Last week, I shared a metal stamping 101 tutorial and video showing you guys the basics of how to stamp metal. Since making that video, I’ve gotten to practice my stamping a little more and have a few tips for making your metal stamping even better using office supplies most people have around the house.
Supplies
ImpressArt metal stamping kit
metal piece/medium to stamp on
sturdy work table
masking tape
ruler/measuring tape with metric system (mm, in particular) markings
marker
ball point pen
paper towel
ear protection (optional)
Directions
Gather all of your supplies and the letters you’ll need for your project. Place your metal medium onto the steel block and center it. Use some pieces of masking tape lined up parallel to the top and bottom of your steel block to not only secure your metal piece, but also to provide a straight line to help keep your stamps straight.
On the bottom piece of tape, mark every 5mm. On each cm mark, I used a permanent marker, and for every 5mm (1/2 cm), I used a ball point pen. I used the two pen types for the markings to make my life a little easier while stamping.
When you’re ready to stamp, gather your stamps in the order in which they’ll be stamped. I guess I worked on this necklace when I was in a grumpy mood, so I made a *fml! necklace. Metal stamping is super therapeutic if you’re grumpy. I recommend considering ear protection while you metal stamp because I definitely got sensitive to the noise after awhile.
Start from the middle of your design. Ensuring your stamps are right side up, place your stamp in the middle of the metal piece, right above the middle line. Align the stamp and swiftly pound into it with the kit’s hammer. For a refresher on what this looks like, check out my Metal Stamping 101 video on YouTube.
Working outward toward the edges of your design, stamp the next letters. In the FML necklace, that’s F and L. The hardest part is getting them the same distance from each side of the M, and also getting them straight. My biggest tip is to take the time to get everything lined up before hammering because it’s not like you can press the delete key on stamped metal :).
When everything is stamped, you can use a marker, as I did in the metal stamping 101 video, to make your stamps pop. Basically, you color over it and rub off the excess ink before it’s dry to get the effect you see here. If you have any questions, leave a comment and I’ll be happy to answer it!
The kit featured in this tutorial was provided by ImpressArt. Click to learn where to get a kit like this for yourself.
This is the best metal stamping tutorial I’ve ever seen! thanks so much for sharing. Do you sell your jewelry anywhere? I’ll be in the Chicago area in a few months and would love to check out your collection. Thanks again!!!
Nope, I don’t sell any crafts anywhere, I exclusively blog about crafts & write original tutorials. I’m glad you enjoyed this post! Thanks!