Snowman Faux Leather Earring DIY
These snowman DIY earrings will be darling long past Christmas. They’re the perfect winter earring.
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These snowman faux leather earrings feature a cute snowman face that is created with iron-on materials. And the best part is that SVG file for this cute snowman face is free! It’s easy to design faux leather teardrop earrings with heat transfer vinyl that is cut into great designs. In this post, I’ll share how to make these darling leather earrings with a Cricut machine.
Check out my favorite diy earring essentials list on my Amazon storefront here!
Details for making this project can be seen in my YouTube video below.
What You’ll Need:
My Favorite Cricut Machine Options
Cutting Tool and Accessory Essentials
Must Have Earring Tools
Must-Have Earring Findings
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.
HOW TO MAKE DIY EARRINGS
Select an earring template and upload it into Cricut design space to make these snowman faux leather earrings.
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 two different cut files for this project.
- Snowman face – This was a free cut file that I downloaded from Caluya Designs.
- Teardrop earring – This is an SVG file that I use ALL THE TIME when making earrings. You’ll see many posts on my website with links to this file. I used the teardrop earrings from this file to make these snowmen.
Pick the materials/colors for your faux leather earrings.
Selecting the materials is one of the funnest parts of making earrings. I used a white faux leather, but you could use white glitter faux leather, silver faux leather, silver glitter faux leather, or even a light blue glitter faux leather.
Heat transfer vinyl typically adheres to fine glitter faux leather. You will probably have some challenges if you try to put heat transfer vinyl on chunky faux leather, especially since it won’t lay flat.
Open Cricut Design Space and start a new project
Start a new project to make your snowman faux leather earrings diy.
Insert the earring cut file image.
Once you’ve opened a new canvas, 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 face.” 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.
For this project we have 2 cut files to insert. Insert the snowman face file and the teardrop earring file that you’re going to use.
This is what the snowman face looks like after being added to your snowman faux leather earrings project. It is a very large file. You can see the dimensions where the blue arrow points.
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 snowman face is pretty big. For now just type 5 inches in the Height field while you have the snowman face selected. This will make the image much smaller and let you see the full image on the screen.
Change the teardrop earring size to the height that you desire. This is a matter of personal preference. Teardrop earrings often range in length from 1.25″ up to 2.5 inches long. They can be smaller and larger, but I see most falling within these ranges.
Change earring components to the right color.
Changing the images to the right color keeps things clear when you’re putting different colors of material 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. to change colors. We can just go ahead and change the color of the teardrop earring piece to white.
Confirm sizing is right.
Next, determine if the size of each layer is correct. It’s obvious that the snowman face is too large and needs to be reduced to fit onto the earring component. To figure out the exact sizing, you’ll want to drag the top layer onto the layer beneath it. This allows you to see where you need to make size modifications.
Sometimes when you try to take a look at this, the front earring component won’t show on the front of the stack. Notice how the snowman face moves behind the earring when you’re trying to put it on top of the earring.
To fix this, right click on the image that you want to be on the front 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. And if the image you’ve clicked on is in the front, it will show an option to send it to the back. Send the snowman face to the front and it will now be shown on top of the white earring component.
Make the snowman face smaller and move it into the earring. Continue modifying the snowman face until you’re happy with its size. Awe, these snowman faux leather earrings are going to be so cute!
Understand how your file is grouped together
In this project, we’ve pulled in an image that has a lot of different parts (the dots in the smile, the eyes, and the carrot. If you were to send this project to cut, you’d get a bunch of dots and you’d have to place each of them on your earring in the appropriate spot. That is way too much work! Here is what the mat would look like if you sent it to cut.
Instead, you will need to use the Attach function to attach the eyes and the mouth. By using the Attach button in the lower right-hand corner, these components will cut exactly how they need to lay on the earring, resulting in a better look and much more EASE in application.
To do this, take the following steps:
Move the face out of the earring piece.
You must remove the nose before you attach the components in the group. The reason you have to do this is because you need for the nose to cut on a different colored mat. But you can’t remove the carrot nose while the face elements are all grouped together so you’ll first need to click on the face and then click on Ungroup to ungroup the image.
Then click on the carrot and drag it out of the image.
Then, you need to re-group the remaining snowman face elements. To do this, left click your mouse to draw a “box” around your snowman face image (without the carrot) and click on Group to re-group your image.
Then, click on the Attach button in the lower right-hand corner.
Now the face will cut on the black mat as a face.
Duplicate images, as needed
Once you’re images are grouped correctly, you can duplicate your images.
Make a duplicate copy of the white teardrop by clicking on it and then clicking on Duplicate.
Decide if you like the look of the back of your earring and if you think it will show when the earrings are worn. I often cut a second set of the teardrop for the back earring and glue them back to back to cover any ugly felt backs. For this project, the back of my white faux leather looks pretty good and I don’t think it is necessary to cut additional pieces to cover the back.
Make a copy of the snowman face image. To do this click on it and then click on Duplicate.
Flip any necessary images.
Consider whether you want to flip the image of the snowman face for the second earring. Flipping an image just reverses it. You only need to consider this if your images are not symmetrical.
If you decide to do this, click on the Flip button on the bar at the top. It will give you an option to select a horizontal flip or a vertical flip. Click on the Horizontal option. This will make reverse the snowman face, making your snowman earrings more balanced when you wear them. Click on the carrot and then click on the Flip button again (horizontal flip).
The photo below shows the carrot and face flipped. Notice the carrots point in opposite directions and the eyes also are opposite.
MAKE IT
Once your mat has all the earring components ready to cut, click on the Make It button to cut your snowman faux leather earrings.
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
Since the good side of your leather will go onto the mat facing down, click on the mat where your earrings are and click Mirror. (I realize they’re symmetrical so it doesn’t really matter but I will always instruct this because it is just good practice.)
Any time you’re working with iron-on materials, you also need to mirror the images. Go ahead and click the mirror button on for your other mats that will cut onto the iron-on material.
Make sure you have the machine on the right material setting.
If you’re using a Cricut Explore Air 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 white faux leather used on these 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.
For your iron on material, just look at the options in the Iron On category and pick the one that matches your 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.
How to place iron on material onto your mat
The shinny side of iron-on material should face down and the dull side faces up. Sometimes I have to tape my iron on material to the mat to help hold it.
After cutting my carrots apart, I trimmed the carrots around the image.
And I then put it inside the rest of the snowman. Since the vinyl doesn’t overlap, I was able to iron them on together.
Iron On Snowman Face
I use a Cricut Easy Press to iron on materials. Before my Easy Press, I used an iron. It works, this easy press just does a much better job and it is easy to control the temperature. I love, love, love mine. Here are some Cricut Easy Press options.
Set the temperature
When you’re ready to use your Cricut, turn it on and set the temperature.
Cricut provides a guide with your Easy Press, but I always just look it up online whenever i’m going a project. You can just google search “Cricut easy press heat guide”
Tap on the type of Cricut Easy Press that you’re using. Select the heat transfer material you are using. Then you select the type of base material you’re using (what you’re ironing onto). And last, select whether you’re using the Cricut Easy Press mat or a towel.
After tapping “Apply” it lets you know the temperature setting that you need to set on the easy press. It also shares how long the press should sit on the iron on and it tells you whether to remove the iron on while it is warm or cool. When using my mini press, I leave it on the lowest setting.
Once the easy press is heated, place it on the Cricut Easy Press mat for about 5 seconds. Then place the earrings on the warm Easy Press mat.
Place your earrings on the mat and then place the iron-on vinyl on top of the earrings. Make sure you have them placed where you want them.
Place a piece of parchment paper on top of the earrings (and on top of the transfer paper and vinyl iron ons).
Set the Easy Press onto the earrings.
Don’t forget to press the green button as that is what starts the timer. I don’t apply any pressure because it just isn’t necessary on faux leather earrings.
Making Earrings Two Sided
The back of some materials 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.
There are two approaches I take to do this.
- Sometimes I cut the earrings and then glue them back to back. 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 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 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).
Gather necessary earring components and tools to finish your snowman 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 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.
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 new best practice 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 a jump ring.
Put earrings and hook into a jump ring.
We’re almost done with our snowman faux leather earrings.
Open another jump ring and put the earrings onto the open jump ring.
After putting the earring onto the jump ring, add the hook, making sure it is facing towards the back.
Using the pliers and the jump ring tool, close the jump ring.
And that’s it! Your snowman faux leather earrings are done and frosty!
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
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
