Paper Medallion Pins

Good morning!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  I always feel like Spring has started once we hit Easter, even if the weather isn’t cooperating!  Today I am here with a fun DIY project perfect for parties and special occasions!  So you may know how I think a good party hat can make any special occasion that much more special – I feel the same way about medallions!  I was given a medallion to wear for my wedding and baby showers and loved them!  They looked fairly easy to make – just paper and ribbon – so I started making my own medallions for special occasions!  You can definitely purchase these fairly cheap at stores, but if you want to coordinate with party colors, or are like me and happen to have tons of scrapbook paper and a bin full of ribbon scraps, this is a great project!  

Below are some pictures of medallions I have made, they really do work for almost any special occasion.  I made one for my husband for Father’s Day last year and he still has it on his dresser – so they don’t have to be for just girls!

Here is the tutorial to make your own paper medallion pin!  The tutorial is for one of the larger ones made with two medallions.

Supplies Needed:

• Decorative Paper
• Ribbon
• Labels – printed off the computer or handwritten.  Here is a free printable of some of my labels. 
• Pin
• Hot glue gun, scissors, and ruler
• A way to score the paper *Update: I now use a scoring board and stylus but my old way of doing it using my paper trimmer and a jewelry pliers actually worked really well!

Step One: Cut decorative paper for the medallion pin. For the larger medallion, cut two 12″ strips of paper 2″ wide. For the smaller medallion, cut one 12″ strip of paper 1.25″ wide. Also cut three 2″ diameter circles – one is visible on the top of the medallion, 1 is visible from the back of the medallion and one is never seen ( it is sandwiched in the middle of the medallion). Also cut two little squares out of paper; you will never see these. The squares can be about 1″ by 1″. 

Step Two: Mark fold lines on your strips of paper. On the 2″-wide pieces of paper, mark every 1/2″ along one edge. On the 1.25″-wide piece of paper, mark every 1/4″.

Step Three:  Score the paper at every pencil mark. I use my (very old and beat up) paper cutter. I don’t actually cut the paper, but I use the groove to score the paper with a sharp edge like my needle nose pliers. Scoring the paper makes it easier to fold and keep your folds precise. *Update: I now use a scoring board and stylus to do all of my scoring – it is so easy and you can skip Step Two since scoring boards are already spaced every 1/4″. 

Step Four: Fold the paper strips accordion style at each scored fold line.

Step Five: Connect the paper strips into a circle. I use a little strip of hot glue to connect the two ends. Use your small paper squares as a base for your medallion. I put a bunch of hot glue on the paper square and then push my medallion down onto it. Hold it for a minute to set. I add a little hot glue to the top center of my medallion as well just to really secure it. Do this for each medallion.

Step Six:  Create the ribbon loop layer. Adhere your ribbon loops to one of your paper circles; this is the one that will never be seen.  I attached 5 wide ribbon loops and filled in with 5 thin ribbon loops. Once my ribbon loops were all on, I glued the small medallion to the center of the ribbon loops circle. I used hot glue for everything.

Step Seven:  Adhere the decorative tag. I used photoshop to make the decorative tags for these. You can find the file under “Supplies Needed”. You could create your own or easily handwrite these. I glued the decorative tag to one of my circles, then glued this to the top of the small medallion. Glue the small medallion (with the ribbon loops and decorative tag already attached to it) to the top of the large medallion. So the order is as follows: large medallion, ribbon layer, small medallion, decorative tag.

Step Eight: Attach ribbon ends. I used my last circle (visible from the back) for my ribbon ends. For this medallion I used three types of ribbon cut to almost the same length. Glue the ribbons to the paper circle, then glue that to the back of the large medallion. Finish it up by hot gluing your pin to the back of everything.

To recap the order of everything: From top to bottom, it goes:

• Decorative tag
• Small medallion
• Ribbon loop layer
• Large medallion
• Ribbon ends
• Pin back

This is the order for this particular medallion.  You can skip some of the layers, add more layers, whatever you feel like doing!  The varieties are endless :)  What do you think?  Would you want to wear a paper medallion pin for your special occasion?

I hope everyone has a nice week!