How to Make Christmas Gnome Earrings

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How to Make Christmas Gnome Earrings with a Cricut

I’m still on a roll with my fun and festive holiday earrings. If you haven’t seen my Gingerbread Man Earrings and my Snowflake Earrings tutorials, be sure to check those out. But I’m back today with some Christmas Gnome Earrings, made with faux leather and heat transfer vinyl with my Cricut cutitng machine. This is a really simple design, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

If you haven’t made faux leather earrings with your Cricut yet, this tutorial is a good beginner Cricut earrings project. You can make these DIY Christmas Gnome Earrings with the Cricut Maker, an Explore Air 2 or even the Cricut Joy!

In this tutorial, I’ll give you my step by step instructions and tell you exactly what materials I used to make this project.

A link to download my original SVG file for this project is in the Materials list below.

If you’d rather watch a video tutorial, click on my Christmas Gnome Earrings YouTube video below:

Ready? Let’s get started!

Want to see all of my Cricut earring & jewelry tutorials? CLICK HERE

This post contains some affiliate links (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link, I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you). Read my full disclosure policy here.

Christmas Gnome Earrings – Materials List

• A vinyl cutting machine. I used the Cricut Maker for this project (available at Amazon here or at Cricut.com). You can also use the Cricut Explore Air 2 or even the Cricut Joy (see this post on my blog for some specific details you’ll want to know before you cut faux leather with the Joy).

• Smooth white Faux Leather. I used this smooth white faux leather from Amazon. The heat transfer vinyl will adhere better to smooth faux leather than pebbled faux leather because these gnomes are little.

• Heat Transfer Vinyl in Red and Pink. For the gnome’s robe, hat, and the candy cane, I used Siser Glitter HTV in Red . For the hands and nose, I used Siser Easyweed in Light Pink, I also used Cricut brand Foil Iron On in Chrome for the back.

• Cricut Strong Grip (Purple) Cutting Mat. You can buy these on Amazon here.

• Cricut Standard Grip (Green) Cutting Mat. Available on Amazon here.

• Blue painter’s tape. This will help keep your faux leather in place on your mat. You can get it at any hardware store and most big box or grocery stores. Amazon also has it here.

• A weeding tool. I use the weeding tool that came with my Cricut tool set from Amazon here.

• Cricut Easy Press Mini or small Easy Press.

• Cricut EasyPress Mat. I like the 8×10 size for making earrings.

• Teflon Cover Sheet or Parchment Paper.

• A small hole punch (for punching earring holes in the faux leather). This is my go-to hole punch for making Cricut earrings from Amazon here.

• Earring hooks – I used these silver toned shepherd’s earring hooks from Amazon.

• Small jump rings – I used the silver toned jump rings from this assortment of 6mm size jump rings in different metal finishes from Amazon here. You could also use 5mm size jump rings if necessary.

• Two pairs of flat nose pliers – My favorites are Wubbers brand in the “Baby” size. My everyday use pliers are the Baby Wubbers Chain Nose Pliers and the Baby Wubbers Flat Nose Pliers.

DIY Christmas Gnome Earrings – PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS

STEP 1 – Download the SVG Cut Files

Download my free Gnome Earrings SVG file (#154) from my Resource Library. Save the zipped folder that downloads to your computer. Then unzip the folder to access the folder’s contents. You’ll need to unzip or extract the files FIRST so you can upload the cutting file to Cricut Design Space.

STEP 2 – Upload the SVG File to Cricut Design Space

If you need help uploading a file to Cricut Design Space, click here.

When your earring shapes are on your canvas, you can decide if you want to cut the pair with pre-cut earring holes, or without. I’ll be cutting the pair without pre-cut holes and punching the holes myself afterwards. Hide the pair you don’t want to cut by clicking the eye icon next to the layers you want to hide.

These earrings are already appropriately sized, so you don’t need to resize them.

Click the green MAKE IT button.

STEP 3 – Preview the Cutting Mats & Cut the Faux Leather To Size

The mat preview screens will load. The Cricut will cut one faux leather layer and two heat transfer vinyl layers, all separate mats. It’s not necessary to mirror the mats for these project.

Click on the first white mat in the mat preview on the left, and make a note of this size material you’ll need to cut so the gnome earring shapes will cut out completely. For example, in the white faux leather mat preview below, the size material to cut is 2.5 inches wide and about 3 inches tall.

After cutting the white faux leather to size, press the green CONTINUE button.

STEP 4 – Make Material Selections

Now you’ll select your material for the first mat. I like to cut the faux leather mat first.

I use the material setting Faux Leather (Paper Thin). You can click on “Browse All Materials” to search for this setting. Type “faux leather” in the search bar and click on the magnifying glass.

Note: If you’re using a Cricut Explore Air 2, turn your dial to “Custom” so you can choose Faux Leather (Paper Thin) as the material setting. If you’re using the Cricut Joy, set the machine to cut “with a mat” and then select Faux Leather (Paper Thin) as the setting. The Joy is smart and knows it will have to cut faux leather ON a mat, so you won’t be able to choose this material setting if you didn’t choose “on a mat” as your cutting method. You won’t have a purple cutting mat, but follow the directions below using the green mat.

After you’ve selected Faux Leather (Paper Thin) as your material, choose MORE from the Pressure dropdown menu:

Now it’s time to prepare the faux leather mat for cutting.

OPTIONAL – Add Foil Iron On to the Back of the Faux Leather Before Cutting

An optional step is to add a vinyl backing to the white faux leather before cutting. This adds some structure to the gnome earrings and will help keep them from curling. It also makes these cute little earrings look more finished.

NOTE: If you want to learn more about different ways to put a backing on faux leather earrings, check out my YouTube video called What To Put On The Back of Faux Leather Earrings.

Cut a piece of foil iron-on (or the heat transfer vinyl of your choice) in a size that is just slightly smaller than your faux leather piece.

Using an Easy Press Mini or an Easy Press and a cover sheet (teflon sheet or parchment paper) press the foil iron on to the back of the faux leather. Peel the cover sheet off of the foil or vinyl and let it cool.

STEP 5 – Prepare Mats for Cutting

Place your cut piece of white faux leather pretty side down (foil side up if you put foil on the back) in the top left corner of a sticky purple cutting mat. Use your blue painter’s tape all around the faux leather with blue painter’s tape. Press the material down to your mat firmly with your hands.

Be sure your white star wheels are moved off to the side of the roller bar so they don’t mark up your faux leather.

Load the prepared mat into the Cricut by lining the mat between the mat guides and then pressing the double arrows button.

The “C” Cricut button will start to flash, indicating the machine is ready to cut. Press the C button to begin the cut.

When the cut is finished, but before you unload the mat, use a sharp tool (I’m using my weeding tool) to carefully lift the edge of the earring shapes to see if they cut all the way through. If they did, then click the double arrow button to unload the mat.

If not, just press the C button again to repeat the cut.

Remove the cut earring shapes from the purple mat and set them aside.

Return to Cricut Design Space to cut the two vinyl mats. I cut the red mat from Red glitter vinyl using the Glitter Vinyl setting and “default” cut pressure, and the pink mat from Light Pink regular heat transfer vinyl using the “Washi Sheet” setting and “default pressure.” I repeated the cut on the Glitter Vinyl mat to be sure the cut went through – the Siser glitter HTV is thicker than Cricut glitter HTV.

Weed both layers to remove the excess vinyl and set aside.

STEP 6 – Press the Vinyl onto the Faux Leather

Using an Easy Press Mini (on the lowest temperature setting) or an Easy Press (set to about 275 degrees), start with the red glitter layer and press it onto the white faux leather back. Line up the first vinyl layer on the faux leather back, and then cover your earring shapes with a cover sheet (teflon sheet or parchment paper) before pressing.

Press for 5-7 seconds, just long enough for the layer to stick down to the faux leather. Peel the cover sheet off carefully. If the vinyl lifts, carefully place the cover sheet back down and press for a few more seconds.

Layer the pink hands and nose on top of the gnome earring and repeat the pressing. Don’t forget to use the cover sheet!

Then peel the carrier sheet away carefully. Repeat with the other earring.

STEP 7 – Punch the Earring Holes

If you cut the gnome earrings pattern with the pre-made holes, you can skip to the next step. If not, use a sharp object or a 1/16″ hole punch like this hole punch or this hole punch to make the earring holes.

Punch the hole in the top of one earring, making sure the hole isn’t too close to the edge. Then use that earring as a guide to punch a matching hole in the other earring.

Almost done! Now it’s time to attach the earring hooks.

STEP 8 – Attach the Earring Hooks

To attach the earring hooks, you’ll need small jump rings, earring hooks, and two pairs of flat nose pliers.

To connect the earring hooks, you’ll first need to turn the bottom loop on the fishhook sideways so your earrings will hang correctly. 

Grip the earring hook between your thumb and forefinger with one hand, and use flat nose pliers to grip the bottom earring hook loop. Twist the wrist holding the pliers firmly so the loop turns 90 degrees.

For more details on this technique, visit my post about how to make faux leather earrings hang straight here.

Once your earring hooks are turned, use your two pliers to grip each side of a jump ring. Make sure the opening of the jump ring is facing up in the 12:00 position. Then twist one wrist to open the jump ring slightly without distorting the original circle shape of the jump ring.

With the jump ring open, slide on the faux leather earring, and then add the earring hook. Be sure the hook is facing in the right direction.

Then use the second pair of pliers again to grip both sides of the jump ring and twist the jump ring closed again.

Repeat with the second earring. That’s it!

Aren’t these festive holiday gnomes cute? Now I want to make an emerald green pair! If you do make this project, I would love to see your Gnome earrings. Please share a photo of them in the comments, or tag me on Instagram: @amyromeucreative

AND if you love gnomes, you’ll want to check out some more great FREE gnome projects from some of my best crafty friends!

From left to right, top to bottom:

Gnome Pop-Up Card from Lucy Foxworth of Paper Glitter Glue

Gnome Earrings (mine!)

Naughty Gnome Tags from Jennifer Stahr of My Scrap Menagerie

Gnome Christmas Ornaments from Emily Minor of MinorDIY

Gnome Gift Tags from Jennifer Swift of Well Crafted Studio

Christmas Snowglobe Layered Ornament by Maggie Klassens of Maggie Rose Design Co.

Want to see all of my Cricut earring & jewelry tutorials? CLICK HERE

WANT THE SVG FILE SO YOU MAKE THESE CHRISTMAS GNOME EARRINGS YOURSELF?

You can get it from my FREE Resource Library by filling out the form below!

NOTE: This design is for PERSONAL USE ONLY. If you’d like to sell earrings made from my Christmas Gnome Earrings SVG template, you may purchase a Commercial Use License from my shop here.

Want to remember this? Post this CHRISTMAS GNOME EARRINGS project to your favorite Pinterest board!

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