Back in the beginning of May my husband and I took a little trip to Disney World that I dubbed our “Empty Nest Trip”.

I didn’t go out of my way to hunt down the machines that pressed pennies but I knew I wanted a few to possibly make a project or two out of. You know, just a little memento. Whenever I happened upon a machine I’d dig out quarters and a penny to smash.

So while we were waiting for our table at a restaurant one night my husband suddenly walked away. (We’d been waiting a long time and I was ignoring him while I checked email on my phone. I figured that he just got bored and wondered off to see what there was to see. After all there is no wi-fi in the parks so I was kind of going through some withdrawal!)

Then he came back a couple of minutes later and asked for four quarters and two pennies. I handed them over and he went away again leaving me to check my email in solitude.

Sheesh. Some peoples’ children.

He returned quickly with the Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse smashed pennies above. Awww! Cool.

I quickly forgave him for interrupting my email checking, facebook, twitter fix as I admired my new little smashed pennies. 🙂

I also wrote Tools to Punch Holes In Metal yesterday – two tools that make punching holes in metal easy.

I love this little two hole punch for jewelry making. It’s become my favorite toy this week.

It literally took about 5 minutes to make this fun pair of earrings.

Supplies:

• 2 smashed pennies
• 6 small beads
• 6 headpins
• 2 earring wires
• 2 jump rings

Turn the penny over to the back and make a small dot with a Sharpie Marker on the top center of the penny.

Use the dot to place the hole punch into the right position and then turn the knob to punch the hole.

If there is any Sharpie Marker remaining on the back of the penny you can wipe it off with a bit of alcohol.

Next, attach the earring wire to the penny with a jump ring.

Add the 6 beads to the 6 head pins and create a simple loop on each one.

Attach three beads to each earring on the jump ring and close the loops.

You could also punch a hole in the bottom center of the penny and add more beads to the bottom.

I’m thinking that this is a super adorable way to create a memento from the amusement parks you visit this summer. Don’t YOU?

Oh, and here is a tip that I read on one of the WDW boards I scoured for tips before we went. Take an empty M&M’s mini container and stack coins in it – 2 quarters and a penny, 2 quarters and a penny etc. so that when you find a penny smashing machine you’ve got the change you need at hand. Pretty clever, huh?