Mother's Day DIY ~ Kate Spade Inspired 'Taxi!' Keychain

Hi lovelies!  As I hinted on instagram yesterday, I've got a week FULL of Mother's Day DIY gifts for you!  We've come a long way from the macaroni necklace we'd make for mom, or the pinecone bird feeder, but mom still loves our homemade gifts better than any store bought ones.  Besides, anyone can buy something, but something you spent time on has your love built in with it!  Okay, so enough sappy stuff!

I can remember growing up, having my mom cart around all my friends, picking everyone up, dropping us off, picking up again, and dropping everyone off individually.  Although she'd complain (a bit) and joke about starting to charge, like a taxi, she still did it out of love :)  So when I saw this keychain, it instantly reminded me of 'Mom's Taxi' and I knew I had to make it.  Although it's on sale for $29, I still made it for nothing using supplies I had on hand! I'm sure you too will have most of them as well!  {Click to keep reading!}

You'll need:

• Shrinky Dink Plastic (I used about half of one sheet, a pack of 10 sheets costs about $6 at Michael's)
• Craft knife & cutting board
• Speech bubble template (I just found a clip art one and printed it out ~ make sure it's about 7" x 5")
• A keychain ring
• A large jump ring
• About three links of chain
• Jewelry pliers
• Nail polish!
• (not shown) Painter's tape

Use painter's tape to secure your sheet of plastic to your template, and put it on top of your cutting board.  Press firmly and away from you, and cut out the template using the craft knife on the plastic.

After you've done that, remove the tape and the template and flip the plastic over.  Trace on the other side with your craft knife.  Now you'll be able to punch out your shape.

Here's the shape!  It's a little big and too thin though.  Use a hole puncher to punch a hole on one side!

Following the directions on the package, I preheated the oven and wrapped my piece in a brown paper bag.  Then put it in the oven on a baking sheet for about 2.5 minutes.  Fold the edges of the bag up so you can quickly remove it from the oven, because you will want to press down on top of it (with a towel) while it's still warm in order to ensure it's completely flat.  Work fast - it cools down fast even in the paper!

Now you'll have this!  It seriously is a dead ringer for lucite, isn't it?  The great thing about shrinky dink plastic is that it shrinks down to about 1/3 the size but increases in thickness by about 10 times!  Now here's where I realized I forgot to punch a hole before baking, so I had to drill one.

If there are any rough edges, use a nail file to sand them down.

Now it's time to paint!

Here's one thick coat of teal polish on one side.  Let it dry thoroughly.

Grab a large nail dotting tool (or a plain pencil eraser will work great too!) and some white nail polish.

Dot away!  Let it dry completely.

Grab some black polish, paint the edges and then a border around the shape, and 'TAXI!' inside.  Let dry overnight.

You'll notice the backside is blah.  You could paint it a solid color if you'd like, or repeat the design on the back.  I chose the latter.  When all is dry, seal it with a topcoat and let dry thoroughly!

Time to assemble!  Attach your jump ring through the hole in the shape.  Add the three links of chain with the keychain ring to the last link.

Voila!

Now mom can carry her keys on her 'Taxi!' keychain!  It will surely make her smile everytime she picks up her keys :)

Make sure you're following so you don't miss a single DIY!

xo
Lia