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If you purchased our 100 Piece Blank Keychain Kit on amazon.com, thank you for your business! If you received a free sample blank tag, we hope you enjoy these random, little surprises. If you’d like to buy a set, please see our listing on amazon. You can click this link or or the picture below:
QUICK DETAILS for Experienced Designers
- Keep Plastic Film on Until Ready to Sublimate
- Remove Plastic Film from both sides.
- Apply Design one side at a time – Temp: 350-356° Time: 55-60 Seconds with medium/firm pressure.
If you are a beginner or new to plastic keychain sublimation, please read on for more instructions, advanced information, profit potential, and our tips for perfecting these Keychain Blanks. We appreciate your business and hope we can help you to increase sales!
About our Sublimation Keychain Blanks
Sold in a 100 piece kit, our Keychain blank kit allows designers to offer customers an opportunity to build their own keychain; which can result in some very high profit margins when marketed properly.
Material Composition
The material is made of a special polymer plastic which allows heat transfer of sublimation ink. Remember: sublimation ink can permanently transfer to polyester and polymers. These keychains are polymers.
Features
The keychain tags are very light weight yet durable, kind of like a grocery store “shoppers club” tag. Because they are so lightweight, people will not be dragged down by the weight of numerous tags.
Problem Reminders
The biggest mistake people make is forgetting to remove the plastic protective film from BOTH sides of the keychain blank. If it happens to you…well, you’re in good company.
Let’s review a couple of best practices for pressing our keychain blanks before we move onto our design tips and ways to increase profit potential.
Best Practices for Pressing our Keychain Blanks
Small blanks such as these keychain tags perform best with clear, vibrant, simple designs or, of course, custom photograph orders. We’ll review each one in a moment but first, lets go over just a couple of best practices.
Save Money on Paper
One great benefit to sublimating small items is that you can get about a dozen prints from one piece of paper. It’s a good idea to copy and paste your design 10 or 12 times across your paper and print all them all at once.
This is much easier than trying to feed scraps into your printer.
Plastic Film
Leave the film on the keychain blank until you are ready to sublimate. This keeps dust from collecting on the blank and it reduces scratches and blemishes.
Metal Keyring & Plastic Clips
It may sound obvious, but never press your designs onto the keychain blanks with the keyring attached or the plastic clips attached. These come to you disassembled for easy, safe, design pressing.
Now let’s continue with our tips and tricks for crisp, bright results on these Keychain Blanks and how to maximize your profits through effective marketing. In fact, let’s review profits and marketing first!
Sublimation Blank Keychain – Marketing Tips
The 100 piece kit makes some assumptions and these assumptions are put in place to make you more money. So, let’s go over the assumptions by reviewing the quantities of each item contained in the kit.
The 100 Piece Keychain Kit Comes with the following:
- 20 metal keyrings
- 20 plastic clips
- 30 Heart Shaped Blanks
- 30 Rectangle Shaped Blanks
This breakdown is suited for a total of (20) 3-Piece Keychains like pictured here:
Ten sets containing 3 hearts per set and the other ten sets containing 3 rectangle blanks per set. And of course, the 20 plastic clips will attach the blanks to the keyrings.
Now, in order to make the most of this 100 piece kit, we recommend either selling them in 3 piece sets and most markets will support a price of AT LEAST $10. In some markets, you can sell the 3 piece set for 12, 15, even $20 without issue.
Another way is to make more sales and increase revenue is to advertise the “Build Your Own Concept” and sell pieces separately. or in higher quantity groups with incremental discounts.
Build Your Own Keychain – Strategies for High Sales and Better Profits
Build Your Own Keychain Concept – Custom Order Strategies
When taking custom orders for sublimation blank keychains it’s very unlikely that someone will want less than a 3 piece set and frankly, for custom work you should impose a 3 pc minimum. If someone really wants to place a custom order with only 2 keychain tags, they will ask. Then, at that time, you can make a judgement call.
More often than not, custom orders will be for between 3 and 8 key tags and you should be ready to quote both single-sided and double-sided pricing. Double sided pricing should not be double the price because the material cost of the blank is figured in the single-sided design.
But, double-sided is definitely worth more and you should charge more!
Build Your Own Keychain Concept – Art Show/Craft Show Strategies
Displays and Signs MATTER
For art shows, an awesome keychain tag display can make the difference between a good day and an amazing day of sales. To help create a buzz around your booth, be sure to have a good-sized sign advertising “Build Your Own Keychain Gift”.
Then make a nice pegboard display using DIY materials or when your budget allows, consider buying a rack that spins. You can usually get these racks (for jewelry) at supercenters like Walmart and Target. You should also check facebook marketplace to see if there are any 2nd hand (used) racks that people are selling.
These racks listed here are just a few types offered on amazon.com. They are ideal for a key tag setup display because they spin and will add some dimension to your booth. You can click the pictures to check pricing and availability:
Design to Your Audience
A great way to increase sales is to make designs that will speak to your audience! Here are some tips for keychain designs based on the type of show you’ve booked:
Craft Show: Quilt Patterns, Birds, Flowers, Crafty Messages: Stay Calm: Quilt On, Stay Calm-Craft On, you get the idea.
Car Shows: CARS, CARS and MORE CARS! Plus more masculine items like: Deer, Dogs, Rifles, Camo, Fish, Sports, Best Dad, Coolest Uncle,
School Events: Design to the kids, especially of high school age. They usually have spending money and also look for gifts. Consider things like: Best Friends, School Mascot, Cheer, Football, Emojis, LOL, Best Mom, Best Dad, Best Grandma etc.,. If the school has a logo, ask someone in the office if you can use it.
Packaging Tips
When budget is really tight and you need every penny of profit, we recommend using cheap packaging and wrapping as items are sold. This can be as simple as a small portion of tissue paper, tied with ribbon, string, or twine.
If Budget allows, pre-package your sets in clear, affordable poly bags. We like these kind sold on amazon (link to product) because they are affordable and they re-open and re-seal quite few times.
PRO TIP– Be ready to wrap a purchased item in PAPER. Many shoppers are reducing or even eliminating what they’ll agree to buy in plastic wrapping. By offering paper options and twine (instead of ribbon), you can proudly accommodate the “plastic free” movement shoppers.
Design Tips for Sublimation Blank Key Chains
Although some people consider keychains to be decorative, MOST people consider them to be very personal items. Therefore, because they are more personal, your designs should have an intended recipient in mind.
We talked about designing to your audience and here are some more ideas.
A series of Best XXX usually do very well.
- Best Mom
- Best Dad
- Best Friends
- Best Nana, Grandma
- Best Aunt, Uncle etc.,
Animals and Insects
- Dogs
- Cats
- Birds
- Horses
- Ocean Life
- Snakes
- Spiders
- LadyBugs
- Owls
- Pigs
- Cows etc.,
Hobbies
- Sports
- Fishing
- Cars
- Crafts
Religion
- One Side: Thou Shall Not – Other Side: List a Commandment
- One Side Cross – Other Side: Psalm
Remember to consider your audience and what type of shoppers might be showing up to your venue. Design to THOSE shoppers for increased revenue.
How to Increase Revenue by Thinking OUTSIDE the Box with Your Sublimation Keychain Kit
Okay, so we call these keychains, but they could end up being so much more. You are truly only limited by your creativity! Why not create something totally brand new out of these blanks – after all, you are an artist!
Here are some examples of things we’ve made from our own keychain blanks to get you thinking outside the box – just remember, consider your audience!
- Thread the keytags onto twine, yarn, or the skinny garland at Christmas time. Sublimate whatever is HOT (Gnomes, Red Pick-up Trucks). Sell it as garland for the tree or fireplace mantle.
- Using the same concept as above: sublimate photos of the same child growing up – from baby to teenager. Or string the whole family!
- Sublimate Yoga Poses on one side and the name of the pose on the other side. Put them all on one keyring and sell it as a “Yoga on the Go” or “Travel Yoga Guide”
- Same as above but use: Bible Verses and call it “Daily Bread”
As you fine tune your sublimation skills and attend more and more shows, you’ll begin to notice something. And that is: everyone has the same stuff. And when this happens, shoppers walk around with a glazed look. That glazed look is waiting to see something different and creative. Whenever you can offer something different, you set yourself apart and that can lead to increased sales.
Sublimating Your Design onto Your Blank Keychain Tags
Prep Work – Peel the Film from BOTH SIDES
Applying Your Design – Heat Press Temp to 350-356 F
If you are familiar with your heat press and our keychain blanks, you can do more than one at a time. If you are unsure:
Press ONE Blank at a time until you are confident in your settings.
- Lay your design face up on a solid work surface and put the blank on top.
- Use a little heat tape to secure the blank to the paper.
- Lay clean blow out paper (LINK TO GLOSSARY) on your bottom platen and put the ready to sublimate key tag blank on top of the blow out paper with the design facing down.
- Cover with clean blow out paper. Your ready to press (key tag blank + design) should now be sandwiched between 2 pieces of blow out paper.
- Press for 55-60 seconds at medium pressure.
Final Steps – After Pressing
Allow your blanks to cool thoroughly. If you are going to assemble them in sets. Always place the OPENED plastic clip through the metal keyring first. Then, attach the key tags. This is much easier than winding the plastic clip around the metal keyring and keeps everything looking brand new.
Happy Sublimating!
Where to Now? Back to Homepage or See the Blanks we Sell
