Make these cute earrings with your Cricut and leather!
These St. Patrick’s Day Earrings can be made with leather or faux leather. Just pick two colors/patterns that you think work well for St. Patrick’s Day. The Cricut Explore and Cricut Maker work great for cutting both faux leather and leather. In this post, I’ll share how to use this svg file, how to cut leather and faux leather and how to assemble the earrings.
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Details for making these St. Patrick’s Day Earrings can be seen in my YouTube video below.
What You’ll Need to make these St. Patrick’s Day Earrings:
- Cricut Machine – I recommend the Cricut Explore Air 2 or the Cricut Maker.
- Faux Leathers Used:
- 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.
- Earring wire hooks with balls – I used this style of hook for these earrings. They’re super easy to use and won’t require jump rings or jump ring tools/pliers.
- 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
- Basic Cricut Tools
- Leather hole punch (Larger holes, smallest is 2)
- Leather hole punch – This leather punch makes much smaller holes than the one above.
- Here is what I use to smooth my leather edges.
- 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
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 Design Bundles, Pinterest and Etsy. Many bloggers offer them for free and others are available for sale on the Etsy website.
I bought this St. Patrick’s Day svg bundle and used it for this project.
Open Cricut Design Space and start a new project
Start a new project to make your St. Patrick’s Day Earrings by clicking on the + icon.
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.
For this project, I’m using the solid teardrop and the cutout teardrop. I click on both of them and then click on Insert Images.
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 the St. Patrick’s Day Earrings DIY after being added to the canvas. These earrings come in gigantic so we’ll modify the height in a step below.
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’m going to create earrings with a 2″ height. You can modify that number if you want your earrings bigger or smaller.
You can decide whether you want the back earring to be a bit bigger than the back earring. For this project, I’m leaving the two earrings the same size.
If you want to make the back earring bigger, click on it and use the handle in the lower-right corner of the selected image to change the size. Drag the handle outward to increase the size of the earring.
Hide Any Necessary Elements Using the Contour Button
I used the Contour button to hide the earring holes on this project. I do this because some faux leathers don’t cut the tiny hole very well and I spend too much time carefully snipping the leather out of the hole.
To do this click one of the earrings and click on the Contour button in the lower-right hand corner.
Use the Contour Button to Hide Elements, as needed
Click on the circle image. It will be shaded, once selected.
Once they’re shaded click the X in the upper right hand corner. This will hide the selected element and only the inside shape will remain.
Below you can see the St. Patrick’s Day Earrings on the Cricut canvas. The one on the left no longer has a hole.
Click on the other earring on the canvas and repeat the steps.
Change earring components to the right color.
Changing the images to the right color keeps things clear when you’re putting different materials and colors through the cutting machine.
Use the color box as show below to change colors. Simply click on the image and then click on the color to change it.
For this project, I’m using a green glitter faux glitter for the back earring and black and white stripe for the front earring. I changed my color to black to represent the stripes.
Duplicate images, as needed
Decide if you like the look of the back of your earring material 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 ugly felt.
I’ve selected a green glitter faux leather earring for my back earring and I’m not fond of the look of the back so I’m going to cut extras so that I can glue back to back.
To add my additional teardrop for the back of this earring, I click on the green earring and then click on Duplicate
Left click and draw a box around the three earring components and then click on Duplicate in the upper right-hand corner to make your second earring.
Flip images, if necessary.
I like to flip non-symmetrical images. On this Shamrock, it is very subtle, but I do it anyway.
Click on one earring with the Shamrock and then click on the Flip icon. Select Flip Horizontal.
The change is very minor. I’ve pointed to the Shamrock stem where you’ll see it pointing in different directions.
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 the St. Patrick’s Day Earrings.
On the left you’ll see the different mats that will need to be cut. I always click on the Mirror toggle since the good side of materials always go on the mat faced down.
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 mat.
Click on the Browse All Materials link to see the menu of materials options on your Cricut.
For your faux leather, if it is Cricut faux leather, you’ll select the Cricut faux leather option from the Browse materials menu.
If you’re using non-Cricut faux leather, the Shimmer Leather option normally works best.
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.
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.
Place your material on the cutting mat(s).
I put my material onto my mat with the good side facing down.
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.
Once I place my plastic on top of the mat, I put the material onto the mat, face down (good side down).
After placing the material on the mat, you can use a Cricut Brayer roller to press it nicely onto your mat.
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 E6000 glue. You can also use a glue gun if you’d prefer.
Here are a couple pictures from another project.
Trim any felt, fuzz, or glue from the earrings.
Using a pair of sharp scissors, trim fuzz from around the St. Patrick’s Day 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 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.
Below you’ll see a picture of me using the leather hole punch on a different project.
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
If you’re using jump rings, open the jump ring correctly.
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 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.
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.
Wire Hooks with Balls
For these St. Patrick’s Day Earrings, I actually used the wire hooks with balls on the end. These are super simple as there are no jump rings to open and close. The earring pieces simply slide onto the hooks. I’ve listed some links to these earring hooks below:
And that’s it! Your St. Patrick’s Day Earrings are finished!
If you enjoy making diy faux leather earrings, check out my other posts below.
Everyday Earrings DIY
- 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
- Faux Leather Circle Earrings
- Split Teardrop Faux Leather Earrings
- Faux Leather Stacked Marquise Earrings
- Stacked, wavy earrings – KSU
- Faux leather leaf cutout earrings
- Faux Leather earrings with fringe
- Faux Leather Teardrop Earrings
- Faux Leather Bar Earrings
- Faux Leather Leaf Earrings
Sports
- Football Earrings – Teardrop with football cut out
- Stacked Football earrings
- Chiefs Football Teardrop Earrings
- Chiefs Heart Teardrop Earrings
- Chiefs Arrowhead 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
- 40 Great Valentine’s Day DIY Earrings
- LOVE Leather Earrings DIY
- Valentine’s Day earrings DIY (heart shape)
- Heart Earrings DIY (Iron On)
- Heart Earrings DIY (with heart cutout)
- DIY Valentine’s Day Earrings
St. Patrick’s Day Earrings
Winter-Themed Earrings DIY
- Snowflake Cutout Teardrop Faux Leather Earrings
- Snowman Leather Iron On Earrings
- Buffalo Check Snowman Cutout Earrings
Christmas -Themed Earrings DIY
