Stamped with Love

It's my latest obsession.
It's fun and helps relieve some stress.
It's addicting!

Over the last few months I've found myself on Pinterest more and more looking up metal stamping.  It all started back in May when I wanted to have some cute spoons or keychains stamped as a "thank you" gift for the members of a spouse club I'm in.  Well when I asked for a price quote I had to drink some water to stop from coughing so much.  For the stamped items alone it would've been more than my entire budget for the party.  So I had to come up with Plan B.

Enter Pinterest ...

That's right I got onto Pinterest because I was curious to see what other type of stamped metal there was out there.  And the more I saw the more I was like.. "Oh I could so do that myself".  I mentioned it to my husband, and he agreed I could buy and make what I want for less than I was quoted.

So off to Michael's I went with my credit card in hand...

And I walked out with a bag full of brand new tools and high hopes.

The advantage to being married to a man who is a welder is we always have scrap metal lying around the house (well the garage).  He gave me a few pieces to test my stamping on before I started to use my blanks.  After several attempts to figure out the right amount of pressure needed, I was ready to go!

My first attempt was to make a bracelet (for myself of course) and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I mean for a beginner its not to shabby!

Once I felt comfortable with that I decided to try my hand at these key chains I wanted.  Since its for a Military Spouses' Club, I thought using a "dog tag" would be cute.  And well the yellow ribbon goes with the military too right?!

Yup so back to Michael's I went with my credit card in hand.

A bottle of wine, my tools all laid out and the idea fresh in my mind I started to hammer away.  5 retakes later and I finally had the hang of what I was doing and I was loving how it all turned out.  (Sadly I didn't take any "in progress" photos)

About 2 hours later I had all 12 dog tags and circles stamped with our motto and year.  Now everything is ready to assemble.

Viola!

And since then I've been on a stamping craze!  I've made several cuff bracelets and I've recently started trying out charm bracelets and necklaces.  I've added more stamps to my collection and looking up new ideas.


That's it for today.. check back later for what's behind my heels!
XO- Beth