I used these mermaid tail silhouettes to make some mermaid bows for my daughter the other day.
On this rare occasion, I actually used glitter faux leather. You see, I have this hate hate relationship (as opposed to love hate 🙂 with glitter. It gets everywhere and is nearly impossible to clean up. It drives me nuts but everything made for little girls from clothes to accessories has glitter on it.
If it was all makeup grade glitter, I’d be a little bit more okay with it but I now it’s not because some of it is really cheaply made and I can almost guarantee the manufacturers did not insure the glitter was cut properly as not be dangerous if it gets in someone’s eye.
I’m probably being overly paranoid but better safe than sorry.
Anyways, the glitter faux leather I used for these mermaid tail bows were surprisingly pretty good as in the glitter was securely glued on and it didn’t get everywhere.
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Materials for Mermaid Tail Silhouette Bows
Faux Leather – This is the variety pack I got from Amazon with the glitter faux leather that worked out really well. There are lots of other cute colors and patterns in this set for other leather projects.
Glue – I like E6000 for bow making the best.
Clips – I like these smooth alligator clips for bows.
Cricut – I use a cutting machine to do some of the cutting for this project. This of course is optional but it sure makes things go faster. Check out my reviews for Best Cricut machines for beginners if you’re new to the Cricut.
Templates – this set of mermaid tail clipart printable PDF and mermaid tail SVGs are free and available in my free resource library.
Tips for assembling the mermaid tail bow
First, cut out all the pieces from the templates.
My preferred method for cutting faux leather is to use the rotary blade with the Cricut maker. You can use a lighter grip mat for this. Place the smooth side of the leather on the mat.
If you only have a Cricut Explorer, I would pick a stiffer faux leather and consider using at least a Standard Grip mat if not the strong grip mat. Otherwise, the leather pulls and snags on the blade.
For glitter faux leather, I just cut the template out on a piece of paper and then hand cut the glitter leather. I do this because otherwise the glitter ruins the mat.
If you don’t have any E6000 on hand, I would consider using a hot glue gun or super glue. Both are not perfect and doesn’t last as long as the E6000 but it is still better than other polymer based glues.
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When you assemble the sideways mermaid bow, do you just make another tail and make it a few inches smaller and glue that on top? I notices your svg only has one layer so I was wondering what the size difference for the second one was before I cut it with my cricut! Thanks!
Hi Sarah, Yes, you are correct – that’s the way to do it 🙂