How to Make a Faux Leather Keychain

Welcome back to the craft room and today’s How to Make a Faux Leather Keychain post. I have been wanting to make these keychains for a very long time. So long in fact, I purchased the faux leather almost a year and a half ago! Today seems like the perfect day to give it a try, so let me show you how I made them! If you would like to watch a video of the process, you can check that out as well.

Supplies

Faux Leather

There are many options of faux leather on the market. For this project I chose to use Faux Leather Ribbon from The Ribbon Boutique that I purchased at Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately, Hobby Lobby chose not to carry this product any longer, so when I run out I will have to find a different source. To make the keychain base, I cut the faux leather with a rotary blade into strips that measure 10” long by 1” wide.

Hardware

I am using two different brands of 1” wide keychain hardware in today’s project. I started out with the last set in a package from Dritz that I bought at the same time as the faux leather. To finish the second keychain in today’s project, I had to open a new package from Sew*ology. I am also using a pair of Glass Running Pliers to close the clamp to secure the faux leather. As you can see in the image below, the pliers have rubber covers over the ends. This is important so as not to mar the metal of the clamps. If your pliers don’t have that feature, then use a piece of material over the clamp.

The Decorations

The best part of any DIY project is being able to decorate it any way you like. I chose to use Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) for mine. My favorite brand of HTV is Siser EasyWeed, because it’s true to the name; it is Super Easy to Weed even the most intricate design. I also really love the Siser Sparkle HTV. It has the look of glitter with the soft feel of regular vinyl, it truly is the best of both worlds.

The Process

I began the process of decorating my keychains in Cricut Design Space. For the first design I found some pretty flourishes in the image portion of the software and paired them with a simple heart. The second design, I added another simple design with the text “Coffee Run”. Even though I am cutting each design from different material, I decided to put them on the same cutting mat to save time. I spaced the images apart and placed my HTV in the same place on the green Cricut cutting mat. Because I am working with HTV both designs were mirrored so the text would read correctly after being ironed onto the keychain.

After weeding both designs I turned on my Cricut Mini Heat Press to the first setting. When it was ready, I covered the faux leather with a piece of parchment paper and ran the hot press over it twice. This is important as it removes any moisture from the material that may interfere with the application of the vinyl. After lining up the image on the keychain, and covering it with parchment paper, I pressed it for 30 seconds. The transfer backing on Siser HTV can be removed either hot or cold. I do prefer to let it cool a bit first before slowly removing the backing. I again covered the image and made two more passes over the image with the press to ensure it was fully adhered.

Before adding the hardware to the keychains, I did glue the ends of the faux leather together with Art Glitter Glue. This step is purely optional, but I find it helpful to only have to keep track of one piece of leather rather than two. Another optional step I take is to apply a small piece of Scor-tape to the back of each keychain. This adds another helpful hand to the equation when trying to keep everything lined up when securing the clamps to the ends of the leather.

Attaching the Hardware

Attaching the hardware to finish off the keychain is a very simple process. Simply place the clamp over the end of the keychain and close it with the Glass Running Pliers. This process was made even more simple for me, by taking the time to glue the leather together and adding the Scor-tape. Being able to tape the leather into the clamp first gave me enough time to ensure everything was in place before closing the clamp down tight.

The Finished Faux Leather Keychains

I am so happy with how all of the keychains I made turned out. Let me show you how pretty they all are! Let’s start with the pair I just made. The top keychain is decorated with the Siser Sparkle HTV, and the Coffee Run keychain is decorated with Siser Yellow EasyWeed HTV.

The next pair is decorated with Cricut Foil HTV in the color Pink. These are very difficult to photograph, you either see nothing, or you see such a brilliant shine!

And the last pair is made with Gold Cricut Glitter HTV. If you know Cricut glitter HTV, then you know just how textured these two keychains really are. Again, they are difficult to photograph, but in person the shine is amazing.

Thank you so much for joining me for today’s How to Make a Faux Leather Keychain post! I hope it was informative, and showed just how simple these are to create. Because this brand of faux leather is no longer sold through Hobby Lobby, I will come back here and update the post when I find another source. Until then, let me know down in the comments if you use this type of keychain. Have a wonderful week and I will see you back in the craft room again soon!

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