Metal Stamped Leather Wrap Bracelet

Make a metal stamped leather wrap bracelet using special dates like kids birth dates, spouses birth dates, an anniversary or other dates you want to commemorate.   

This might be one of my all time favorite gifts that I’ve ever made! I’m sure that won’t be the last time I say that, but this one will probably be tops for a while. I had been wanting to try a metal stamping project for a long time, and we all know I love wrap bracelets and personalized gifts, so this metal stamped leather wrap bracelet using kids birth dates was a perfect combination. The first one I made was for my sister-in-law and then I made a few for some people on my team at work.

I had collected some of the tools over several months. I won’t attempt to write full a metal stamping tutorial as there are people out there with much more experience that can guide you through. One tutorial I used to get started was from Happy Hour Projects.

*Some supplies links may be linking to affiliate links on amazon.com and other trusted retailers.

Basic bracelet supplies:

• Leather wrap bracelet (I used double and triple wrap styles).
• Metal stamping sheets (I cut these down to my desired size)
• 20 gauge wire

Tools:

• Metal stamping set with numbers, I also used a period sign from a basic punctuation set.
• Steel bench block
• Hammer
• Wire cutter
• Metal cutter
• Pliers
• Metal hole punch
• Black Sharpie
• Rubbing alcohol
• cotton cloth

First I cut small rectangles from my metal sheets. I cut them approximately the same width of my bracelet figuring I’d cut them down a bit after I stamped them. For length it was purely trial and error based on the size of my metal stamped numbers.

I taped down my metal piece to the steel bench block and stamped the month date and year of the child’s birthday with a period between each set of numbers.

To darken the dates, I used a Sharpie marker and then rubbed it off gently with a cotton cloth with rubbing alcohol on it. This leaves the numbers darkened but not the rest of the metal.

After that I put a hole in each end of each of the metal rectangles so that I could attach them to the leather wrap bracelet.

Then I created the holes in the the leather wrap bracelet, two for each hole on the metal stamped rectangle. This took a bit of measuring against my wrist to decide where I wanted the metal rectangles and then where to place the holes.

Originally I thought I was going to use jump rings to fasten my stamped metal rectangles to the leather wrap bracelet, but after a few attempts, I gave up. I bought some 20 guage wire and looped it through each hole and then overlapped them on top.

Finally I trimmed the wire and tried to make sure it was as smooth as possible so it wouldn’t catch on things.

I’m so happy with how they turned out. They are a little imperfect looking which is part of what I love about them – varying darkness of the numbers and some are a little uneven.

Here’s the triple wrap bracelet I made for my sister-in-law.

Then I made some double wrap bracelets for a few people on my team, some in gold and some in silver.

I’m thinking of making another one for a friend and one for myself using a phrase instead of birth dates which were my original inspiration from the site Bourbon and Boots. I’m pretty excited about doing those, I just need to figure out what sayings i want to use.