Saturday, August 30, 2014

Make a Cub Scout Belt Loop Display for $1.50

My son as been active with scouts since he was a Tiger Cub and is just getting ready to cross over to a Boy Scout.  In my search of getting all his belt loops, patches, pins and other awards together, I realized he has a ton of stuff.  One item that cub scouts work toward is belt loops.  In order to earn a belt loops, a cub scout must preform certain tasks associated with whatever belt loop they are trying to earn at the time.  Right now there is a total of 53 different belt loops a cub scout can earn but as of 2015, these belt loops will no longer be part of the cub scout activities.  My son is lucky to have earned most of them already and I wanted to come up with a way we could display them for years to come.  I also wanted an idea that would be easy enough for my Webelos II to complete as one of their Craftsman Activity Badges.  

I've been tossing the idea around to use rulers as a base because they seemed to be the right size and shape for what I had in mind.  When the schools supplies went on sale at Wal-mart, I grabbed up a few to see if my idea would work.


When I got home, I brought out my hot glue gun, sand paper and some old Java color stain left over from redoing my bathroom cabinets.  I decided to use the hot glue gun because I wanted something that would be fast drying so that the Scouts could complete the project all in one den meeting.  I also thought about tearing out the bendable paper holders in folders to stick through the holes but changed my mind at the last minute because of the extra two rulers and no wholes for them. 







Step One - Before you glue, you must first remove the plastic straight line edge attached to the ruler.  Save yourself some trouble and just use pliers.  I used my nails for the first two and it was a pain.  The pliers makes it very simple to remove.  

Step Two - Take your sandpaper and sand the ruler down.  To make this easier, hold the sandpaper and ruler in a way that you can sand both sides at once.  Keep stopping to check to see if the Belt Loops will slide on rather easy.  Keep in mind that if you are going to paint/stain the ruler then you will need to sand it a little more to allow the Belt Loops to fit once the paint/stain is on.

Step Three - Hot glue your ruler together, making sure each one is straight.  I matched the three up with the the holes from the back piece and then filled in the other two rules in the extra space.  Make sure that the glue drys before moving on.

Step Four - Paint/Stain the ruler and leave overnight. 


Step Five - I used thin cord to make a decorative X and to add extra support to the center.  






If you completely fill this up, it will hold a total of 50 Belt Loops.  Five per row and side.  For a total of $1.50 for 6 rulers and with the use of a few items I had on hand, this Belt Loop display turned out great and will be a huge hit for my next Webelos Den Meeting. 

 
If interested in a fun Boy Scout Activity, read about how to plan a Boy Scout Escape Room!  It was so much fun.
 

19 comments:

  1. This is brilliant! Between my 3 scouts, I have a ton of belt loops in the house. Thanks for sharing your idea!

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    1. I'm glad you like it :-) 2015 is the last year for belt loops so it will be nice that your scouts will be able to display them for years to come since the new scouts will not know what these are.

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    2. They are still doing belt loops they are called adventure loops instead they are doing away with the beads

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    3. Thank you. The article I saw said they were doing away with them. I'm glad to see that it wasn't true. My son loved getting them :-)

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    4. They aren't the same as they were before. My son loved earning belt loops too, but now they are tied into rank advancement. My oldest son was the last class of Webelos II.

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  2. I had not thought to use rulers, great idea! Most paint sticks are the perfect size, also if you have any power tools at your disposal you can find sheets of MDF for free at the back of Home Depot that work awesome too...

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    1. I never thought of paint sticks! That is great and those are free if you can talk the store into giving them up for the scouts.

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  3. You are absolutely brilliant! Thank you so much for this. I have been having the same dilemma for my son's BL's. Problem solved!

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  4. Great idea. I plan on using this for our next den meeting. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. Sorry, just saw this. You're welcome. Hope the cubs loved making them.

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  5. What a great idea! You could use this for Webelos Craftsman. Thanks for sharing!

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  6. Thanks for the great idea! my son is making a sample now and we are going to make the as a den for the craftsman.

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    1. That is great. It is the best time of the year to make them cause the school supplies are on sale!

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  7. How much would you charge me to make this exact thing and ship to me in Kansas City?

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  8. Thank you for sharing this. My wife passed this on to me....and looks like a great Big Rock Topic for a Roundtable.

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  9. When i made the red vest for my youngest son i put a thick red woven belt braid on the vest and displayed his loops on his vest. Wish i could show a pic here! He did finish and become an eagle scout w/ palms!

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