How to Make Personalized Faux Leather Retro Car Ornaments with a Cricut
This project is part of my 12 Days of Christmas Crafts Event where I’m sharing a new holiday faux leather Cricut craft every day for 12 days.
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Learn how to make Personalized Faux Leather Retro Car Ornaments with a Cricut
This project is Day 5 of The 12 Days of Christmas Crafts Event!
I’m Amy Romeu, and in this tutorial I’ll be showing you how to make personalized retro car Christmas ornaments with a Cricut.
These trendy retro car ornaments are crafted with faux leather and decorated with heat transfer vinyl, making them a fun, festive and easy Cricut craft.
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Follow along with this written tutorial including all the materials, SVG files, and tips you need.
Ready to get started with this beginner friendly holiday Cricut craft tutorial?
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 Personalized Faux Leather Retro Car Ornaments with a Cricut Step by Step
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Materials you’ll need to make Personalized Faux Leather Retro Car Ornaments with a Cricut
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Get the SVG in my Shop
Personal or Small Commercial Use Available
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: Starting with a blank canvas in Cricut Design Space, click on Upload, then Upload Image.
Browse to where the ALREADY UNZIPPED SVG file for this project is saved on your device.
Click on the SVG to select it and follow the prompts to upload it.
When the design loads on the canvas, choose one of the two color versions (they are both the same design) and delete the other.
The bottom circle layers will cut from faux leather. The car, tree, and personalized name (if you add one) will cut from heat transfer (or permanent) vinyl.
If you aren’t going to personalize the ornament with a name, you can skip ahead to the next step.
To personalize this design with a name, click on the Text Tool. Some default text will pop up in a text box on your canvas.
Click on the Font menu and select your font from either your Cricut font or a System font (fonts you’ve downloaded and installed on your device).
I used the free font Keep On Truckin’ from dafont.com.
Type your desired text.
Adjust the size of the text and drag the text underneath the car so it fits in the blank space at the bottom of the ornament.
Once your text is added, you can use the Curve Tool to adjust the shape of the text to match the ornament’s curve. I used -14 as the curve number but yours may be different.
Remember you can use other text tools like Font Size and Letter Space to help make your text fit.
Recolor the text if desired. I colored my text the same color as the car hubcaps and the blue ornaments so I could cut all three of those layers from the same heat transfer vinyl.
Click the MAKE IT button.
STEP 2: Click on EACH mat on the left hand side and toggle the Mirror toggle ON. That’s because faux leather and heat transfer vinyl cut in reverse.
NOTE: If you want to cut the vinyl layers from permanent vinyl instead of HTV, you can do that. Just don’t mirror the vinyl mats in that case.
After all the mats are mirrored, go back through each one and drag the shapes apart from the edges (and from each other if there is more than one shape on the mat).
Click the CONTINUE button.
When the material selection screen loads, click on the faux leather mat and then select the Faux Leather (Paper Thin) setting.
If you don’t have that setting bookmarked as a favorite like I do, you can click on Browse All Materials and search for it. (If you are using the Explore Air 2, you’ll need to turn your dial to Custom before you can find that setting in search.)
Then choose “More” from the dropdown Pressure menu.
For the vinyl mats, you’ll choose the recommended cut setting for your brand/type of vinyl.
Step 3: Trim a piece of faux leather to a size just slightly larger than the shapes that are going to cut. Place the faux leather pretty side down on a purple strong grip cutting mat.
Place blue painter’s tape around all sides of the faux leather. Load the mat into the Cricut and begin the cut.
When the cut is complete, before unloading the mat, lift a small edge of the cut to ensure the cut went through. Repeat the cut if needed by pressing the cut button again.
Once the shapes are cut through, remove the shapes from the mat.
Return to Design Space and cut and weed all of the heat transfer vinyl mats.
Step 4: When all the vinyl layers are cut and weeded, gather your heat press (Easy Press Mini, EasyPress, or traditional heat press), heat pressing pad, and cover sheet like a Teflon sheet, butcher paper, or parchment paper.
Refer to the Layering Guide below for the order to press the vinyl layers.
Place the front faux leather shape on the heat pressing pad. I recommend “dry fitting” the main layers first so you can be sure all the elements of your design will fit.
To do this, place the car layer first down on the ornament base. Then layering the tree, tires, and name layers on top. Adjust the placement of each of these layers until they all fit and look centered on the ornament.
Then remove every layer except the car. This will be the first layer you press in place.
Heat the EasyPress Mini to the Low setting (the first green line) or another heat press to 265 degrees.
Place the first heat transfer vinyl layer on the faux leather shape. Cover with the cover sheet and press for 7-10 seconds.
Remove the cover sheet and slowly peel away the clear carrier sheet on the vinyl layer. If the vinyl lifts up, carefully place the carrier sheet back down and press again.
Once the first layer is well pressed, repeat pressing the other vinyl layers in order.
When all the layers are pressed, place the warm faux leather underneath the heat pressing pad for about a minute so it can cool flat.
Step 5: Glue the front and back ornament shapes using a good fabric or craft glue. I used Beacon Fabri-Tac. Start by placing glue all over the back of one of the shapes.
Be sure to line up the edges and the hole of the ornament neatly.
IMPORTANT! Place the glued ornament underneath a heavy book for at least an hour so the shapes glue well with a seamless edge.
Finally, tie a ribbon through the ornament hole for easy hanging. That’s it!
Answers to your questions about making Personalized Faux Leather Retro Car Ornaments 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.
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: Get the SVG file from my SVG Shop here. For even more holiday faux leather crafts project from my 12 Days of Christmas Crafts Event, click here.
Get the SVG in my Shop
Personal or Small Commercial Use Available
If you loved this project, you’ll love these projects too:
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Until next time… and happy creating!
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omg i love this project so much