Back-Pack Charms for Students

The design is simple, but I had to start with measuring the metal tag and drawing it up in xTool Creative Space.  I included the hole so that I could make sure to avoid it with any design elements. i set the tag design on the red layer and set those elements to “ignore” so they would not process.

For the front, I wanted the message to be bold, and resemble a smiley face. So I used the “Be The” as an allusion to eyes and nose, then used the curved text feature to resemble a smiling mouth. These I put on the blue layer

For the back, I opened another tab and copied the tag objects to the new tab. I then used the curved text feature to make the school name surround the date. I ended up doing the 3 words of the school name as separate objects so make sure the layout worked.

I used the “L” bracket to help me align the tag. Once I got it turned the way I wanted it, I used a black sharpie to mark the hole. That way I can easily add the next tag and align the hole correctly.

I used the “outline” framing feature to make sure everything was correct for the first one. once I got the design framed onto the tag correctly, I started the processing. Up to this point, I used about 10minutes of my time. The laser time per face was 1 minute and 31 seconds.

I had 100 tags to process total. After the first one, I replaced the tag with a new one, making sure to align the hole to the sharpie mark, the double-clicked the knob to start engraving. I repeated this for all 100 tags. Once I had all the fronts laserd I repeated the process of framing the back face, then re-ran all 100 tags to engrave the backs.

Once all the laser work was finished I could assemble the charms.

The charms consist of 4 parts:

1. Metal Tag
2. Key Ring
3. Globe Charm
4. Swivel Lanyard Clips

First, I put the tag and the clasp onto the key ring.

Then, i made sure to orient the globe correctly and placed it onto the key ring so that it did not cover the front message.