Coordinates of Home Necklace

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We’ve all heard the saying, “Home is where the heart is.” It’s very true, isn’t it?  And for many folks, the reality is that their hearts and their bodies are in two different places.  I have a good friend who lived in California for several years and absolutely loved it there.  It’s where her son was born and where she and her husband planned to raise their family. But things rarely go just the way we plan them, and before they knew it, some unexpected circumstances forced them to return to Maryland indefinitely.  Selfishly, I’m glad she’s here so we can have our weekly coffee dates and our kids can grow up together. But I know that her heart is really still there in Encinitas, CA.

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Monday was her birthday and our group of friends wanted to do something special for her.  We know she loves the vintage retro styles at ModCloth, so we all chipped in and got her a gift certificate so she can buy herself something fun to wear.  But we also wanted to do a little something to remind her of home.  Our friend Mel, who is also a California girl, suggested we look up the latitude and longitude coordinates of Encinitas and make her a keepsake necklace.  I loved the idea, and here’s how it turned out!

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Materials:
I’m linking to my exact materials in case you want to replicate this project. Some of these are affiliate/sponsored links.

– ImpressArt 11/2″ Rectangle Pewter Soft Strike Stamping Block
Metal Stamping Hammer
Steel Stamping Block
ImpressArt Juniper Lowercase Alphabet Stamps
– Number and symbol/punctuation stamps
Stamp Straight Tape
– Black Permanent Marker
– Jewelry Polishing Cloth
Chain

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I recently got some samples of the newest ImpressArt blanks to play with, and this project was just perfect for the 3D rectangle!  I decided to stamp “encinitas, ca” on one side, the latitude on another, and the longitude on the third side.  I didn’t stamp anything on the side that will be the back, although in retrospect, it could be cool to stamp something hidden there, like “home.”

To do it, I followed the same basic metal stamping steps I do whenever I create stamped jewelry.  I taped the blank to my block, stamped the letters/numbers, colored over it with marker, and rubbed it clean with my polishing cloth.  For detailed step-by-step instructions and photos about how to do all of that, be sure to check out my Basic Metal Stamping post!

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What do you think?  I love that we were able to give my friend a little piece of home to keep with her always.  This could so easily be customized for any place in the whole world!  It could be where you grew up, where you live now, your favorite vacation spot…anywhere!  What would your coordinates be?

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