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MAKE A HTV LEATHER KEYRING USING CRICUT
Use our FREE SVG and template design to make a cute (and long-lasting!) keyring. This little project is simple to do. All you need is your trusty die-cutter, a little HTV, some Leather, glue and a heat press!
Here we’ve included our ‘My heart belongs to America’ design, but you can personalise your key ring with any one of our designs. Mix up the leather to brown or black leather to make this project all yours.
So without further ado, here is our 12 step guide to creating your very own leather keychain. Don’t forget to check out our video for the visual guide!
This design comes with a personal or commercial license, but please do not re-sell or re-distribute the files. To download the free ‘My Heart Belongs To America’ SVG below.
Materials
- FREE My Heart Belongs To America SVG
- Cricut genuine leather (rose gold)
- Black HTV
- A green standard grip mat
- A purple strong grip mat
- Contact cement for leather
- Keychain
- Cricut easy press mat or towel
Tools
- Cutting machine (Cricut maker, Silhouette or Explore)
- Fine-point blade (for cutting vinyl)
- Deep-point blade (for cutting leather)
- Weeding tool
- A heat press or iron
What you’ll need…
Instructions
- Upload the ‘My Heart Belongs To America’ project file into design space. The project will contain our free ‘My Heart Belongs To America SVG’ as well as the scalloped keyring design.
2. Click ‘Make it’ and make sure to MIRROR your design. You must always do this when using HTV. Choose ‘iron-on vinyl’ as the base material type.
3. Place your HTV on the mat shiny side up and load it in to your machine (a green mat is fine). Use a fine-point blade to cut out the SVG design.
4. Weed the design using your weeding tool
5. Next you’ll want to cut the leather. Select ‘genuine leather’ as your next base material. Swap your blade from a fine-point to a deep-point blade as instructed in Design Space and get your purple strong-grip mat ready.
6. Load your leather on to the purple mat (fuzzy side up).
7. Move all of your star rollers to the right. You should always do this when cutting leather. Not doing so will cause the rollers to mark your material.
8. Cut the template and pull the excess material away
9. Prepare your heat press. For my design, 150C for 25 seconds worked well. To double-check the heat settings (highly recommended) head to Cricuts official heat press guide. Once done, peel away the plastic and leave to cool. If your design doesn’t stick immediately, heat again for 5 seconds and try again.
10. Paint the fuzzy underside of the leather with contact cement using a paintbrush and press together until sealed. Do make sure that your adhesive is made for leather rubber cement is not appropriate!
11. Attach your keyring to the centre hook of the keyring
12. And there you have it. A gorgeous (and hardy) little keyring to keep…or give as a gift!
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