Make This: Personalized Fabric Award Badge Craft Project

Guest post tutorial by Mary of Pretty Good Things.

A little backstory… The idea behind this personalized achievement badge was inspired by two things:

1. Boutonnieres I am working on for a friend’s wedding.
2. Judy Moody’s summer plan from Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer . (I saw the movie with my 7 year old niece this weekend to clarify why Judy Moody is the source of such inspiration.) Basically, all you need to know is Judy Moody has a summer plan to earn “thrill points” during her Not Bummer Summer.

I was thinking I wanted to send my niece something sparkly and fun to encourage her to have a Not Bummer Summer, too. It’s not just a plain old badge with her initial on it- it’s a badge to record all the fun stuff she does! I even purchased self sticking rhinestones so she can then add to the tails when she completes her fun activity.

Now if you don’t have kids of your own (or a niece or nephew), another spin for this project would be to give it to your friend with the gems already attached.

You could include a list that then tells them what each means. (for example: yellow rhinestone: Remember that time you bought me saltines and pepto tablets that one time I got really drunk the night before because you kept buying me drinks and I didn’t say no…pink rhinestone: for encouraging me to do that one thing even though no one else thought it was a good idea. And it turned out to be the best etc). Anyway….

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. Cheese P-corn 2. Glue gun 3. Pinking sheers 4. Scissors 5. gold embossed fabric (or other fabric of your choice) 6. ribbon (1 5/8″ wide) 7. ribbon ( 1/4″ wide) 8. sequin ribbon (enough for a letter of your choice.) 9. 1.5″ pin 10. “The Neutron Dance” by the pointer sisters 11. Felt and magic.

Here’s how you make it:

Step 1: Cut each ribbon to desired length (mine was about 3″ each). Cut a triangle out of the tails. Cut out 2.25″ diameter circle out of the gold embossed fabric using pinking sheers. Cut a slightly smaller circle out of the felt also with pinking sheers.

Note: The felt backing will earn you points for neatness and you won’t get sent to hell when Martha checks off your name at the pearly gate.

Step 2: Position ribbon as pictured above and hot glue the smaller ribbons to the back of the main large ribbon. Turn over and glue the gold badge to the front. Finally, glue the felt backing to the back.

Step 3: Break for cheese p-corn and neutron dancing.

Step 4: Go back and re-do step 3 because I know you didn’t do it. I’m serious. If you don’t follow the instructions Just. So. – – your craft will pay!

Step 5: Lay out the initial to estimate the length you’ll need of sequin ribbon. Cut and use a dab of hot glue on each end to stop it from unfurling. No pictures for this step – but there are two methods. Either draw out your letter on the gold or just eyeball it when you lay a line of hot glue. I prefer the latter.

Step 6: Turn the badge over. squeeze a line of hot glue along the back of the pin. Position it on the back of the badge and press down. Make sure there’s enough glue to squish through the holes (but not too much).

Let it cool/dry and TA DA!….

The summer fun time badge / Friend you are awesome badge is all ready to go.

More about Mary… I am fortunate to be able to make hats, fascinators and hair do-dads to make snazzy ladies even more fabulous with prettygoodthings.com. I live in Nebraska with my husband and furry kitty baby, Simon. I love crafting, making, drawing, creating (and blogging)….If I can make something with my two hands – I am a happy lady. Life is good. Follow me on twitter @MaryPGT.

Thank you so much Mary for this fun award badge tutorial.

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