DIY Hand Stamped Gold Place Markers

Happy Wednesday, friends- have you been enjoying our crazy week of Saint Patrick’s Day Party madness? If you missed my post on Monday– This week I’ve teamed up with seven of my favourite party people on the internet to bring you a DIY (but classy!) Saint Patrick’s Day Party. Each day this week, we’ll be taking turns sharing DIYs, free printables, recipes and tutorials from this party. We hope that it will inspire you to class up your Saint Patrick’s Day Party this year (the DIY way, of course!). You can find all the photos from the party as well as the links to other DIYs, recipes and printables here.  I’m so excited to share the tutorial to make these DIY Gold Stamped Place Markers with you.

I’m so in love with these little markers, I have the one with my name in one of those little gold plants on my kitchen window sill and it makes me so happy! I often get asked about my creative process (how I decide what to make) so I thought I’d share my twisted web of creative thoughts with you. Over Christmas break, I spotted this post that uses pop cans to create garden marker tags. I don’t garden (I wish I was a green thumb!) but I thought it was a clever idea. When I was reading Bespoke’s blog post on vintage crates in January and spotted those gorgeous copper escort cards and hopped over to that post, I learned that they were actually garden markers- something clicked. When we were talking about how to integrate greenery into the Saint Patrick’s Day Party and we hadn’t come up with a place card yet, all those random things I’d filed in the back of my mind came together. Those little cups they’re in? Those are the snack cups from my kiddos’ first birthday party, spray painted with flat black paint and edged with a gold paint pen.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own:

• One pop can
• Craft knife (or utility knife would probably work better) & Cutting board
• Metal ruler
• Tape
• Flat pliers
• Wire & Wire Cutters
• Gold Spray Paint (I swear by this stuff)
• Metal stamping kit & Hammer (I ordered mine from here)
• Mechanical (or really well sharpened) pencil

Get started by cutting open your soda can. I cut the ends off first, then cut a slit down one side so I had a flat rectangle to work with. Tape this piece down to your cutting surface.

Next, using your craft/utility knife, score straight lines using your ruler. I used the width of my ruler for this. Bend along your line to break the can easily. Once you have strips, decide how wide your tags need to be by laying out your metal stamps with the longest name you have. How big of a piece you need will depend not only on what you’re stamping, but the size of your stamps. Add one inch to your desired length and cut (score and bend).

Now that you have your pieces cut to size, cut a length of wire and using your flat pliers, bend it to fit a half inch inside the edge of your cut piece (see photo). Then, use your flat pliers (no ridges to mark the can), bend the can where you will be folding it over. Use your fingers to fold over the top first, and sides second.

Take those markers somewhere well ventilated to spray paint them. Since the surface doesn’t soak up any of the paint, be sure to mist light coats of the spray instead of thick coats. It will make a huuuuge difference in the finish of your paint. Make sure to spray both sides and the wires. As I mentioned in the supply list… I love this gold spray paint. The colour isn’t too yellow or too champagne and it dries in a hurry (and I’m impatient).

At this point they’re starting to look really awesome. All that’s left is to stamp your names in! I’ve done some metal stamping before (like these spoons) and it’s way harder than I’d expected. BUT stamping soda cans? Ohmygoodness it’s amazing it’s so easy. The tin is way lighter weight so it doesn’t take much effort to stamp them at all. Line up your letters one at a time and give them ONE solid hit with your hammer. I’ve read that a sharpie works good to darken the imprints, but thought it looked too artifical on the gold, so I found that a fine tip pencil worked best to darken the stamped letters just a little bit.

Since I had all the supplies on hand, these cost me zip, zilch, nada. If you had to buy everything, here’s how it would break down: Soda Can $1, Wire $1, Metal Stamping Kit $50 (but think of all the amazing things you could do with it!), Spray Paint $6.

I’d love to hear what you think of this project in the comments! Are you a fan of these Gold Place Markers? I’d also love to hear if you’ve checked out any of the other DIYs from this party! What’s your favourite so far?

 Sources: Dresses: Vero Moda | Cupcakes: Cupcak’d | Baby Guinness Irish Coffee Jell-O Shots: Feast & West | Tissue Paper Garland, Candy Coated Cake, Paint Dipped Silverware, Table Cloths, & Dresser: Lemon Thistle | Candy Bag Toppers, Napkin Transfers: Pommel Lane | Chairs, Mirrored Trays, Barcart, Decanters, Trumpet, Dice, Green Vases, Moss Placemats, Wine Glasses, Gold Cake Stand: Bespoke Decor Rentals | Felt Cauldrons with Gold Cookies, Gold Glitter Champagne Bottles: Not Just a Mommy | Paper Poppies: Avery Street Design | Shamrock Sugar Cookies: Club Narwhal | All Photography by Lemon Thistle