How to Engrave Wood with the Cricut Maker

Hello and welcome., This is Angie with the countrychiccottage.net., So I & # 39 ve been asked many many times. Will the Cricut engraver engrave wood? I & # 39 m here today to answer that question. We are going to take Cricut basswood and we & # 39 re gon na see if we can engrave it.. So this is the basswood that & # 39 s made by Cricut.. This is the one that I & # 39 m gon na test.. I find it the best for cutting with the Cricut Maker overall, so it & # 39 s, the one that I & # 39 m gon na test.. I don & # 39 t think so. Balsa wood can also be cut with the Maker.. The basswood is the stronger of the two.. The balsa wood is so flimsy. I don & # 39 t, find it useful for a lot of projects.. So I & # 39 m, not gon na try it with the engraving tool.. I find the basswood would be a better option, because at least you can make some sort of project with it.. What are we gon na make with it? We & # 39 re. Actually gon na make some earrings with it.. First let & # 39 s. Take a look at the materials we & # 39 re gon na use, and then we & # 39 ll get started on our project.. We & # 39 re, actually gon na make some earrings with this tutorial.. So again you & # 39. Ll need your wood that you & # 39 re gon na engrave.. I & # 39 m gon na use the basswood from Cricut, and this is the six by 12 size and there & # 39 s four pieces in this pack. The size doesn & # 39 t matter.. As long as its the basswood it & # 39 s fine., Then you & # 39 ll need some stain and I like to use an industrial hole, punch to actually punch my holes for my earrings, because the knife blade doesn & # 39 t. Do a really great job on super small holes. And you & # 39 ll need some light-grit sandpaper. This is a 150 and you & # 39. Ll need some jewelry pliers and some findings.. So I have like the hooks for earrings. I have gold and silver and jump rings in both colors as well.. So let & # 39 s, talk about the basswood itself and how to engrave it.. But first let & # 39 s head to Cricut Design Space and take a look at some of the tips and tricks for designing your project.. So here are some tips and tricks when designing your project.. So I & # 39 m just gon na design. Another version of this same project., So I & # 39 m just making some wood earrings and I & # 39 m. Just gon na make a circle that & # 39 s 1-1/2 by 1-1/2, and I & # 39 m gon na change. These all to the same color & # 39 cause. I & # 39 m, cutting them all out of wood.. So this is our cut piece.. You can see that the line type is cut. The fill is no fill.. Now we want an engraving piece., So we can do a few different things.. We could add another shape., So I could add a diamond.. I could resize this diamond to fit inside my circle.. So let & # 39 s. Try let & # 39 s. Do a height of 1-1/2, and then I could change this diamond to engrave. And to get all these options in this window. You will wan na make sure that Maker is picked as your machine, and then we can pick engrave and you & # 39. Ll also want to remember that the knife blade can only be used with a computer. It cannot be used with a iPad or iPhone or anything like that.. So now that we have an engraved diamond, we can put that inside our circle and we can align and center those up.. Now I find the best results if the engraving goes over twice.. So what I do is copy the engraving and paste, and then we pick the engraving itself, and this is at .77 position and .881 and then I just remember those and do .77 .881., And now those are one on top of one another. On top of the circle, and now I pick all three items and attach. And then copy and paste for a set of earrings.. Now let & # 39 s, look at a few more ways that you could make earrings.. So let & # 39 s. Make again a 1-1/2-inch circle make that yellow.? Now? What? If you just wanted some engraving lines, You can pick the score line and from here you can alter the size. You can alter the angle and then instead of score, we want that to engrave.. Once again, you would copy and paste and put one over the other, so it would engrave twice over the same line and that & # 39 s. How I made these lines in this set here.. So let & # 39 s, delete that off and let & # 39 s. Take a look at this earring here. It actually has a design on it. So how would you do that? You would go to Images and you & # 39 re gon na search for images that are draw only - and here I searched for mandala and I click Draw Only under Art Type., And then we & # 39 ll wan na search through here and find something Fairly simple., So anything super complicated is not gon na work great with the engraving tool.. I will just note that., So we & # 39 ll pick something that we can make that will be fairly simple.. So let & # 39 s pick this one, and maybe we can do Contour., Okay. So on this one, what we can do is pick Contour in the lower right-hand corner and then once we have Contour picked, we can pick some of these items and turn them off to simplify our design.. So let & # 39 s just say we just wanted. Maybe these outside portions., We can turn all this off and then take a look. And so kind of simpler, and then you could use the entire thing like I & # 39 ve done here with the star or you could use the slice function and slice a Portion of that off and just have a portion of it on your circle and then you would delete off anything. You didn & # 39 t want., So I could delete off this and then you would need to weld back the two yellow pieces together and now, once again let & # 39 s, move this one to the back.. So once again I have a circle with an engraving on top and then I would repeat the same procedures with copying it and making two of those. But I & # 39 m. Actually just gon na delete this one and go with just these four designs.. So now let & # 39 s. Take a look at how to cut those.. We do have a separate video, no cutting wood and I will link to that below, but just a brief refresher.. So you wan na put your wood on a StrongGrip mat and then you wan na bray. It down really really well make sure it & # 39 s stuck and then we wan na tape it down really well.. So I just have some long strips of tape.. I like to tape it all the way around and in each corner., So I like it like really taped just so it does not move at all. While I & # 39 m trying to cut. And just make sure just burnish that down really well so it doesn & # 39 t move at all., Then I just like to add another piece on all the corners on top of what I & # 39 Ve already added. And you do wan na make sure that the tape doesn & # 39 t go over the edge of this mat here., And now this mat is ready to cut and engrave.. Now we & # 39 re ready to click that Make It button in Cricut Design Space.. So I & # 39 m using those six by 12 sheets.. So I will need to move my earrings around making sure they & # 39 re all within the limits of my material size., And then we & # 39 re gon na click Continue.. Now, what you & # 39 re gon na notice is that there are many materials grayed out.. They only have the materials that they say can be engraved listed.. shower suction handles will not find basswood on this list., However. The Tooling Leather 6.7-ounce setting will engrave and cut the basswood., So we & # 39 re gon na pick that setting and click Done and then you & # 39 ll notice. It tells you to load your engrave tip in clamp B and that coming up is your knife blade.. So we & # 39 re gon na load, the engraving tip, allow it to engrave, and then it will ask us, the machine will stop and it & # 39. Ll ask us to switch to the knife blade.. So let & # 39 s, load that engraving tip and get to cutting.. I & # 39 ve, already moved my star wheels all the way to the right, and now I & # 39 m, going to remove my knife blade from my Maker.. I & # 39 m gon na add my engraving tip on the housing close the clamp., And now I & # 39 m gon na add the mat that we just made with my basswood attached.. Then we & # 39 re gon na press, the C for the engraving to begin.. Now that the engraving & # 39 s done, the computer is prompting me to remove the engraving tool and add my knife blade.. So I & # 39 ll load that in clamp B and press the C. So your Cricut will cut 16 passes.. I find that 15 or 16 is just about right, and now we can head over and finish these off. All right. So now that our cuts are done, we can start removing these from the mat and you can probably just pop them out, but you may wan na, take the whole sheet off the mat.. So you can just take the tape off and start peeling that sheet back., And you can see that some of them will just like fall out and others may just be hung just a little bit and if they & # 39 re hung quite a bit. You can just use a craft knife and like a protect your work surface and just finish that cut., Sometimes in the corners it & # 39 s not cut as well.. So we may finish the cut on these two. To do that. We & # 39, ll use a cutting mat and then we & # 39 ll just use our craft knife just sorta get in there.. Now you can cut it like one more pass on the Cricut itself, but note that you know some of these circles were just falling out and the more passes you go over the top of that. The more those circles are gon na be digging into and ruining your mat and it & # 39 s normally like just these corner pieces, and you can just sorta pop those out with this craft knife and save the life of your mat. And there & # 39 s, the other rectangle, and then these triangles look like along this edge, just hung just a little bit. And we can just pop those out.. And now we can finish off our wood pieces., So you might not be able to tell, but the engraving is really rough., So it kind of just digs up the wood so that & # 39 s where that light-grit sandpaper comes in.. So we & # 39 re gon na go with the grain of the wood and we & # 39 re, just gon na tear off a little piece of sandpaper and it does not require much sanding at all.. We & # 39 ll, just go with the grain and knock off that rough from where it dug into the wood with the engraving. And then once you knock off enough, you & # 39 ll have a fairly clean engraving.. Now it & # 39 s, not the cleanest engraving, but it does make a really cool effect when stained.. So you can see that it & # 39 s, not much of an effect on raw wood., Like you can see it, but just barely, but once we stain it, it & # 39 s really gon na pop off.. So I & # 39 ll just continue and sand all these pieces, and then we & # 39 ll, break out the stain and look at what an effect that has.. All right here are our earrings and they & # 39 re sanded and I cleaned them as well.. Now I will note that the ones with the more intricate design, the engraving, does not look as good as like the straight line ones.. So I would note that keep your designs as simple as possible when doing engraving on basswood with the Cricut.. The first thing we & # 39 re gon na do is poke our holes. And again I & # 39 m gon na use this industrial hole punch just to get a cleaner hole.. I & # 39 m using a Crop-A-dile.. I & # 39 ll link to all the supplies I & # 39 m using in the description below, but you can use like they make different brands.. I personally love this Crop-A-Dile.. I use it all the time for all sorts of things., So I & # 39 m. Just gon na get my holes approximately in the center and then we just punch through.. So there & # 39 s one and I & # 39 ll. Just continue to do the holes on all of these blanks. All right now that we have a hole in all of our blanks. We & # 39 re, just gon na stain our wood.. So I like to stain these on the front as well as the back and the sides for like a more finished look when they & # 39 re hanging on your ear.. So we & # 39 re gon na stain the fronts allow that to dry, and then we & # 39 ll turn around and stain the back.. So when you & # 39, re staining you wan na get down in those engraving lines, and I have my I & # 39 m on a scrap piece of paper, so you may wan na get a scrap piece of paper as well., And so I & # 39 m gon na stain the front, as well as around this outer edge, and then we & # 39 ll, just use a rag and wipe off the stain., And so that & # 39 s. When you & # 39 re engraving, really pops out is when you get that stain in there and then you can see that dark, engraving line.. So here are my sample pieces and this one & # 39 s actually engraved just one time, and this is the one where I engraved it twice and went over it twice.. So the lines just get a little bit deeper and then they get darker when you stain them.. So I liked the engraving twice, but you can just go over it once like in this example., So that & # 39 s. Just a note from some of my sample pieces., So I & # 39 m. Just gon na continue staining these earrings, allowing them to dry and then staining the back.. So here are those engraved wood designs as the stain dries.. So you can see the engraving up. Close. Kinda see how good it is.. I & # 39 m kind of impressed, especially for projects like this super small. Simple lines does actually a fairly good job. And these the more complicated designs they & # 39 re, not as clean, but they & # 39 re still fairly cute. So you can kinda see that the engraving is not as clean as the other ones. But overall I think the Maker does a really good job with engraving and so give engraving with wood a try on your Maker.. So I & # 39 m gon na allow these to dry. I & # 39 m gon na stain the back and then we & # 39 re gon na finish off these cute earrings. For each earring you & # 39. Ll need the hook itself, two jump rings, so I & # 39 m using a large one and a small one on each one, and then two pairs of jewelry pliers make this super easy.. So I & # 39 m gon na use. The larger of the two jump rings on the earring itself. Then close that back up use. The smaller jump ring put that, through the larger one, add the hook and close it back up. And there you have a finished earring.. So the answer is the Cricut Maker will engrave basswood and it does a fairly good job. Like overall I & # 39 m impressed.. You saw the earrings. I made like four different pairs.. You could use this project to make your own earrings.. I showed you how to design your own or use those tips and tricks. I gave you to design your own project., Like think of some wood project. Think of some engraving you want on it and just go. Wild have fun with it., Like I said, the more intricate the engraving, the less successful the result is gon na be.. So just keep that in mind as you & # 39 re designing your project, but I mean the basswood isn & # 39 t that expensive. Give it a try test. It use the methods I showed you and see. If engraving wood on your maker is for you., You might wan na start with something simple like these simple earrings, just to kind of get a feel for it, but then just jump in pick a project, make it and see what happens.. Now, if you have any questions about anything, we & # 39 ve covered today, please feel free to ask those in the comments section below.. If you love this video, if you learned something new, be sure to give us a thumbs. Up. You & # 39 ll. Also want to head on over to our YouTube channel hit that Subscribe button.. We have Cricut videos like this all the time and you don & # 39 t wan na miss any of those.. While you & # 39 re there, you might as well scroll back to some of our older videos, because I & # 39 m sure there & # 39 s, something there that you & # 39 re gon na love.. I hope you enjoyed this video.. I hope you & # 39 ve learned a little something and I hope you grab that engraving tool grab that basswood and get started on some projects of your own.. I will leave the links for everything I used in the description below, including the cut file for those earrings. If you want to get started with those. So head there right, now., You might have to click that read more button, but you should find the links there.. Thank y & # 39 all for joining me and I & # 39. Ll, see you next week, bye-bye