Fathers Day Gift Idea: Hand Stamped Golf Ball Marker

Is the dad in your life a golfer?  My husband is.  We aren’t good or anything, but we do love to get outdoors and lose a few golf balls. ;) We just got out last weekend for our first 9 of the season, tried a new course, and it was awesome.  I didn’t get to go last year between being gigantically pregnant, and then having Roman – so a little gift to my husband was in order while we get back in the swing of our golf game.  (And I just love accidental puns, I’m totally leaving that in.)  Anyway – if you are into metal stamping (or you want to be), there aren’t always a lot of manly gifts that you can make.  But your dad can be the coolest one on the green with a personalized golf ball marker!

What you will need:

• Bench Block
• Stamping Hammer
• Circle Blank(s) – these are a new line from ImpressArt called Alkeme.  They stamp like sterling silver and polish up wonderfully.  You may certainly use any metal you like for this project, but I love the thickness and the price point.
• Tape – masking tape, stamp straight tape, or even washi tape
• A permanent marker or acrylic paint and a polishing cloth – I opted for blue.
• Metal Stamps – this is a really fun font called Varsity from ImpressArt.  It’s larger (6mm) than the average stamps, so you’ll stamp like you would a design stamp.  I wouldn’t recommend them if this is your very first project, but if you’ve gotten into stamping and especially if you have a sports fan on your gift list, you will love having this font in your collection!  I got mine at Goody Beads – they make an alpha set and a number set.

Let’s stamp!  If you’re not into metal stamping yet, there are two posts you want to check out.  Forst of all, if you’re reading this before 6.12.14, there’s a giveaway going on for a stamping starter kit that I just posted yesterday, sponsored by ImpressArt!  And second, if you need a full tutorial, I totally have you covered with my beginner’s stamping tutorial.  There’s a supply list and where to find your stuff, a photo step-by-step, a video tutorial, and witty commentary by yours truly. ;) I’ll hit the high notes in today’s post, but there’s a lot more you can learn about metal stamping.

Now, I’m not that well-practiced at this font yet, I’ll confess.  The varsity font is 6mm and working with it is really similar to using design stamps.  So if you struggle with design stamps, you’ll need a little bit of practice with this set – though it’s really a fun set for a sporty look!  It’s also great because it’s all uppercase, so lining up your letters is easy, since they are all equal height.

I stamped my message, opted for a blue permanent marker to darken my impressions, and polished my ball marker gift up to a nice shine.

Then, I just popped it into a sleeve of balls for a fun dad-gift!

He loved it!  I haven’t made him many stamped gifts, because stamping is normally such a jewelry-heavy hobby.  But he’s got something from me that no one else has.

As much as he thought the “Best Dad” sentiment was cool, he did say it would be even cooler to have it say something else.  (Hold the eye-rolls on this one, I always have to, LOL.)

Now THIS is truly his personalized marker.  You can stamp any message that suits your guy.  Or your gal.  Or yourself.  Really, every golfer can enjoy a fun ball marker, I’m just suggesting it as a Father’s Day gift idea, which is where the “man” influence keeps creeping into this post. ;)

Do you usually make Father’s Day gifts?  Do you have any manly personalized gift ideas?  I’d love to hear it, I think Father’s Day can be tough for us DIY-gifters!