Easy Faux Leather Key Fob Wristlet

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How To Make a DIY Cricut Faux Leather Key Fob Wristlet

I can never get enough of keychain projects… can you? If you love DIY keychains as much as I do, then you’ll love this DIY Cricut Faux Leather Key Fob Wristlet tutorial.

These designs are great because you can feature a patterned faux leather on the outside and a fun pop of color on the outside. They are also a great product for faux leather designers and sellers because they can be made with scrap materials! Finally, they are super easy and quick to make.

I’ll be using the Cricut Maker to cut the faux leather for this key fob wristlet, but you don’t need to use a Cricut Maker. I cut all the shapes for the keychain with just the Cricut Fine Point Blade, which means it can be made with the Maker, the Explore Air 2, or even the Cricut Joy (using the 12 inch long mat)!

If you’d rather a video, you can watch my Easy Faux Leather Key Fob Wristlet with a Cricut YouTube video here:

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

Ready to make this fun faux leather wristlet key chain? Let’s get started!

This page 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.

DIY Cricut Faux Leather Key Fob Wristlet – Materials List

• A vinyl cutting machine. I have the Cricut Maker, available at Amazon here. You can also use the Cricut Explore Air 2 or any cutting machine you have that will cut a thicker material like faux leather.

• Cricut Strong Grip (Purple) Cutting Mat. You’ll use the purple mat to cut the faux leather. You can buy these on Amazon here, or at Michael’s here. They are also available at Hobby Lobby, Joann’s, and Walmart – or anywhere Cricut machines are sold.

• A Cricut Easy Press or a Cricut Easy Press Mini (what I use). I bought my Easy Press Mini from Amazon here. You can also use an Easy Press, I recommend the 9×9 size. It’s a great size for making jewelry, keychains, and other small craft items like baby onesies and more. It’s available on Amazon here. (For this project, I don’t recommend using a traditional heat press unless you are very experienced at controlling the pressure.)

• Blue painters tape. This will help keep your faux leather in place on your mat. I bought this one on Amazon here but you can get it at any hardware store or even some grocery stores!

• If you will be using the Easy Press Mini like I do, you’ll need an EasyPress Mat to safely press your items on. I used the 12×12 size, which you can see on Amazon here.

• Faux Leather of your choice. For this project, I used these striped faux leathers from one of my favorite Etsy shops. Any faux leather will work, although I would avoid chunky glitter faux leather – the glitter will shed.

• HTV Vinyl in the color of your choice. I used Siser Easyweed Heat Transfer Vinyl in the following colors (available on Amazon): Yellow, Orange, Red, Seaglass, Powder Blue, and Sweet Mint Green. You can also use Cricut Iron-On Foil if you prefer!

• A weeding tool or sharp object. I used the weeding tool in my Cricut tool set from Amazon here.

• Key Fob Hardware and Pliers. I used this set of 1″ hardware and pliers from Amazon here. You can also buy hardware for 1.25″ wide key fobs if you want a wider keychain. Here they are in gold color , silver color, and rose gold color.

• Faux suede or faux leather tassels (optional) – Amazon has several faux suede tassel assortment packages. Many of them are sold with assorted colors, like this one.

• Large jump rings – I used this assortment of 9mm size jump rings in different metal finishes from Amazon here.

• Two pairs of flat nose pliers – My favorites are the Baby Wubbers Chain Nose Pliers and the Baby Wubbers Flat Nose Pliers.

• Colored Sharpie markers. I have a few assortments but this one is my favorite.

• My free Faux Leather Key Fob Wristlet Keychain SVG file from my Resource Library. It’s Design #175 in the library. You can get the password to my library by filling out the form below, or the form at the bottom of this page.

PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS

STEP 1 – Download Free SVG

Download the free SVG cutting file for the keychain shape from my free Resource Library. The link to get the password is above and at the bottom of this post.

Save the zipped folder that downloads to your computer. You’ll need to locate your zipped file after you save it so remember where you are downloading it to! You’ll have to unzip or extract the files FIRST before you can upload the cutting file to Cricut Design Space. Make a note of the file location after you unzip it so you can find it in the next step.

STEP 2 – Upload SVG to Cricut Design Space

When you open Cricut Design Space, click on NEW PROJECT to get started. Then click on UPLOAD from the left hand side menu.

Click on the UPLOAD IMAGE button, then click BROWSE to locate where the unzipped SVG file for this project is saved on your device.

Double click on the SVG file to bring it into the upload screen in Design Space. If you get an error message that says “unsupported file type,” you may have clicked on the wrong file, or your SVG file is still zipped.

You’ll see a preview of the faux leather wristlet keychain shapes for this project. Hit the green SAVE button.

After you’ve selected your file to upload, you’ll see it as the first item in your “recently uploaded designs” row.

Click on it so it is outlined in green. Then click on the green INSERT IMAGES button in the bottom right corner.

STEP 3 – Prepare SVG for Cutting

This brings the two wristlet shapes into Cricut Design Space. One shape is 1″ wide, the other 1.25″ wide. Choose the shape you will cut based on the width of the keychain hardware you have and hide or delete the other shape. Your canvas should look like this:

IMPORTANT! Don’t resize the rectangles. If for some reason they upload at an odd size, select both shapes and change the height to 11″ tall. Be sure the padlock is ON on the size menu so the shapes size proportionately.

In this project, we will be pressing heat transfer vinyl onto the back of the faux leather before cutting. If you want to use glitter HTV, which is thicker, this process won’t work well. Check out my YouTube video for this project for an alternative method you can use with glitter HTV.

Click on the green MAKE IT button in the top right hand corner.

The mat preview will show where your shape will cut on your purple cutting mat. Drag the shape to a stickier location on your mat if necessary.

Click on the green CONTINUE button.

Next we need to choose our material. I always cut faux leather on the Faux Leather (Paper Thin) setting. This setting is an automatic double cut. Then select MORE pressure from the Pressure dropdown menu.

Cricut Explore Air 2 users can turn the Smart Set Dial to Custom and then select Faux Leather (Paper Thin) as the material setting (same as the Maker). You’ll also use the Fine Point Blade. Cricut Joy users will need to use the 12 inch long cutting mat. See this tutorial for more information on cutting faux leather with a Cricut Joy.

STEP 4 – Press Faux Leather & Heat Transfer Vinyl Together

The key to this project is pressing the vinyl to the back of the faux leather before cutting. This will give you nicely finished edges on your faux leather key fob wristlet.

Cut a piece of faux leather and heat transfer vinyl to slightly larger than the wristlet shape. Place them back to back – pretty side of faux leather facing out and shiny side of vinyl facing out.

Place the faux leather & vinyl sandwich on a heat pressing pad. Cover with a Teflon sheet or parchment paper. Press the HTV to the back of the faux leather until the vinyl is fully adhered to the back of the faux leather. I used an EasyPress Mini on the lowest setting. You can use a regular EasyPress or even an iron with low heat and no steam.

Carefully peel away the vinyl’s clear cover sheet. If any bubbles appear as you peel, replace the cover sheet and press again. It’s really important that every inch of the vinyl has firmly adhered to the back of the faux leather.

Once the vinyl’s clear cover sheet sheet is removed, replace the cover sheet and press again for a few seconds.

STEP 5 – Cut Faux Leather with the Cricut

Place your faux leather face down (pretty side down, vinyl side up) on your purple strong grip cutting mat in the location shown on your mat preview screen.

Make sure the white star wheels are pushed off to the side of the roller bar so they don’t roll over the faux leather.

Tape down the faux leather to the mat on all sides with blue painter’s tape. Then load the mat into the Cricut and press the C button to begin the cut.

When the cut is complete, use your sharp weeding tool to lift up a corner of the cut shape and check for completeness. If the cut didn’t go all the way through, press the C button to repeat the cut. You can do this as many times as necessary as long as you don’t unload the mat.

Unload the mat and remove the cut shape. Then press one more time to smooth out the edges of the vinyl where the blade cut. Remember to cover with your cover sheet before pressing.

If you want to cover the white edges of the faux leather wristlet, you can color them with Sharpie markers. Sounds crazy, but it works. Here you can see a wristlet with a white edge and also one with edges that have been colored with a yellow Sharpie. It really adds a nice finished edge to your wristlet.

STEP 6 – Attach the Wristlet Hardware

Fold the wristlet shape in half so the ends meet.

Place the edges of the faux leather inside the jaws of the wristlet hardware. Using the pliers that came with the hardware, securely clamp down on the hardware until the jaws close onto the faux leather edges.

If desired, add a tassel to the wristlet key fob by opening an large jump ring, sliding on a tassel, attaching the key ring, and closing the jump ring again. That’s it!

Are you going to make these faux leather key fob wristlets? If you do, I’d love to see them! Tag me on Instagram @amyromeucreative.

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

Until next time… and happy creating!

Want the FREE SVG file you so you make this DIY Cricut Faux Leather Key Fob Wristlet Keychain yourself?

Get it from our Resource Library! You’ll receive the password for the Resource Library instantly after filling out the form below!

WANT TO REMEMBER THIS? THIS PIN EASY DIY FAUX LEATHER KEY FOB WRISTLETS PROJECT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!

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