Disney It's A Small World Keychains from Etsy: MouseMadeMagic

 

The two handmade, Disney parks inspired keychains shown above came from the Etsy shop MouseMadeMagic, and were purchased in August of 2019. I checked the shop’s current inventory, and not only have they changed their shop name to AbbyandArthur, but they also no longer seem to carry keychains of any sort. However, the shop does feature handmade bags, made from Disney print fabric.

It can’t be easy to print small details onto the textured ribbing of grosgrain ribbon, even with proper equipment. It was also difficult for me to photograph these small details.

The purple and teal ribbon features simple geometric shapes that copy the exterior design of Disney’s It’s A Small World attraction, including the clock face from the clock tower.

The white and gold ribbon takes inspiration from the attraction’s interior design, featuring the ride’s signature dancing dolls, along with whimsical, stylized representations of global landmarks.

The teal webbing the ribbon is mounted to is a perfect color choice in my opinion, since it seems to exactly match the purple and teal ribbon while also complimenting the white and gold ribbon.

Aesthetically speaking, I’m quite happy with these keychains. Admittedly, I’ve never used them as actual keychains, since I’m unsure how the materials would hold up to heavy use. However, since I bought these to be part of my collection, I see long term wear-and-tear as a non-issue.

Signed, Treesa

Oktoberfest Church Fundraiser: October 2024 (Keychain Haul)

 

This keychain was purchased from a craft vendor at the annual Oktoberfest fundraiser held by my local church, in October of 2024. I seem to have a bad habit of putting keychains aside to photograph, with the intention of writing blog posts about them, only to misplace them. Regardless, the vendor I bought this from had a number of handmade, custom keychains using this classic ‘motel key tag’ shape, with different phrases and designs.

I was drawn to this particular keychain because I liked the sentiment of having a 'happy place', and because it made me think of the Disneyland slogan “The Happiest Place On Earth”. Fun Fact: “The Happiest Place On Earth” slogan is exclusively for Disneyland, while the similar slogan “The Most Magical Place On Earth” refers to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida.

I also liked the pale purple color of the lettering on this keychain. Not only is purple my favorite color, but I thought the letters looked striking against the black background. While it was tricky to photograph, the letters actually have a slight glitter effect as well.

I know this post is very late, and there’s not much to it. But I thought the keychain was still worth sharing.

Signed, Treesa

Spring Craft Fair Church Fundraiser: April 2025 (Keychain Haul)

My local church has been holding a lot more fundraisers in recent years. It used to be just the summer carnival and the Christmas bazaar. The Oktoberfest was added later on, but is now well established as well. However, lately it seems as though my local church will use any excuse to hold a raffle or a festival. With church attendance being down in general, statistically, the additional funds are unfortunately needed to keep the lights on, the air conditioning running in the summer and the heat on in the winter, the grass cut and winter snow in the parking lot plowed.

The majority of the church’s fundraisers also feature craft vendors now, regardless of the event’s theme or the season. I will frequently make a brief stop at pretty much any fundraiser my local church holds in search of handmade keychains for my collection. Due to past experience at such events, I was confident I would find a keychain or two at the 2025 Spring Craft Fair. However, I was somewhat surprised by the rather…eclectic assortment of vendors this year. After I got home, I jotted down some notes on the ones that had stood out the most to me, in preparation for a blog post I planned to write to show off my new keychain acquisition. In typical fashion, for me, I ended up misplacing those notes. So this post is now very late, something I apologize for profusely and take full responsibility for. But since I did find my notes, and since the keychain is still worth sharing, here we are.

Notable vendors at the church’s spring craft fair in 2025 included:

1.     Representatives from a specialty pickle shop

2.    A local, self-published fantasy author trying to sell copies of her books (I read the back cover of the first volume in her book series while at the craft fair. And if the rambling, densely packed writing style used for the cover blurb matches the rest of the book, I don’t think I’d manage to get through the whole story.)

3.    A pair of girl scouts promoting a presentation they had organized on positive body image as a project towards earning their silver scouting award

4.    And lastly, a woman selling a hodgepodge of home décor items and designer bags for cheap. There was a Lauren Conrad purse shaped like a seashell that I was looking at, until I discovered it still had a store security tag on it, which to me seemed suspicious.

As I mentioned already, I did find one keychain I liked at the craft fair. I thought it was a crab when I bought it, due to the coloration and the eye placement. However, the leg count is off for a crab. Crabs are decapods, meaning they typically have ten legs. The keychain has only eight legs, so it might actually be an octopus. On the other hand, the black stitching on the two front appendages does seem to suggest crab claws. Regardless of which one it is, I still think this handmade keychain looks adorable, with its cartoony features. However, I don’t know enough about fiber arts to say whether it is knitted or crocheted. I did ask the vendor, but I forget what she said. Why didn’t I write that down I wonder?

Signed, Treesa

'Throwback' Package From Heathersmoo: August 2021

I thought that I already blogged about this particular gift package when it arrived. But apparently, I hadn’t. At least, I can’t find a post about it here. This package was originally sent in August of 2021 by my keychain collecting email pen pal, Heathersmoo of Livejournal. Inside was a sweet note from Heather, along with two keychains, one for me and one for my “IRL thrift store Bff” (as Heather referred to my best friend/willing thrift store shopping buddy in the note). I'd already delivered my best friend’s keychain gift quite a while ago, which might explain why I thought I previously posted about Heather's package here on the blog.

According to Heather’s note, my keychain was “the fancy one with the plane”. The one for my best friend didn’t have an added jewelry charm. Both keychains were handmade by Heather herself, and her wire-wrapping skills definitely surpass mine. To be fair, I don’t really practice enough to develop a talent for wirework jewelry.

The red wire coils and blue beads give this keychain sort of a patriotic vibe, while the pink and red color combination of wires gives more of a Valentine’s Day feel. In my opinion, the fact that the keychain isn’t clearly one or the other gives the piece more versatility. While I do enjoy holiday themed items, in season, I’ve noticed that, with clothing for example, there are certain pieces that I don’t wear very much because they’re specifically holiday themed and feel inappropriate at other times of year. I can get away with wearing a snowflake patterned fleece jacket all winter, at least here in the northeastern United States. But characters in Santa hats or even holly and poinsettias are specifically associated with Christmas here in the U.S., and I'd feel too uncomfortable to wear them in January.

I'm sorry for going off topic there. The point is, this keychain was a very thoughtful and much appreciated gift, even though it took me a few years to post about it. So, thank you Heather. I hope that you and all of my readers are doing well. January can be a rather humdrum time of year, but spring comes eventually.

Signed, Treesa

Another Package From Heathersmoo: San Marino and Kumihimo

 I received the keychains shown below in a package from Livejournal poster Heathersmoo in August of 2022, after our in person meet-up that July. Life being what it’s been, it’s taken me this long to get around to posting about them. I’m so sorry Heather. I know it may not seem like it, but I really do appreciate all of the keychain goodies you’ve sent me.

Heather emailed me in the beginning of August because she’d found a duplicate, souvenir keychain from San Marino in her own collection, and she wanted to know if I’d be interested in having it. I actually had to Google where San Marino was/is. I've never been good at geography. As it turns out, San Marino is a European country located near north-central Italy. I emailed Heather back and told her that while I did have some keychains from Italy, I didn’t have any from San Marino. Heather had also written that she’d found a duplicate, souvenir keychain from St. Kitts in her collection. But either she misunderstood my reply, or the St. Kitts keychain ended up not being a duplicate after all, because it wasn’t in the package. (Mystery solved: according to Heather, the St. Kitts keychain ended up not being a duplicate.)

In addition, Heather also sent me a kumihimo keychain that she handmade with wire. Kumihimo, in case anyone has either forgotten or missed a previous post on this blog, is a Japanese braiding technique. Heather has made gifts for me before using this technique, but with embroidery floss rather than wire. So this particular keychain is definitely unique.

I want to send out another thank you to Heather for her thoughtful gifts, along with another apology for my tardiness. I will try to do better in the coming year with sharing things on this blog in a timely manner. But we’ll have to see how that goes.

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)