How to Make a Homemade Coat of Arms

Design your family's coat of arms to be in synch with your values and traditions.

Heraldry is the art of designing a coat of arms to represent your family. During the middle ages, knights used a coat of arms to distinguish their identity and let their enemies know what "house" they belonged to. The coat of arms was also used for seals, on jewelry and on standards to identify the courtiers of a particular house when they were traveling. If your family doesn't already have a coat of arms, you and your child can design your own following these steps.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencil
• Paint
• Brushes

Instructions

1. Draw a shape. Despite popular belief, a coat of arms is not necessarily shield shaped. Though most will incorporate a shield into the design somewhere. You can pick any shape to be the "field" or background of your coat of arms. Draw this shape onto a blank piece of paper.

2. Draw the design. A coat of arms is like a book; it is read from left to right and from top to bottom. Starting at the top, draw a banner for your family motto. Then draw the crest and helmet of the coat of arms. You will want to use a strong image of a bird or animal which signifies a specific value to you or your family. Draw the shield in the center of the design. The shield should be equally divided into four parts and designed to signify your family trade and where your family is from. If you have royal heritage, you can include a crown in one of the sections of the shield. Then draw any supporters or mantling which the shield/blazon requires or you would like. (Supporters and mantling are decorative and optional.)

3. Decide upon the colors for your coat of arms. Traditionally, the rule of thumb is that if you have a metallic "field" or background to your coat of arms, then you should only use color on the design. Whereas, if you have a colored "field" or background, you should only use metallic in the design. In modern times, this does not matter so much, you should just paint or color in your coat of arms using colors which are meaningful to you. Colors from the flag of the country of origin of your family or other meaningful colors such as birthstone colors, etc. are good choices.

4. Save and duplicate the coat of arms, as you require. Scan into your computer so that you have a digital representation of the coat of arms you can use on websites, stationary and other items you would order or make online.

References

• Your Child Learns: Heraldry Activity
• Fleuris-de-lis Designs: Family Crest
• Veerle's Blog: Creating a coat of arms in Illustrator