DIY Chibi Keychain
(bringing AI art off-screen and onto zippers)
I've been playing with a web-app I built that turns selfies into hyper-realistic AI pictures. The pictures are cool, but they were stuck in the screen - until I spotted people on Twitter showing off chibi rubber charms of themselves. 💡 Light bulb on, hands dirty.
My one-morning workflow
| Step | What I did | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Generate the art | Prompted ChatGPT-4o's image tool: “Create a clean product-shot of a single chibi-style rubber charm keychain, isolated on a transparent (alpha) background with no hand, chain, or clasp; the charm shows the little girl in the attached photo. The keychain has a simple built-in hanging loop centered at the top, uses bold black outlines and flat colors (no shading or drop shadows), and sits centered in the frame with plenty of empty space around it.” | Upload a photo of your child to get an instant PNG of him/her cartoonized, already sized like a charm. |
| 2. Print & shrink | Printed the PNG onto ink-jet printable shrink-plastic sheet, cut it out, punched a hole. | Bake 2 min at 165 °C → piece shrinks around 40%. |
| 3. Flatten | Pressed the hot charm under a cookbook for 2 min. | Keeps it perfectly flat and cool for resin. |
| 4. Resin dome | Brushed a thin layer of UV resin on the front, zapped under a nail lamp; flipped and repeated on the back. | The resin gives it that glossy charm look and makes colours pop. I used gloves and a mask for protection in this step. |
| 5. Assemble | Added a jump ring + key-chain clip. | No extra tools besides pliers and some keychain clips. I just took some old unwanted keychain and repurposed the parts. |
Total hands-on time: ≈30 min (could properly get it down to 15 mins if more practiced).
Result
A one-of-a-kind chibi charm that now dangles proudly from her yellow rain jacket - ready for playground show-and-tell. The best part? Every time she spots it, she says, “Look, it's me!” and grins exactly like the drawing.
Have AI art you love? Print, shrink, resin, repeat - your keys (or your kid's zipper) will never look the same.
Turn photo into cute charm on happy bébé
Gear We Used (Affiliate Links)
- Reusable Respirator Mask(Better safe than sorry - plus resin doesn't smell great before it's cured!)
- Silicone Work Mat(Great size, high quality, and super easy to clean after use)
- UV Resin Kit(Complete set with resin, UV lamp, mat, and silicone mixing tools - no mixing needed, super easy to use!)
- Printable Shrink Plastic(Found this gem through a craft guru on YouTube - it's amazing because you can print directly on it with an inkjet printer, unlike most shrink plastic that requires hand drawing)