Supplies:
- Two acrylic pieces of the same size. You can choose any shape or size you like. They need to have a hole at the top of the acrylic pieces to make it a keychain.
- Keychain ring and chain
- Dried flowers. You can buy them, or dry your own.
- Foil tape or washi tape of the thickness of your two acrylic pieces stacked together.
- Optional: extra dangle piece for keychain
- Optional: Vinyl letter or a sticker
- You may need pliers to open and close the keychain ring and chain to attach it to your piece.
It is important that the flowers you pick are very flat. If the flowers are too thick, then the piece will not close properly. I used a dried hydrangea flower. My acrylic circles were pretty small, so that is all I put in my piece. You could add multiple flowers depending on the size of your piece.
I decided to go with this hydrangea flower I had. I cut the old dried flowers off of my hydrangea plant last year and have just kept them in a bag just waiting for a project to use them on. Many of them are still in the bundles I cut off. Since it is a dried flower is brittle, and thus crumbles and breaks easily. So, I had to be careful with working with the dried flowers.
Once my flowers were arranged on my first piece of acrylic, I then placed my second piece of acrylic directly over my flowers. You will need to make sure the holes of both pieces of acrylic line up so you can fit the keychain threw them. Press the two pieces of acrylic together so there is no gap between them. If a flower is too thick to allow both pieces to come together without any gaps, then you will need to switch this flower out.
Now, take your washi tape or foil tape and wrap it around the edges of the two acrylic pieces. Make sure to smooth out any wrinkles you may see. This will hold the two pieces of acrylic together. Glue or mod podge will make the acrylic look cloudy or show streaks, so I used the tape instead to hold my piece together. I also think the gold around the edges is a beautiful touch. It also hides the edges of the acrylic.
I then added the key chain to my piece. I ended up flipping the chain piece that came with my kit around. The way my keychain piece came, would not open easily or be big enough to fit through the hole in my acrylic. So, I flipped it around and opened the circle piece, and fed it through the hole. To open the circle, take two pliers and place them on either side of the opening/ends of the circle. Then pull the two ends in opposite directions of each other (one towards you and the other away from you). Do not pull the openings up and down. This will make the circle lose its shape, and become weaker. Once the chain is in place take the Pliers and bring the two ends back together.
I felt my piece was a little plain. So, I decided to add an initial with my Cricut and some gold permanent vinyl I had. You could use a sticker to get a similar look. I just placed my permanent vinyl letter directly onto the acrylic piece. I did not cover it with anything.
This was a pretty quick and simple project, but it can add a nice piece of personalization to a gift. You could also do this same technique to bigger pieces of acrylics to make coasters or just a little piece to displace on a shelf or tier tray. You could use flowers from a special occasion to make it more personal.
