Hey Belle Hey-

Can you believe we are already in November and dare I say it but my mind has switched to possible Christmas gifts.

I know , I know…hear me out first- so a few years ago I started making at least one gift for family and friends that was something I made…last year because I had some extra free time I made a 5 day advent calendar countdown for my closet family members and BFF’s as a surprise cheer up. This year with all the talk about supply chain limitations and shipping costs I decided I needed a heard start because I really dislike Christmas shopping (I know it sounds crazy given my name is Holly and I’m born in December but, Christmas isn’t my favorite holiday…lol).

So, all of the holiday what-if’s got me to revisit one of my first epic craft fails and that was cutting faux leather. I am not normally a fan of large earrings and I often wear the exact same diamond studs every day but, lately I have enjoyed looking at clay earrings and just different earrings to kind of jazz things up so I thought before gifting earrings I would try to make my own.

Let’s talk supplies…

A few blog posts back I made hairbows with faux leather and bow keychains but I still have some left over faux leather (I am loving how many crafts I can make with one thing).

In addition to faux leather, you will need the following:

Cricut Strong Group Mat

Cricut Air 2 or Maker & Design Space

Cricut Deep Cut Blade

Cricut Easy Press Mini (optional-this is great for ironing HTV on the back of faux leather)

Fish hook earring clasps and jump rings for jewelry

Craft scissors(optional), Weeding Tool, and Jewelry Pliers

Once you have gathered your supplies open design space and search for faux leather earrings. A few templates that are free with Cricut Access come up. I decided to try this 3 layer leaf design. Since this was my first attempt at earrings, I ungrouped the design and decided to keep the larger (green) leaf only.

If you have ever seen the back for faux leather you will know that most times the leather is not double sided and on the back side it often has an almost wool/felt looking white side. To hide this, I went into my handy dandy HTV scrap bin for a pink glitter iron on back. To ensure that both leaf cut outs would be the exact same size I duplicated the pair of earrings and changed the color for one set. From there, I cut out one pair in pink glitter iron on and the second pair I cut out in the faux leather setting.

Belle Tip: Remember to switch your blade to the deep cut blade when you are ready to cut out your faux leather

Once you have your designs cut out- you can line up your iron on material and iron it onto the back of your faux leather. Make sure you press down hard. I am using a Cricut Easy Press Mini but you could use an iron or another easy press to do the same thing.

The final step is to use the jewelry pliers to attach the jump ring and earring hook. All in all this maybe took me about 15 minutes.

I love the way these earrings came out and I’m looking forward to making more complex designs and gifting a few pair this Christmas season. What are you DIY’ing for the holidays- comment below and…

As Always…

#MakeSomethingFabulous,

-Holly J.