Barbie Shoes Keychains (A DIY Project Post)

 

The release of the Barbie live-action movie has made “Barbiecore” the ‘latest fashion craze’, to borrow lyrics from the song “The Barbie Touch”, which was featured in “The Magical World Of Barbie” live stage show performed at Epcot in Walt Disney World during 1994. Considering the current popularity of Barbie inspired fashion, I’ve decided to share a little keychain DIY project that I crafted a few years back. Are there Barbie shoes lying around your house that no longer have matches? If you are a parent with young children, then there’s a good chance that the answer is yes. So, why not put those shoes to good use by making yourself a keychain or bag clip? I’m a fashion doll collector as well as a keychain collector, so I’ve found my share of single Barbie shoes in bag lots of doll clothing I’ve purchased secondhand. They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and I originally came up with this keychain idea because I had a bag of mismatched Barbie shoes that I didn’t know what to do with.

To make a keychain similar to the one shown in the photo, you will need a short piece of chain with a split ring or some other type of keychain or clip finding at the top, to use as a base. You will also need some Barbie shoes, some jump rings to attach the shoes to the chain, and some jewelry pliers or other small pliers to open the jump rings.

The easiest way to get the shoes onto the chain is by using shoes that have straps, like the light pink, solid colored high heel used in the sample keychain. Just hang the shoe by the strap using a jump ring, and then attach the jump ring to one of the links of the chain. You can fasten all of the shoes to a single, larger jump ring at the bottom of the chain like I did. Or you can hang each shoe from a separate chain link, positioning the first shoe higher up on the chain and then alternating the placement of the other shoes on either side as you work your way down the chain.

If you would like to use a shoe that doesn’t have a strap, the transparent pink glittery high heel seen in the photo is a typical example, then you will need to find something to poke a hole through the shoe, near the top, for the jump ring. Something sharp but on the thinner side, like a thumbtack or a sturdy sewing needle, could work well for this, depending on the thickness of the plastic as well as the flexibility. Some of the plastics used to make Barbie shoes are somewhat rubbery, while others are firmer. In you are very careful, you could heat the end of a long, metal sewing needle with a candle flame before poking the hole, to make puncturing the plastic easier. I would not recommend letting children do any of the shoe piercing, even without the added element of heat.

Also, be careful with the placement of your hole. If you poke the hole too close to the top edge of the shoe, you might end up tearing the plastic, instead of making a hole. If you poke your hole too far down, you might have trouble finding a jump ring with a large enough diameter to attach the shoe to the chain. If the plastic shoe seems just too hard to pierce, I would recommend finding a different Barbie shoe for your project, unless you have sufficient experience with a craft drill. In any case, once you have a hole in the shoe that goes all the way through, you'll need to thread an open jump ring through the hole, so that the shoe can be suspended from the chain.

Here’s another example of a keychain made from a doll shoe.

This shoe is from the Monster High doll line. To make the keychain, I threaded some jewelry wire through a gap behind the heel of the shoe. I then used pliers to shape the wire into a wrapped loop before attaching the snake chain with snap end.

I hope that you enjoyed this post, and that my timing in posting it didn’t come across as too ‘click-baity’.

Signed, Treesa

Finding Dory (A Story Post)

I guess the primary theme of this post is to demonstrate how my keychain collecting obsession can sometimes override my common sense. This story begins at the Columbus Flea Market in New Jersey. My father and I had driven there early one morning, intending to spend a good chunk of the day browsing the stalls and tables. I think it was around mid-afternoon when I started running low on cash. But as luck would have it, the woman at the next table was selling a variety of Disney themed items, including some Disney collectable pins.

For anyone who doesn’t know, pin trading is a popular pastime at the Disney theme parks. The pins are sold exclusively through Disney, or you can trade with park employees or other park guests for both new and previously released pins. The pins can also be purchased on the secondhand market, sometimes at a considerable markup depending on the rarity and desirability of the pin.

I do love all things Disney, and over time I’ve managed to build up a small collection of Disney pins from yard sales and thrift stores. The woman at the flea market had separated her pins by asking price, and I had just enough cash left on me to purchase one pin from the lowest price bracket. I quickly zeroed in on an Oswald The Lucky Rabbit pin.

Oswald was an animated character created by Walt Disney for Universal Studios in the 1920s. The Walt Disney Company arranged to buy back the rights to Oswald in 2006. I’d actually wanted an Oswald pin for my collection for a while, so buying this pin should’ve been the obvious decision for me. However, before I paid for my purchase, I made the mistake of checking the rest of the table, to see if the seller had anything I wanted more. That’s when I saw a previously ‘blind bagged’ Dory keychain from Pixar’s Finding Nemo film. Blind bag toys had become quite popular, and so were being sold in a wide variety of stores across the country. Of course, the problem with blind bags is that you’re not supposed to know which toy in a series you’re getting until you open it. Dory specifically was from “Series 5” of the “Disney Figural Keyring” line by Monogram International Inc.

So, on the one hand I had the Oswald pin, sold exclusively through Disney and their theme parks. While on the other hand I had the ‘blind bag’ Dory keychain, most likely sold at just about any retail store that featured toys. As you can see, Dory came home with me. I guess I decided that the convenience of knowing which blind bag item I was getting, without having to pay online shipping costs, was worth losing out on the pin. Sometimes I feel like kicking myself for not getting the pin instead. But then I look at Dory’s sweet face and decide that it was money well spent. Besides, Finding Nemo is my favorite Pixar film.

Signed, Treesa

In Person Meet-Up With Heathersmoo: July 2022 (Part 1)

 This past July, I was fortunate enough to meet face-to-face with Heathersmoo of Livejournal, known for her "Keychain Of The Day" posts. Heather had already made plans to visit some family members in Pittsburgh over the summer, and she asked me ahead of time if I'd mind her stopping by on the way to see me. Now, Pennsylvania is a deceptively long state, so my hometown is technically nowhere near Pittsburgh. The fact that Heather was willing to go out of her way just to meet me in person really means a lot.

In the time leading up to Heather's visit, I got to work gathering up and packing the various keychains and other small items that I'd put aside for Heather for Halloween (her favorite holiday), her birthday, the winter holiday season, etc. I figured that, if I packed everything up neatly and gave it to Heather when I saw her, she would be set for the rest of the year and I wouldn't have to pay rising postage costs on multiple, holiday themed packages.

Heather brought a number of fun goodies with her for me as well. Some of them were things that she had promised to make for me or to set aside for me, while others were a complete surprise.

Like these knitted flag keychains. Heather, remembering a previous blog post that I'd written about my ancestry, handmade this set of small, knitted keychains, based on the national flags of every country that makes up my combined heritage. Since I'm not as familiar with my ancestors' home countries as I probably should be, I had to refer to online images when photographing these, just to make sure that I didn't have any of the flags upside down.

While we're on the subject of knitting, Heather also sent me several emails discussing the possibility of making me a knitted scarf. I got the definite impression that all of her family members, her friends, and anyone else who has been part of her life for long enough eventually receive a handmade scarf. Heather had been emailing me for suggestions of what color schemes and/or patterns I might like. Unfortunately, I had a lot of trouble coming up with a scarf concept that I felt would work for what I had in mind. I wanted something that was Disney inspired, but I didn't want the Disney influence to be too obvious. If I wore the scarf out, I wanted other Disney fans to recognize it as the signature colors of a particular Disney character. But I didn't want strangers 'not-in-the-know' to brand me as a Disney dork. I considered having Heather create a blue and black and yellow pattern based on Dory's coloring and markings from Pixar's Finding Nemo films. But Heather was worried that the end result would look "too collegiate". In the end, I gave my approval to the idea of using Figment colors, which was something that Heather had suggested.

For those of you who might not know, Figment is a character from the Journey Into Imagination attraction at Epcot in Walt Disney World. The little guy has quite the fan following among Disney parks enthusiasts old enough to fondly remember the original, 1983 version of the attraction. There have been a couple, controversial refurbishments to the ride since then, starting in 1999. But Figment is still prominently featured on a lot of official Epcot merchandise.

Heather not only made me a scarf in Figment's signature colors. She also made me a matching hat and coordinating fingerless gloves. The hat is loosely knitted, which is nice because it means that, if I ever make it back to Walt Disney World in Orlando, I can wear the hat at the actual theme parks without worrying about getting too warm in the Florida heat. Also, I've learned from experience that fingerless gloves are extremely useful when browsing outdoor flea markets in autumn. The weather then can be too chilly to leave my hands exposed to the elements, but it's very difficult for me to pick items up to check for maker's marks and/or small areas of damage if I'm wearing full gloves. Fingerless gloves are therefore the perfect middle ground. That's a little shopping tip for any of you who buy keychains secondhand.

In addition to the other knitted goodies, Heather also made me these two knitted keychains. One is in 'Figment' colors, and the other is predominantly purple, my favorite color.

Since Heather is an Orlando local, she picked up this set of Disney-themed, souvenir Orlando Florida keychains for me. It is my personal belief that one can never have too many Disney keychains, and Heather knows this about me.

Heather also knows that I do papercrafts, primarily handmade greeting cards, as well as some scrapbooking. In late April, I emailed Heather to request a favor regarding one of my papercrafting projects. I told her how I'd been personalizing some partially filled Disney parks autograph books that I'd bought secondhand, one of which was a combination autograph book and photo album. Since I wasn't the one who'd originally collected the character autographs, I didn't have any corresponding photos of the characters to put in the album. So I'd been filling the photo sleeves with character postcards instead. I'd asked Heather if she could keep an eye out for a couple of specific character postcards, to help me finish up the project, since she lives much closer to 'Disney territory' than I do.

Although Heather wasn't able to find what I was looking for, she did get me a Disney-themed Florida postcard, thinking I might be able to use it in my papercrafts. I actually have a growing collection of Disney postcards, organized and arranged in standard photo albums. So I'm happy to add this one to my collection. I really like the cheerful colors, and the window frame style grid layout.

To continue on the Disney train of thought, in February of this year, Heather told me about a McDonald's Happy Meal promotion featuring Disney Stitch plush toys that could easily be converted into keychains. I don't really keep up to date with fast food toys anymore, despite there sometimes being interesting keychains in the assortments, so this was the first I'd heard about the Stitch promotion. Heather promised to give me "an extra" that she'd gotten. This plush is number 4 from the assortment, "Sippin' Stitch". There appear to have been 8 in total to collect. Heather even taped a spare split ring to the back of the packaging before giving it to me.

(To be continued...)

(Signed, Treesa)

Hobbies And Fandoms

Since I buy most of my keychains secondhand, it probably won't surprise anyone that I own a keychain that says, "I Brake For Garage Sales".

Even non-collectors will use keychains as a way to advertise what interests them. Whether the subject of their devotion is a hobby, a television series, a film, or a band, chances are there's a keychain in support of it. I myself have a number of keychains that 'cross over' into other areas that interest me. There are several things besides keychains that I collect or have collected over the years, and when these other collectables have shown up in keychain form, well, I just couldn't resist buying them. I collect Barbie fashion dolls, so naturally I also have a collection of Barbie doll keychains from Basic Fun Inc.

As a child my favorite animals were dolphins and turtles, and I collected both in plush form. So it makes sense that I have dolphin and turtle plush keychains.

Actually, I'm drawn to pretty much any keychain with a dolphin or turtle design.

There are other things that I no longer collect, but I still have a reminder of my past interest in keychain form. Things like...marbles.

At one time I had quite an extensive collection of marbles. What makes this really odd is the fact that I never actually learned to play marbles. I was just drawn to the pretty colors of the glass.

I also had a rock collection when I was a kid.

My dad got me into rock and mineral collecting, but I lost interest later in life. However, as you can see from the photo above, I still have quite a number of rock and mineral keychains. I have no idea which minerals most of them are made from. I think the one with the jagged edges might be Irish marble, and the two at the top of the picture are a geode of some kind and, I think, a piece of coal.

The whitish rock with the brown tip in this second photo is citrine, according to the tag. The clear rock is most likely quartz, and I think the egg shaped stone with the mirror-like finish is hematite.

However, it wasn't just my other collections that influenced my choice of keychains. It was also my hobbies.

I've been known to dabble in a number of crafts, including card making, scrapbooking,

and jewelry making.

For the record, I didn't actually make the beaded keychains in the photos above. They were made by two different women, who sold their creations to me at different flea markets.

As for fandoms that I support or have supported in the past, I'm enough of a Star Wars fan that I own several Star Wars keychains.

However, my support for the franchise stops with the original trilogy. I only watched the first of the three prequel films, and I won't watch the newer films, mostly because I've heard enough about the films' plots to know that I don't really want to see them. I'd rather pretend that things went well for the characters after Return Of The Jedi.

For those of you who have enjoyed the subsequent movies, I hope I haven't offended you. I have nothing against people who are fully committed to the Star Wars franchise. I'm just not one of those people. Now, you may be wondering why one of the Star Wars keychains pictured above is from Episode I, since I already stated that I don't really acknowledge the prequels. I just thought the keychain's design of a lightsaber battle in silhouette looked cool.

I also have a fondness for Star Trek.

My paternal grandfather loved Star Trek, and my dad is a fan of the original series. I myself watched Star Trek Voyager in the later seasons, and I even checked out the first few episodes of Enterprise, back when it was originally broadcast. I'm pretty sure that the spaceship keychain pictured above is meant to represent a Klingon Bird Of Prey. The shape seems right, although the color scheme may be a tad off.

I don't think this next keychain actually has anything to do with Star Trek. But it does say USS Enterprise on it, so I can pretend.

I guess that's about it as far as my fan loyalties go. I sort of gave up on television a few years ago, and I rarely go to the multiplex. The sound system there is just too loud for me. There are a few franchises that I'm trying to finish acquiring on dvd. But I don't have any keychains for them, yet. I'm not actually sure how much tie-in merchandise was produced, if any. So, if anyone happens to know where I can buy licensed keychains for either Mystery Science Theater 3000 or Discovery Channel's Mythbusters series, please leave me a comment.

Signed, Treesa