how to: make award ribbons.

Alright! You asked for it...and here it is: a little Award Ribbon Tutorial. I'm certain this has been shared before, but I was plum out of luck when I tried searching for instructions this week. These instructions are for a 5 inch award ribbon, but you can play with the size of your paper to make badges of all sizes!

You will need:

Glue gun (not pictured, as it was plugged in and oozing fiery glue)
5 strips of paper, cut to 2 1/2" X 10" (this is variable depending on the size you're after!)
Double sided tape
Bits of cardboard
Scissors
Ruler

one : : : Accordion fold. Fold each strip accordion style, with your folds along the short (2 1/2" width) side. I usually place a fold every 3/4", but you can play with different widths. The point is that you keep your folds a consistent width apart!

two: : : Create one large, seamless accordion piece. Connect the five strips with double sided tape, placing the tape on  an "upward fold" and then connecting underneath the a "downward fold". In short, create a nonstop accordion fold using all five of your folded strips.

three: : : Make a circle. Fan out your accordion to create a near-circle. Then, replicate what you did in step two...placing tape on the upward fold, and attaching underneath the downward fold to close your circle. If the circle is a little too tight for your liking, cut and fold an extra piece of paper and add that in.

four: : : Secure your circle. Cut out any size circle from your cardboard. I just traced the nearest round thing...which was about 2". Then, hot glue the cardboard circle to the back of your badge. Turn it over and make sure that all the folds are well attached. If anything is lose, just sneak in and add some more hot glue.

five : : : Go crazy! The front of this bad boy is pretty much fair game. I created circles in word using this font, then just cut and pasted them to the front of the badge. I opted to forego adding a pin to the back, but that could easily be done. You can add ribbon, glitter...you name it. Or just handwrite something if you haven't got the time to get fancy. It's like a second grade art project. Go wild.

Ta-da! Hope you'll use and enjoy. :)