House Key Keepsake

Thanks to ImpressArt for sponsoring today’s post; all opinions are honestly my own.

Friends, as most of you probably already know, the Artsy Family will be moving to a new home next month! The new house is only about three minutes from where we live now, but it will give us a lot more space for storage, for hosting guests, and especially for my crafting! We are so excited about it, but I have to admit, I feel a little sentimental too. We’ve lived in this home for 13 years, ever since we first got married, and we have lots of memories here. I wanted to create a little something we could take with us to remind us of our first home for years to come. Here’s what I came up with!House Key Keepsake

Materials:
Some of mine were provided by ImpressArt and Sculpey Polyform. 
– Sculpey Premo! Accents, Granite
– Acrylic Roller
– Clay tool kit or straw, toothpicks, and plastic knife
– Super Glue
– Foil covered baking sheet
ImpressArt Soft Strike Blank, Banner
ImpressArt Juniper Lowercase Alphabet Stamps
Steel Stamping Block
Metal Stamping Hammer
– Black Permanent Marker
– Jewelry Polishing Cloth
– Flat Back Swarovski Crystal Rhinestones
– Ribbon
– Scissors
– Black Multisurface Paint
– Paintbrush

Step 1: Roll out your clay to about 1/4 – 1/8″ thickness. Press your key into the clay gently, but firmly enough to create a good imprint.

Key1

Step 2: Cut your clay into a circle around the key imprint. I placed a clear plastic cup upside down over top of mine and cut around it to get a perfect circle shape.

Step 3: Punch a hole near the top of your circle for adding a ribbon hanger. I used a plastic straw for this part. As you can see, I also poked two holes near the bottom that I thought I was going to use to attach my stamped blank, but as it turned out, I ended up needing to do things differently so those holes were unnecessary.

Step 4: Bake your clay according to package instructions. Mine took 15 minutes at 275 degrees Farenheit on a foil covered baking sheet. Let it cool completely before working with it any further.

key2

Step 5: Stamp your banner. You can do this during the time that your clay is baking. I chose to stamp the words “first home” on mine. To do this, simply tape your blank to a steel block and hammer one letter stamp at a time, starting at the middle and working your way toward the outsides. These soft strike blanks are my favorite because they get such clean, deep impressions with just one tap of the hammer. If you’ve never stamped before, I’d encourage you to check out my Beginner Metal Stamping Tutorial for full step-by-step photo instructions on this process.

Step 6: Color your letters with black permanent marker and rub off the excess with a polishing cloth. If you don’t have a cloth, you can use a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol instead.

House Key Keepsake

Step 7: Glue the banner blank onto the clay circle. Add crystals to cover the holes. Originally, I was thinking of using rivets, but the ones I had were larger than the holes, so I went with flat-back crystals instead and just super glued them in place. You can use any color you like; I went with clear because it matches everything and just adds a little subtle sparkle.

Step 8: Paint the key imprint black…or any color you like! 

House Key Keepsake Ornament

Step 9: Add a ribbon hanger.

That’s all there is to it! Now I have a little piece of the “old house” to bring along to the new. Once we get our new key, I want to make one to represent that house as well. You could do this with any key, in fact; the key to a car, a childhood home…anything at all. It’s a special keepsake and would make a sweet Christmas ornament too. What would you choose to imprint?

House Key Keepsake

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11 Comments

  1. Oh, Amy. I love this more than you know. A month or so ago I shared about losing our home in the 2007 crash and I so wish I would have thought to do this as a reminder to myself. Not only of memories made in our home but also of “all things made new”. Pinned. xoxo

  2. I made one of these for my first apartment (when I made my moose ornaments). Yours is MUCH cuter than mine! I love the granite-like clay and the metal accent!!

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