How- To: Fun Coin Ornaments

This last minute How- To is all about making Fun ornaments from Coins and Pressed Pennies.  We have been geeked out for TRON Legacy for a while.  It was one of the longest production schedules Kevin has worked on, and it was his first time being a Lead, which makes it even sweeter! So when we got the opportunity to go to the elecTRONica set up in Disney California Adventure and check out the retro Flynn's Arcade we reverted back to the old days.  All the machines took tokens that we saved as souvenirs.  I was also on the hunt for the pressing penny machines.  It is kinda my thing. I also have a best friend that collects the pennies as well, so it is a must at tourist destinations.  I am constantly evolving ways for us to collect these pennies and here is a great project for an ornament that highlights the coin.

Above is the front and the back of the Coin Ornament on the Tree.  

 To make this ornament you need:

  a sewing machine, plastic wrappers from quarter rolls, coins or other item for the center decoration, thread in whatever color you chose, and a jump ring.

Step 1: You take the plastic quarter sleeve, and slip the item inside the plastic sleeve. Position it so that there is no cracks or warping in the quarter sleeve over the image/item. 

Step 2: Slowly stitch around the item making sure to not stitch over the item inevitably breaking the needle.

 Step 3: Once you have the holding stitch around the item double knot and trim the threads. 

 Step 4: For the outer border I used the free motion embroidery setting with the feed dogs lowered to stitch a circle on the remaining ring of quarter sleeve surrounding the encapsulated item.  *Note* I left a small gap in-between the stitching rows of the circle to mark placement for the jump ring.

Step 5: Punch a small hole below the stitched boarder for the jump ring. Here I used a gold jump ring since the coin is gold.

There are tons of variations.  Just make sure that you stitch nice and slowly on the plastic- From there the opportunities are endless!

Here is a variation in which I sandwiched a pressed Tinker Bell Quarter in a scrap piece of plastic packaging and a slip of ribbon.