How to Display Medals and Pins

Over the years, you've stashed away medals from school, church, military, work and club activities. Maybe they're languishing in a drawer or in your jewelry chest. Pull them out and display them proudly in your home or office.

Things You'll Need

• Shadow box
• velvet cloth
• pins and medals

Instructions

1. Rummage through all the places where you've put the pins and medals over the years. Look in the jewelry box. Look in the odds-and-ends drawer. Look where you store memorabilia.
   Once you've found all of them, lay them out on a flat surface to get an idea of how large a shadow box you'll need.

2. Purchase a shadow box which is deeper than a regular picture frame. These are available at places like Walmart, and craft stores like Michael's and Joanne's. Get a dark thick cloth like velvet to use for the background.

3. 

   Lay out the pins and medals in a pleasing way. I grouped mine by type with the Sunday School pins together, my 4-H medals together, and my Rotary pins in a grouping. I placed the Paul Harris Fellow medal in the center since I'm very proud of it.

4. 

   Pin the medals to the background cloth. If one doesn't have a pin, you can use a straight pin or stitch it to the backing with needle and thread.
   Wrap the cloth around the backing piece for the shadow box. Check to make sure nothing is crooked, then fasten the backing to the shadow box.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure the glass if clean and free of fingerprints and smudges before putting it all together.

• If medals have tarnished, clean them with the appropriate polish for that type of metal.