How to Make a Keychain Pen
Make your own personalized keychain pen with a mini-keychain pen kit and polymer clay. Keychain pens are convenient tools to keep attached to your key rings: These not only make a good handle for your keys, but also enable you to have a pen handy whenever you might need one.
Things You'll Need
- Polymer clay
- Translucent Liquid Sculpey
- Craft knife
- Metal straight edge
- Mini pen keychain kit
- Sandpaper
- Polymer clay glaze
- Rubber mallet
- Pasta machine
Instructions
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1
Knead your polymer clay until it is pliable. Roll it through a pasta machine, on a #4 or #5 thickness setting until you have made a sheet that is 1 1/2-inch wide and the length of the tubes of the pen in the pen kit.
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2
Run a bead of Translucent Liquid Sculpey along the side of the mini pen barrels and spread it out into a thin even layer around the barrels.
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3
Place the clay onto your workspace. Place the pen barrel on top of it, near the bottom of the clay (the edge closest to you). Trim down the sides of the clay with a craft knife, using a metal straight edge as a guide, to make them even with the ends of the barrel.
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4
Pull up the bottom edge of the clay onto the side of the pen barrel. Roll the pen and pull the clay as you do so to make it adhere to the barrel and roll up on it. Once the clay sheet has completely covered the pen barrel, unroll the clay slightly and cut along the impression line where the clay edges meet, using a craft knife.
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5
Roll the clay-encased pen barrel on your workspace using your fingers, to smooth out its surface. Trim the top and bottom ends of the clay to make it flush with the barrel ends. Repeat this process to cover the other pen barrel with polymer clay.
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6
Bake the polymer-clay-covered pen barrels. Fold card-stock into a fan and place the pen barrels in the folds to keep them from rolling when you put them in the oven. Bake according to the polymer clay packaging instructions, as each polymer clay has different temperature requirements. Remove the pen barrels and let them sit for one hour to cool.
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7
Sand down the polymer clay and paint it with glaze as desired.
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8
Begin assembling the key chain pen by inserting the pen tip into one end of one of the pen barrels. If it doesn't slide in without much effort, hold the pen barrel steady on your workspace and insert it into the barrel by tapping it with a rubber mallet.
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9
Hold onto the pen mechanism and insert it brass end first into the other end of the barrel you just placed the pen tip into. Tap the mechanism down into the barrel with the rubber mallet, and push the mechanism down past the indentation on the silver section of the pen.
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10
Slide the center decorative pen ring, or finding, over the mechanism and down onto the pen to rest at the top of the pen barrel. Push the key ring cap into one end of the other pen barrel. Insert the key ring through the hole at the end of the cap, the same way you would if you were putting a key onto the key ring.
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11
Place the pen ink refill into the front pen barrel/pen mechanism and screw it in place to secure it. Insert the front of the pen into the pen barrel with the key ring attachment to finish making the key ring pen. Extend and retract the pen tip by twisting the top and bottom barrel in opposite directions.
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Tips & Warnings
Work in a well-ventilated area when baking polymer clay.
