Stamped Garden Markers

We've been hard at work getting our vegetable garden started in the backyard.  In the meantime, we put in a couple of small raised beds right off the back patio for herbs.  I wanted a fun way to label the herbs and I have seen lots of people use jewelry stamps on old spoons for garden markers.  When I searched around the internet, it seemed like most people were flattening out the spoon before stamping and a few people had done the same on forks.
 

When I headed out to my local Goodwill in search of some utensils, there was a wide selection of butter knives, but very few spoons and forks.  At the high price of 5 for $1, I figured I would give it a try.  I tried to pick out knives that had a flat-ish area on the handle for stamping.

I stamped the knife handles just as I would any jewelry piece.  The only real difference was that I had to hit them HARD.  The thickness of the handle made it more difficult to get a good impression.  I only ruined one knife in the process.  It was more rounded than I realized and I couldn't get it to lay flat enough to get a good hit on the stamp.

After stamping, I went over the letters with an industrial Sharpie and polished them off with a silver polishing cloth.

I think they look so fun stuck in the dirt by the herbs!  It almost looks like someone is in the process of eating them all up!  I'll give you an update later in the summer to see how they're holding up.  I'm curious to see if the letters will still be readable and if the knives themselves will get too tarnished.  At $2 for the entire project, I'll be happy if they only last for one year!