Handmade Christmas Ornaments from Leather

Last Updated on March 3, 2022

These handmade Christmas ornaments from leather are so unique and add a modern touch to any Christmas tree! Best of all, you can cut leather quickly and easily with the right tool!

If you follow me over on Instagram or have read my last several blog posts, then you know that I made every single ornament on our 9 foot tree this year. It was no small task, but I had fun with it and my sweet girls were able to help a lot, so we had some good mommy-daughter bonding in the process. I made lots of different kinds of ornaments, including DIY photo Christmas ornaments, felt ornaments and wood and leather ornaments. These simple but stylish leather ornaments round out all of my handmade Christmas ornaments tutorials (until I come up with new ornaments to make next year, I'm sure).

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DIY Handmade Christmas Ornaments from Leather Tutorial

MATERIALS NEEDED:

Cricut Leather (I used the gold, silver and cranberry colors)
Cricut Maker cutting machine
- If you don't have a cutting machine but are thinking of getting one, you can read my review of Silhouette vs. Cricut machines in this post and my full review of the Cricut Maker in this post.
Cricut StrongGrip transfer paper
Cricut cutting mat
Ribbon or suede cord
Cricut Iron On (I used glitter gold)
Cricut EasyPress or high-quality iron
Blanket or towel
Scissors
Weeding tool
Optional (but REALLY helpful for weeding the glitter iron on) is the Cricut BrightPad

STEPS:

If you’d like a video overview of this project, click below.

1) Create your designs in Cricut Design Space.

You can click here to access my leather Christmas tree ornaments design file.
You can click here to access my leather Christmas star ornaments design file.
You can click here to access my leather Christmas circle ornaments with iron on words design file.
You can click here to access my leather Christmas tree ornaments with year and word cutouts design file.

2) For the stars and Christmas tree ornaments, all you have to do is cut them out and attach ribbon or suede cord to hang them. After I cut my first few ornaments by placing the leather directly on my cutting mat, I had this “AHA!” moment where I realized that if I put Cricut StrongGrip transfer paper down on the cutting mat and then place the leather on top of that, I wouldn't have to worry about leaving such a mess on my cutting mat. I highly recommend it!

3) If you are making the leather Christmas ornaments with glitter iron on, you will want to cut out both the leather ornament circles AND the iron on transfer words. Then weed your iron on designs. I used my Cricut BrightPad to weed my red glitter iron-on and it made it SO much easier to see the cut lines.

4) While you are weeding, heat your iron or Cricut EasyPress, setting the temperature to 340 degrees and the timer to 20 seconds. Be sure to use a towel, blanket or silicone mat under your project to protect the surface you are working on from the heat. Then, place your iron on on your leather circles and iron them on :) The settings worked perfectly for me every time!

4) After you are done, tie on ribbon or suede cord to hang your handmade Christmas ornaments. My sweet girls helped me with this step, thank goodness, because just take a peek at how many we had to do!

I love how these leather handmade Christmas ornaments turned out, especially since I didn't have to cut everything out by hand! I guess they are really semi-handmade Christmas ornaments ;)

If you love these handmade Christmas ornaments, be sure to save the idea to Pinterest or share it on Facebook so you can find it again later. And before you head out, be sure to grab my free Christmas printables!