Stamped Metal Dog Tag

We recently added a furry addition to our family, which gave me the perfect opportunity to try out metal stamping for the first time.  I grabbed the circle blanks from Joann's in the scrapbooking/embossing section, and I got the stamp set last year at Harbor Freight.

My setup was masking tape onto a piece of wood.  You don't need the masking tape, but it was nice to hold the metal steady and give me a straight line to follow.  After a couple of not-so-nice attempts, I found that the best impression is made when you firmly tap the stamp once.  It's no good if you don't pound enough or if you do too much.  Once you are done stamping, color the impressions with a sharpie and wipe off the excess.

After I finished our pup's name, I added our phone number.  (Don't try calling that number... I did a little bit of Photoshop magic to change some of the numbers.)  I love the personalized feel of this tag.  The imperfections-- like where I double-stamped the "S" or pounded the "7" a bit too hard-- all add another piece of character to the tag.  When I was completely done with everything, I pounded on the back of the tag a little bit to flatten everything out nicely.

The best part about this project is that you don't need a real animal to make tags for!  My next tag stamping will be tags for stuffed animals.  You could even make these into pendants for necklaces, which are really popular right now.

Father's Day Recap

In addition to the Father's Day Tie Banner that I shared a few days ago, I also did some other fun homemade gifts for Dad this year.

I had some of my neighborhood girls over, and we tried the Tin Can Treats from Our Best Bites, filling them with Whoppers, M&M's, Skittles, peach rings, and my favorite caramel corn.  I also got the cheap kitchen towels at IKEA ($0.79 each) to give as "grilling towels".  I don't like my regular kitchen towels going outside, so I thought these would make good replacements.  We did hand and foot stamps on the towels with the kids.  I would recommend feet only for babies, unless you have someone else to help you.  We used Speedball screen printing ink and painted it on with foam brushes.

For dessert, I tried this recipe for Oreo Cheesecake.  It was pretty dang good, although the center was a little soft for my liking.  Next time I will probably cook it 5-10 minutes longer, even though Dad liked it just fine this way.

It was really nice to have a food processor for the crust, since I haven't used one in the past.  And since there are only two adults in the house, we may try cutting up a few of the leftover pieces and freezing them to put in shakes.  I also found a great deal on a compound miter saw from Slickdeals, so Dad got his tool fix for a few months as well, plus we can get working on some more DIY furniture projects.

We had a fabulous Father's Day and hope you did, too!

Linocut Stamp Tutorial

This is an old favorite of mine: Making your own stamp from a linoleum block. I recently made my own stamp for item tags. I did my first lino print in 4th grade, and it's always been a favorite of mine. I documented the steps of my process so you can make your own.

1. Items needed:
-Linoleum block (found at Hobby Lobby or any other art supply store)
-Lino cutter (found at Hobby Lobby or any other art supply store)
-Mirror-imaged stamp design (very important!)
-Sharpie
-Pencil
-Wide pencil (optional)
-Wood block for mounting (optional)
2. Shade over your design on the back of the paper. I used the wide pencil to make it faster.
3. Now flip your paper over (right side up) and trace over your design onto your block. 4. Use your Sharpie to fill in the design before the pencil smudges too much. Everything that is shaded black is where you don't want to cut.5. Now get out your cutter and cut away! Be careful with the cutter, because the blades are sharp, and you may cut more than you mean to if you're not careful. 6. Now test your stamp! If you see anything that you don't want stamped, get your cutter and take those spots off.7. Your stamp is done! You can glue the lino block to a piece of wood to make stamping easier and keep your block in good shape. Otherwise, it may crack in half after it has been used for a while. I haven't mounted mine, and it's still fine. I use a Speedball ink roller to print my stamp, and it saves a lot of time and makes it easier to get a good print.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your stamp-making! If you have any requests for tutorials, leave a comment and maybe I can help!