Leather Hoop Earrings DIY

Make fun leather earrings with the circle shape in Cricut design space.

This leather hoop earrings DIY was especially cool to make because I used a circle shape to create the earrings. 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 this leather hoop earrings DIY can be seen in my YouTube video below.

Example Leather Hoop Earrings DIY Projects

Triangle Geometric Leather
Palm Leaf Embossed Leather
Fishtail braided leather
Saffiano leather
No time to DIY? Buy them here!

Palm Leaf Embossed Leather
No time to DIY? Buy them here!

Brown Luxe Genuine Leather

Basket weave leather
No time to DIY? Buy them here!

Holiday Lights Genuine Leather
Holiday Lights Faux Leather

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

Cricut Machine – I recommend the Cricut Explore Air 2 or the Cricut Maker.
Cricut Transfer Tape, Strong Grip
Cricut Transfer Tape, Standard Grip
Earring wire hooks with balls – This is one style of earring hook that you can use. 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
Basic Cricut Tools
Cricut Brayer
Leather Scissors
Earring Backs
Earring Cards –
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.
- Standard Green Mats -for faux leather, cork, and HTV.
- Stronggrip Purple mats – for genuine leather
Leather hole punch (Larger holes, smallest is 2)
Leather hole punch – This leather punch makes much smaller holes than the one above.
Heat and Bond
Cricut Easy Press – There are a few options. All work, but I usually use a 9″ x 9″.
- 9″ x 9″ Cricut Easy Press
- Cricut Easy Press Mini
- 9″ x 9″ Cricut Easy Press Bundle, includes mat
Cricut Easy Press Mat
- 8″ x 10″ Easy Press Mat
- 12″ x 12″ Easy Press Mat
- 16″ x 20″ Easy Press Mat
Huge Cricut tools Bundle
Here is what I use to smooth my leather edges.
Crafter’s Pick Fabric glue or E6000 glue
Plastic bags for earrings
Embossing Machine
Embossing Folders
- Weave Embossing Folder
- Diamond Embossing Folder
- Scroll Embossing Folder
- Damask Embossing Folder
Chains
- Silver chain (comes with jump rings)
- Gold chain (comes with jump rings)

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.

Note that the earrings in the pictures are above are made with genuine leather that is so cute on both sides, so I didn’t need to cut and glue another piece back to back. But I’ll include in the instructions for using Heat N Bond here in case you’re using faux leather for this project.

When using Heat n Bond, I apply it to the material 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.

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

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

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

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 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.

putting edge smoother onto leather earring

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. Here is an option for a smaller hole leather punch.