Learn about cricut ideas for valentine’s day Cricut machine, sublimation printer, or any other craft you can imagine! Angie Holden shares her crafting tips so you can craft like a pro! This post and photos may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. If you purchase something through any link, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.
Any supplies used may be given to me free of charge, however, all projects and opinions are my own. You definitely read that title right! Today we’re engraving metal with Cricut Explore Air 2. This project can be made in any Explore machine, as well as any Maker machine. I finally found a tool I could recommend for the Explore series and engraving metal.
I have been asked hundreds of times for this tutorial and finally, I have the solution for you! So, keep reading and then start creating! Engraving Metal with Cricut Explore You can actually just click play on the video below and watch me use this tool. I think you will really be amazed at how well it engraves and how my Christmas ornaments turn out! Can’t watch the video or miss some of the steps? Be sure to keep reading for more information!
Cricut Explore Engraving Tool Let’s talk a little bit about the tool. The tool is an engraving metal tool and it says it can be used in the Explore or the Maker. First of all, I’ve only used it in my Explore Air 2. Second of all, the tool is not made by Cricut, so you do run the risk of voiding your warranty on your machine if you use this tool. My machine is an older machine, so I’m really not worried about it. Once again, I’m going to use my Explore Air 2.
This tool does fit any of the Explore machines, and it comes with instructions for what your setting should be for any machine you’re using. It comes with the little cap that goes in the end. You will need to remove that to use it. Then it also comes with a brief instruction sheet on settings to use with your Cricut machine. As we were chatting, they mentioned a tool that could engrave and it said it could be used on the Explore.
I’ve been looking for a good tool recommendation for the Explore just to try metal engraving for months now. I finally had a really good recommendation and I decided to try it. Designing your Project We are going to be engraving metal Christmas ornaments today. If you want to make some cute metal ornaments engraved with the child’s name, this is the perfect way to do that. You could also engrave things like a baby’s first Christmas or a couples’ first Christmas together. You can engrave whatever you want on these ornaments, just as long as you can put the text into Design Space. First, you’ll want to get your names into Cricut Design Space.
If you’re using your Explore, I would suggest a skinny font. We have to use a cut operation because we are tricking the machine a bit. The Explore does not have an engrave operation so we will be using a cut instead. With the cut, your project will look better with a skinny font. If you are doing this with a Maker machine, you can pick an engrave operation and you can actually pick a writing style for your font. To find a writing font, filter the fonts by writing and you get ones that are a single line. I’m going to use two different blanks for my ornaments.
With the first, the word can be about one inch wide. With the other, it can only be about half an inch wide. I put the names I’m going to use into Design Space. I picked the one that was the longest and I made it a font size of 43 to get my length. Then I made all three of the names for engraving the same font size. This ensures that your names look similar when engraving and will look good as a set.
I am using the same font for both of my ornaments and that is DTC Spring Charm. Again, you can pick any font you would like, but remember that with the cut, it is going to go all the way around the outside edge, like an outline. This is why I like a skinnier font for this project. I also changed the words for my first project to one color and the words for my second to a different color. Pick each of the names and move them around on the mat to where your blanks are located.