I’m not a fan of football but I do love to make jewelry. That’s why today I’m going to share these fun and so so simple DIY Leather Football Earrings with you. These are cute and fun, what’s not to love?

In full disclosure, these are not real leather. In fact, it might be pushing it to call them faux leather but they’re close. If you were to see them hanging from someone’s ears, you would never know the difference.

The best news is that because I used Faux Leather Ribbon from Hobby Lobby, these are unbelievably cheap. The ribbon was $2.50 on sale and comes in 8″ rolls that are 24″ long. Each of these earrings are approximately 2″ by 1″ so if you do the math, that’s a ton of earrings that you can make from one roll.

The only issue with using this ribbon is that the back is felt. Don’t worry, I’m going to show you how to keep that fact hidden down below in the instructions.

To Make These Leather Football Earrings You Will Need:

• Faux Leather Ribbon from Hobby Lobby (or another faux leather)
• Heat Transfer Vinyl in white
• Ribbon Clamps
• Fishhook Earring findings
• Football Earrings Free Cut File (at the bottom of this post)

First things first is that you have to cut the football shapes out of the faux leather.

Let’s talk about Cutting the Faux Leather with Your Cricut or Silhouette:

People have a variety of machines now. Personally I own a Cricut Explore Air and I’ve had it for quite awhile. It even has the original blade on it which means, it’s not as sharp as it probably should be.

If you own a Cricut Maker than cutting this material should not be an issue at all. However a Cricut Explore or Silhouette will need a little extra attention. It’s still easy but there’s just a few things that will give you a little help.

The first thing is that you want to use a very strong mat. I have a Cricut Strong Hold purple mat that I used. If your mat is older, attach the faux leather, leather side up, to a piece of contact paper or transfer tape and then use painters tape to secure it to your mat.

Whenever you cut faux leather or real leather, you want to do it with the smooth leather side face up. However this means that the backside of it is going to stick to your mat and leave bits and pieces stuck to your mat that you don’t want. Always use contact paper or transfer tape, sticky side up, under the leather. It will hold the leather in place and keep your mat clean.

My old worn blade still cut through this material when my machine was set to the deepest setting, however I still have to go back and trim with scissors.

After you cut, your edges will probably look a little fuzzy. Using sharp scissors, gently trim the bottom fuzzy layer until you can’t see it anymore.

Now you’re ready to cut the HTV on your machine. After it’s cut on your machine, use scissors to cut the pieces apart so you can place them where they need to go on the football shape.

Since this is faux leather, it will melt if it gets too hot. If you’re using a heat press, try a sample first with it set at 280 degrees. Since these were so small and delicate, I just pressed them with an iron, covered by a thin cloth, for 20 seconds and then checked the hold. If the HTV wasn’t set, I repeated that step but for about 10 seconds.

Once your football shapes are ready, it’s time to add the jewelry findings to turn them into earrings that you can wear.

Many people use a tiny circle hold punch to make a small hole to place the earrings on the footballs. I tried it and didn’t like how the earrings swiveled and moved a lot since they are so light.

Remember, the back is felt so I didn’t want the earring to move and swivel a lot. I want people to see the football. So instead of using a hole punch with earring hooks on jump rings, I used a ribbon clamp that had a small hole at the top. All I had to do was crimp the clamp onto the top of the football with my pliers and then thread a hook onto it.

The small amount of weight from the clamp really helps to anchor the earring without being too heavy and keeps it from turning.

It’s a really cute earring whether you’re wearing it to cheer on your favorite tiny football star from the stands or you’re gearing up for watching all the commercials during the big game.

Plus the upside is that because it’s so cost-effective, these would be the perfect gift to give to teachers or co-workers as a little winter blues pick-me-up.

Download the Football Leather Earring Cut File Here:

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