Faux Leather Skull Flower Purse Charms
This project is part of my Faux Falloween Crafting Event where I’m sharing a new Fall or Halloween Cricut craft every day for 10 days.
Learn how to make Faux Leather Skull Flower Purse Charms with a Cricut
Today’s project is all about creating these fun skull flower purse charms (or keychains). They’re made from faux leather with a heat transfer vinyl (HTV) skull detail, and they’re perfect for adding a little spooky charm to your keys or bag.
These keychains are easy to make, and you can customize them with different faux leather prints and patterns to create a spooky and fashionable accessory for Halloween!
Ready to get started? Let’s dive into the materials and steps!
Want to watch a video tutorial instead? Check it out below!
See the full step by step video tutorial
Click the image below to watch the video on my YouTube channel, or click here.
How to make Faux Leather Skull Flower Purse Charms with a Cricut Step by Step
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Materials you’ll need to make Faux Leather Skull Flower Purse Charms with a Cricut
🛒 To shop many of these supplies below in my Amazon storefront, click here. 🛒
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: Choose three coordinating faux leathers for your skull flower purse charms. The back foldover layer and the two flower layers will cut from faux leather.
For the bottom layer, try to find an all-over print instead of a directional one so the back of your charm won’t be upside down (but if it is, like mine is, it’s ok!).
Step 2: Unzip the download folder. Then open a blank canvas in Cricut Design Space and upload the SVG file for this project by clicking on the Upload button on the left hand size and choosing the unzipped SVG file.
You can see when I move the layers away from each other how this project is constructed.
The black shape will cut from the faux leather of your choice and will fold over and be glued.
Then the skull vinyl layer will be pressed onto the top flower and then the two faux flowers will be glued to the keychain.
Step 3: You don’t need to do anything while the SVG is on your canvas, so just click the MAKE IT button.
When the mat previews load, toggle the MIRROR button on for all the mats because faux leather and heat transfer vinyl cut in reverse. Then click on each mat and drag the shapes away from the side and top edges of the mat a little. Click Continue.
Step 4: Choose the Faux Leather (Paper Thin) setting with “more” pressure for the faux leather mats. Then choose the appropriate material setting for the vinyl mat recommended by your vinyl’s manufacturer. I used the Glitter Vinyl setting with Default Pressure.
Step 5: Now, let’s get started with cutting the faux leather layers. Place your first faux leather piece pretty side down on the purple strong grip mat and press it down firmly. Secure the edges with blue painter’s tape to prevent any movement during the cut.
Load the mat into the Cricut and begin the cut.
When the cut is complete, don’t unload the mat just yet. Use a sharp weeding tool to lift up an edge of the cut to see if it went all the way through. If not, you can press the Cut button again to repeat the cut as many times as necessary, as long as you haven’t unloaded the mat.
Step 6: Remove the faux leather shape from the mat and trim away any fuzzy edges.
Set the shape aside and return to Design Space to cut the other two faux leather mat and the heat transfer vinyl mat.
Remove the cut HTV skull face layer from the mat and weed away the excess.
Step 7: Next press the heat transfer vinyl skull onto the smallest faux leather flower. Before you press, align the two flower layers together so the petals match and line up.
Place the top faux leather flower shape on a heat pressing pad. Then place the heat transfer vinyl skull layer on top of the flower. Cover with a Teflon cover sheet, butcher paper, or parchment paper.
Use your EasyPress Mini set on low (or a regular EasyPress at around 265°F) to press the vinyl skull to the faux leather. Once pressed, remove the carrier sheet.
TIP: After the skull layer is pressed, normally I would place the warm faux leather shape under my heat pressing pad for a minute or two so it cools flat – but for this project I want the flower petals to curl a little which will add texture and dimension.
Step 8: Now it’s time to glue the foldover keychain together. Begin by threading the keyring part onto the center “bridge” area of the foldover keychain.
Apply glue to the back of one side of the keychain, getting close to the edges without going over. This ensures a tight seal when the two pieces are pressed together. If any glue seeps out, simply wipe it away with a damp paper towel or your finger.
Place the front piece on top of the back and press them together.
To ensure a seamless edge, place the glued foldover keychain layer under a heavy book for about an hour while it dries.
Step 9: After the glue has dried on the bottom layer, it’s time to glue the two flower layers on top. Glue the skull flower to the middle flower layer. If you want the petals to have lift and dimension, only apply glue to the center of the flowers, not the petals.
Then glue the two flowers to the foldover base. If you want to encourage the petals to curl, place something round on top of just the enter of the glued project (like the glue bottle) to press the glued areas together without flattening the petals.
Step 9: After the glue has dried, it’s time to add the finishing touches. I used a gold cap faux suede tassel and colored the cap to match the purse charm hardware with a black Sharpie marker and a fine tip acrylic paint pen.
Attach the faux suede tassel either by clipping it on if you are using the purse charm hardware or by using a 10mm jump ring.
And there you have it—a fun and spooky skull flower purse charm (or keychain) ready to adorn your keys or bag!
Answers to your questions about making Faux Leather Skull Flower Purse Charms with a Cricut
Q: Which Cricut machines will cut faux leather?
A: You can cut faux leather with any of the current Cricut machines because they all cut faux leather with the standard fine point blade included with each machine. For this project you can use the Cricut Maker, Cricut Maker 3, Cricut Explore 3, Cricut Explore Air 2, the Cricut Joy Xtra, or the Cricut Joy with the 12 inch long mat.
Q: What do I need to press heat transfer vinyl onto faux leather?
A: To press heat transfer vinyl onto faux leather you’ll need a traditional heat press, Cricut EasyPress, or Cricut EasyPress Mini.
Q: How do I get the SVG template for this project?
A: The SVG template for this project is part of my Faux Falloween Crafting Event. Learn more and get all of the SVG files and tutorials for the event projects here.
If you loved this project, you’ll love these projects too:
Will you make this project?
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Until next time… and happy creating!
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great tutorial, thanks
Sonja
This project not only looks super cute, but less scary for a newbie who hasn’t yet used faux leather or HTV. thank you for another great project
These are adorable!
These are absolutely adorable! You are so creative! Thanks for sharing.
So cute!!! Can’t wait to dive in to all these projects!
Another cute, easy project for us! Thanks!
I like the idea of using the permanent marker on the tassels.
These will make great purse charms. I love the colors you used,
So cute it will be fun to use glow in the Dark HTV for the skull, can’t wait to try it…Thanks for another great project Amy.
Love the flowers I will change the center out to a circle – not a fan of skulls.
Amy,
I have been following you for some time and you are so creative! I love the bag charms and can’t wait to make some.
I like the way you curl the petals by heating them, it gives it such a great look.
Thank you for taking the time to give us the supply lists. Loving that skull faux leather.
I love the flowers, I’ll make the center round or something else, not a be fan of skulls.
Oh my goodness…they are so cute and super easy to make.
Extremely cute purse charm!
Very cute project!
These are so stinking cute! Thanks for all your hard work to share with us!
You make such cute and easy projects!!!
very cool love this keychain
Love it! You are so creative.
So cute. I guess you could do Christmas ones with little snowmen, that would be cute as well
what a cute little gift to make! Simple and easy and the centre decor could be changed to anything seasonal. Thanks for a great file Amy
my grandsons would love these on their school bags
Thank you so much for all of the links to the hardware and faux leather you use in your projects. It makes it so easy to be sure the project will come out looking just like its supposed to.
So many possibilities with these! Thank you for another great tutorial and design!
these are just to darn cute
I have a DIL that absolutely loves Halloween!!! 💀 I can’t wait to make this for her.
I love this fun and adorable skull flower keychain! Thank you!
I love how Amy is so step-by-step it makes it so easy to follow along. I can’t wait to make these.
Love this Amy! Thanks for the excellent easy to follow instructions!
Are there differnces in the faux leather you use for crafting and the bolts of faux leather found for sewing in a fabric store?
That’s a good question, Joan! I think the difference would be the fabric store bolts are mean to be more flexible and pliable, where faux leather sheets for crafting are usually stiffer. However you can always add a layer of heat transfer vinyl to the back of faux leather to help stiffen it up, so it’s worth trying different kinds of faux leathers and seeing what works for you.
Love the skeleton faux leather 🙂
I love these!!
Thank you so much for another awesome project and tutorial.
You make it looks so easy to make these.
Too cute I was just looking for a svg just like this and couldn’t find anything so thank you
definitely can see where letting the petals curl up some is giving dimension.
My daughter, Betsy, is going to love this skull flower purse charm!
Love this cute version of a charm!
I am so going to use glow in the dark vinyl and give them to the kids for Halloween night.
Those flower petals are so pretty. Seems like they could be used in lots of projects. Thanks!
Another cute craft!
The Skull Purse Charm, it is so cute!! I love the halloween prints <3
Neat.
I love the multilayered look of these.
Very cute project and all the patterns on the faux leathers were awesome. Thank you for this project, Amy. 😍💕
Love your tutorials! This is such a cute project and all the patterns on the faux leathers were awesome. Thank you for this project, Amy. 😍💕
What a cute project with lots of room for variations.
These are so adorable
I am excited to see all the projects this week but I have to say that this is my favorite and I will be doing some of these shortly. Thank you for everything that you do
Another cool project that I want to make!
I love these and how fitting are skulls on Friday the 13th.
Cute idea!
thank you so much for teaching how to make these they are so cute
I can’t wait to make these. I also want to change them a little and make some for Christmas. Thank you for sharing
so cute key chain and thank you Amy!
This might be my favorite design from the 10 days! They are so cute!! ☺️
You are a really good teacher for me, and make it easy to go through even a new type of project and get good results. Thank you for sharing this design – I have a friend who loves skulls and skeletons who will be getting one of these.
Thank you for teaching us how to make these key rings. They are great.