Badges tell a story visually, and that makes them great for embellishing scrapbook pages and scrapbook page storytelling. While a police badge looks a whole lot different from a Girl Scout badge, the two are both small accessories that represent and convey information. See how our Creative Team used badges on their scrapbook pages (and take a look at our Pinterest board of trendy badge examples in fashion, accessories, stationery, website design, and more.)
use a ready-made badge embellishment
I Earned Them All by Kiki Kougioumtzi | Supplies: Cardstock: Coredinations; Patterned paper: Studio Calico, Making Memories; Patch: Studio. Calico;Ribbon:May Arts;Alphas:Basic Grey.
Kiki Kougioumtzi says, “This layout is about how our daughter earned all her scout badges, how proud she is of this, and the many things she learned along the way.”
“I used one big ready-made badge to emphasize my story and embellish my layout. The badge has a saying on it: enjoy the little things. It is something I want her to remember to do. It also has a heart, which is perfect for my story because she really loves scouting right now.”[hr]
Come Back When Dinner’s Ready” by Sian Fair | Supplies: Patterned Paper: October Afternoon; Alpha: Basic Grey (inked with black Staz on ink); Wood veneer: Studio Calico; Button and diecuts: October Afternoon; badge: Freckled Fawn
Sian Fair says, “Embroidered badges always remind me of childhood summer holidays: it’s a 70s thing! I used a ready-made embroidered badge as an inspiration for a thoroughly retro themed page about summer holidays in the 1970s. Everyone collected badges from the places they had visited back then. I always had dreams of making a hat completely covered with badges. I wanted the badge to be a big part of the page, so I came up with a title which made use of the “dinner’s ready” phrase on the badge and I kept the rest of the embellishments to a minimum.
make a badge with felt and embroidery work
Secret Seven by Kristy T | Supplies : Patterned Paper: Simple Stories; Alphas: Simple Stories, Echo Park; Stickers: Simple Stories; Pen: Artline; Wood Shape: Studio Calico.
Kristy T says, “After reading The Secret Seven books by Enid Blyton at bedtimes, my kids liked to pretend they were Peter and Janet. I made them their own SS badges as described in the books and they also wore them to the Book Week School Dress Up. I made the badge using red felt and green cotton to hand sew the SS before adding a safety pin. Since the kids don’t play this game anymore, I was able to use the badge as an embellishment on my page.”[hr]
use a ready-made digital badge
sunshine by Celeste Smith | Supplies: Shalin Studio & Brittish Designs: Project Mouse At Sea kit, Amy Tan: Amy Tangerine kit.
Celeste Smith says, “This page is about my older son’s love of a seaside restaurant on Cape Cod.”
The badge here is a digital pre-made product from Amy Tan’s Amy Tangerine collection. I darkened it a bit using the Variations tool in Photoshop CS6. The sunshine badge is perfect for this page as the photo was taken near sunset and adds texture to this somewhat flat patterned paper driven page.”[hr]
stitch a border on a fabric tag to make a badge
Fierce by Christy Strickler |Supplies Patterned Paper: Fancy Pants; Canvas, Metal tags: Making Memories; Flowers: Maya Road; Tape: Freckled Fawn; Jewels: Hero Arts
Christy Strickler says, “My son went through a stage in which he would pretend to be a monster, growling at everything he saw. I had a canvas tag with the word fierce and I knew it would be perfect for the title. I cut off the top of the tag and machine stitched a border to make the badge. It would be so easy to replicate this look with Solvent ink, stamps and canvas. Hand or machine stitch the edges for a finished look.”[hr]
make a pieced badge from your embellishment stash
Shutterbugs by Brenda Becknell | Supplies: Patterned paper: American Crafts and Studio Calico; Stickers: Fancy Pants; Acrylic frame and medallion: Basic Grey; Stamps: Heidi Swapp & Technique Tuesday; Alpha stickers: Tim Holtz; Clear filmstrip ribbon: Tim Holtz
Brenda Becknell says, “These are random photos of the other shutterbugs in my family: my son and my two nieces. Between the four of us, we have all the photo ops in our family covered. I made a little badge for our “shutterbugs” club. The badge is a combination of die cuts (the background and circle) fussy cut patterned paper (the camera), acrylic sticker, film strip ribbon, a rubber stamped banner, and tiny alphas for the title.”
Use digital actions, brushes, and styles to make your own patch/badge
Debbie Hodge says, “My oldest son is graduating from high school this week, and I’ve been working on an album of his school memories. This photo is from his last day of kindergarten.”
“I made my own badge (‘kindergarten grad’) to embellish the page using the Patch Up Toolkit from Mommyish Designs (available at Sugarhill.com). To make the badge, you use brushes, actions and styles all provided in the toolkit. The process entails “stroking” a path with two different brushes (top and bottom) to get the edge and then applying two different styles (top and bottom) to this edge stitching. Another action creates the background patch effect, and styles create the embroidered effect for images or words on the patch. It took me quite a while to make this badge, and I did it twice to get the right scaling. I’m not crazy about the result. I do believe I could get better at using the toolkit, but it’s probably not how I’ll spend my scrapbooking time in the future when I’ll look for premade badges.”
