Make Wooden Bookmarks on a Cricut cutting machine with wood veneer and our free SVG cut file

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Learn to cut wood veneer on a Cricut cutting machine with this fun, customizable wooden bookmark tutorial!

Did you know that you can cut wood on your Cricut? Yes, the Cricut Makers can do it, but even the Cricut Explores can do it. You just need to use the right wood and the right blade. I’m going to show you exactly how to do that! And to demonstrate, we’re going to make these super cool wooden bookmarks!

Watch me cut and assemble wood veneer and make wood bookmarks in my step-by-step video!

Make Wooden Bookmarks on a Cricut cutting machine with wood veneer and our free SVG cut file

Get the free SVG cut file for this project

 

The best wood to use in a Cricut cutting machine is SUPER THIN wood. That means things like wood veneer or very soft and thin woods like basswood and balsawood. And here’s the important part — the wood needs to be 1/16th of an inch or LESS in thickness. That’s 1.5 mm or less. This is really quite thin!

Now basswood and balsawood are pretty light-colored woods, so if you want a different look than that, go for wood veeners. You can get wood veneers in a wide range of finishes and wood veneers the easiest woods to cut. Veneer will also give you the sharpest cuts. I made these bookmarks from different wood veneers! And they turned out SO good.

Wooden bookmarks in walnut, cherry, and maple wood veneers with hearts, flowers, books, and dolphins

Whatever you do, do NOT use plywood in your Cricut, even if it is one-sixteenth of an inch think — it will not work well, and you’ll waste material and time.

To show you how to cut wood, I’m going to use Cricut Natural Wood Veneer in Maple and Walnut and make these gorgeous wooden bookmarks!

Pretty wooden bookmark with a flower made with wood veneer on a Cricut cutting machine

The right blade for cutting wood veneer like this is the Deep Point Blade that comes in a black housing like shown below. They don’t come default with any Cricut cutting machines, so you’ll need to get it separately. You may see it called a Deep Cut blade, but so long as it is in this black housing, it’s the same blade. The Deep point blade has a steeper blade angle (60 degrees vs 45 degrees for the other fine point blades) and harder, more durable steel.

Cricut Deep Point Blade in the black housing

Now, if you have a Cricut Maker cutting machine, you CAN use the knife blade to cut thin wood, but it’s important to understand that the knife blade is best for cuts of moderate detail, no smaller than ¾”. This includes the size of the interior cuts. So the width of your cuts should not be smaller than the diameter of a pencil. Our bookmarks have finer details than that, so the knife blade is NOT a good blade for this wood veneer bookmark project.

If you’re cutting basswood or balsa wood on a Maker, you will be encouraged to use the knife blade. If you’re on an Explore, you can’t even use the knife blade, so you’ll want to use the deep point blade and then create a custom material setting with a pressure of at least 330 and 4-8 passes. Check out this tutorial on cutting basswood and balsa wood to learn more!

This is another reason why wood veneer is so great — you can cut wood veneer on both the Maker and Explore with the Deep Cut blade and just four passes. It’s the easiest wood to cut on a Cricut! You can see how well it does with these wood veneer earrings I made — I mean, look at this detail!

Cricut Wood Veneer Earrings with intricate cuts

Now, to cut wood, it’s also important to use a sticky machine mat, specifically a purple StrongGrip Machine Cutting Mat. It’s super sticky, which is important as wood is very stiff and hard to cut, so it will want to move around more on your mat. For that reason, we also use painter’s tape to keep the wood in place on the mat, and I’ll show you how to put that on your wood properly, too!

And to get that wood stuck onto your mat REALLY well, you’ll also want to use a brayer, which looks like this. You can roll it over your wood to super stick it on the mat!

Use a brayer to flatten the veneer to the machine mat for my wooden bookmarks project

There’s a few other tools I find useful when cutting wood, such as a craft knife to help clean up the wood after your cut if you need it, a nail file and sandpaper, to smooth your cuts, and a weeding tool to poke out little cuts from your wood.

And those are the basics tools and supplies you need to cut wood on a Cricut!

Jennifer Maker with her wooden bookmarks and Cricuts in her craft studio

So let’s dive right into this by making these pretty wooden bookmarks. This is a great starter project for learning how to cut wood. For this project, you just need some glue — such as Super Glue or Tacky Glue, and some ribbon. You can find a list of the exact materials and supplies linked below, as well as my free bookmark designs to use!

Wooden bookmarks in walnut, cherry, and maple wood veneers with hearts, flowers, books, and dolphins

Let me show you how easy it is to make these wooden bookmarks with wood veneer on a Cricut cutting machine! This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)! Read my full disclosure policy.

Materials to Make Wooden Bookmarks

View my Amazon shopping list with the exact items we used to make this project!

How to Cut Wood Veneer and Make Wooden Bookmarks

These are what some of my finished bookmarks look like from my Wooden Bookmarks project

Wooden Bookmarks

Yield: 5
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Active Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Cost: $7

Join me in making some adorable bookmarks using wood veneer. These are easy to make and would be a perfect gift for the avid reader in your life.

Instructions

STEP 1: GET MY FREE WOODEN BOOKMARKS FILE

First, download Design #319, which is my free Wooden Bookmarks SVG/DXF/PDF from my free resource library. If you're going to cut it on your cutting machine, upload the file to your design software. This is what the Wooden Bookmarks SVG file looks like in Cricut Design Space.

Wooden Bookmark SVG cut file in Cricut Design Space

Tip: If you're not sure how to upload an SVG cut file to Cricut Design Space, watch this helpful video training series I made. If you're on an iPhone or iPad, here's how to download and upload SVG files to the Cricut Design Space app.

STEP 2: CUT THE DESIGN

In Design Space, hide any bookmark layers that you do not want to make by clicking the eye icon for that design. I am going to cut all my designs along with some blank bookmarks in a different veneer finish.

Hiding layers in Cricut Design Space when making wooden bookmarks

The fun part is how you can add your own designs and images to these bookmarks. For example, to add a name to this blank bookmark, begin by clicking Ungroup in the upper right corner so you can work with these bookmarks individually.

Now click on Text over on the left, type in a name, choose a font for it — I'm using Tingler Script — and then move it over onto your bookmark.

Adding text to a wooden bookmark in Cricut Design Space

You can rotate it to match the bookmark by using the rotate handle in the lower right corner of the text -- if you hold down the shift key as you rotate, it'll rotate into a straight position.

Rotating the text into position on the wooden bookmark

Now select both the bookmark and text by clicking and dragging around it -- you can see just those two are now selected by their highlights in the layer panel on the right -- and click the Attach button at the bottom right. Attaching them together means they'll cut out together in these same positions, and then cut the name right out of the bookmark! So cool!

Attaching the name to the bookmark in Cricut Design Space

When you're ready, click Make It in the upper right corner.

If prompted, click "On Mat" and select "Done.”. You will only see this screen if you are using a Cricut Maker 3.

If you have a Maker 3 click on mat for my wooden bookmarks project

Click "Browse All Materials" to set your base material.

Click on Browse All Materials for my Wooden Bookmarks project

Enter veneer in the search field and hit enter. Select Natural Wood Veneer and then click "Done."

Search for and select veneer for my Wooden Bookmarks project

Change the cutting pressure to "More."

Select more pressure for my Wooden Bookmarks project

Apply a sheet of wood veneer on your StrongGrip cutting mat. Make sure the grain of the wood is going top to bottom (vertical).

Place a sheet of veneer onto a mat for my wooden bookmarks project

Use a brayer to make sure the veneer is securely stuck to the mat.

Use a brayer to flatten the veneer to the machine mat for my wooden bookmarks project

Finish by applying painter's tape on all four sides of the veneer to prevent it from slipping.

Tape all four sides of the veneer for my wooden bookmarks project

Insert your Deep-Point Blade into your machine.

Make sure to insert the deep point blade to cut the veneer for my wooden bookmarks project

Load your mat and begin cutting.

Click the button to insert your mat into the machine for my wooden bookmarks project

Click the button to begin cutting the veneer for my wooden bookmarks project

Remove the painter's tape from all four sides of the veneer when your cut is complete. Sometimes I use a weeding tool to help lift the end of the painter's tape.

Remove the tape from the veneer after cutting for my wooden bookmarks project

Flip the mat over and carefully roll the mat away from the veneer to release the bookmarks.

Flip your cutting mat over and peel back away from the veneer to remove it for my wooden bookmarks project

Use a spatula tool to help release the pieces from the mat.

Use a scraper tool to help remove the veneer from the cutting mat for my wooden bookmarks project

The spatula tool is also great at removing those tiny pieces from the mat.

Use a scraper tool to help remove the veneer from the cutting mat for my wooden bookmarks project

Remove any painter's tape that may remain on the bookmark pieces.

Remove excess painter's tape from the veneer for my wooden bookmarks project

Use a standard nail file or a piece of 220 grit sand paper to smooth the edges of the bookmarks, if necessary.

Use a nail file or sand paper to smooth the edges of the bookmark for my wooden bookmarks project

A small needle file or sand paper is helpful to sand the inner edges of the bookmark.

Use a file or sandpaper to smooth the inside of the cuts for my wooden bookmarks project

I use a weeding tool to remove small parts from the cut pieces.

Use a weeding tool to help remove small pieces of veneer for my wooden bookmarks project

A TrueControl Knife Blade is helpful to cut out pieces that need extra help separating from the veneer.

Use a knife blade to remobe stubborn pieces from the veneer for my wooden bookmarks project

STEP 3: ASSEMBLE THE WOODEN BOOKMARKS

I am going to show you a couple different ways that I assembled my wooden bookmarks. Let's make my "read" bookmark design first. For this I am using the design with the book design at the bottom along with the word "read".

Add super glue to the back of the word read.

Add super glue to the back of the word read for my wooden bookmarks project

Press the word read to the book design bookmark.

Place read onto the bookmark for my wooden bookmarks project

I used a moist baby wipe to press the word onto the bookmark and remove excess glue. You can also use a moist (not wet) piece of paper towel.

Use a baby wipe of moist paper towel to remove any super glue for my wooden bookmarks project

For the next wooden bookmark, I am using the flower piece that was cut from the flower bookmark design. Add super glue to the back of the flower.

Add super glue to the back of the book mark piece for my wooden bookmarks project

Press the flower piece onto a blank bookmark.

Place the flower cut out onto a blank bookmark for my wooden bookmarks project

Blot the flower with a baby wipe or moist paper towel to press it onto the bookmark and remove excess glue.

Blot the bookmark with a baby wipe of a moist paper towel to remove excess glue for my wooden bookmarks project

Next, I am going to create a bookmark using a blank bookmark along with my hearts bookmark design. Add super glue to the back of the heart bookmark.

Add glue to the back of the bookmark design for my wooden bookmarks project

Place the heart bookmark on top of the blank bookmark. Align eyelet holes and edges.

Place the bookmark design onto a blank bookmark for my wooden bookmarks project

Continue pressing the two pieces together.

Press the two pieces of veneer together for my wooden bookmarks project

Blot with a baby wipe or moist paper towel to remove excess glue. Continue pressing the two pieces together for a couple minutes so the glue has time to dry.

Use a baby wipe or moist paper towel to wipe excess glue for my wooden bookmarks project

You can get creative by combining different cut pieces to a blank bookmark. Let's make a bookmark with the dolphin piece and some hearts. Because these pieces are tiny, I am using tweezers to hold the pieces as I apply glue to the back.

Use tweezers for small pieces and add glue for my wooden bookmarks project

Next I am gluing some random heart pieces above the dolphin. Again, using my tweezers to hold the piece while adding glue and to place it onto the blank bookmark.

Use tweezers to place small pieces on a blank bookmark for my wooden bookmarks project

I used the end of my tweezers to press the tiny heart pieces down for a minute while the glue dried. Use a baby wipe or moist paper towel to remove any excess glue.

Use tweezers to place small pieces on a blank bookmark for my wooden bookmarks project

I think this looks cute. Time to add some ribbon.

This is what my bookmark looks like using the dolphin and heart pieces from my wooden bookmarks project

Using Water-Based Glue

Although I am using super glue for the assembly, you could use a water-based craft glue like Aleene's Tacky Glue. The image below shows how the veneer bends when I used a water-based adhesive. This doesn't mean you cannot use this type of glue. I simply flattened the bookmark by pressing it overnight under a few heavy books.

I do not recommend using a water-based adhesive for this project as it will warp the veneer for my wooden bookmarks project

STEP 4: ADD RIBBON

Use the eyelet hole for a tassel, bow, ribbon, etc. You can purchase pre-made tassels, but I used organza and grosgrain ribbons for mine. Measure and cut the ribbon one and one-half to twice the length of the bookmark (about 10-15").

Measure approximately two lengths of the bookmark for the ribbon tassel for my wooden bookmarks project

Fold the ribbon in half and push the folded end of the ribbon through the eyelet hole.

Fold the ribbon in half and insert into the eyelet hole for my wooden bookmarks project

Slide the tail ends of the ribbon through the opening of the ribbon that you slid through the eyelet hole and pull tight. If the tails are too long, trim with scissors.

Pull the ribbon tails through the loop for my wooden bookmarks project

This is what the ribbon looks like on my read bookmark for my wooden bookmarks project

For this bookmark, instead of leaving the tails, I created a bow using organza ribbon.

Make a bow instead of a tassle for my wooden bookmarks project

To protect the tail ends of the ribbon from fraying, you can add Fray Check.

Use fray block to the ends of the ribbon to help prevent unraveling for my wooden bookmarks project

STEP 5: SHOW IT OFF

Below are several different bookmarks that I had fun making using my wooden bookmark designs and different finishes of veneer. I hope you have fun creating your bookmarks.

These are what some of my finished bookmarks look like from my Wooden Bookmarks project

This is what one of my bookmarks looks like from my Wooden Bookmarks project

This is a variety of ways you can assemble your wooden bookmarks

Notes

Each bookmark is 2" x 7".

The font used to make the personalized bookmark for Alexa is Tingler Script

Recommended Products

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Answers to Your Questions About Making Wooden Bookmarks

Q: Can I use basswood or balsa wood to make these bookmarks instead of wood veneer?
Yes, but they aren’t as thin as wood veneer and may not make the best bookmarks.

Q: Can I use the knife blade instead of the deep point blade?
You can only use the knife blade if you are making a simple, undecorated bookmark (outer shape only). The interior designs I’ve included on the bookmarks are too intricate for the knife blade to cut properly. Click here to learn more about the Cricut Knife Blade.

Q: I don’t have or can’t get wood veneer. Can I make these bookmarks from any other material?
Yes, you can totally make these bookmarks from cardstock, posterboard, or Kraft board!

Q: How do I personalize these bookmarks with a name?
Simply click on Text on the left side of the screen, type the name, choose a font, rotate the text 90° so it fits on your bookmark (and resize as necessary), then select both the bookmark and your name and click Attach. That’s it!

Wooden bookmark SVG cut file in Cricut Design Space, personalized with a cursive name

Get my free SVG files to cut your own wooden bookmarks

I’d love to see your wood veneer projects and all the ways you personalize your bookmarks! Please share a photo in our Facebook group or tag me on social media with #jennifermaker.

Love,

JenniferMaker.com

Want to remember this? Save this Wooden Bookmarks Tutorial to your favorite Pinterest Board!

Make Wooden Bookmarks on a Cricut cutting machine with wood veneer and our free SVG cut file

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