Leaf Faux Leather Earrings

 

Sometimes, you just have to create a project because you have the materials sitting in front of you. 

I noticed in my stash of faux leather that I had a nice dark green piece that had not yet been touched. It seemed to be asking to become a leaf of some sort. 

I flipped through my designs for something perfect and found this leaf design I had obtained from Creative Fabrica: 

Although the creator of the original design may have expected users to cut out the open leaf design in faux leather, I decided that it would be fun to create the open leaf portion using Orcal 651 in shiny silver. 

I resized the design to make the final earring size a little over 2". I prefer smaller earrings and have found that I don't like earrings larger than 2.5" tall because they tend to hit my shoulders and catch on my clothing. 

I cut the leaf bases first. They pretty much weeded themselves because when I pulled the green faux leather off of the mat the two leaf bases remained behind on the mat. I peeled them off and laid them to the side. 

I then put the Orcal 651 on the mat and cut the veined pieces. As soon as the Silhouette Cameo finished cutting the veined leaves, I used cut a box around the design so I could stow the uncut remainder of my silver Orcal 651. 

Weeding goes quickly and easily when using a dental tool. I stuck the weeded pieces on a bit of the vinyl that was between the two designs. I probably should get one of those little weeding bins but I usually just crumple up the weeded vinyl and pile the mess on my ironing board. 

All weeded and lined up with the green bases. 

Cut the two veiny leaves apart for easier transfer and application. This probably isn't necessary if you use a small enough piece of transfer tape so that it only picks up one leaf, but I prefer to have each design separate. 

Apply the transfer tape to the leaf design and roll a brayer over it a few times to ensure it's firmly stuck to the transfer tape. I do this on top of a piece of backing from another project because the transfer tape doesn't stick to it.

Lift the transfer tape and design off of the original backing. 

Carefully place the design on top of the earring back piece. Since I didn't align the transfer tape lines to the center of the design, I ignored them during this step and focused on ensuring that the silver leaf landed where I wanted it. Rub the design again with a brayer to transfer the vinyl from the transfer tape to the faux leather backing then remove the transfer tape. 

Repeat for second earring. The same piece of transfer tape can be reused several times. I only throw it away when it has lost enough stickiness that it can't pick up my design. 

Punch holes in the tabs at the top - carefully centering them. I missed center on one for some reason, but thankfully it was far enough from the edge that it still worked. 

Attach jump rings and earring wires. I like using two jump rings per earring because it allows the earrings to have more movement. 

These earrings turn out really nice, and I recommend you try out the design some time. 

The "crafetermath" ...

HAPPY CRAFTING!!