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DIY Metal Garden Markers

Make these DIY metal garden markers with your Cricut machine and an engraving tool!
15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Author Angie Holden

What You Will Need

  • Metal garden markers
  • Cricut Maker Engraving Tool or Cricut Explore Metal Engraving Tool
  • Cricut machine
  • Strong grip mat
  • Strong grip transfer tape
  • Stamp enamel marker
  • Brayer
  • Paper towels

Instructions

Making Your Design

  • The first thing is to add your text to Design Space. The font I'm using is called Close to my Heart Flower Market 1. I found this font by searching Cricut fonts, clicking “filters”, and filtering for writing fonts. This will make fonts that are not an outline, but that actually draw with a pen, or in this case, the engraving tip. I put my three words onto my canvas, changed my machine to Maker 3, and changed the operation to engrave. Before you do this, make sure each word is the size you want it to be. I wanted mine to be .1875 tall and then whatever length they turned out to be. I made sure that both the length and the width would work on my garden markers.

Adding to a Mat

  • I'm going to use these metal garden markers from ImpressArt that come in a kit. They already come with some engraving on them which means you just need to add the words for whatever you're planting. Start by cutting a piece of strong grip transfer tape to where it'll fit the garden markers you want to engrave. Then, you're going to turn that down on your mat. Remember we're going to locate the blanks on this mat in the exact same location that they're located in Cricut Design Space. Put your transfer tape in the right spot, roll over that with a brayer to make sure it's down really well. Then, just peel away the backing, leaving the transfer tape on your mat.
  • Remove any blue protective film on both sides of the blank. Put the blanks' engraving side up on your mat where the transfer tape is located. Use the white lines on the mat to line everything up. Use a brayer to press them down well.
  • Now you want to locate the engraved words in Cricut Design Space. Click “make it” then move each around on the mat that is on your screen. Just click and drag each word until it is located in the same area as your blank that is on the actual mat. You can zoom in on this mat to help you locate it a little bit better. Once I have everything exactly the way I want it to look, I am going to click “continue”.

Engraving the Garden Markers

  • I picked stainless steel as my material. Move the white star wheels over to the right. They should not be on the transfer tape or the garden marker. Press your mat all the way to the left against the guides and press the arrow to load it. Then, you can press go to start engraving. Once it's done, you can unload your mat.

Finishing the Garden Markers

  • To finish these off, first, you want to remove them from the mat. I'm just going to pick up the transfer tape and remove the garden markers. You may notice a little bit of debris on the markers as the metal was etched. I like to pick that up with my transfer tape. Repeat for each of the garden markers.
  • Once these are removed, it's time to make the engraving pop a little bit with a stamp enamel marker. I like to go over the engraving I just did as well as what's already on the marker. Use a stamp enamel marker in the color of your choice. Color all over the engraving and allow it to sit a few minutes.
  • Wipe away the excess marker with a paper towel. This step is optional, but I personally love my stamp enamel markers.