Hi everyone, Mary on the blog today and I have something FUN to share with you! With Christmas just around the corner (8 more days!!!), I have a gift idea that is super easy and one you’ll enjoy making.  I’m going to share with you how to make a Scrapbook Photo Keychain. This is a great gift for grandparents, friends, your spouse or even yourself!

Supplies You’ll Need:
Mod Podge, Scissors, Ruler, Old gift card or fake credit cards they send you in the mail, Pen, Single hole puncher, Photo Paper, Printer, Glue Dots (optional), Silhouette (optional)
Ok, let’s get started! First thing I do is open up my program (I’m using PSE 12) and make a shape of 1.5” x 2”. That will be the size of my photo keychain. You can make your own design for your keychain or grab part of a template you love and shrink it down.  Next, I chose a picture of my son and daughter since I’m making myself a keychain this time. Then I looked through the many kits I adore from Tickled Pink Studio. I decided on #geeked for my son and Fresh Start for my daughter.

After scrapping their picture, I saved it as a jpg. Then I brought the background paper to the front and saved that as a jpg too. You’ll do this because you’ll need a back for your photo keychain too. I used my Silhouette to cut their pictures out, but you could totally do it with scissors. If you’re using a cutting machine like Silhouette or Cricut, skip to that section for continued directions.  If you’re just using scissors you’ll print your pictures (remember the front part and the back part) onto photo paper and then cut them out.  Now you can skip the Silhouette direction part and continue to Putting it Together.
Steps When Using Silhouette
If you’re using your cutting machine you’ll open your software for your machine and change the paper size to the photo paper you’re using. I used a 5”x7” photo paper, so that is what I changed my paper size to. Since you’re doing a print & cut, you’re going to turn on the registration marks. Next, drag your picture (front & back) into the program. It will come out large and you’ll have to resize it to the 1.5” x 2”. Now select trace area and put a box around each picture. Uncheck the box for High Pass Filter and change the Threshold to a high percent until your picture is fully yellow. Then hit the trace outer edge button. This is telling the software where to cut. Now you can send it to the printer. After it is printed, put it on your cutting mat the way it shows you on the screen. In the program choose send it to silhouette and skip printing since you already did it. Hit continue and then click on detect automatically. After the registration marks are detected, click the cut button and watch your machine cut your pictures out for you!

Putting it Together
Now that you’re pictures are cut out, you need something thicker to put them on so they’ll be sturdy on your keychain. That is where the old gift card or fake credit cards come into play. Use  a ruler to draw a 1.5” x 2” on the gift card and cut that out with the scissors. Now line up your picture with the gift card and the back part so the background paper is showing. Use the single hole puncher to punch a hole in the corner.

I used glue dots to secure the pictures to the gift card, but you could just use the mod podge as glue to glue the pictures onto the gift card too. I like the glue dots because it’s less messy. After securing your pictures to the gift card, you’ll paint a coat of mod podge over your picture and let it dry. Then you’ll do a coat of mod podge on the back part too and let it dry. I use mod podge because when my keys are bumping around into things, my pictures won’t get scratched. Once it is completely dry, you can put it on your keychain ring.

I hope you enjoyed this post and found some inspiration to make a scrapbook photo keychain. This would be a nice gift that anyone would truly love. If you make one I’d love to see it! Just share it in the comments section. Hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!