Moriah Elizabeth style 'Squishy Makeover' (A DIY Project Showcase)

Moriah Elizabeth, for those of you who may not know, is an art Youtuber who is probably most well-known for popularizing the idea of “Squishy Makeovers”. Squishies, or squishy toys, are typically made from either foam or silicone. According to my online research, squishies originated in Japan, and first reached the US market in 2017. They were initially designed as stress relievers, sort of re-imagined versions of the stress balls that became ubiquitous for a time in the late 80s and early 90s. However, squishies can be found in a wider variety of shapes than the earlier made stress balls. Some of the most popular themes for squishy toys are food and animal designs.

Youtuber Moriah Elizabeth posted her first “Squishy Makeover” video in 2018. The whole squishy makeover concept involved taking worn and faded, or just cheaply made, squishy toys and repainting them using fabric paints, to give them a refresh. Fabric paints tend to be more flexible than acrylic paints, so they’re less likely to crack or flake off over time. Also, the flexibility of the fabric paint helps maintain the original squishy-ness of the toy.

Moriah Elizabeth started out her squishy makeover series by simply repainting squishies, but over time she honed her skills to incorporate more advanced techniques. These techniques include attaching smaller squishies to larger squishies as accessories, repairing damaged areas of a squishy with fabric glue, and even replacing missing parts of a squishy with memory foam before repainting. I’ve been watching Moriah Elizabeth’s Youtube channel for some years now and, since I’m easily inspired by craft projects that I see in books and on Youtube, I wanted to try a few squishy makeovers myself. However, I didn’t want to use any full-sized squishies for my projects. The last thing I need right now is another useless collection that I don’t have space for sitting around and collecting dust. I also reasoned that a smaller project would be simpler to accomplish and would take less time to complete. So, I purchased a sampling of squishy toy keychains on clearance at Michaels craft store, planning to add the finished projects to my existing keychain collection.

This Orb Odditeez macaron was my first attempt at a squishy makeover, and it’s pretty much as basic as they come. It’s not even a full repaint. I just repainted the cream filling and added a painted chocolate drizzle on top. I did have a bit of trouble creating a consistent drizzle with the fabric paint. But trying to fill in the gaps with a dotting tool just made the paint job look worse. I may attempt to do another touch up later on.

I also added my own ‘artist signature’ to the bottom of the squishy, just like Moriah Elizabeth does in her makeovers. I came up with the signature design back in my schooling days, after I was inspired by a book I’d read. Unfortunately, I no longer remember the book’s title, or the bulk of the plot for that matter. But all in all, I think this makeover turned out decently for a first attempt. And since I still have a number of other squishy keychains left, you may be seeing more of these projects in the future.

Signed, Treesa

Keychain Customizing (A DIY Project Showcase)

There are certainly a wide variety of keychains on the market, to the point where collectors can find just about anything they desire in keychain form. However, mass produced items, no matter how well made they are, can still lack something. You can't buy a mass market keychain without being aware that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of other people who have the exact same keychain. Collectors who want something a little more unique can either pay a professional crafter to make them a custom product, or they can make their own keychains from scratch. I've dabbled in jewelry making, but I'm not particularly good at it. However, there is a way around this. There are plenty of mass-produced keychains that can be customized to give them a personal touch. Below are some examples that I've done. I hope that they'll give you some ideas of your own for dressing up your keychains.

This first custom project looks a lot more complicated than it actually was. It started out as a plain clipboard keychain made from unfinished wood that I purchased a number of years ago at a local craft store. Sadly, the craft store in question went out of business. But I wouldn't be surprised if you can still find these keychains online.

Step one involved painting the exposed wood with light blue acrylic paint. The sand dollar and the darker blue flourish designs are actually rub-on transfers. The sand dollar was applied first, but because the rub-on transfer sheet had been sitting around for a while and hadn't aged well I couldn't get the entire design to transfer. Adding the flourish designs helped to better define the shape of the sand dollar. People I showed this keychain to didn't really seem to notice the missing patches of the design.

I decided to coat the finished project with a thin layer of spray sealant, which is basically clear spray paint, to help protect the design and the paint from scratching and chipping. (I later added a thin coat of matte varnish.) All in all, I'm really pleased with how this keychain turned out. I'm also really proud that I was able to salvage it when the sand dollar design didn't transfer all the way.

I bought this Alexon plush alligator keychain from a flea market specifically so that I could customize the little, white tee shirt. The butterfly design was actually supposed to be a dragonfly. I made the design by applying some green paint to a dragonfly shaped acrylic stamp, then stamping on the fabric. (I placed a layer of glossy cardstock inside the shirt when I did the stamping, so that the shirt would lie flatter and so that the paint wouldn't bleed through to the other side.)

Once the paint was dry, I felt that the design needed more detail. So I went out and bought a blue paint pen. Unfortunately I picked up the wrong point size, buying the fine point instead of the ultra fine point. I didn't realize my mistake until after I'd removed the plastic wrapping and took the cap off the pen, so I couldn't return or exchange it. I tried to 'make it work' as they say, but instead of the fine detail I wanted the blue paint ended up sort of blobby. It still looks ok, just not what I was originally aiming for.

The airplane and cloud designs on this duffle bag keychain were made with acrylic paint and a set of children's stencils. The stencils were a little difficult to work with. For starters, I was having some trouble getting the bag to lie flat enough to apply the designs. Also, because the stencils were intended for children, they were made from a much thicker plastic than stencils made for adult crafters. So getting into the corners of the designs was trickier. I'm also not convinced that the airplane's color scheme coordinates well with the duffle. When I first picked the colors, I was working under the assumption that khaki is a neutral color and therefore goes with everything. (I also forgot to take the black straps into consideration, which is why the details on the airplane are dark blue instead of black.)

This clear, key-shaped keychain is made of smooth plastic. To make the floral design at the top, I first used some acrylic stamps and two colors of solvent ink. When the stamping didn't turn out quite as cleanly as I would've liked, I filled in parts of the design with Sharpie markers. I later sealed everything with a thin coat of spray sealant.

Originally, the red plastic record on this keychain was one of those clip-on charms that were so popular in the 1980s. However, when I attempted to convert the clip-on into a keychain it became much harder to tell what the charm was actually meant to be. It looked more like a tire, or just a plain, plastic disc shape, than a record. So I added the silver music note charm to make it more obvious.

Even though I thought the real printed pages inside this dictionary keychain were awesome, I really didn't like the cover design. So I covered over both the front and the back covers with pieces of dark blue sticker paper embellished with alphabet stickers.

Over this I placed some clear packing tape to form a protective layer. I left the spine uncovered, since it had the word 'Dictionary' on it already.

In the case of this last keychain, someone else did the customizing for me. But I thought it was a nice idea for a quick project, so I decided to share it on the blog anyway. The keychain itself is made of wood, with a sticker letter monogram on each side. I found it for sale at a thrift store, and since the letter used is my first initial I bought it for my keychain collection.

As you can see, there are a number of ways to customize mass-produced keychains. A little paint or ink, some stickers or rub-on transfers, even adding extra charms can turn a basic keychain into something unique. So why not give it a try for yourself.

Signed, Treesa

Other Uses For Photo Keychains (A DIY Project Showcase)

The appeal of photo keychains seems to be that they give people a way to carry pictures of their loved ones with them wherever they go. However in order to stay portable, photo keychains must be small. Therefore, the pictures that go inside them must be equally small, sometimes smaller than the standard 'wallet' size. Trimming down a photo to fit inside a keychain, while also making sure that the subject of the photo stays properly centered, can be frustrating. I find this is especially true for frames that have heart-shaped 'windows'.

Over the years, I've bought a number of photo keychains that I thought were interesting or pretty. Most of these keychains were still empty until recently. I just wasn't up for the challenge of trying to find photos I could fit in them. Then one day I was at a flea market, examining yet another photo keychain, when inspiration struck. That past Christmas I had personalized some photo ornaments to use as gifts, filling the frames with patterned paper and other, flat embellishments instead of photos. What if I took what I'd learned on that project and applied it to my photo keychains?

My first attempt to adapt this idea used the same photo keychain that I'd been studying at the flea market. The keychain 'frame' is made from silver tone metal, with the words "Forever and Ever" engraved on the back.

This inscription led me to go with a 'love' theme for the project. With this theme in mind, I pulled out a sheet of leftover Valentine's Day stickers. The stickers were on the older side, and over time they'd actually become fused to the backing sheet. However the artwork on them was so beautiful, I just couldn't bring myself to throw them away. For this project, the fused backing actually ended up working to my advantage, since it let me use the sticker without having to mount it on a separate piece of cardstock first. I just used the piece of clear transparency that came inside the frame as a template to trim out one sticker with the attached backing. Then all I had to do was slip the sticker with the backing inside the frame and slide the transparency into place over the sticker to protect the image.

Since this particular photo keychain is top-loading, the keyring helps to hold the design in place.

This next project was a little more challenging, since the blue, faux alligator skin frame has a heart-shaped 'window'. This time I decided to use patterned paper from my scrapbooking and papercrafting stash, instead of a sticker. So I rummaged through my box of paper scraps, trying to find something that would coordinate with the frame. After pulling out several different papers that I thought seemed promising, I slid out the piece of clear transparency that had come with the frame and laid it on top of each paper, trying to get an idea what the different parts of the designs would look like inside the frame. I finally decided to center my design around a flower with a blue center that I thought coordinated nicely with the color of the frame. Using the piece of transparency as a guide, I trimmed around the flower, then slid my patterned paper square into the frame.

It looked okay, but the design still needed something. After some thinking, I pulled out a pack of clear stickers with quotes printed on them. After trimming the word "smile" off the end of a quote, I reached through the frame's heart-shaped 'window' opening and positioned the sticker word on the patterned paper. After the sticker was in place I slid the piece of transparency back into the frame on top of the patterned paper. I later decided to sandwich the patterned paper between two pieces of clear packing tape, for added durability.

The photo keychain pictured above is referred to as a 'Sparkle Sphere' on the tag. There's a price sticker from a store called Zany Brainy on the back of the tag. I remember this store very fondly from my childhood. I especially remember the Carousel Kids wooden 'paper dolls' and the wide variety of toy food that the store had for sale. I also remember how disappointed I was when the store closed.

The 'Sparkle Sphere' keychain is actually made in two halves that twist apart. Each half has a chamber filled with water and glitter. When a photo is sandwiched in between the two halves, it results in sort of a snow globe effect. This design also means that the keychain is double-sided, with space for two separate images.

Playing off of the snow globe idea, I selected some stickers based on the Disney movie Frozen that had come free with a mail-in offer. Free is always good, but by far the best part was that the stickers were already circular. I just had to trim them down a sliver so they would fit inside the keychain. I used one sticker of Olaf and one sticker of Elsa, adhering each sticker to thin cardstock to make it easier to work with. After the stickers were trimmed, I placed them inside the keychain back to back.

This next photo keychain is also double-sided.

For the front, I took a Santa Claus design postage stamp that I'd saved from an old Christmas card and, after carefully steaming off the remaining piece of the envelope, I adhered the stamp to a piece or red cardstock that I'd trimmed to fit the keychain. The stamp wasn't quite wide enough to fill the keychain on its own, so the red provides a nice border. Besides, I needed to mount the stamp on a separate piece of paper anyway, both to make it sturdier and to give me a blank canvas for the back of the keychain.

Speaking of the back, here's how that turned out. The holly design was paper pieced by stamping the design onto the red cardstock, them stamping it again on a separate piece of dark green cardstock and cutting out the leaves. In hindsight, I think the holly might've looked better if I'd used a lighter shade of green cardstock.

This photo keychain was purchased for me by my sister K. at Dorney Park. Planet Snoopy was one of Dorney Park's attractions, and the back of this keychain actually features a Snoopy design that looks like it was etched into the metal. Unfortunately, thanks to the metal's shiny, mirror-like finish photographing this design has been impossible for me. Regardless, I thought it would be fun to put a picture of Snoopy inside the keychain. So I cut one out of the Sunday newspaper. Once I'd trimmed the newsprint to the correct size to fit in the frame, I carefully sandwiched it between two pieces of clear packing tape, to give it some much needed durability. An interesting side-note, this frame is actually held closed with magnets, one of which already came loose and had to be glued back into place with extra strong craft glue.

This picture frame keychain featuring Goofy with a life preserver actually ended up in a box of 'spare' keychains that I was planning to sell. I couldn't remember where I'd gotten it, and at the time I had no idea what to do with it. However, I decided to take another look at it when I was in the midst of trying to fill my other photo keychains. I created the Finding Nemo themed insert for this keychain by applying a rub-on transfer to a piece of cardstock for the background, and then adhering a Nemo character sticker to the center. As usual, the insert was sandwiched between two pieces of clear packing tape to make it more durable.

I think the picture frame keychain shown above is a good example of why my photo keychains stayed empty for so long. In order to fit a picture in this frame, that picture would've needed to be cut into a circle. Combine that with the small size of the keychain and I would've been tearing my hair out if I'd gone the traditional route and tried to put a photo in the frame. Instead, I cut a circle from pale purple cardstock and used a small flower stamper and several colors of ink to create a background. The word "Pretty" was spelled out using tiny letter stickers. I wanted to go with a beauty theme for this project because there's a small mirror on the back of the keychain.

For this last example, I thought the design of the combination flashlight/picture frame mimicked the look of a handheld video game. So I chose an oversized Pikachu sticker for the image. The sticker was actually a little too long for the frame. But this ended up being a good thing, because the sticker also wasn't quite as tall as the opening for the picture. So after carefully measuring and cutting a piece of cardstock to the right dimensions, I peeled off the sticker and centered Pikachu on top of the cardstock. Then I trimmed the edges of the sticker, using the excess to cover up any remaining exposed cardstock.

I hope you enjoyed this 'DIY Project Showcase', and I hope I've inspired some of you to 'think outside the frame' and experiment with new ideas for photo keychain inserts. Whether you decide to use some of my suggestions or come up with your own, I'd love to hear about your creations in the comments section.

Signed, Treesa