It's gift time for the Tutorial this week, with thanks to the people over at
ImpressArt we are bringing you a couple of bracelet options for gift ideas for your friends or family. These really are a great way to personalise something with song lyrics, favourite phrase or just plain a 'Love you' note.
ImpressArt sent us over some great kit to try, including Aluminium metal blanks to make some jewellery and a lettering kit of our choice, I went with the
Bridgette set as its so simple and yet looks really effective. They are a US company but you can find all the stockists on their
website and with plenty here in the UK, you can find all the products that we used easily as it is all linked below. So lets take a look at what we did.
As I mentioned there are two options, so first up is a Cuff Bracelet, for this you will need:
Bracelet bending pliers,
Stamp guides,
Letter stamps (I have the Bridgette set),
Bracelet bending Bar Kit,
Aluminium Bracelet blanks,
Stamping Hammer,
Stamping block and
Stamp Enamel Marker (not pictured).
The first step is to find the centre of your bracelet blank using a ruler and mark the centre using the stamp guides. As I know that I want to create a short phrase I am attaching the stamp guide to the centre to ensure I am keeping straight.
Start with the middle letter of your phrase, ensuring you have accounted for any spaces in the phrase. Its a bit like the amount of characters in your twitter profile, don't forget those pesky spaces and punctuation marks!
Hold the letter stamp in place and hit it on the end with the hammer, I chose to hit it a couple of times to make sure that it was impressing into the silver properly.
You can create a phrase as long as you like, for this one I chose 'say yes to new adventures' as a little motivation bracelet for a friend.
Once you have your phrase all done, you can turn it into a bracelet. This handy Bracelet Bending bar kit makes light work of creating a cuff. Place one end of your bracelet inside the channel and hold firmly with your thumb.
Bend your bracelet halfway using the palm of your hand, then turn it over and repeat on the other side. Use the bracelet bending pliers to round off the cuff. Begin in the centre of your cuff and squeeze down. Work your pliers around your bracelet cuff giving it a rounded finish.
Then, using the Stamp Enamel marker, colour over your lettering and leave for 2-3 minutes, then with a cloth, wipe away the excess. The leftovers will make your lettering stand out a little more. You can of course leave this step out if you want.
Then you have a finished cuff bracelet to give as a present this Christmas, or just keep to yourself.
The second version is a tag bracelet, which is perfect for longer phrases. You will need:
Stamping Hammer,
Letter stamps,
Stamping block,
Stamp Guides,
Stamp Enamel Marker, cord or chain and
Aluminium tags with holes blank.
As before, you want to find your centre of both the horizontal and vertical of the tag. Using the guides as before or the Enamel markers as you choose. I wanted to create a 3 line phrase for this tag and so I chose to mark each line.
As before start with the middle letter so that you get your centre point correct. I chose to stamp my top and bottom letters first and then double checked my middle letters were evenly spaced. What can I say, I like things to line up! For this one I went with be strong, be brave, be free.
Once you have finished stamping, you can use the Stamp Enamel marker as above and make your lettering stand out before adding cord or chain to make your bracelet. Just tie through the little holes at the side and make sure they are nice and tight.
I also used the Bracelet bending pliers at this point to create a slight curve to the aluminium to make it sit on the wrist better. Then you are done, simple.
You can do so many different phrases and names here, you could also turn them into medical bracelets, so that they can be less obvious for those who want it to be. There are so many options on the
ImpressArt website of different blanks you can use for bracelets, necklaces rings and earrings. They have different colours too, from the Aluminium I used, to Copper, Pewter and Brass and finally there are also lots of different letter stamp sets which separate into uppercase, lowercase and numbers. So really you can make anything and everything personalised for just the right person.
You can also design your very own stamp, so if you have a logo or design in mind that you want to repeat, you can
create your own stamp from ImpressArt to use on metal. Maybe we should get a Live it. Love it. Make it stamp, so we can brand everything! ha ha
Big Thanks go to
ImpressArt for sending over all the equipment to use, it was very fun to try something a little different and I will definitely be trying out different ways of using it all.
What phrase or name would you put on yours?
H,xxx
Disclaimer: This post has been sponsored by ImpressArt by means of product. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity.
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