LOVE Leather Earrings DIY

These LOVE earrings are darling, especially with a sparkly back teardrop peeking through the letters!

Make this LOVE Leather Earrings DIY by cutting leather with a Cricut machine and putting it onto earring hooks. For the earrings above, I used genuine leather as my front layer and a glitter faux leather tear drop on the back layer.

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

What You’ll Need to complete this Hearts Earrings DIY

Cricut Machine – I recommend the Cricut Explore Air 2 or the Cricut Maker.
Genuine Leather or faux leather (I’ve linked up to specific leathers under each photo lower in this post.
Earring supplies – earring hooks, jump rings, pliers, jump ring tool. This is the kit that I bought on Amazon and love it! It also comes with 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 a lot of these earrings. They’re super easy to use.
- Gold Plated
Cricut Cutting Mats – You need new or very sticky cutting mats.
- Standard Green Mats for faux leather, cork, and faux suede
- Stronggrip Purple mats for genuine leather
Basic Cricut Tools
Leather hole punch (Larger holes, smallest is 2)
Leather hole punch -smaller punched holes (my new favorite)
Here is what I use to smooth my leather edges.
Crafter’s Pick Fabric glue or E6000 glue
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

STEPS TO MAKE

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.

For this Heart Earrings DIY, I used an SVG cut file that I bought on the Design Bundles website.

Step-by-step instructions are below the following earring project photos.

Earring Materials:
Black genuine leather
Bright Pink Faux Leather – part of this kit

Love leather earrings diy, made on a Cricut machine

Earring Materials:
Cricut Black Genuine Leather
Metallic Gold Cricut Leather

Earring Materials:
Black genuine leather
Bright Red Glitter Faux Leather – part of this kit

Earring Materials:
Cricut Gold Metallic Genuine Leather
Silver and Pink Glitter Faux Leather – part of this kit

Open Cricut Design Space and start a new project

Start a new project to make this LOVE Leather Earrings DIY 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 words that you would type in if you were looking for the file. This makes it much easier to search for the file when you’re looking for it 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.

Inserting LOVE leather earring onto the Cricut canvas 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.

This is what the file for this LOVE Leather Earrings DIY looks like when it is inserted onto the canvas. It comes onto the canvas over 7″ tall.

LOVE diy earrings on Cricut canvas in Cricut Design Space

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. An earring size is a personal preference, but here are some general dimensions.

Small teardrops – 1 3/4 inches
Large teardrops – 2 1/2 inches

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

For this project, I set the earring height to 2″. You can modify that number if you want your earrings bigger or smaller.

Duplicate the Earring

Select the earring by clicking on it and then duplicate it by clicking on the Duplicate button.

Duplicate LOVE leather earring on the Cricut Canvas

Create another earring for the back layer.

To add the back layer of earrings, you’ll need to add two more tear drops to your canvas. There are blank teardrops in the Valentine’s Day bundle used for this project.

Go to Insert Image.

Select the plain/solid teardrop from the Valentine’s Day bundle.

This earring also comes in very large.

faux leather earring on the Cricut Canvas in Cricut Design Space

Re-size the back layer.

Adjust the size of your earring. I’m making my back earring 2″ so that it will match the same size as my earring. I think keeping it the same size will help keep the eye focused on the LOVE text.

Duplicate the back earring.

Select the back earring by clicking on it and then click on the Duplicate button.

Duplicate a DIY earring on Cricut Design Space

Change earring components to the right color.

Changing the images to another color is important because you need to cut them on separate mats.

I’m going to do a black front layer and a bright red glitter faux leather in the back. The red glitter shows very nicely through the LOVE letters.

Select the two front earrings (with LOVE cutout) by left clicking and drawing a square around them. Then click on the color button as shown below and change the color to black.

changing color of LOVE leather earrings diy on Cricut canvas in Cricut Design Space

Since the back layer will be a red glitter, I’m leaving them red.

Make a second set of back earrings, if desired.

Decide if you like the look of the back of your earring material (the back layer) and if you think it will show when the earrings are worn. I often cut a second set of the teardrops for the back earrings and glue them back to back to cover any felt.

For this project, I am using red glitter faux leather that has a canvas backing. I want the back of the earrings to sparkle so I’m cutting another set of back earrings.

Duplicate back faux leather teardrop earrings.

Hold left click down while drawing a square around the two back earrings and then click on the Duplicate button.

Duplicating diy faux leather earrings on Cricut Explore

faux leather earrings on a Cricut Explore 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 this heart earrings diy project.

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

It is VERY important to click on the Mirror toggle (turn it green). You will be putting your material on face down, so you must mirror or your letters will be cut backwards. If you’re deciding to put the material on the mat with the good side facing up, you won’t need to mirror it.

Cricut mats ready to cut faux leather earrings

After setting the Mirror toggle on the black mat, click on your second mat. The teardrops don’t really need to be mirrored (because they’re symmetrical), but I always mirror as a matter of practice. I always put my materials on the mat with the good side facing down so I always need to cut in reverse.

Determine what materials you’ll use.

If you haven’t already done so, determine what materials you’ll use.

You can make these earrings with faux leather, genuine leather, cork or any combination of these. But you’ll need to know which materials you are using for each layer before you move onto the next step. Before cutting the material, you need to set the Cricut the machine to the right material to cut the material successfully.

For this LOVE leather earrings DIY, I’m going to cut the front layer with genuine leather and the back with glitter faux leather.

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. You will need to select a material for each material, making changes necessary based on the material being cut for each mat.

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

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

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.

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.

Move the star wheels, if directed.

The Cricut machine has star wheels to keep materials from shifting during cutting. However, when cutting thicker materials such as 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. You won’t be prompted to do this step for faux leather. When I’m making earrings, I just leave my star wheels to the right even which I’m cutting faux leather.

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 Cricut’s 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.

It is really easy to opening up the grey latch marked B and remove the housing unit with the fine cut blade when cutting genuine leather. After removing the housing unit, just drop the deep cut blade housing unit and push the B latch closed. Watch my YouTube video for this project if you want to see me switch them out.

Place your material on the cutting mat(s).

I almost always put my materials on the mat good side down. I only put the material good side up when it is glitter material.

Also, I like to determine how much of the material will be cut. Typically, it is less than 3″ of material, meaning only about 3″ of the mat needs to be exposed. I then place my plastic Cricut mat cover back onto my mat about 3″ down from the top of the cutting area. I do this so that I don’t put the material on top of the mat where I’m not cutting it. This keeps me from losing the stickiness on my mat. I don’t like to pre-cut my material because I want minimize waste of the material. I do this on both the green mats and the purple mats.

making diy faux leather earrings in Cricut Design Space

Once I place my plastic on top of the mat, I put the material onto the mat, face down (good side down).

I placed my leather directly onto my mat. If my mat is losing stickiness, I place a strong grip transfer paper onto my mat (with sticky side up). Then the good side of the leather sticks onto the contact paper.

placing genuine leather on a Cricut mat to cut leather earrings on a Cricut

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

For this project I used glitter faux leather. I hate placing glitter faux leather onto my mats because it makes a big mess and I have a hard time getting the glitter off. So I put contact paper (sticky side up) onto my green mat before placing the glitter faux leather onto the mat (good side/glitter side down).

Cricut transfer paper on a Cricut mat before putting the glitter faux leather on the mat, to help it from making a mess on the mat

Send the mats through the Cricut machine.

The glitter faux leather earrings cut beautifully.

The genuine leather earrings cut well too. The letters came out pretty well, but I did need to snip a few spots on the letters with scissors.

LOVE leather earrings still on the mat after being cut on Cricut

snip off the pieces of the leather earring that didn't cut on the Cricut machine for this diy earrings project

Glue earring pieces together, if necessary.

As I mentioned earlier, 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.

To do this, I glue two earrings together using either Crafter’s Pick Fabric glue or E6000 glue.

Glue two glitter faux leather earring pieces together to make Valentine's Earrings diy

The glue will dry clear, but you still want to wipe the glue off around the edges.

The genuine leather I’m using looks great on the back so I’m not putting anything on the back of the black LOVE 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 the back side of the 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.

smooth edges of leather earrings to control flyaways

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.

I started by punching a hole in one of the black leather earrings.

Punching holes in leather diy earrings for making LOVE earrings diy

Then I placed it on top of the other black earrings and used the hole as the template and punched the hole through the original hole and into the back earring.

Then I put one of the red glitter faux earrings behind a black earring and used the hole as the template/guide to punch the red earrings.

Gather necessary earring components and tools to finish your LOVE leather earrings DIY.

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.

Another option for hooks are wire hooks with balls on the end. I show both below, but for this project, you’ll see photos of earrings with the wire hook with ball.

Below is the great starter kit linked above. This has all the key tools you need to get started with the regular hooks.

To use this type of hook, start by opening 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 a hook onto a jump ring for each earring.

My best practice with this style of hook is to put a jump ring onto the hook and to close the jump ring. I do this before I even begin to put the earring components onto the second jump ring.

Then I open a second jump ring and put the earring components onto it. I then place the hook with jump ring onto the front of the second jump ring (with the hook facing back).

Wire earrings with balls on the end

Lately I’ve been using earring wires with balls on the end as shown in the photos below. I’ll link up some options for the hooks below. These are so easy!!