Cricut Sunflower Earrings
It’s that strange time of year between summer and fall, at least here in Florida. We see “fall” dates on the calendar, but it’s still warm outside! I decided to make some sunflower earrings with faux leather and my Cricut to celebrate the transition from summer to fall.
Making earrings with your Cricut may sound tricky to do, but if you’re wondering how to make earrings with a Cricut, but these earrings are actually very simple to put make.
You can cut faux leather with a Cricut Maker or Maker 3, or Cricut Explore Air 2 or Explore 3, or even the Cricut Joy! I’ll walk you through how to make earrings with your Cricut step by step and share tips specific to the different machines along the way.
So if you’re ready to try making these sunflower earrings with a Cricut, let’s get started!
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CRICUT SUNFLOWER EARRINGS MATERIALS LIST
- A Cricut cutting machine (or another cutting machine of your choice). I used the Cricut Maker, but you can use the Cricut Maker 3, the Explore Air 2 or Explore 3, or the Cricut Joy.
- The Cricut Maker 3 is available on Amazon here or the Cricut website here.
- The Cricut Maker is available on Amazon here or the Cricut website here.
- The Cricut Explore 3 is available on Amazon here or the Cricut website here.
- The Cricut Explore Air 2 is available on Amazon here or the Cricut website here.
- The Cricut Joy is available on Amazon here or the Cricut website here.
- Yellow faux leather
- Glitter Heat Transfer Vinyl in Brown
- Purple Cutting Mat
- Green Cutting Mat
- Weeding Tools
- Cricut Easy Press Mini
- Cricut Easy Press Mat (8×10 size)
- Glitter Heat Transfer Vinyl in Brown
- Gorilla Glue Super Glue
- Earring Hole Punch
- Earring Hooks (Gold and Silver)
- Jump Rings, Gold
- Jump Rings, Silver
- Flat Nose Pliers
- Wide Flat Nose Pliers
- Teflon Cover Sheet or Parchment Paper.
- Design #186 from my free Resource Library. You can get the password by filling out the form below or at the bottom of this post.
How to Make Sunflower Earrings
STEP 1 – Get the Free Sunflower Earring Template
Download the free sunflower earring template (Design #186) from my free resource library. You can get the password by filling out the form above.
STEP 2 – Upload The Sunflower Earring Template to Cricut Design Space
Save the zipped folder that downloads to your computer. You’ll need to unzip or extract the files FIRST so you can upload them to Cricut Design Space.
After you’ve uploaded the sunflower earrings SVG file onto the canvas, you will see in the Layers panel that this design has three different colored layers.
The two yellow layers will cut from yellow faux leather. They are colored differently so you can see the different petals on your canvas.
The brown sunflower center layers will cut from glitter heat transfer vinyl.
To get the sunflower petal layers to cut on the same mat out of the same material, select both yellow layers and make them the same color.
Or you can also click on Color Sync menu at the top of the layers and then drag the shapes from one yellow layer to the other yellow layer so all four yellow shapes are the same color.
These earrings don’t have pre-cut holes because I’ll be making them with a hole punch.
Resizing isn’t necessary, but if the earrings appear to be much larger than they should, resize them to 1 inch wide.
Then click on the green “Make It” button.
STEP 3 – Cut Earring Shapes from Faux Leather
The mat preview screen will show both cutting mats separated by color on the left hand side. It is not necessary to mirror the mats for this project.
I will cut the yellow faux leather mat first.
Click on the yellow mat and make a note of the size material the shapes will need to cut from (in this case, about 1.75 inches tall and about 5 inches wide).
Click the “Continue” button.
Note: Cricut Explore Air 2 users will need to turn the dial to “Custom” before choosing Faux Leather (Paper Thin). Cricut Joy users can also cut faux leather! I have a tutorial on How to Make Earrings with the Cricut Joy with more specific instructions for Joy users.
On the Material Selection screen, choose Faux Leather (Paper Thin) as the material setting. If you don’t have this material setting as a favorite, click “Browse All Materials” to search for it and select it. Then select “More” from the Pressure dropdown menu.
Cut a piece of faux leather just slightly bigger than the size you noted in the mat preview screen. Cutting the faux leather down to size helps you get a better cut because it stays in place better on the cutting mat than a large piece does.
Place the trimmed piece of yellow faux leather “pretty side” down on a purple mat and press it down all over with your fingers. Then tape the faux leather down on all sides with blue painter’s tape.
Make sure the Cricut’s star wheels are off to the side before starting the cut so they don’t leave indentations in the faux leather.
Load the mat into the Cricut by pressing the double arrows button. Press the C button to begin the cut. After the cut is complete and before unloading the mat, use a weeding tool to carefully lift the edge of the faux leather shape to see if the cut was complete. If not, press the C button again to repeat the cut.
Unload the mat and remove the faux leather sunflower earring shapes. You can trim any stray fuzz from the faux leather backing with small curved scissors.
STEP 4 – Cut Glitter Heat Transfer Vinyl Shapes
Return to Cricut Design Space to cut the brown glitter heat transfer vinyl mat.
I like to use the Glitter Vinyl setting with “Default” pressure and then repeat the cut once if necessary.
Place the glitter heat transfer vinyl shiny side down on a green standard grip cutting mat.
Load the green mat into the Cricut and press the C button to begin the cut. When the cut is complete, unload the mat again and remove the glitter vinyl sunflower centers.
Weed away the excess heat transfer vinyl and cut the sunflower circles apart.
STEP 5 – Color the Sunflower Petal Edges
If the backing of the faux leather is white, you can color the edges of the flower petals and the backing if desired with a Yellow Sharpie marker. This makes the earrings look more finished from the side and the back.
STEP 6 – Press The Sunflower Centers to the Top Petals
Once the glitter HTV circles are weeded and the faux leather petals are trimmed and colored, it’s time to press the flower center on the top petal layer. In the next step, we will glue the two petal layers together.
NOTE: You’ll want to do the pressing step first and the gluing step second – you don’t want to apply heat to glued faux leather layers. The faux leather can blister and bubble.
Gather an Easy Press Mini or Cricut Easy Press, a heat pressing pad, and a Teflon sheet or piece of parchment paper for this step.
If the petal layers are curling, give them a quick press before pressing the center. I did this using my Easy Press Mini on the lowest setting and covering the petal shapes with a Teflon sheet. I pressed gently, moving the Mini back and forth for about 5 seconds.
You could also do this with a home iron on a low setting with no steam, or an Easy Press set to about 275 degrees.
Once the petals are flat, place the glitter vinyl flower center in the center of the smaller petal shape. Cover again with a Teflon sheet or cover sheet.
Press for 10-15 seconds, allowing the glitter HTV to adhere properly to the faux leather backing. Then carefully peel away the glitter vinyl cover sheet. Repeat with the second earring.
STEP 7 – Glue Petal Layers Together
Using Gorilla Glue with the yellow top or fabric glue, spread glue on the center of the bottom, larger petal layers. Place the smaller petal layer on top and press with your fingertip. Be sure to stagger the petal tips so they are spaced apart evenly.
Repeat with the second earring. If you aren’t using a super glue type glue, press the glued sunflower earrings under something heavy for at least a few hours.
STEP 8 – Make The Earring Holes
I like to make the earring holes in faux leather earrings by punching a hole after the earrings are completely assembled. If you don’t have a hole punch, you can use a sharp pointed tool like your weeding tool to gently poke a hole.
STEP 9 – Attach the Earring Hooks
Now it’s time to assemble your earrings!
You’ll need small jump rings, earring hooks, and two pairs of flat nose pliers.
To connect the earring hooks to the sunflower earrings, you’ll first need to turn the bottom loop on the fishhook sideways so your earrings will hang correctly.
You’ll do this using one pair of flat nose pliers. While holding the hook firmly between two fingers, grip the entire earring loop between the pliers and twist your wrist 90 degrees. Repeat with the second earring hook.
Check out my post on how to make faux leather earrings hang straight for step by step directions and photos.
Now use flat nose pliers to open the jump ring. I like to use two pliers, one in each hand. Grip each side of the jump ring with a pair of pliers, making sure the opening in the jump ring is facing up (the twelve o’clock position).
Rotate one wrist forwards or backwards, so the jump ring creates an opening but doesn’t bend out of it’s circle shape.
When the jump ring is open, slide the sunflower earring onto the jump ring. Then slide the earring hook onto the jump ring and close the jump ring again.
Pay attention to which side is the front of your earring as you do this to be sure your earring and hook are both facing the right direction.
That’s it! The sunflower earrings are finished!
Aren’t these sunflower earrings pretty? If you do make this project, I would love to see your finished earrings. Please share a photo of them in the comments, or tag me on Instagram: @amyromeucrafts
Want to see all of my Cricut earring & jewelry tutorials? CLICK HERE
It would be great if the directions were easily printable so that I could save them as a PDF file to keep with the SVG file. It makes it much easier to have it all together when it comes time to craft rather than having to try to search for the directions. Thanks!
Deb, I copy and paste to a Google doc all directions for Amy’s projects. It takes a minute, but then I have them, even if I have no internet…I print them and keep them in a binder. I also often print out the layering guide, depending on how complex a design is. I hope this helps you, too!
Hi Amy can you thin pleather to make leather earrings
Hi, Helen! I haven’t tried it, but I would think it would work. You may need to make the earrings double sided with the material so they are thicker. I have a video on how to do that here: https://youtu.be/Q1IK6EfA6c8
I cover 4 techniques in that video, you’ll want to watch techniques 3 and 4 which are for making doublesided earrings.