Lip balm holders for gifts

[Mic]

I put together a really quick project that will be easy to complete for kids about 8 years old and up. Younger kids might need some help with the stitching. The samples are all from suede scraps I got from donations, but veg-tan leather would allow more design and finish options. If you have a large circular punch, use it to cut the notches for the swivel hardware.

I chose to punch the stitching holes with a diamond chisel set (mounted on an arbor press to reduce injuries and catastrophic mistakes.) There isn't much stitching, so the project will take an adult minutes and a child should be able to design and assemble in an hour. 

Dimensions are in the photo, 8" long by 1.75" wide. Cut the notch to fit your hardware. 

These make great gifts for clipping onto backpack or purse and may appeal to kids uninterested in knife pouches or with groups that discourage pocketknives. 

[Rockoboy]

When I was asked to assist with a small leather project for my son's class at school, I came up with a key tag.

As the students are 10 or 11 years old, I figured they would be better served by not being given needles. I designed this key tag with lace instead of thread, so they could thread it without a needle..

[Mic]

19 hours ago, Rockoboy said:

When I was asked to assist with a small leather project for my son's class at school, I came up with a key tag.

As the students are 10 or 11 years old, I figured they would be better served by not being given needles. I designed this key tag with lace instead of thread, so they could thread it without a needle..

In a school setting, the teachers would prefer not having anything sharp or pointy, so I'd also do lacing there - don't poke the litigious bears! 

Do you hand-cut all the key tags, or have someone die-cut them?  I have a single-rivet key tag we did for an event that I cut using a 3-ton arbor press & a homemade die - the girls (and adults) really enjoyed that project & throughput was limited only on how many mallets and stamp handles I had available. Most of our events are 80 - 250 participants, so I'm always looking for something easy to make & low prep work for me.

Part of scouting is learning to safely use tools that can be dangerous.  We train the girls with pocketknives and kitchen knives as young as 5 years old, with parent permission & adult supervision. I'm planning on sewing with actual needles, using the technique I learned here to thread the needle with a splice - reducing the need for re-threading lost needles & saving my sanity. (photo stolen from that link) 

 

[Rockoboy]

3 hours ago, Mic said:

Do you hand-cut all the key tags,

I borrowed a clicker knife from a friend and cut them out on my shop press. For items of this type, clicking them out is the only way to go. It would take days to hand cut each one, and the consistency would not be so good either.

I did hand punch each hole using a 4 hole lacing punch and a single drive punch. From memory, that took me a few days, a couple hours per day.

[Mic]

18 minutes ago, Rockoboy said:

I borrowed a clicker knife from a friend and cut them out on my shop press. For items of this type, clicking them out is the only way to go. It would take days to hand cut each one, and the consistency would not be so good either.

I did hand punch each hole using a 4 hole lacing punch and a single drive punch. From memory, that took me a few days, a couple hours per day.

Ouch on the hand punching. I did 160 rivet holes with an arbor press, and have vowed to get hole punches added to any new dies.

I’m sure the kids loved your project!

Edited December 30, 2018 by Mic

[Rockoboy]

37 minutes ago, Mic said:

I’m sure the kids loved your project!

They all finished in time for Father's Day, so that was a good thing. I think they enjoyed the class. I am disappointed I forgot to get a pic of all, or even some, of their finished key tags.