The Sunshine Medal

This is the 'sunshine medal' it's for a little boy who never gets first or anywhere in the running races at school...In fact he hates them so much that he never wants to participate. When he does he gets angry at himself because he is never a winner...No amount of explaining or discussion about how he is very good at other things works...He still hates the whole thing.

To make him feel more positive about school sports events I decided that we would celebrate the fact that he has participated in the running races. If he did this in a positive manner he would attend an awards ceremony when he got home (he so wanted to attend). There he would be given a special sunshine medal, an award for children who ran races with happy smiles on their faces at school sports events (I made that up).

Firstly I made him a medal certificate and laminated it. I used Custom Medal Maker to make a medal certificate like this to go with his medal.

This is an example I worded it
differently, using the child's name etc.

Things you need:
1 plastic buckle
1 metre or less of ribbon
1 curtain ring
Jovi modelling clay
1 hacksaw blade
A glue gun
Acrylic gold paint
Acrylic black paint
2 Paint brushes
Water based varnish
Cookie stamp
Sewing machine
Rolling pin
Glass for cutting circle
Handy towels

To start with you need a belt buckle
 and some ribbon...

Using only the blade of the hacksaw, saw the
bar at each then remove it

Now it's ready for inserting and
 gluing the clay medal onto it. I set the
clay medal  from underneath the buckle,
not on top it was tidier that way

I used an old clay cookie stamp to
press into the clay to make the
sunshine impression

I found store bought clay was the best
for neatness of shape. Though I  did try
making my own clay but it didn't retain
 the sunshine print as well...

Roll the clay out to the thickness needed.
Then cut out a circle shape with a glass.
Next press the cookie stamp firmly onto
 clay circle...

 I tried out the stamp a few times until
 I got the perfect sunshine impression 

Dry the clay shapes. I used the oven I
didn't have time to wait...

Paint the hardened clay gold and
then varnish when dry...

When varnish is dry paint the clay medal
black using a dry brush

Next wipe off the excess black paint off
with a handy towel or  cloth. Buff then re-varnish

Clay medal glued onto the buckle surround
using the glue gun...

A vintage brass curtain ring to glue onto
the back to attach the strap to...

Curtain ring glued on

Now cut your ribbon to length. Sew the
ribbon using a straight stitch and a zipper foot
 so you can stitch close to the ring

The sunshine medal finished 

The 'sunshine medal' ceremony