Custom Orders

Through Etsy, I had a customer from Canada contact me about making personalized necklaces for a girls' weekend. After working the details out, she ordered 15 with a possibility for more at a later date.

And then Kim came to town and as usual with a visit comes an idea and it's always a good one. I actually had someone already inquire about doing something similar with a lacrosse charm, but with Kim it's usually baseball.

Sterling Silver Personalized Washer with Sterling Silver Charm or Personalized Inner Disc

$40

(Baseball Charm included at this price, other charms may increase the price)

Teacher Gifts & Commemorate the Date

It's that time of the year. School is almost out for summer and I have been making a ton of teacher gifts. Thanks to a family friend who asked me to make one last year, I ran with the idea from there and it has been a best seller.

While I have the standard ones I list on my site, I had a mom contact me because she wanted to reward her son's three teachers and she wanted to tweak the standard idea.

The "1+1=awesome" is for the math teacher. Pretty clever. She also asked me to put her son's name and the year on the edges of the cuffs. So when the wearer flips her hand to palm side up, she will see the student's name and year. 

Sterling Silver Teacher Appreciation Cuff

$35

A repeat customer form Arizona contacted me yesterday with a picture of a bar necklace she saw somewhere and wanted to know if I could recreate in silver.

This is another great idea to commemorate a wedding date. I used a thicker 18 inch chain to hang the bar from because she has small children and the regular chain is too delicate to handle the stress of a child yanking on it.

Sterling Silver Bar Necklace With Thicker Chain

$35

Adding Aluminum

The majority of my jewelry and key rings have always been sterling silver.

I recently decided to experiment with aluminum as a second option. Aluminum is a great alternative because it's less expensive, lighter in weight, and will not tarnish like sterling silver.

I ordered some circle blanks, jump rings, and ball chains from my supplier in New York and must say I am quite impressed. Aluminum is so much easier to stamp on than sterling silver and allows me to still provide a quality looking product, yet make it financially accessible for most customers.

Aluminum Ohana Necklace

$6

Aluminum Single Blank Personalized Necklace

$6

Aluminum Triple Blank Personalized Necklace

$20

Aluminum Triple Blank Personalized Necklace

$20

Special Gifts and Request

The best part of this business is the ability to personalize items. I can make gifts for friends that are really special and unique and I can fulfill requests for customers I don't even know.

There is a group of moms from Kendall's old school that get together for breakfast or coffee occasionally and at least 3 times a year to celebrate birthdays. We laugh and enjoy the company of one another. I brought personalized necklaces for two of the women and a bracelet for the third.

However this was a dream that one of the moms and I had talked about and so I took the birthday gift as an opportunity to finally make it:

Cheryl's daughter Sami is a cheerleader at Rosary High School. The mascot is the Royals and they use the crown specifically as a symbol. Although the crown is silver-plated it worked out perfectly and has a three-dimensional look to it that I loved. Cheryl was so surprised and happy with how it came out.

I received a custom cuff request a couple weeks ago and I think it's just perfect:

Sterling Silver Hand-Stamped Personalized Cuff Bracelet

$35

Custom Request

When I made the statement piece with the different shaped blanks a couple months ago, Kim immediately was eyeing some of the blanks. They were new shapes she hadn't seen and I also had experimented with gold-filled. So as per the usual, she made a custom request.

I put her off for awhile because I wanted to experiment with a different chain and the ability to separate the charms versus them overlapping each other on the chain.

I started with two the square gold-filled blanks, which I stamped with the names of her boys. Then she wanted the circular sterling silver blank with the heart cut-out for her husband.

I then connected them to the chain and ended up with this:

It's more of a statement piece and she loves it. I love the fact that is lays perfectly and the blanks don't ever overlap.

Custom necklace, pricing varies based on blank shapes, size, and material.

Winner

The most expensive part of starting Stamplified Life was purchasing the tools. I initially bought a starter set when I was going to try my hand at this trade. Once I realized I could do it and was good at it, then I started wanting more and more tools. 

One of the wholesale companies I have been doing business with is Halstead Bead in Prescott, Arizona. They are family owned and operated and are a pleasure to work with. Halstead Bead has a blog and they offer grants and giveaways. I have never entered a giveaway, but I did this month. They simply wanted to know what my "go to" tool is, you know the tool you can't live without. This was simple for me, boring yes, but simple. It's my bench block:

This is a block that is steel and is what I stamp all my blanks on. I replied that it is the tool I can't live without because when your business is all about hand stamping jewelry, it would be impossible to stamp anything without this.

Well guess what...I was selected as one of the 3 winners. 

This is what I won:

This is a dapping set and block. This will allow me to take round/circle blanks and make them either concave or convex. This is where all those blanks I damaged with mistakes early on will come in handy so that I can perfect this craft.

Love Adds Up

This is one of my new favorite ideas that came from my friend, Laura. She was looking for a gold bar necklace with the names of her two boys on it.

I have not ventured into cutting my own bars yet, therefore I am limited to approximately 7 characters, based on the font style that is used. Laura wanted to give me the business, so she came up with this clever idea:

She even decided to add her husband's initial. We left this one as is, instead of blackening it and I really like how it turned out.

14k Gold Filled Bar Necklace on 16 or 18 inch chain

$35

"Frozen" Necklace

I am not a movie watcher and I think the majority of the latest Disney movies I have seen bits and pieces of, if I've seen them at all. Frozen is one of the movies I have not seen. The girls have seen it and loved it and Chris even said it's probably one of the best Disney movies to be released in awhile. 

Which leads to this morning. Amy, my friend from high school, contacted me via Etsy this morning. She found an item on another Etsy shop that her high school aged daughter wanted to give to her friend for her birthday this month. You know how children love to find the perfect item and then give you minimal lead time to secure said item. Well Amy was in a pinch and wanted to give me the business first if she could.

Here it is:

I did do a test blank first to make sure I could fit all the lettering. Kendall has already claimed the test blank. Oh the perks of being my child.

Thanks Amy for thinking of me and I hope your daughter's friend loves it!

Frozen Sterling Silver Hand Stamped Necklace

$25

A Little Marketing

Next Wednesday, I am part of the committee who puts on the OCADA Women In Sports Conference. This is a conference that celebrates the place of women in athletics and is attended by close to 1200 female athletes from high schools in Orange County and San Gabriel Valley, California. It's an inspirational and motivational type of day with guest speakers who share their amazing stories with the female athletes.

We usually have raffle give-a-ways and I always try to bring some gift cards for The Beachcomber for the supervisors, who attend with their athletes. This year I decided to offer some of my jewelry pieces as well, as a means to market my product.

I have donated 3 sterling silver cuffs and 2 sterling silver bar necklaces.

Two of the cuffs are stamped with "She believed she could so she did" and this is the third cuff:

One of the necklaces:

The other necklace:

I have to admit that the Dream necklace is a definite fave of mine. It came out really cute and this is the first time I have stamped using that star stamp.

There are going to be some very lucky female athletes that day and hopefully maybe a little business will come my way.

For The Matriarch

Last weekend I went to a baby shower. I sat at a table with a bunch of girls who were seniors at Orange High the year I started working there. It's so fun to see them and be able to call them friends. One of the girls had me create a bar necklace for her and when we started discussing the necklace at the table, the girls were shocked to learn it was I, who had made it.

Not only did the table conversation create some business, but Sheryl also decided to announce while opening my gift that I hand stamp and what my website is. While Sheryl is simple and opted for a round sterling silver circle with just the letter "T," another one of her friends at the shower went for something I have never done.

Gina just married the love of her life and her in-laws are making their first trip to California from London this weekend. It is her mother-in-law's birthday and Gina wanted something special for her. She told me that she wanted a necklace with the husband, all the kids, and the grand kids on it. Now I am not a fan of the overlapping necklaces where all the blanks are singular and then strung on the same chain. I know it's a popular look, but I've never shown it on my site because it's not my preference. This project has made me think differently.

Gina tells me that there are 14 names that need to be represented and she wants the necklace to be a mix of charm shapes and colors and for it to look "chunky." After some back and forth via text, I got to work. I will admit this was a really fun order for me.

This is what I started with:

I decided to pair the married couples onto blanks to eliminate 2 extra blanks and keep the cost down for her. The husband is on the large circle with the cut-out heart. I then used a mix of 14k gold-filled and sterling silver circle, square, long rectangle, and heart charms. The square charms I decided to turn so they became diamonds. I was originally going to use flowers until Gina informed me that flowers are not her mother-in-law; she's edgier than that :) Pablo is a grandchild that died before birth and so she asked for a cut-out heart for him and I think it's unique and helps him have a special charm that will stand out for those who understand.

From there I then balanced them out and threaded then onto the chain:

Now the necklace will not lay like this when worn. Thanks to my friend Brittney, who offered to give it a try so I could see it, she and I immediately fell in love once it was put on. The charms do come together, but if you were viewing from a distance you would think its one of those popular statement costume jewelry pieces that are so popular right now. Yet when you get closer, you realize it's a very personal and special piece.

Thank you so much Gina for coming up with such an awesome idea. I hope your mother-in-law loves it as much as I do.

This is a custom piece so price varies based on number of blanks and style used.

Hot Mess 14k Gold-Filled Hand Stamped Bar Necklace

I think the best thing about this business/hobby is when a friend contacts me and says, "can you do this?" 

This time is was Erin. I've known her since college and she is an Internet shopper. She came across a bar necklace that was constantly sold out, so she text me.

Hot Mess 14k Gold-Filled Hand Stamped Bar Necklace

$30

And as Kim says, "I think that is such a funny term we have adopted with a little endearment."

Sterling Silver Bar Necklace

After mastering the 14kt gold-filled bar necklace, I decided I should probably sell sterling silver ones as well. 

So here it is.

The lettering is offset, but could also be centered.

I first took a picture of the necklace left as is after stamping.

And then I blackened the hand stamping.

Sterling Silver hand stamped bar necklace on a 16 or 18 inch chain.

Can be blackened or left in it's natural state.

$30

Hand Stamped, Personalized 14kt Gold-Filled Bar Necklace

These seem to be all the rage right now and I think they are really cute.

It is my first venture into 14kt gold-filled.

This all started when a past high school student inquired about a necklace. I had never made a bar necklace before, but decided it was worth the experiment, even after I suggested she just use the Etsy shop she originally saw the item at.

The process turned out to be pretty easy and I guessed well on the sizes of jump rings and chain I would need.

Once again, Kim scored. She was coming out this weekend for a visit, so I asked what she wanted on the necklace and then hers became my tester.

The top one is Kim's. It is hammered with her husband's initials and a heart and then blackened. The one below it is Sam's. It is just stamped. She decided she preferred it that way.

 14kt Gold-Filled Bar Necklace personalized with up to 8 characters/designs attached to a 16-inch chain. (I will eventually have an option for an 18-inch chain)

$30