Cricut Projects? Make a bracelet

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The Cricut is the machine of many marvelous wonders. The Cricut projects that you can create are plentiful. If you have an imagination this little machine will bring you hours of joy and creativity. For those who have read our blog before will know I tend to focus on t-shirt design and creation. In fact I have used this machine to create many designs for my picky daughters. Read here for information about that.

I have mainly used our Cricut for paper, vinyl and heat transfer vinyl cutting. As a Cricut owner I have constantly been searching for new ways and new things to create with the  our Cricut.  This project came to me after I decided that I needed to branch out in my projects and items I use to cut with my machine.

I found many people creating earrings out of leather and faux leather material. Considering that I have four females in my household. I thought that this sounded promising. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that bracelets might be a better way to go.

You can see some stuff I designed during my day job here at Yellowhair Buckles. With my experience in designing bracelets and buckles. I thought using leather as my medium and doing it with bracelets would be unique. Especially with the customization I am used to.

So for one of my my latest Cricut projects I bring you customized leather bracelets. The materials needed for this project are.

Important stuff

1 Leather, In my case I went with faux leather. I live is Small Town USA with a population and specialty products availability appropriately small. I could have been patient and ordered some but I wanted to get this project going. In picking out your material make sure you go for thin.  After the intial writing of this post I found that Cricut sells genuine leather to use. Go here to check it out if you’re interested.

2 Jewelry findings. What I mean by findings is the parts you will use to attach to your bracelet so it will stay on your wrist. For my design I needed some necklace chain, jump rings and a lobster claw enclosure. I will provide links and pictures of all of these if you don’t know what I am talking about.

3 Computer and Cricut. The necessity of these two machines are obvious. My Cricut machine is currently the Explore One. I have never had any problems with it and it has cut everything I have thrown at it. I need to upgrade eventually.   Here is a great deal on the Cricut maker which will be my next buy.  We will see when that happens. For now, I plan on cutting with the explore one and having fun.

Decisions, Decisions

Now on to the Cricut project “Bracelet creation”. If you are artistically endowed, this part will be easy for you. If you are artistically challenged like myself this will require some google skills. One of your first decisions will be to decide the length and width of your bracelet. Now for those artists out there you need to draw some flowing scroll work to fit your desired bracelet pattern.  For those challenged artistically as myself can search on Google for scroll work. When you get to your images click on tools, usage rights and then labeled for reus.

Once you have settled on your initial shape and design. You need to decide if you are going for straight design or if you plan on customizing your bracelet. As you can see by the design I went with the customization. I messed with the design so I could customize it with a special word. I chose a word that my daughter uses to describe everything. That is “SKETCHY”.

Project Design

When you customize by adding words, you need to make sure your outside bracelet has a solid structure. Your wording and your scroll design all have to connect to keep your design stabilized and strong enough to with stand normal wear use of the bracelet. I included some initial designs pictures to show how and where I didn’t make sure that everything connected. It will become obvious of the design weakness and strengths.

Cricut bracelet cutting time

Measure your material with appropriate room on the edges to make sure there is ample space. Make sure to place your faux leather  side down. The white side is a fibrous material that will mess up your mat by taking away the stickiness of it.  So make sure the leather side is down. Your cutting time will vary depending on the complexity of your design. My design was around three to five minutes. If you are using Cricut you will be using design space.

When you load your mat to be cut, make sure you set your dial to custom. They have a leather setting but it is for paper thin leather. There is a thicker faux leather option which I used and it worked perfectly for me. Out of all of the designs that I have cut, be they small curved scroll work or large lettering, the Cricut cut them perfectly.

Finishing touches

When your designs are cut, remove the leather. Their won’t be much weeding involved. Most of the weeding will stay on your mat. You might have a few little spots here and there but nothing too difficult. After you are done weeding it is time to finish up. You need to add one jump ring to each side and then the excess chain will be used as an extender.  Next comes the lobster claw enclosure to finish off your new bracelet.  Just verify that all rings are clamped closed down tightly. You now have a new fashion accessory.

The sky is the limit with this design. You can vary the material color and the design is easy to change.   Of course you make each piece your own through customization. This project like all Cricut projects was fun to create.

My daughter wants to create some and sell to her friends at high school. Can everybody please leave their opinion as to how much she should sell these for in the comments below? Thanks