I sometimes see a new craft project I want to try but I don’t feel like investing in specialty tools. This has been my feeling about metal stamping.

mint

My husband is a toolmaker, and so works with metal for a living.  He has a set of letter stamps that he uses at his job to stamp steel, so I asked him to bring them home so I could borrow them.

My first attempt (not pictured), was on cheap metal spoons I bought at the dollar store.  They were 2 for $1, so I figured it would be an inexpensive way to practice. I don’t know if it was the curve of the spoon, or the metal being particularly hard, but the stamps barely made an scratch on them, and when I tried hitting them multiple times, the stamp moved making a blurry barely-a-scratch impression.

So on to plan B. I remembered I has some aluminum flashing in my ‘miscellaneous’ craft box, so dug out a strip of that I had cut for some project in the past. I thought it could make a cute plant marker if I cut it down and mounted it on the wooden stakes I also seemed to have in the ‘wood and cork’ craft box.

The metal is either too thin, too soft, or I need to try to hit on a firmer surface than the wooden work bench I used.  When the stamp was hit, it pulled the sides up and basically wrinkled the metal. At least you can see the letters this time though.  I’m going to try some new techniques, and if it is still looking wonky, I may invest in some stamping blanks. Metal stamping may have won the first two rounds, but I am determined to make a come back.

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