Welcome back to the craft room and today’s How to Sublimate Wristlet Keychains post. For a while now I have been wanting to sublimate wristlet keychains. It wasn’t until I had the opportunity to set up a booth at a craft bazaar in October, that I decided today’s the day! Let me take you along as I learn the best way to work with printable polyester webbing and make my very first sublimated wristlet keychains.
The Canva Designs
Let’s begin the process in Canva where I create my workspace for each design. I’m sure there are easier ways to do this, but I found this works best for me. The first thing to do is create a page that measures 11″ long by 1.1″ tall. Why this size? The A-sub sublimation paper I am using is 11 inches long, and my polyester webbing is 1 inch wide. I know my Epson SureColor F170 printer will not go edge to edge, but it will go almost the entire 11-inch length of the paper. Making the template 1.1 inches tall will give me a sliver of the design on the top and bottom of the ribbon that will ensure a full color print.
The second step is to choose my designs. I have found that background and digital papers give the best results for my purpose. I have downloaded specific wristlet keychain designs from Creative Fabrica, but they tend to be shorter than I want, and do not adjust well in size. Back in Canva, after clicking on the first page, I then chose the green and gold marbled paper and clicked on it to bring it into my page. Then, by grabbing the sides of the image I can stretch it to fill my page. What makes digital papers and background so much fun to work with, is the fact I can use any part of the design. If I over stretch the image, I can then move it to the position I prefer.
Rather than use the same design on both the front and back of the keychain, I decided to pick a color from inside the design for the back. When working in Canva there seems to be two ways to accomplish this. Let’s start by clicking on the next page of the design. From there, on the menu that comes up, choose Background Color. This is where things are a little different. On my computer, I can choose Add a New Color, and then click on the eye dropper to go pixel deep in the image I want. On the iPad, this eye dropper is not an option. Instead, there are, what I would consider, predominant colors of the image that the program has chosen for you to pick from. It’s not the most ideal, but it still works well.
After creating a few different images, I downloaded them to my computer. I then inserted just the keychain fronts into a Word document, making sure the image size was correct. Next, I created another document with the corresponding background colors, again making sure the sizes were correct.
The Polyester Webbing
The printable polyester webbing that I am using for my sublimated wristlet keychains is from Country Brook Design. It is a 1″ wide webbing with a very smooth texture on both sides. It also has a nice subtle sheen which makes the sublimated designs shine. Cutting the webbing to an 11″ length was super simple with my Fiskars rotary fabric trimmer. The only drawback is that this webbing does fray easily. Because of this, I tried to melt the cut edges with a flame. It mostly worked, but not completely. As an afterthought, I did add a little bit of Fray Check to the edges and let them dry for 25-30 minutes before continuing the process.
Because I am a little concerned about the possibility of ghosting, I decided to sublimate the back of the webbing first. If the color is dark enough, lining up the webbing on the A-sub sublimation paper is a piece of cake! However, a few of the finished colors I chose are light, which makes the sublimation print even lighter. I used three pieces of heat-resistant tape to hold the webbing in place. Each sheet was sublimated on my HTVRont Auto Heat Press at 400 degrees for 55 seconds. Sublimating the fronts were just as easy; line up, tape down, and heat for 55 seconds at 400 degrees. Below are photos of the three sets of keychains I made today.
Adding the Hardware
Before adding the hardware, I did take the time to glue the ends of each length of webbing together. This made it much easier for me when attaching the hardware. To glue the ends together I just added a small line of Art Glitter Glue to the end and then held it with a binder clip until it was dry. I used this same technique when creating my How to Make a Faux Leather Keychain post.
I began by finishing off the package of Sew-ology Key Fob Hardware before opening the package of hardware purchased from Amazon. To attach the webbing, place the hardware into the jaws of the Key Fob/glass running pliers. I like to place the teeth of the hardware facing me, so the webbing is laying against the smooth back. After centering the webbing, you then gently squeeze the pliers closed. After locking in most of the webbing, I like to go back and squeeze each side to ensure a secure hold. Finally, add the key ring if it isn’t already attached to the hardware.
The Finished Wristlet Keychains
Thank you so much for joining me for today’s How to Sublimate Wristlet Keychains post. These were so fun and so very easy to make! I love how they look, and the extra added sheen of the webbing just adds that final element. The design possibilities are also endless with so many digital papers and backgrounds available for download. There are several websites to find these types of papers, but my go to has always been Creative Fabrica. Of the 12 keychains I made today, I really can’t pick a favorite. Heck I even love the green and gold marble keychain, and I don’t like green! Of the keychains in the following picture, let me know which one is your favorite down in the comments. Until then, have a fantastic week and I will see you back in the craft room again soon!
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