I cut these bunny earrings using my Cricut machine but never fear, you can still make them if you don’t have a Circut. I also need your help!
Even though these earrings are perfect for Easter, you could wear them at any time of the year. The bunnies on these earrings are made from Stripflock which gives them a lovely fluffy texture.
Help Please!
I got my Cricut machine for Christmas so I’m still figuring out the best way to do things. I’ve watched lots of tutorials and have made a few things but I was a bit stumped by this project. When it came to cutting out the faux leather, I had all kinds of problems and eventually, cut the teardrops out by hand and used a hole punch to cut the holes.
If you own a Cricut and have successfully cut faux leather with it, please leave me a comment and tell me what settings you used. I tried all kinds of settings, mats and blades but the material just kept bunching up under the blade. It has a small amount of stretch and feels a little like felt. Any insights you can give me would be really appreciated.
Materials
You can purchase a kit for these bunny earrings on the Affordable Jewellery Supplies website. If you would like to make them from scratch, here’s what I used:
- 12 x 7cm Faux Leather in Marshmallow, the ones I’m wearing are in Aqua Glitter
- 5cm square White Siser Heat Transfer Vinyl Stripflock
- 8mm Round Jump Ring x2
- 6mm Round Jump Ring x2
- 21mm Stainless Steel Ear Hooks x1 pair
- Double sided tape x 10cm
Tools
- Cricut machine (optional if you don't purchase a kit)
- Chain nose pliers x2
- Sharp pointed scissors
- 3mm Hole Punch (if cutting out by hand)
- Cardboard (if cutting out by hand)
- Steam iron
- Pressing cloth
Instructions
Please watch the video or read the instructions below.
Step 1 - Cutting
I didn’t show you how to cut out the pieces in the video as, if you own a Cricut you will know how to cut them out.
If you don’t own a Cricut, just print out the template onto a piece of light cardboard, trace around them and cut them. You will need four teardrops and two bunnies per pair of earrings.
You may need to resize the template – my teardrops measure 5.5cm high.
You can find the templates here.
AJS Bunny Template svg file (for cutting with Cricut machine)
AJS Bunny Teardrop Template svg file (for cutting with Cricut machine)
AJS Bunny Template pdf file (for cutting by hand)
Step 2 – Adding the Bunnies
With the shiny side down, peel the bunnies off the clear film. If you have cut them by hand, you will have already cut out the bunnies, so just peel off the backing.
Position the bunny over the teardrop, fluffy side facing up. Cover with a pressing cloth and press, using a quick shot of steam. Be careful not to melt the faux leather.
Repeat for the other bunny.
Step 3 – Adding the Backing
I didn’t like the look of the backing of the faux leather so I decided to put a piece on the back. You could skip this step if you wanted, or you could add a bunny to this piece as well - up to you.
Cut a piece of double sided tape approximately 2.5cm wide. Place it on the bottom of one of the plain teardrops. It doesn’t matter if the tape sticks out a bit, you can always trim it off later.
Peel off the backing tape and stick one of the bunny teardrops on top, making sure that the hole and the bottom matches up.
Place another piece of tape at the top of the teardrop. Repeat these steps for the other pair of teardrops.
Trim off any tape that’s sticking out from the faux leather.
Cover the teardrop with the pressing cloth and iron it to cement the two layers together.
If the teardrops aren’t sitting perfectly, you can trim them very slightly. You may also need to punch the tape from the holes if you covered it. You can do this with the point of the scissors.
Step 4 – Attaching the Ear Hook
To make this into an earring, we need to attach the earhook.
Open the 8mm jump ring and place on the teardrop then close the jump ring. If you haven’t used jump rings before, watch this video.
I noticed that my teardrop was a little too large to sit inside the jump ring. This is because I punched my holes a little low. I took my scissors and trimmed off the slightest amount so that the jump ring was sitting nicely.
Next open the 6mm jump ring and feed on the 8mm jump ring and the loop of the ear hook. Close the jump ring. Repeat for the other earring.
These earrings are pretty simple to make. In fact, you could make them with children as an Easter project. They do require some precision cutting but an older person could help with that.
Apart from the cutting, I really enjoyed making these.
Be sure to check in again next week as we are running a competition.