DIY Medal Hanger: Make a Cute Sign to Display Medals with FREE SVG Files

Make a cute DIY medal hanger to display all those medals lying around!

I remember cleaning my son’s room and finding medal after medal in various drawers.  I would get so annoyed as I remembered how much I spent on all the hidden memorabilia.

The struggle continued as the end of every season of different sports came and went.  I just gave up.

So when my friend asked me to make a DIY medal hanger for her daughter, I thought why didn’t I ever think of that??  Making the medal holder was pretty easy so I wanted to share with you how to do it plus give you some free SVG cut files!

Materials Needed for DIY Medal Hanger

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links from Amazon and/or Cricut.com. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my links (purple text).

• • wood – I used 1 x 8s
  • paint – I had some white paint leftover from my mantel makeover
  • polyacrylic or another sealer
  • vinyl in color of your choice
  • Cricut or another cutting machine
  • transfer tape
  • Cricut tools
  • hooks
  • drill
  • sander
  • free SVG files – see below

If you’d like to get inspired by all that a Cricut can do, make sure to browse my Ultimate Guide of Cricut Ideas.

How to Make a Medal Display

I ended up making 12 of these for a whole team so you’ll see a lot of wood!

First I used my orbital sander to sand all the boards smooth.

Then I painted all my 1x8s, but you could also cut them first and then paint if you are only making one or two.

Since these were larger than 6 inches I couldn’t use my miter saw, so I busted out my handy compact circular saw.

Once the paint was dry, I lightly sanded the boards.  Then I brushed on a layer of polyacrylic so the white paint wouldn’t get dirty from little hands on it.

SVG Cut Files

While everything is drying, now is the perfect time to cut all the vinyl.  Download any of the SVGs below or create your own.

As with all my files, these are for personal use only.  If you would like to purchase a commercial use license, click here.

 Click here to download the file I used for this project:  The One Who Falls

OR

Download “She Believed She Could…” Here

 

 

 

 

OR

Download “Sports Do Not…” Here

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you need help with uploading files to CDS, make sure to check out my Cricut tutorials here.  Size them to however big your wood is. 

I made my phrase about 4 inches tall and the name two inches tall.  Then there were about 2 inches left for the hooks.

Applying Vinyl to Wood

Once you’ve cut your vinyl out with a Cricut, weed off all the extra vinyl.  I slice in between the lines with a X-Acto knife so that I can work in sections.

Apply transfer tape on top of the vinyl wording and scrape down well.

Center the wording on your board.  Use the hinge method as I showed you in my DIY wood sign tutorial or you can place a piece of tape at the top of the wording.  Flip the decal over and peel off the paper.  Then slowly place the transfer tape down on the wood and scrape it down.

Peel off the transfer tape.

If you are doing a sign with more than one color, apply the other words with transfer tape.

For the edge of the board, you can leave them the same color or paint them.  I painted the edged black to make it pop a bit.

Now, all that is left on the DIY medal hanger is to add the hooks.  Decide how many hooks you want and you’ll have to measure them out equidistant. 

I have this cool drawer hardware installation kit that has come in very handy many time!  I just marked with a pencil in all the spots.

Then drill a pilot hole the size of your screws and screw them in.  All done! 

Attach a sawtooth hanger or two on the back and hang it up to display all your medals.

If you’d like to save this idea for later, hover over the top left of the image below and PIN IT now.

If you’d like printable directions, make sure to click the print button below.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a creative day!