Whip up a pair of buffalo plaid earrings with your Cricut in less than 15 minutes! This project uses faux leather and iron on vinyl and makes a perfect holiday gift!

Finished red buffalo plaid earrings hanging from a coffee cup

So it may still be October, but I’m over here crafting for Christmas with some of my favorite blogging gals! Today we’re sharing a bunch of fun Christmas gifts that can be made with your Cricut AND a big Cricut Joy giveaway—check out the end of this post to enter!

2020 is the perfect year to craft your Christmas presents—no one really wants to be out and about in stores during a pandemic anyway!

One of my favorite gifts for the women in my life are earrings. Earrings make a great gift because they are easy to craft, you can make them in less than 15 minutes, and they aren’t expensive to make.

Today I’m making buffalo plaid earrings! These earrings are really cute as gifts, and of course you’ll want to craft a pair or two for yourself! I am using pink and teal faux leather, as well as a more traditional red faux leather. You’ll also learn a quick trick for cutting more than one color on your Cricut mat at a time!

Stop pulling your hair out and start creating confidently with your Cricut! Finally understand how to use your Cricut with my Learn Your Cricut eBooks!

Finished teal buffalo plaid earrings hanging from a coffee cup

Finished pinkbuffalo plaid earrings hanging from a christmas tree branch

Supplies for Buffalo Plaid Earrings

Supplies to make earrings: Cricut Explore, faux leather, cutting mat, weeding tool, piercing tool, pliers, earring findings.

Cricut Explore or Cricut Maker
Green StrongGrip mat or Purple StrongGrip mat
Black iron on vinyl
Faux leather
Weeding tool
Piercing tool or big needle
Fish-hook earring findings
Jewelry pliers
Cricut EasyPress, Cricut EasyPress Mini, or household iron
Pressing mat or EasyPress mat
Earrings SVG

Download the Free Buffalo Plaid Earrings File under SVGs C331

This file can be found in my Free Craft Resource Library. The file number is: C331.

Want access to this free file? Join my FREE resource library! All you need is the password to get in, which you can get by filling out the form below!

Instructions for Making Buffalo Plaid Earrings

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Upload the Earring File to Cricut Design Space

We will start by uploading the earring file to Cricut Design Space (see Uploading SVG Files to Cricut Design Space if you need help).

Cricut Design Space: Upload the earrings file

I made them at the size I designed them—2.5″ inches tall—but you can resize if you’d like.

Duplicate the earrings to make as many pairs as you’d like. I’m making three pairs.

Cricut Design Space: Duplicate the earrings file (3)

I’m going to be using three different colors of faux leather, but I’m keeping all three red here. You’ll see how I cut three different colors of leather on the same mat in a few minutes. Click Make It in the upper right.

Here you’ll see your two mats. The first has the iron on vinyl (the “plaid”) for all six earrings.

Cricut Design Space: Prepare Screen with two mats.

On the second mat, you’ll see the earrings. Instead of leaving them all in a row, move them to the corners. I even rotated them so they would fit a smaller piece of leather.

Cricut Design Space: Move the earring pieces to the corners of the mat

Click black on the black mat (so you don’t accidentally cut the leather layer in vinyl!) and click Continue.

Cut and Weed the Iron On Vinyl

Select vinyl as your material, and cut your black layer.

Then weed out the negative space from this cut. I prefer to weed my project while it’s still on the mat. See my post on Weeding Iron On Vinyl for more tips and tricks.

Cut the Faux Leather

Now let’s cut the leather layer. Place your leather pieces in the three corners you specified in the Prepare Screen above.

Cricut mat with faux leather squares in three corners.

I am using a brand new green Cricut mat, so my leather adhered really well. If you are using an older mat, you may want to use masking tape around the edges of your leather to hold it in place.

Using Iron On with Faux Leather

Now it’s time to assemble your earrings! Pair each set of leather earrings with the plaid pieces, noting that there are two different plaid pieces—they are a mirror of each other.

Pressing mat with earring pieces to be assembled.

Place the iron on piece on top of your leather piece, centering it.

Hand placing buffalo check on top of leather earring.

Use the EasyPress mini or iron to adhere the iron on vinyl to your faux leather earring. Note that if you are using pebbled leather, the leather will melt just a bit (it is plastic after all) and you’ll lose a bit of the pebbling.

Hand ironing the iron on vinyl to the leather.

Once cooled a bit, peel back the carrier sheet. If any of your plaid is hanging over the edge, trim with scissors.

Hand peeling back the carrier sheet of the iron on vinyl.

Assemble the Buffalo Plaid Earrings

Then use the piercing tool or a large needle to poke a hole at the top of the earring.

Hands using the piercing tool to create a hole at the top of the earring.

Then use the pliers to open the ring at the bottom of your fishhook earring.

Hands using the pliers to open the ring on the earring finding.

Slide the earring onto the ring, making sure it’s facing the right direction, and clamp closed. Repeat with the matching earring and you’re done!

Hands sliding the earring onto the ring.

Finished buffalo plaid earrings hanging from a mug.

Love this project? Check out all of these other gift ideas with your Cricut from some of my favorite blogging friends!

More Cricut Gift Ideas

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Created by: Cori George

BUFFALO PLAID EARRINGS

Keyword Earrings

Whip up a pair of buffalo plaid earrings with your Cricut in less than 15 minutes! This project uses faux leather and iron on vinyl and makes a perfect holiday gift!

Equipment

Supplies

▢ Black iron on vinyl
▢ Faux leather
▢ Fish-hook earring findings
▢ Free Buffalo Plaid Earrings File #C331

Instructions

Upload the Earring File to Cricut Design Space
We will start by uploading the earring file to Cricut Design Space (see Uploading SVG Files to Cricut Design Space if you need help).
These were designed to be 2.5" inches tall—but you can resize if you'd like.
Duplicate the earrings to make as many pairs as you'd like. For this project we are making three pairs.
Three different colors of faux leather are being used, but keeping all three red here. You'll see how to cut three different colors of leather on the same mat in a few minutes. Click Make It in the upper right.
Here you'll see your two mats. The first has the iron on vinyl (the "plaid") for all six earrings.
On the second mat, you'll see the earrings. Instead of leaving them all in a row, move them to the corners. They were rotated so they would fit a smaller piece of leather.
Click black on the black mat (so you don't accidentally cut the leather layer in vinyl!) and click Continue.
Cut and Weed the Iron On Vinyl
Select vinyl as your material, and cut your black layer.
Then weed out the negative space from this cut. It is preferable to weed the project while it's still on the mat. See the post on Weeding Iron On Vinyl for more tips and tricks.
Cut the Faux Leather
Now let's cut the leather layer. Place your leather pieces in the three corners you specified in the Prepare Screen above.
Here, a brand new green Cricut mat is being used, so the leather adhered really well. If you are using an older mat, you may want to use masking tape around the edges of your leather to hold it in place.
Using Iron On with Faux Leather
Now it's time to assemble your earrings! Pair each set of leather earrings with the plaid pieces, noting that there are two different plaid pieces—they are a mirror of each other.
Place the iron on piece on top of your leather piece, centering it.
Use the EasyPress mini or iron to adhere the iron on vinyl to your faux leather earring. Note that if you are using pebbled leather, the leather will melt just a bit (it is plastic after all) and you'll lose a bit of the pebbling.
Once cooled a bit, peel back the carrier sheet. If any of your plaid is hanging over the edge, trim with scissors.
Assemble the Buffalo Plaid Earrings
Then use the piercing tool or a large needle to poke a hole at the top of the earring.
Then use the pliers to open the ring at the bottom of your fishhook earring.
Slide the earring onto the ring, making sure it's facing the right direction, and clamp closed.
Repeat with the matching earring and you're done!