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