Hellobee

Some days, do you feel like you deserve a medal? How about your kids? Do they have days that could use a little extra recognition? These easy-to-make mini awards are perfect for those times.

Maybe your child just tried something for the first time. Give them a felt badge. Did they show some extra kindness? Award them a ribbon. Or perhaps they showed some bravery or simply made it through a rough day. Those times call for a happy, smiling medal.

Mommas, if you have one of those days where you didn’t think you’d make it through, but you toughed it out…it’s okay to award yourself one of these ribbons too. Seriously. You deserve it.

With just a few supplies, and a few minutes, you can make a whole bunch of these to keep on hand.

You will need:

Ribbon (in different widths)
Felt
Safety Pins
Embroidery Floss and Needle
Craft or Fabric Glue
Scissors

Cut two circles from felt. You can trace something, like a spool, or just freehand cut them. They don’t have to be perfect!

If you’d like to make it a happy medal, embroider a face on one of the circles. I used three strands of floss, and followed my favorite method for stitching faces.

Cut a piece of ribbon. You can make it anywhere from 2-1/2 to 4 inches long, depending on the width of your ribbon, and how big you want the medal to be. Fold the ribbon in half.

Place the ends of the ribbon between the two felt circles and stitch around the medal with running stitch.

Slide a safety pin through the loop of ribbon, and your medal is all set to award to someone who needs a bit of celebration.

You can make some medals a little bigger, or smaller. I just love how this striped ribbon resembles military medals.

You can also try different shapes!

For these, I skipped the stitching (except for the face), and held them together with glue. The glue makes them even faster. Make sure that you glue the ends of the ribbon together first, then glue the felt shapes together.

Assembling them this way means that you can involve your kids in the process too. Who knows? They might want to pass along some encouragement to their friends or teachers!

Want ribbons that are faster still? Skip the felt shapes and just use ribbon. This ribbon came with those stitches down the middle, so I simply glued the ribbon over the safety pin and trimmed the ends.

I know that sometimes we reward kids for everything, and they start to expect it. I’m not suggesting that we encourage entitlement, but I know that some days need a little boost. Enjoy putting a smile on someone’s face (maybe your own!) with the bit of confidence that these medals can bring.

Happy Crafting!