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

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

Disney Parks Lanyard Medals

Ok, so the items pictured above aren’t technically keychains. At least, they didn’t start out as keychains. I had to add a split ring to the original metal clip on each one of them before I could justify calling them keychains. Cheating? Maybe. However, when I first started buying these items second-hand, I had no idea what exactly they were. I just knew that the Disney fan in me thought they looked really cool. And that some of them were obviously souvenirs from the Disney parks, and as such must’ve been pricey at original retail. Never underestimate the lure of a perceived bargain. Anyway, it wasn’t until I found one of these at a thrift store, with the original backing card, that I learned what their intended purpose was.

Disney lanyard medals appear to have been marketed to visitors at Disney’s theme parks as accessories for pin traders. The basic construction on the medals is very similar to the Disney park pins, but on a larger scale. Also, the medals in my collection are marked on the back as “Official Pin Trading” products. As the name “lanyard medal” implies, these items were intended to be hung on pin trading lanyards. They could also be clipped to pin trading bags. In my opinion, a lanyard loaded down with metal pins tends to be heavy enough without the extra weight of a lanyard medal. Maybe that’s why lanyard medals don’t seem to be very common on Disney’s official online shopping site anymore. At least, they weren’t the last time I checked. The last lanyard medal I purchased, shown below, was found on clearance at a Disney outlet store quite some time ago. Brick and mortar Disney stores themselves have become a rarity in their own right.

That’s all the information I could find to share on the subject of Disney parks lanyard medals. However, I would like to pass on a warning to other collectors who may be considering seeking these items out. I bought the Stitch lanyard medal, based on the character from Disney’s Lilo And Stitch franchise, used at a flea market. After I bought it, I ended up having to glue some of the enamel bits back into place with strong craft adhesive because they’d come loose and fallen out. I don’t know if this is a common problem with lanyard medals as they age. But I wanted other collectors to be aware of it. So, my secondhand shopping tip for today is, always examine used lanyard medals carefully to check for missing or loose enamel. I currently have all of my lanyard medals stored in individual, sealed baggies, just to make sure that none of the enamel pieces get lost if they start loosening and falling out.

Signed, Treesa

Sesame Place Souvenir Keychains (A Story Post)

 Before my in person meet-up with keychain collecting, email pen pal Heathersmoo in July of 2022, which I previously wrote about on this blog, I’d only ever been to Sesame Place once in my life. Though, no doubt like countless other children of my generation, I was practically raised on PBS, Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in particular. I made my first ever visit to Sesame Place on a Girl Scout trip, and though my memories of the excursion are pretty hazy, there’s one detail that still stands out in my mind. I was standing on the edge of the ball pit, preparing to jump in, when the employee in charge ordered me to take off my shoes first. Being a sensitive child, I thought the employee was angry and was yelling at me, and I got scared. Crying, I ran back to my dad, who was acting as my chaperone on the trip. I didn’t tell him what was wrong however. I guess I was afraid that he would be mad at me too, if I told him that the person in charge of the ball pit was angry at me. I did refuse to go back to the ball pit though. Since that’s my clearest memory from the trip, I’m guessing the rest of the day wasn’t all that memorable in comparison.

I didn’t get any keychains on that particular outing. I was still rather young at the time, and I don’t think I was actively collecting yet.

You may therefore be wondering how I ended up with several Sesame Place keychains in my collection, especially since that time I went in my childhood was so traumatic for me. I think I bought the first one in an attempt to let go of the memory and put the experience behind me. I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I’d gotten over it. I bought the second keychain, I believe, because I’d forgotten that I’d already picked up a Sesame Place keychain for my collection.

As for the Sesame Place nail clippers keychain, I bought that at a flea market because I was amused by what I saw as an odd combination of elements. Sesame Place is a locale typically associated with young children, while nail clippers are more commonly perceived as something for adults. So to be honest, I’m not really sure why this keychain exists. I don’t know what the attached little keys were originally for either. They just came with the keychain.

Anyway, as far as Sesame Place goes, I guess this Story Post sort of serves to close a chapter for me. Given the cost of park tickets, and the fact that there are far fewer attractions at Sesame Place that can accommodate older guests (unlike at the Disney theme parks), I'm not planning on revisiting by myself anytime soon. Even though I love theme park gift shops with exclusive, licensed merchandise more than I probably should.

Signed, Treesa

Package From Heathersmoo: Mothman and Buc-ee

 I mentioned in “Part 2” of my “In Person Meet-Up With Heathersmoo” post that Heather promised to send me a souvenir keychain from the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant. I originally planned to upload a follow-up post, showing off the Mothman keychain I received, long before now. Unfortunately, time got away from me, and my Key Chains Advent Calendar opening ended up taking over my posting schedule. Sorry, Heather. I really am grateful to you for thinking of me. Anyway, here’s the Mothman keychain that Heather sent.

Not only did Heather make a point of asking me what type of Mothman keychain I would like, but she also sent me a link to the Mothman Museum website, so that I could browse their inventory. I told Heather that, if possible, I would prefer a keychain with the actual name of the museum on it. As you can see, Heather didn’t fail to deliver.

Heather also sent me a Buc-ee’s keychain in the same package. I’d never heard of the Buc-ee’s store chain before meeting Heather, which isn’t that surprising considering the chain was founded in Texas and doesn’t seem to have much of a foothold in the northern United States. However, when Heather attempted to describe the awesomeness of Buc-ee’s to me, the impression I got was of a convenience store and an old-fashioned soda counter and a tacky tourist shop all rolled into one.

The last thing in Heather’s package was this ‘lucky penny’. We made a stop at Sesame Place the day of our in person meet-up, and as we were walking around I happened to find a penny on the ground that someone must’ve dropped. Over time, I’ve developed a pretty good eye for spotting dropped change. Anyway, I gave the penny to Heather, telling her that maybe it would bring her good luck. Apparently she wanted to return the favor, and according to her note she had a friend help her scout around for a lost penny to send to me.

I want to apologize to Heather, again, for getting this post up so late. I also haven’t forgotten that I still owe you a few other posts, and I want you to know that I am working on them. Better late than never, right?

Signed, Treesa

Key Chains Advent Calendar, Day 24 (2022)

Christmastime is here, and we’re wrapping up my “Key Chains Advent Calendar” opening with Day 24’s contribution…

…another avocado. Although similar to the avocado keychain received on Day 4, there are enough differences to tell the two apart. For example, today’s avocado has arms as well as legs. It also lacks the pink under-eyes/cheeks that Day 4’s avocado had, not to mention there’s a color difference in the ‘flesh’ area around the pit.

Signed, Treesa

Key Chains Advent Calendar, Day 23 (2022)

With my “Key Chains Advent Calendar” opening soon coming to a close, Day 23 gifts us with…

…a sitting duck. Seriously, it’s just a plain, generic duck, but cute.

Signed, Treesa