Project 7 Week 10 – Repurposed Baseboard Keychains

I’ve fallen terribly behind, Thanksgiving and Black Friday took be completely unawares, and as my Etsy shop took off the rest of my life fell behind.  So, I have some catching up to do!  Interestingly enough, I mostly kept up with the projects as the weeks passed, I just didn’t get around to photographing and posting them.

My first project, Project #7 on my quest, was a very simple but still fun project, and completely in line with the 3 R’s.  When I was an intern at an architecture office, one of my jobs was to clean out the material library.  We had two sets of Vinyl Baseboard Samples, so the office was going to throw one of them away.  Basically these were pieces approximately 2 inches wide, tapered at one end and with a little bend at the other end where the baseboard would meet the ground.  Because they were already strung onto a long chain, they had a hole punched near the top, and came in a full spectrum of colors.  I got the idea to make keychains because we used a few of these samples for our office bathroom keys, so when the set was being thrown out I saved some in the best colors, and brought them home for future use.

In order to make some fun recycled keychains, all I had to do was put a key ring through the hole, and then add some decoration to the front side.  I’ve been experimenting with the best method, but they pretty much involve Sharpies (permanent markers) and some hand sketching.  I recently had the idea to use some Sharpie Paint Markers that I have and stencil something, maybe a cute dog silhouette, instead of free hand drawing, but I haven’t tried that yet.

Obviously not everyone has access to Vinyl Baseboard Samples, but the principle is the same, stick a key ring onto pretty much anything cool and recycled, and you have yourself a fun unique keychain!  Personally I like having the large keychain on my keys because that way when I’m digging around in the bottom of my purse they are easier to find!

Ciao for now, I’ll be back soon, Allison

(Photos of keychains to follow.)