Birthday Badge

Friday was Bella's 6th birthday, and for the occasion I made her a birthday badge. I took pictures as I went and thought I'd share them with you!

Here's what you'll need:

a Crystal Light lid (or similarly sized piece of plastic or cardboard)

Fabric scrap at least 5" in diameter

(2) 3" scraps of batting

1/4 yard pleated (or ruffled) quilt binding (you can buy this by the yard in the fabric section of your craft store)

(2) 5" pieces of ribbon, 1.5" wide

3.5" scrap of felt

9" ribbon, 1/4" wide

Flat back craft pin

hot glue gun

clear-drying craft glue

(note: whenever I say to 'glue' something, I am referring to hot glue, except for the one instance when I specify clear-drying craft glue)

Begin by making your birthday message. I chose to embroider 'birthday girl' (in the font 'Elise') because I wanted both of my girls to be able to reuse this year after year. Alternatively you could do several other things: cut their birthday number from felt and glue it on, cut and glue a felt monogram, stitch either of those things, or use fabric markers to write your message.

After you've prepared your birthday message, trace your Crystal Light lid lightly with a disappearing fabric pen or a pencil, so you can make sure the placement is correct. Then cut around that line about an inch on all sides.

Cut your batting into (2) 3" circles. (This is just approximate- you want it to fit on the lid.) Glue one of the pieces to the outside of your Crystal Light lid. Set the other one aside for now.

Now we are going to glue your fabric onto the lid, covering the batting. First glue the sides of the lid, working on opposite sides to ease the fabric onto the lid until you gave gone all the way around. It will look like this:

Then go around, gluing the excess fabric to the lid.

After that is glued down, glue your other batting circle to the inside of the lid.

Next, we're going to glue the pleated quilt binding to the inside of the lid, covering the batting you just glued down. Instead of the pleated quilt binding, you could also ruffle a ribbon or a piece of knit fabric. Glue it to the back of your lid, working your way around, making sure that you overlap the ends about 1/2" to ensure coverage and to hide your ends. You're going to be gluing the stitched portion of the binding, so that the pleats still show in the front, like this:

 

Now it will look like this from the front:

Notch your (2) 5" ribbons, and glue them to the back of the badge so the notched ends are on the bottom, overlapping like this:

Almost done! Now cut your felt scrap into a 3.5" circle, and glue it to the back of your badge so it looks nice and neat. Then hot glue your flat-backed pin to the middle of the felt, making sure it lies horizontally so the badge will hang the right way. (Notice the pin is parallel to the ribbons at the bottom)

After I finished it, I decided to glue a small 1/4" ribbon the the side of the badge, hiding any tucks or bulges that may have occurred when you glued the fabric around the back. I used clear-drying craft glue (Aileen's) for the trim. Then if you have a product like Fray-Chek, lightly apply it to the edges of the notched ribbons, to what else, prevent fraying. Otherwise you could very carefully apply a small amount of craft glue to the edges of the ribbon.

Voila!

Your birthday girl or boy is ready to announce to the world that it is their birthday and receive their deserved accolades and praises.

Have fun, and let me know if you make one!

Bella's party is next Saturday and I will share all the details, possibly with printables.