How to Cut Leather with Silhouette CAMEO

leather bow headband

So I have been DYING to craft with leather for awhile now! Leather is a growing in popularity in the crafting industry and I just knew I needed to find a way to cut it into cool designs. So over the weekend, I decided to have a little powwow with my handy Silhouette CAMEO to see if it could hack the leather…..And I am happy to confirm, that you CAN cut leather with your Silhouette CAMEO!

leather bowYes, this just made my year! Of course, I wanted to start small, so my first leather craft was for little Miss D. I made her some adorable Leather Bow headbands!I bought some leather scraps on etsy to so that I could play around with it and try out different leathers to see what worked well with the CAMEO. leather bows

how to cut leather with silhouette cameo

How to Cut Leather with Silhouette CAMEO Tutorial


cutting leather with silhouette I found that Lambskin or 1 or 2 oz non-bonded leather can be cut with a Silhouette CAMEO.  The thickness and softness of the leather are crucial to your success of cutting it. Do NOT use suede!  Lambskin cut like butter with my CAMEO.

NOTE: I have not tried cutting leather with my Silhouette Portrait yet, but it should cut the same as the Cameo.

cutting leatherI placed my leather scrap onto the cutting with smooth side up and made sure it adhered well to the cutting mat. I used an almost new cutting mat so it was still very sticky. A thick media cutting mat would be a good idea for cutting leather. *Please keep in mind that your cutting mat will get very messy after cutting leather! See this post for tips to restick your cutting matsilhouette studio leather cut settingsI then used a bow design from the Silhouette online store and adjusted the size. Then I used the following cut settings:

  • Blade: 10
  • Speed: 1
  • Thickness: 33
  • Double Cut boxed checked

ALWAYS do a test cut to make sure the cut settings work for your specific leather! Some leathers may need to be run through the Cameo a second time. {so the design is cut 4 times.}

Here’s a video of my first attempt at cutting Leather With a Silhouette CAMEO:
 Sorry I forgot to flip my phone sideways. I was so anxious to see if it would be able to cut it! The red leather in the video is lambskin, which I think cuts the best. Most of the other leathers I cut were 1 or 2 oz leathers.

Peeling the leather off the cutting mat video. This shows you how clean it cuts.
leather-bow-cut-outs Here are the pieces of the bow after I cut them. You’ll notice that for one of the bows, I cut the center out of fabric with my Silhouette CAMEO.  {click here for a tutorial on how to cut fabric with your Silhouette}leather bow tutorial

Leather Bow Headband Tutorial

how-to-make-leather-bow Then I used some hot glue to assemble the bows. You simply take the longest piece and fold the two ends to the center and hot glue them in place. Then glue the smaller piece to the back of the loops.

leather bow headband tutorial Then hot glue the bow center in place. If you want to use the bow as a headband, glue the ends of the elastic underneath the center of the bow and then glue the center over the top, as shown above.

leather bow headband tutorialI had fun with the centers of my bows. I used lace, ribbon, and fabric for a fun twist on the classic leather bow.

So, in case you’ve ever wondered how to cut leather with Silhouette CAMEO, there you go! I had a blast cutting leather and see a lot more leather crafts in my future.

Have you crafted with Leather? What have you used to cut leather? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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Linda
Hi! I'm Linda, the craft addict behind Craftaholics Anonymous®, a craft blog. Crafting is cheaper than therapy, right? When I'm not DIYing something, I can be found taxiing around our 4 crazy kids or working out. Or shoe shopping... because you can never have too many shoes! Happy crafting! ♥
Linda
Linda

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