Make a Hybrid Keychain

Make a Hybrid Keychain

Saturday, May 26, 2018

I'm preparing to go to a mixed media art retreat, Art and Soul Colorado, in just a few days.  One of the fun things I'm looking forward to is doing trades...in other words, any participant who's interested makes us a small item to trade with others in between classes.  Some make artistic trading cards,  small figures, or pins.  I wanted to do something a little different, so after doing some research about trades, I opted to make these key chains.  Out of necessity, I needed to make something that would be light and not too heavy in my luggage, as well something that wouldn't bog me down as I carried my bag of trades around at the retreat. 

I was excited to make these, not only because they'd be different, but because they look so cool.  They are pretty easy to make if you have everything you need.  Here's a supply list if you'd like to your hand at this.   For each keychain, you'll need:

-a cork (can be used as long as it's not damaged)
You can get a bag of several corks from amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XZ54BO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
-lobster keychains (also found on Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XGMKM6R/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
-2 small washers (1/2 in or 12.7 mm)
-2 larger washers (3/8 in or 9.5 mm)
-two head screws (also commonly called eyelets)
-small strips of patterned paper, washi tape, or thin ribbon (use your stash!)
A larger, thicker ribbon to put on the bottom of your keychain (cut into a strip about 1/2 - 3/4 in. wide and about 3-4 inches long)
-E6000 glue (the one with the pointy tip, not pictured)
-a toothpick, if you don't have the glue with the pointy tip
-scissors and pinking shears (not pictured)

You can see my video of the process below:





















If you'd prefer a step by step without watching the video, just follow the steps below.


Step One: Gluing on the Washers

Using the E6000 glue, adhere one of the large washers to one end of the cork.  Allow to dry overnight to prevent headaches when assembling the rest of your keychain(s).

The next day, glue one of the small washers onto the top of the larger washer.  Again, allow it to dry overnight.

I let my corks dry overnight in a cake pan lined with plastic wrap.  It was an easy and efficient way to let them dry without the corks and washers slipping all over the place. 

When the corks have both washer sets completely dry on one side, repeat the process with the other side. 

Step Two:  Insert the Eyelets/Headscrews

 

On one end of your cork, start screwing your eyelet into the cork through the hole on the smallest eyelet (don't put any glue down into the hole just yet!).  Tighten the eyelet down until it fits flush with the top of the small eyelet.  Carefully pull the eyelet back out of your cork.

Once the eyelet is removed, take a toothpick and cover the bottom half of it with the glue.  Push the glued-up pick inside the hole you created with your eyelet, then pull it back out.   If you have the glue tube with the pointy tip, you can try pushing a bit of glue into the hole with that.  When the adhesive inside the hole, screw the eyelet back down into the hole again until it is tightly up against the small washer. 

Repeat this process with the glue and another eyelet on the other end.  Your key chain should now look like the one in the photo above.  Lay flat and allow to dry overnight, one more time. 




Step Three:  Add the Key Chain Attachment and Washi and/or Patterned Paper

Choose one end, and put on the key chain.  I personally liked using lobster keychains, because they have a hook that's quick and easy to attach, but it's possible to thread the standard circular key chains around the eyelet; it just takes a bit longer. 

On the same end as the key chain, wrap washi tape on the cork as close as you can to the large washer.  Or, if you prefer, take a small, thin strip of digital or traditional patterned paper with the glue.  Washi tape is easier to use, since it's self-adhesive, but it's not hard to glue on paper.   You can see my key chain below that has paper instead of washi.

I suggest letting key chains made with paper trim dry for a good, long time.  Drying time doesn't necessarily take overnight.



Step Five:  Add a Ribbon loop

To add your ribbon loop, take your small length of ribbon and cut the ends with pinking shears (which keeps your ribbon from fraying).   Fold your ribbon in half, then thread the loop through the eyelet.  Take the loose ends of the ribbon and pull them through the loop through the ribbon.  Pull the ends securely through the loop and snug the ribbon up through the eyelet.  You can see the ribbon as I've looped it through the head screw in the picture above.   

The key chain is finished, and making it is pretty easy!!  The most time consuming part is the drying time, but once that is done, the rest of the key chain is quick to assemble.

Here's a small sampling of the a few of the key chains I made.  I used plaid ribbons for the bottom of the chains, but any ribbon you prefer could easily be substituted. 

Thanks for checking out this project and I hope you'll let me know if you give making the key chains a shot. 

Have a great day!

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May 2018 Plan With Me

May 2018 Plan With Me

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Hey guys!  How is your month going so far?  I'm glad May is here, and I can see some fun things coming my way, as well as some difficult things I will have to work my way through this month.  

As Mother's Day approaches, I find myself both thankful for the blessing it is to raise my children, and the sadness for the things that are testing my mettle as a mom and a person.  I remind myself that the bad things will pass, hopefully there are enough good things that are going on with my family, and that we will end up better people in the end.  If you have a mom in your life, please celebrate and honor her, whether you celebrate Mother's Day or not.  She will love you for it.  

In the midst of everything I have going on, having a bullet journal to plan things out will help me have the most positive and productive month I can.  

If this is your first visit to my blog, welcome!  Just an FYI, I use the following for digital bullet journaling: 

Morpholio Journal App 

iPad Pro & Apple Pencil

Ztylus Apple Pencil Case

If you'd like to watch my video on this month's planning, here's the video: 

Here are my page spreads for this month.  At this point, I have only a few to share.  There will be more later on, as I'm taking another BuJo doodling class.  I hope you'll check back for more pages as the month goes on. 

Weekly page spreads: 

I wanted to throw this one in here, showing a better way to use my Bitmoji avatar, since the last one was a bit smaller than I intended.  I made the Bitmoji a larger and more prominent in the page design here and like this a lot better.   If you wanna see how I created stickers with my Bitmoji, check out last month's post.

On the spread I made for last week,  I really wanted to add in a circular shape of some sort, so this is what I tried out.  It was a bit of struggle, since I've not figured out a great way to use a standard template that one might use on paper, and Morpholio doesn't have any circle shapes available to use in the app.  In any event, I still had fun with it.  The flower shapes are from the Boho Berry Tribe Resource Library.  Kara, the blogger who offers those resources, has some great stuff that you can use in your digital journals.  I highly recommend you check her out. 

Here is this week's spread...which I tried a little experiment with.  Part of it I really like, and part of it I feel like could be better.  However, I also realize that not every spread needs to be an award winner, and that my BuJo is a perfect place to try things out and it's not a big deal if things don't work out the way I expected.  It was a fun thing for me to use hexagons, and in the future I'll try again and improve on this.  The colors are awesome and it was fun trying it out. 

For my memories and calendar pages, I decided to limit each of them to one page.  April was super busy and I spent time doing a lot of basic things to keep my household running, and had some deadlines to meet.  It was much easier to just use one page each for these two items.   The memories page is all my work, and I hand drew the calendar grid, lettering and numbers myself.  The "May" word art and the two washi tape strips are also from the Boho Berry Resource library.  It was so cool working those into my calendar page. 

 I'm including another packing list, since I'm heading to an art journaling retreat near the end of the month.  Can you tell I'm loving my Bitmojis?  There isn't a ton on this page right now, but I don't want to fill too much in until I get my list items written down.  I'll give you another peek next month when the page is finished. 

Ok, guys...that will do it for now.  I hope to be back soon with another post.  Thanks for being here and letting me share my words and creations with you.  Have a nice day!

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