If you
are like me, you save and collect all your lanyards and badges from every big
tournament you go to. I've seen people that put all their badges on one nail,
but once you get more than a few of them on there, they start to overlap so
much that you can't really see most of them. In this video I'll show you how to
make a plaque to display your lanyards in a way to make them all more visible.
This could also be a really good and cheap gift that you could make for a
smasher friend for the holidays!
All the
materials to make these can be found at pretty much any craft store for cheap.
I picked up all of my supplies at Michaels because they had a coupon online for
40% off on one item. This bring the cost of the board down from $9 to about
$5.50.
You will
want to find the wood crafts section of the store to find most of the supplies.
Depending on how long your tag is and how many lanyards you have to hang up,
you can buy either a small board or a big one. Since my tag is fairly long and
I have a ton of lanyards, I'm going with this big board.
Next you
want to find the letters, which should be right next to the boards in the
store. They usually have both black and white letters available, and I've seen
unpainted wood before as well. The colors I had in mind was taking inspiration
from pink Diddy, so I want a pink board and white letters. I highly recommend
laying out the letters on the board before you buy everything just to make sure
it all fits.
Around
the corner there should be every color paint you could imagine in small
bottles. These are pretty cheap at just 70 cents per bottle, and each bottle
will be more than enough to completely cover all the letters and the board.
Just make sure that the paint is meant for wood. I'm picking up a bottle of
pink and a bottle of white.
Lastly
you'll just need to buy hooks for the lanyards and some way to hang the whole
thing on a wall. I recommend these hooks that come in a pack of 20 for $3. I'm
going to go with these sawtooth hangers to put it up on the wall, they cost
just $1.37.
Before
you paint the board, you will want to sand the edges down a bit to get rid of
the splinters and smooth it out. Then you're ready to paint! I usually just put
a dab of paint on the face of the board to use to put paint on the brush. I go
around the edges first, then fill in the middle after that. Optionally, you can
put a coat of paint on the backside as well, but it won't be necessary and you
won't really be able to see the back anyways. And when painting the letters,
make sure you get all along the edges and the insides of the open letters as
well.
Usually
you will have to do at least two coats of paint, especially if you are using
lighter colors like I am. Some black was showing through the letters, and a
knot in the wood was showing through on the plaque. After a second coat,
everything was looking good.
Gluing
the letters on doesn't need to be exact. I just eyeball the spacing and use a
straight edge to make sure they all line up properly. I use this special glue
that I had that works well on wood and dries mostly clear. To apply the glue to
the back of the letters I use a Q-tip to spread the glue on there evenly. If
you just put a line of glue straight on the back of the letter, when you put it
on the board it might ooze out a little and be visible on the face of the
plaque.
When the
glue is dry, it's time for putting the hooks on. Using a tape measurer, I
alternate putting dots above and below it at about a 2 inch interval. These
dots are where I will drill the holes for the hooks. You can put as many or as
few hooks as you feel you need on, but I do a lot because I have a lot of
badges to display. By alternating going above and below the tape measurer, you
can space your lanyards out vertically a bit so that they don't overlap as
much. Using the smallest drill bit available, drill a little bit into each of
your markings. You don't have to go all the way through the board, just drill
enough so that you have a hole started for putting the hooks in. Some of the
hooks may go in easier than others depending on if there was a knot in the wood
or not, but if you just apply a bit of pressure while twisting they should all
go in fairly easily.
And just
like that you're done! Optionally at the end you can apply a coat of clear
polyurethane to help prevent your paint from scratching, but it shouldn't be an
issue if it's just hanging up high on a wall anyways. I already had a can of
polyurethane, so I used it anyways. Once it dries all I have to do now is hang
it up on a wall and add some lanyards!
Cost
breakdown:
Plaque -
$5.40
Letters
- $0.99 * 9 = $8.91
Paint -
$0.70 * 2 = $1.40
Hooks -
$2.99
Sawtooth
Hook - $1.37
Total =
$20.07
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