Lucky Duck

Over the past 2 weeks Julius has gone from army crawling to pulling up.  And now he even alternates between army crawling and legitimate crawling.  It is amazing how quickly he has progressed.  Every day you can see the progress he has made!  It’s funny, I watch all the videos of my nephew Finnegan beginning to try to control his hands and that all seems like a lifetime ago for Julius.  Looking back that is where I can pinpoint the start of the transition from Julius going from squish to grown up baby.  Babies really are amazing!

Speaking of amazing, Will and I celebrated our seventh anniversary a couple weeks ago!  I planned to make us eggplant parm and homemade ice cream, but we were so tired that I ended up making a breakfast-for-lunch type dinner using a hodgepodge of things I had on hand.  It ended up being so delicious that I have made it several times since then.  I’ll be posting about it later, but sadly my anniversary gift to Will was just as much of a shortcut.  I had about a thousand ideas for what to make (and I may make them yet – after all it’s a whole year until our next anniversary) but once again I was limited by time.

Since it was the copper/wool anniversary I decided to make Will an engraved penny from our lucky year.  I already have a set of metal stamps from Christmas a couple years ago, but I needed to invest in a larger heart stamp.  As always, be sure to use safety equipment while you’re working on a project.  In this case, copper/zinc shards can be hazardous.  I guess I should add something about not destroying legal government tender, but since those penny press machines exist I hardly think this project is a huge deal.

Lucky Anniversary Penny

What you’ll need:

• A 4mm jump ring
• A key chain
• A penny from your anniversary year
• metal stamp set with letters, numbers and 5mm heart
• 1/8″ drill bit and electric screwdriver
• 1 permanent marker

1.  Position the heart stamp over the year on the head of the penny, then make a few swift raps with a hammer to engrave a heart around the year.
   

   Hammer heart over year on penny.

2. Engrave the month and day in numbers with a ‘.” between them.
3. Flip the penny over and in the center of the penny’s tail side engrave a ‘+’ or ‘&’ surrounded by the couples’ initials.
   

   Hammer letters and numbers for date/initials.

4. Using a nail, hammer a starter dent into the top of the penny where you want the hole to be.  (If you have an awl you can use this instead of a nail)
   

   Hammer pilot hole into top of penny to use as a guide for the screwdriver.

5. Place penny in vice, with pieces of wood acting as a buffer.  With an 1/8″ drill bit, drill a hole in the penny using the starter dent as a guide.  Using fine sandpaper, remove any sharp edges from the drill.
   

   Drill the penny at the pilot hole.

6. Fill the engravings in with permanent marker, rubbing off any excess markings on the face of the penny with a cloth.
7. Insert jump ring through the hole in penny and pinch closed with pliers.  Attach key ring through jump ring.
   

   Back of penny.

   

   Front of penny.