Cheese, Please: DIY Leather Stamped Cheese Markers + Food Tags

I’ve partnered with Seven Daughters wine to bring you a series of posts that revolve around my favorite subject: DIY. And today marks the second post in this series. See post number one here: 7 DIY Entertaining Hacks to Get You Through Your Next Dinner Party in Style.

Now that it is officially fall, the holidays will be creeping up faster than I’d like to admit.

So, I thought I would share an easy food related DIY that is perfect for entertaining, especially during the holidays, in partnership with Seven Daughters wine. Leather stamped cheese markers and food tags.

Cheese platters are always at the top of my list when it comes to entertaining because they’re easy to put together, pair well with wine, and are a good, hearty appetizer / snack before a meal. I’m coming for ya, holiday parties!

The process of creating your own set of markers is pretty easy too. If you remember how easy the leather DIY escort cards were, that I made last year, you know what I mean.

Here’s how you can make your own leather cheese markers in 7 easy steps…

Materials:

thick leather scraps, large bowl for water, wooden mallet, leather stamps, lollipop sticks, hot glue gun (or craft glue), paper towels or cloth

How To:

1. Start by soaking a piece of leather in a bowl of water for 30 seconds to a minute. This will soften the leather, making it easier to cut and stamp.

2. Remove the leather from the bowl of water and pat dry with paper towels or a cloth. Basically, you want to stop it from dripping, but the leather should remain wet

3. Cut the leather with scraps scissors, into various shapes. I cut out diamonds, triangles, and circles (which I traced large bottle caps to create). But feel free to get more creative with the shapes (starbursts, hearts, octagons, etc).

4. Next, grab your leather stamps and pick out the letters you’ll need to create the cheese markers, based on the cheese you plan to serve. You can also create additional markers for other foods, if you’d like (olives, nuts, champagne grapes, etc). It’s not necessary, since it’s pretty obvious what those other food items are, but I included them just to make things more cohesive for the finished cheese platter.

5. Stamp each cheese name into the leather shapes and set aside.

6. Now that the leather has been stamped, you can attach the lollipop sticks. Add hot glue to the back of each piece of leather and press the top end of a lollipop stick onto the glue to secure it. Let the glue cool off and remove any glue strings.

7. Cut the lollipop sticks down to various lengths, so the cheese markers will be at varying heights on the platter. Stick into your cheese and you’re good to go.

I like the ruggedness of these markers. They’re not too fancy and not too girlie.

But if you wanted to dress them up a little bit more, you could add some gold leaf or even a little paint to add a pop of glam or color.

Quick Guide to Wine + Cheese

If you’re looking for some guidance in the pairing department, as far as wine and cheese goes, here are a few suggestions…

-Blue Cheese pairs well with a sweeter, dessert wine, like a Moscato.

-Brie is great with rich white wines because they are full bodied. So a Chardonnay would be a good choice.

-Goat Cheese (my favorite) pairs well with rich whites as well. So a nice White Winemakers blend or Chardonnay would work here too.

-Sheep’s Milk Cheese goes well with a bold red, like Seven Daughter’s Rich Red Winemakers Blend.

What’s your favorite kind of cheese? Mine is goat cheese. I could eat it on almost anything. Salad, toast, crackers, etc. Yum.

Photography by Sarah Eddy
Concept, projects, and styling Brittni Mehlhoff

Think you’ll give these leather cheese markers a try for your next dinner party?

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This post is in partnership with Seven Daughters Wine. Thank you for supporting the brands that make this site possible.