Stamped Garden Marker Spoons {tutorial}

Taking the metal jewelry stamping in a different twist, I stamped some spoons.  I am NOT a gardener.  I love the look of plants, but just cannot keep them alive (maybe its because I forget to water them???  Just a thought...)

Anyway...I've seen these garden marker spoons around and have found some old spoons for pennies at garage and estate sales. So...here ya go.

Supplies:

Old spoons

Metal stamping set

Dish towel

Rubber mallet

Hammer
Permanent marker

How to:

I first took the spoons out onto the driveway, set them (one by one) on a dish towel, and pounded them out with a rubber mallet.  My kids rode circles around me in the driveway and the neighbors were wondering what the heck I was doing (especially since it was in the high 90's and late afternoon.)  Put the spoon bowl side up and start pounding away.  

Tip:I found that they all flattened differently.  Some got a little curvy in the middle, so I took a regular hammer and gently pounded (can you do that?) the roundness flat.  Next time I'm going to try the hubs vice and see if I can get them totally flat.

Once you have them relatively flat, go inside and nurse the blister on your hand then proceed onto the next step.

Figure out what you want to write (stamp) on the spoons.  Like I said before, I am no gardener so I had to google common herbs.  Silly, I know, but I did.  I wrote my words down the spoon because I was worried about spacing the letters across.  The shorter herbs would have worked fine across.

I marked where my letters were going to go with a dot of the permanent marker before I stamped.  Then stamped the letter, colored over the letters again with the marker and polished it off.

A perfect gift idea for someone who grows their own herbs, mother's day gift, thank you gift or for yourself.  (Maybe I should have stamped "please water me?")  The best part...if you already have a stamping set, these are dirt cheap. (Hee hee :)  You could give them with a live herb, or pot and seeds.

Next I'm going to try to flatten them and bend the handles to make hooks.  Saw that somewhere? and LOVED it!