Brass is back! I feel like brass took a back seat this winter to other textures, but is being welcomed back this spring. I’ve been wanting to try my hand at stamping forever- there’s so many great letter stamping DIYs out there!- and it’s such an easy skill to pick up. And honestly, who doesn’t love banging out some aggression in a constructive way ;D?
You’ll Need
stamping block
hammer
letter stamps*
brass blanks**
washi tape
post-it pad
key ring
Quick notes on some of these materials because I want my mistakes to be learning lessons for everyone. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
*I bought 2 of the most popular letter stamp sets from Amazon to compare size differences and ended up discovering the Wokesi set is 100x better than the Tekton. Why? The Wokesi letters actually work. I had several letters in the Tekton set not give complete impressions, no matter how hard or how many times I hit them. Plus, the Wokesi has the letter mark on the side of the bar so you can actually keep track of your set while using it.
**Go with solid brass blanks instead of plated! I bought what I thought was solid brass from an unnamed craft store and the brass finish started coming off after 2 days of using it. ARGH.
Secure and center the brass blank to the stamping block with Washi tape. Practice stamping your letters.
Some tutorials recommend using ink on the stamps and creating a paper template to go on top of your brass blank, but I found that method still doesn’t help you figure out how the stamp will actually align. Instead, I just tapped out letters on a post-it pad to quickly get a feel for alignment & pressure, making sure my letters weren’t upside down!
Steady the stamp and hammer away! Make sure to use nice, even pressure for a full impression.
Pop in a key ring and boom! Done. If you find blanks with too small of holes for a key ring, just use a jump ring to connect.
You know when you finish a DIY and are completely satisfied just knowing you’ll be using it for a long time? Every time I’ve reached for my keys this week, I smile seeing the homebody club tag thinking of my pup & Michael waiting for me there. Now let’s hope the gym tag reminds me to get there too.
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Where did you buy the solid brass blanks??
I got them at Joann’s! Though honestly, they oxidized super quickly. They still look good, and I like the new texture, but they definitely didn’t keep their original look.