricut Easy Press mat (to protect it from any adhesive). Then, I place my faux leather on top of it, with the good side facing down, with the Heat N Bond on top of that. I then place my Cricut Easy Press on top of that.

Here are some Cricut Easy Press mat options from Amazon.

Attach earrings, back to back

After cutting the earring pieces, remove the white backing of the Heat and Bond.

removing Heat N Bond backing from Hobby Lobby faux leather earrings

Put the earrings back to back, lining up the two pieces.

lining up the two earrings back to back, preparing to use Cricut Easy Press

The Cricut Easy Press shouldn’t be set directly onto the faux leather. Place parchment paper on the Easy Press mat. Then place the earrings on top of the parchment paper. Then, place another piece of parchment paper on top of the earring.

Set the Easy Press on the parchment paper for about 10 seconds.

Cricut Easy Press on Hobby Lobby faux leather earrings

Parchment paper on faux leather earring diy project

No Heat N Bond?

If you’d like to create faux leather earrings that have a great look on both sides, and you don’t want to use Heat N Bond, you can use fabric glue. My favorite glue to use is Crafter’s Pick Fabric glue.

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 leather earrings.

You can also smooth the earring by using a burnishing agent. I apply it with a toothpick 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 faux leather earrings. The tool linked above cuts through multiple layers of the earring at the same time.

punching a hole in the faux leather earrings

Prepare Chains

Figure out which chain you will you.

There are so many colors and even styles of chain that you can use. The cost come that I use are below.

Silver chain (comes with jump rings)
Gold chain (comes with jump rings)

Decide which type of hooks you’ll use.

i am using basic fish hook earrings for this project.

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 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.

Beginner Jewelry Making Supplies

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The jump ring tool and pliers below come in the kit linked above.

Put a jump ring on each of the hooks.

A jump ring isn’t closed. This means with the right tools, you can open it to put on the earring components and dangle the earring from the hook.

If you want to add jump rings, first decide which size of jump rings you want to use. A 4mm jump ring is good if you only have one item or a couple of thin items. A 6mm jump ring will hold a bit thicker material. Gather up a couple of jump rings in the size you need.

These are the two tools that I use to open and close my jump rings.

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 a hook onto a jump ring for each earring.

I use two jump rings for each earring so that the earring will face to the front. I like to start by putting my first jump ring onto each hook and then closing the jump ring. I do this before I even begin to put the earring components onto the second jump ring.

adding a hook to a jump ring for earrings

Put earrings and hooks onto second jump rings.

Then I open the second jump ring and put the earring onto the second jump ring.

jump ring with faux leather earring put on

Add the chain to the jump ring. I just put a link onto the jump ring at round the mid-point of the chain. I don’t like it to be too exact as I think it looks great when it is a little offset.