One of my favorite things to make during Halloween or any seasonal time is jewelry and accessories. I like to see what I already own as far as scrap materials from other DIY projects and craft things I can wear during the spooky holiday. Because earrings and other small items only take a minimal amount of material it’s a great project for using up leftover scraps, but requires some creativity!
Like a lot of Cricut items, you can create these earrings to give to family and friends, but I usually save these kinds of fun and easy projects just for myself.
What you’ll need
First of all, you will need a set of Halloween designs to cut with your cutting machine. On Creative Fabrica you can find thousands of Halloween SVG files, perfect to cut with. For this tutorial, I used the Free Ghost Earring Template, which you can freely download on Creative Fabrica!
One of the great things about this project is you don’t need a large amount of materials because it’s not very complicated. For the main portion of the ghost, I used some left over faux leather I already owned from making other earring designs. I used the Cricut brand faux leather in tan, but any faux leather brand will work for this project.
If you are going to be painting your ghost white, I recommend using a light colored faux leather. Any dark colors will be difficult to paint over as the faux leather material is very porous and won’t hold the color well.
To create the earring portion I used earring hooks purchased in a bundle pack from Micael’s craft store for a few dollars. And to top it all off, and because I really just wanted the ghost to be white, I used acrylic paint purchased from my local Dollar Store.
The only other materials I used for this project was a paint brush and sponge, scrap paper or newspaper to paint on and a paint palette to squirt my paint on when painting the ghost.
What you’ll do
The cutting portion of this project only takes a few minutes, and the ghost is a very easy shape to cut out. I spent most of the time painting the faux leather ghost white and waiting in between coats for the paint to dry. If you want to skip this part, I recommend purchasing (or even better if you already have it on hand) faux white leather to cut the ghost out. Since I didn’t have any, I didn’t want to purchase another large piece of faux leather since I had so many scrap pieces lying around already. Therefore, I opted to paint my faux leather white instead.
Download your free ghost SVG here to begin this project. Once you have downloaded the file and saved it to your computer, you can open up your Cricut Design Space. Upload the file to your Design Space by starting a new project and choosing the upload button. The file is already sized to approx a little over two inches, which makes a pretty large earring. Adjust the size of the file in Cricut Design Space if you want your earrings bigger or smaller. However, I found this to be the best size when making ghost earrings. It shows all the spooky details without being too large or too small.
Once you have your ghost uploaded, adjust the dial on your Cricut to ‘custom’. This will prompt your Cricut Design Space to show you a custom option once you click the ‘make it’ button. Select ‘faux leather’ in the drop-down listing. This is an important step, if you don’t select this option your cut will not go through the material for the ghost earrings. When cutting faux leather, I always choose to cut the ‘more’ option. (You can also choose less.) The more option gives the Cricut the opportunity to go around the cut one more time, ensuring everything is cut out from the material.
After you have selected your material in Cricut Design Space, set up your cutting mat. As pictured, I always use the blue painter’s tape method when cutting out any material. This endures, my material stays in place after the mat is no longer sticking. (Even if the mat is still sticky I often will use painters tape just to reinforce stability.)
To begin your cut, click the ‘Cricut’ button on your machine. Cutting the ghost will only take a few seconds because the project is so small. After the cutting process is finished, click the arrow button on your machine to release your cutting mat. If you choose the correct material and opted for the ‘more’ cutting option, your ghost will come out fairly easily. Don’t forget to pop out the eyeholes and the small hole at the top that will be where your earring inserts into.
To paint your ghost white, lay out some scrap paper to paint on. Using a small paint brush or sponge, paint over your ghost shapes. Notice that the material is very porous, and you will have to go over it several times to get an opaque look. Let your ghost dry in between layers, so you can build the white paint up to a seamless look.
Once your ghost are dry, use a pair of small pliers to attach the earring portion and the jump ring to the ghost. (See picture for example.)
Enjoy your earrings in all your spooky festivities!
Tips and tricks
If you are using the painter tape method, make sure to bring down your ghost a few clicks so that your machine doesn’t cut through the tape and the material. If you accidentally cut through the tape, readjust your ghost and cut again.
Decorate your ghost however you want! Add spooky glitter, embellishments or patterns to make the project extra fun for you!
Create different size ghost or attach two or more to give your earrings a little more depth.
Attach the ghost to a chain or necklace to create a fun Halloween accessory.
Add fun bells or black feathers behind the ghost in your earrings for a more festive look.
Make ghost in lots of different colors and match all your Halloween looks!
For more Cricut crafts, follow me on Creative Fabrica’s The Artistry blog!
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