If you are a boater, you will definitely want to keep your keys on a floating keychain. Whether it is for the boat keys, your house or car keys, you will want them to be safe on the water. It’s easy to make your own floating keychain and corks work great for this. I have made wine cork keychains before and they do all float. The simple fact that the main part of the keychain is a cork is what makes them floatable.
Although any of these keychains would be perfect for boat keys, I wanted to make one that looked especially nautical. In fact, I had the thought of a buoy in mind. To get the shape that I wanted, I used a champagne cork for this particular floating keychain. Also, instead of leaving the cork natural, like I did in previous designs, I decided to paint the cork to give it a fun marine look.
How To Make A Floating Keychain
Materials Needed
- champagne or wine cork
- acrylic paint
- paint brush
- varnish
- hemp string
- decoupage
- nautical charm
- two beading eye pins
- tacky glue
- varnish
- decoupage
- Jim Holtz chain toggle or other keychain
- tin snips or wire cutter
- small pliers
Instructions
1. Paint your wine cork in a fun nautical color. You will need to put about four coats of paint on the cork since it soaks up the paint pretty good.
2. Once the paint is dry, apply some Mod Podge matte finish decoupage to the middle of your wine cork. Wrap a length of hemp string around the middle of the cork, over the decoupage. Apply more decoupage over the string. The picture was taken immediately after the decoupage was applied over the string so it is still wet and visible. When it dries it will be clear. You could also use a tacky glue instead of the decoupage.
3. Snip your eye pins with a tin snips or wire cutter to be about a half inch long. Apply glue to the pin and insert one into the top of the wine cork and another in the bottom.
4. Open up the ring for your charm and attach it to the top of your wine cork on the eye pin head. Close the ring with a small pliers.
5. Attach your toggle chain to the bottom of the keychain in the same way.
You now have a floating keychain for your boat!
Now that you have something for your boat keys, you may want some nautical inspiration for inside your house. A fun boating item to decorate with is boat oars. See my post on vintage decorating with boat oars for some ideas.
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