How to Engrave Dog Tags & Jewelry on a Cricut

Learn how to use the Cricut Maker engraving tool on metal to personalize anodized aluminum dog tags and charms, copper and aluminum bracelets, and brass earrings and pendants! Plus, I share my tip on how to center your design on your metal surface every time!

The new Cricut Maker tools include an engraving tool that I am SO excited about! And when I asked all of you for what projects you most wanted to engrave, you told me dog tags, bracelets, and earrings! And that is exactly what my first projects with the Cricut Maker engraving tool are -- bright and colorful anodized aluminum dog tags and charms, pretty copper bracelets, and a lovely brass drop earrings and necklaces. I literally opened up the package, put the tool in my Maker, loaded up a mat with a blank, and engraved it!

MATERIALS LIST (contains my affiliate links):
* Painter's Tape or Masking Tape

It's important to note that your metal needs to fit in your Maker, and that means it cannot be very thick, as it needs to fit on a mat and under the engraving tool. My research shows that the thickest metal you can reliably engrave on is 14 gauge, which is 5/64th or .078 of an inch. That's LESS than 1/8th of an inch. If you aim for something between 1/16th and 1/8th of an inch, you should be right on target. Of course, that means no corrugated metals or metals with other indents or reliefs.

Step 1: Get my Engraving Templates

This step is optional, but it's really helpful to have a template of what you're engraving so you can properly size it. I've made an engraving template of the projects I engraved in this tutorial, but you can also just use the Shape tool in Cricut to make circles, ovals, squares, and rectangles in the shape of your engraving blank.

Step 2: Create or Find a Design For Your Engraving Blank

If you'd like to just put text on your metal dog tag, charm, or bracelet, it's simple! Click the Text tool, type the text you want to appear, and pick a font.

Now resize the text to fit the engraving blank you intend to use. Note that you may want to change the letter spacing so the letters are closer together, especially if you choose a cursive font as I did. If you need finer control over your text, select it, click on More, Advanced, Ungroup to Letters, and then you can manually move each letter into place until you are happy (when you're done, be sure to select all of those letters and click Attach).

Step 3: Change Your Design Linetype to Engrave (and HIDE your Templates)

Once you have a design made, make sure it is all attached with itself and then go to the Linetype menu and change it to "Engrave."

You need to HIDE the template so the ONLY thing you see is the design you want to put on your engraving blank. To hide a layer, select it and click the Eye icon next to its name in the layer panel on the left.

#cricut #cricutmade #engraving

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Credits:
Introduction: PixelBytes (my child!)
Music: Cute by Bensound (licensed, royalty and copyright free)
Videography: Jennifer Marx on a Panasonic Lumix FZ-1000 DSLR 4K camera
Design: A Jennifer Maker original!

[cherylriverside]

I’m so excited! I just engraved my first item and it turned out perfectly. I couldn’t have done it without your video and templates. Thanks to your video, I felt like I had a personal tutor. Thank you SO much!

[carolcrowell]

Thank you, Jennifer, for all your hard work, tutorials and free library items. You are concise and encouraging. I only got my Maker 3 at Christmas … you have taught me so much. My sweet dog sadly passed away unexpectedly a few months ago. I ordered your Amazon name plate suggestion and will attempt to create a name plate for her ashes in a wooden box. Thanks again, so much.

[kentuckyhomegirl]

SIGH, I’ve yet to purchase the maker — it’s only the EA II that I’ve embraced. It looks like a maker lies in my future.

I absolutely love and appreciate your kind soul and your desire to share what you love as well as your knowledge with so many who crave such information placed into step by step tutorials. I have been a silent watcher for so long and I had to mention this. You’re truly my favorite of this on YT. You’re appreciated.

Hugs from Kentucky.

[brandicaldwell]

I just have to tell you that I love you so much!! Before I bought my first Cricut I watched a ton of videos to do my homework and I quickly discovered you. You are my ALL TIME FAVORITE person to watch on video. The information that you have provided to me has been invaluable and has made my cricut experience a wonderful one!! I actually just upgraded to the cricut maker! I love how you give all the information, but do it in a very simple, quick, and precise way. I always find out what I need to know from your videos and I learn something new every time I watch one! Thank you, thank you, thank you for what you do!! You have made my life so much easier and fun by watching your videos! I would love to meet you one day and be able to express my gratitude to you in person. Keep up the great work and know that what you do matters BIG!!

[rondaschafer]

Great tutorial! I love how you walk us through how to put the materials on the mats and feeding it in the machine. Thanks!!

[jjlovelovelovelove]

Oh Wow!! This is AMAZING!! You have NO clue how happy this video made me. My circuit maker is coming on Monday and I’ve came up with the idea of making my own labels for my bags. The thought of trying to afford them not only delayed me from starting but has stressed me out. This was so helpful and very informative, not to mention, very cool. This was a life saver and so are the Cricut machines. Thank you Jennifer 🙏🏾

[rinasmith]

Thank you for explaining this in a way that makes sense! I can’t wait to try this.

[carolestrong]

I love this tutorial video! After buying a pack of 10- dog bone shaped tags from Temu, I only messed up twice on the first one, but 3rd time was a charm! Thank you Jennifer! 🌹

[janegalway]

TFS have been a little Leary of trying to use the engraving tip, you make it look easy!

[simplycatalinacreates]

The most in depth tutorial I have ever seen! Thank you SO much. I just got a maker yesterday and I am SO excited & watching all your videos!

[daunakammerer]

Jennifer THANK YOU!!! I made a bracelet for my sister after watching this tutorial. it came out beautiful!

[goldberie]

Another clear, quick moving video explaining something I thought would be much more difficult. I didn’t think about centering the blanks on the mat, sure glad you did! I ordered some blanks last week then realized I didn’t know how to line up the type in them! Thank you!

[jaclynstoner]

Thank you so much for mentioning that you only need to purchase the tip if you already have the scoring tool bc I was about to buy the whole thing.. Haha you probably just saved me 50 dollars! Thank you again! Love your videos.. 😊

[robins]

Hi Jennifer, i have always found youtube to be the best tool in the toolbox, and i have now discovered the best demonstrator.
Your cricut presentations are masterful without any waffle at all. Thanks very much from the UK

[mpatriciacasillas]

Jennifer your videos are just fabulous! Can't wait to use my new tips!

[elliemcgettigan]

I did my first engraving after watching your video. They came out so nice. I was wondering why a couple were slightly off - you answered exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you for another great video!!

[FFMMA]

Jennifer, thank you so much. Your videos are so helpful. They're my "study sessions" to learn more about the cricut maker. :) Keep up the great work.

[lilyrettke]

Jennifer!!! WHY DIDN'T I WATCH THIS SOONER?!?!?! You just saved me... THANK YOUUU!

[abbystone]

Thank you Jennifer!! You're always so clear and I appreciate that.

[BuffyLK]

Your the best!!! So glad to have you on YouTube to help me figure this out!😉😊