Custom Acrylic Keychains

If you're the creative in your family, I am sure you're left to handle all of the custom projects for events. Whether that is birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, or even family reunions, you are the one to bring the ideas to life. One of the highly requested items for these events in my family is custom keychains.

Custom keychains are durable, inexpensive, and they are great memorabilia accessories.

Here's how I make custom acrylic keychains:

Items needed:

• Acrylic disks

• Keychains, rings and jump rings

• Printable Vinyl Sheets

• Clear Permanent Vinyl

• Cricut Machine (or similar)

• Color Inkjet Printer

• Canva Software (or similar)

• Scrapper or squeegee (an old gift card could work too)

• Poking tool (safety pin, thumbtack, weeder, etc)

Creating the Design:

Before creating the design for your keychains, it is important that you measure the acrylic disk. The disks I used measured 2 inches in diameter. This is important because you want to ensure that the image/design fits within the area of the keychain.

Then you want to create your design in Canva or similar software that fits that measurement. For example, if your disks are 2 inches in diameter, your design needs to measure the same. Once it's complete, you'll need to upload the design to a cutting machine software. I used the Cricut Machine. If you decide to use the Cricut Machine, upload your design as a "Print then Cut" image.

Add the design to the canvas and size it to match the dimensions of the acrylic disk.

Pro Tip: Duplicate the design to maximize the number of prints on your page. Be mindful that Cricut's "Print then Cut" has a max 6.81 in x 8.29 in measurement.

Printing and Cutting:

Set your printer settings to your desires and print on printable vinyl. I recommend changing your printer settings to the "matte photo paper" option if your printer has this. Print the design, and set your material to Kiss Cut Sticker Paper.

If you do not have a Kiss Cut Sticker Paper option, here's a YouTube video with the steps on how to set that up within the Cricut Software.

Cut out your design and set it aside.

Open another canvas in Cricut and add circles that match your disk size. Cut the circles on the clear adhesive vinyl, also using the Kiss Cut material setting.

Assembly:

Now for the fun stuff! Remove one design and place it on one side of the keychain. Be sure to press firmly and remove any air bubbles with a scraper tool. Add the clear circle cutout directly on top of it and proceed to repeat this step if the keychain has a double-sided design.

Poke a hole where the jump ring opening is on the acrylic disk. Be sure that the hole goes through the vinyl. Add a jump ring and chain. And ta-da! You have a completed custom keychain.