Be Inspired, Metal Stamping, Tutorials
Want To Learn How To Metal Stamp? This Post Is For You!
(Updated April 2025 | Original post January 2014)
Originally shared by Karen of I Always Pick The Thimble in 2014, these metal stamping tips are still some of our favorites. We’ve refreshed the post to continue inspiring makers, even though the original tutorial is no longer available online.
Karen — a talented maker and former owner of Urban Arts + Crafts in Kansas City — generously shared the lessons she learned through years of metal stamping. Although I Always Pick The Thimble and Urban Arts + Crafts are no longer active, we’re proud to keep her creative spirit and helpful advice available for makers today
Use A Pencil to Draw Guidelines & Tape it Down
Ahhh, yah, tape. Good idea. Can’t tell you how many times I wished I did that!
Before Stamping, Lay Out Your Stamps
Ummm hmmm. Another good idea Becky! This would of prevented a lot of typos!
Space Your Guidelines Like a Typewriter
Okay, this is a cool cheat sheet! It takes time to do stuff like this! Thank you Karen for making it easy for us!
Don’t – Too CLose, Too Hard, Two Times
Did someone sneak a peak at my studio? Karen are you spying on me? I have samples like this!
Practice, practice, practice!
We hope you found these metal stamping tips as inspiring and useful as we have over the years!
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thanks for the pointers
Now I see what I was missing…thanks for this!
Great ideas …. now I can try something other than stamping on a “wing and a prayer!”
I hear you! I’m still happy with a wing and a prayer! Are you coming to Tucson?
I just got married recently, just had my 73rd birthday, and just found a new craft I am excited about (I have many.) What more could a women ask for. Life is good.
Thank you
I tried stamping on some metal washers I have and use to make necklaces. I’m new to this, but it seems as though the stamping letters I have won’t work on that (Impressed stamping letters). Do they not work on all kinds of metal? The washers say they are made ftom Zinc.
The force in which you strike the metals will vary depending on the type of metal you are stamping. The Nunn Design Flat Tag Collection is cast in lead-free pewter and is plated. You only need to strike the metal gently in order to get a good impression. I would recommend practicing on your washers until you get a good idea of just how much force you need to apply to get the impression that you are after.
Try brass plumbing washers, too.?
da bear
I make jewelry and would love to learn how to do this
Where do I get stamps found in the pic “create” ? I really like it. What is that script called?
Pam-
I’m not sure what the name of the fonts are, but it looks like this designer used stamps purchased from My Impress Art. I would also recommend taking a look at the many metal stamping fonts available at Beaducation.com. Their prices tend to be higher in price, but that is because of the quality of the stamping tools.