The DIY arts and crafts website ArtsCow.com is having a great promotion right now – you can purchase one-sided personalized dog tags at only $0.99/each with free shipping. Just use checkout code 99DOGTAG (expires 11/20/2008) to effect the promotion.

I got to thinking, instead of the fairly lame portraits people have been putting on theirs, why not use a military dog tag as the design? After some quick research on the font used for this purpose I came up with a list of simple instructions:

1. Grab the TrueType font “Kredit” from 1001Fonts.com for free (local mirror).
2. Unzip the ZIP file you downloaded. Right-click KREDIT1.TTF and select “Install”. If this option is not available, navigate to your Control Panel, select Fonts, and select “Install New Font” from the menu.
3. Create a new 1500 x 900 (W x H) image in Adobe Photoshop. Yes, I know that the dimensions are reversed – don’t worry about it. We’re going to rotate the image when we’re done.
4. Lay out the personal information onto the image using the Kredit font – I recommend the font size of 120px. For an accurate representation of a real tag, refer to this page on ArmyDogTags.com. Finally, rotate the image 90 degrees clockwise. Alternatively, use this Adobe Photoshop PSD file I’ve created as a template.
5. Save image as a JPEG. Upload to ArtsCow.com. Purchase!

I’ve enclosed the sample image ArtsCow.com provided me after I followed the five steps above and uploaded the design to their site. Pretty neat, isn’t it? You can order about a dozen for your twelve closest friends and still end up spending less than twenty bucks total for a personalized gift that people will hang on to for months to come.