I love a good key chain! I’ve been seeing so many cute variations of wood bead key chains that I knew I had to try making some of my own. I originally wanted to make some for my girls’ backpacks, but decided it would be fun to make them for some friends of mine. I love making little gifts like this, plus it’s fun and useful. Win win.
Luckily Michael’s had most of the supplies I needed AND my kids absolutely love going there. I picked up the wood beads, hemp cord and black paint and used my coupon of course (I love their app because I can never remember bringing paper coupons anywhere). We had a spray can of satin finish Minwax Polycrylic and I ordered some of these cool brass split key rings. I love that they’re brass because they go so well with the black and wood.
I sat down one night just thinking I would play around with some painting ideas, but ended up just making them all that night because I was having too much fun to stop. To apply the poly I strung the painted beads on a string of baker’s twine and tacked it to our wood railing outside and sprayed away. I flipped it around after making sure the one side got a good coat. It worked out pretty well!
It was fun painting each bead and when I would mess up one I would just change the design a bit. I also found out it’s actually pretty difficult to maintain a steady hand when painting a small round object, who knew?! ha.
The assembly went really smoothly – just did a few knots at the beginning and end. I’m not sure if what I did will end up holding up over time, but I think they look cute.
postcards by Life Love Paper
If you make more, place the beads on a wooden skewer, that will give you something to hang on to and will also allow you to paint all the way around and on both ends.
Thanks for the tip Claudia! I did something similar by placing it on the end of a paint brush I had. 🙂
These look fantastic. Such a fun little project 🙂
cute cute cute!
I love mine! thanks so much for your generosity and for your friendship! xo
Those are really cute Anna and they make great zipper pulls for the larger tote bags! I love me a good key chain too especially when they’re nice and light and won’t damage the ignition!
Yes! totally! 🙂