Nailed It - 'Hand Stamped Jewelry'

Okay, I have to admit, this is kind of my obsession lately. However, being somewhat of a perfectionist, I have only made three items, two of which I am going to be brave and show you. And yes, I know that hand made essentially means 'imperfect' it's what makes the items unique, but I am what I am ("I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" - sorry, my mind works in mysterious ways), and there's no changing that.

I fell in love with hand stamped jewelry last year when I discovered Etsy and all the wonderful hand made goodies out there. It's enough to make a girl swoon. I would see things all over the place and my heart would skip a beat.


But the $63 price tag made me gag a little (I'm not undermining her skills, it's just not something I could justify spending $60 odd dollars on). 

But then I found out that wonderfully crafty woman I know who also happened to stamp jewelry (not naming any names.... 'Sierra'). Huzzah!! 

So, after a few quick lessons, and a little bit of snooping around on the world wide web, I tried my hand at it. Admittedly the first time was a little, well imperfect. But after practicing on some scrap pieces and doing a little more research, I finally got a little more confident and decided to try again. But what to make?

I loved this idea:

( from The Pink Monogram)

But there's a lot going on, and I didn't have anything on hand other than letter stamps and a few images, so I'll leave that one for another day when my skills are a little more developed.

And I thought this was pretty cool:

(from PureRoxinPrint, an Etsy seller who no longer carries them)

But I didn't have sterling silver bars on hand (and wasn't going to order them online as I'm kind of an 'instant gratification' girl when it comes to crafts).

Then I saw this and inspiration struck:

And since it was just an image on Pinterest, with no link to any store, I figured I would wing it and make it my own.

This is the end version (it does need some polishing, but you get the general idea):

And the best part, it was essentially free, since I already had everything on hand from other jewelry crafts I had been trying. So, as you can see, it has four tags with each of our initials and the the ever popular '<3'. And since it came out rather well, I made a necklace as well, taking a little inspiration from the 'Mr & Mrs' pendant above.

Of course, after I had done it, I realized I had done the 'S' upside down, but hey, it's hand made.

So, all in all, not a bad way to spend an afternoon while Little P slept. 

And what says you? Did I 'nail them'?

K