How to use metal alphabet stamps to create designs & textures

Hi friends, its been a crazy vacation and lot of things happened in past two weeks(Brother's wedding, Pilgrimage tour,etc). I did not find enough time to blog in between.Hoping to be back on schedule from march second week(Are you missing me?;) Feel free to ping me and say hi!) as I will be on vacation till first week of march.Now to the post.

I always wanted to try metal stamping, so when my friend asked what I want for my birthday I asked for metal stamps. When I tried stamping them on the metal blanks using hammer, I did not get good impression of letters.I couldn't find the exact reason. I think it may be due to the thickness of the metal stamps or not using proper base (i.e Bench block) while stamping. I did not want to buy a bench block just for one project, so I thought I will try this the technique sometime later with some other base similar to bench block.But I somehow wanted to share the idea of using these metal stamps to create designs & textures as many of you might have these stamps already and I know you will as excited as I am to try these design ideas.
So, today I am using my favorite medium polymer clay instead of metal blanks to show the ideas but you can use metal stamps if you are familiar  and comfortable with the technique of metal stamping.

Materials Required :

Polymer clay in desired colors / Metal blanks

Metal alphabet stamps

Hammer(Optional)

Roller

Oven to bake the clay

Pearl Ex powder pigments in metallic colors /Acrylic paint & brush (Optional)

Cookie cutters

Step 1: Soften the clay by kneading and rolling several times. Use roller to flatten the clay.

Step 2: Use cookie cutters to cut them in shapes. Use desired shape as per requirement.

Step 3: Make designs using alphabet stamps.And use pearl ex powder to highlight the stamped design.  

Design 1: Here I am using the letter "O" to make the center.Then letter "I" to make sun burst kind of design. Then "V" & "O" to complete the design. And "X" on the border of the circle.

Design 2: Here I used "O" and "U" to make dahlia flower as zipper pull to match the dahlia print on the purse I made. (Blog post coming soon ;))

Design 3: I made an alternate zipper pull for the same purse with a saying "Good vibes only" along with some dandelions design using the letter "V" and ball tool at the edge to give a round impression. Used the same technique on the other side to make some more dandelions.

Design 4 : Here I used letter "O" repeatedly to create a textured background.Also for the swastika(denotes symbol of auspiciousness in Hinduism) design I used letter "I" and "O" for the border. Instead of pearl ex powder , you can also use acrylic black paint to highlight the stamped design. If you are using paint, bake the clay first and then apply paint. Use a dry cloth and remove the excess paint to achieve the effect.

I made the flower separately and used glue to stick it to the background circle to make it as a pendant. 

Design 5: Here I used two different pearl ex powder and used "B" stamp in an angle to get curves for the borders and also "X" to fill the remaining area. 

Step 4: Make holes in the clay pieces if you are using it as pendant or key ring and bake the clay piece at 275F for 30 mins or as per the manufacturer's instructions.Once it cools down, assemble them as per the requirement. Your zipper pull or necklace or key rings are now ready to enjoy! 

Hope you like this idea of using metal stamps to create designs and textures.You can also make these designs using normal alphabet rubber stamps in card stock to make cards or in clay like I used to make charms, pendants, etc. If I can come up with these designs I am sure you can come up with even more exciting designs using alphabets stamps. So I challenge you to make your own designs and share it with us using #Vikalpah or tag me in any of social media so that I can take a look and share it with everyone.

Share what you think of this idea in the comments below. As always I will be happy to hear from you.