Yep. We all have old keys. Keys that don’t go to anything. Keys that you just don’t throw away, because in your mind you’re thinking, “There’s GOTTA be a use for these.” Well. There is. SURPRISE! hahaha. well. Let’s just get started.
Tutorials:
- Embellished Altered Keys Tutorial: Squidoo
- Altered Key Tin: Ink on My Fingers Blog – Although the key isn’t the main material used, this is a great idea for keys in the use of art focuses or accents.
- How to Make a Key Wind Chime: Associated Content
- Key Wind Chime: Kaboose
- Key Wind Chime Video Tutorial: Piece of Craft 3 on YouTube
Christmas Tutorials:
- Santa’s Magic Key: Family Crafts – Looks great as an ornament or to hang on your door for Santa!
- Santa’s Magic Key Craft: DLTK
Inspiration, Ideas, and Photos:
- Altered Key Jewelry: Genies Art World Blog
- Altered Key Blue Photo on flickr from CreativeSpirit1
- Altered Key Pendant on flickriver from Barty2008
- Zoey 101 Key Necklace: ThisNext
- Dragonfly Altered Key: Arts for All – For Tiny Keys!
- Small Skeleton Key Windchime from howdoesyourgardengro on Etsy
- Key Wind Chime on flickr from rivulette
- Key To My Heart Wind Chime: Target
- Key Inspired Wind Chime: Megster Meter’s Blog
- Skeleton Key Wind Chimes on flickr from liquidskyarts
- Key Valentines: A Bit of Heaven’s Blog
- Painted Keys: CDWood
- Key Ornaments: CDWood
- Framed Key with an Old Postcard: RoboMargo
- Craft Uses for Keys: ThriftyFun
- Ode To Your House: Kari & Kijsa’s Blog
- Key Necklaces: Salvage Life’s Blog
- Old Keys and Silverware Clock: FineArtAmerica – um.. this is freaking awesome.
- Use them to embellish different items.
- Use them as zipper pulls.
- Display them in a shadow box.
- Decorate a frame!
I need to find me some skeleton keys. The keys that I have are plain ol’ house keys. Not as fun! I’m sure I’ll do something when them though – there are so many different options! 
I’ll be sure to post the results of my key craft experimentation in this post when I do!
If you know of ANY other examples or tutorials, please comment below so I can add them to this list. Thanks!
If you have a lot or can get a lot by buying a wholesale lot of keys or asking for old keys from friends and fellow sellers you can use them for a promotional campaign. Each purchase in your shop gets a key with a decorative label attached with a keycode and a web address on it (a page on your blog that you have password protected with one of the codes you give out). They enter the code attached to their key and if they get in they get something free (the protected page has info about how to claim the prize).
The key doesn’t really do anything except serve as a visual representation of the keycode attached to it, but it is cute and adds a special detail to the game. You can email me if you want more info on how I ran my campaign like this, in case my explanation doesn’t make sense.
Tellie
I’m definitely bookmarking this for later! I scooped up like 10 key rings full of keys from a freebie pile at this office moving sale… my friend was like, “What are you going to do with all of those keys?” Me: “I don’t know. There’s gotta be something.”
I can’t resist junk.
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