Bib Holder Tutorial

Here is part 2 of my race swag display tutorials!  This tutorial will show you how I made my bib holder.

Materials:
4- 1 inch square bend screw hooks

9x12 Rectangle Pine Plaque

single hole punch
This template (not necessary, but if you're using the other parts of this tutorial it makes things easier!)

acrylic paint in your favorite color(s)
paint brushes (these aren't the ones I used, but would work well!)
Your favorite picture hanging product (you will need something to attach to the back.  You can use 1 sawtooth hanger, or 2 d-ring hangers and picture wire.)

First, you can paint the boards or jump right in with transferring the words onto the plaques.  I found transferring the words first went a lot faster since I didn't have to wait for the paint to be completely dry.

For both parts of the tutorial, I chose to transfer the letters first.

The bib plaque is similar to the medal plaque, but with an extra couple steps for putting in the hooks.

To install the hooks:

If you're using the same rectangular plaque I did with the lettering on the left you will want the smaller set of screw hooks to be .75'' from the top of the board, and one at 3.25'' from the left, and the second at the 10'' mark.  For the larger set, you want this to be 1.25'' from the top, with the third screw hook being at the 2.5'' mark, and the fourth at the 10.75'' mark.  

While measuring I used a pencil to make a mark.  I recommend erasing it as much as you can, but don't expect it to go away completely.  I was able to cover it up with the paint.

After checking my measurements pressed the screw hooks in to make an indentation for where I would install the screw hooks.  (The wood is soft enough that you shouldn't need any hardware to do this part.)  

Then once again I painted around the indentations.  Shortly after this I removed the bent screw hooks to make painting easier and to keep them clean.

I then checked to be sure my bibs fit.  This is where the hole puncher comes in handy, since not all bibs will fit perfectly.  Just use the hole puncher to make the holes slightly bigger or move them further out as needed.  Also note that for some bibs, you will need to remove larger timing chips.  To do this you can snip away at it using scissors.

I then transferred the smaller of the "Running" templates to the side of the plaque using a metal tipped pen similar to the medal holder tutorial.  

This is how it looked after painting the whole board.

I then filled in the border and the "Running" portions of the board and screwed the hooks back in.

And you're ALMOST done!

The next part is fairly easy, and it's attaching the hanging system for the plaque.  If you use the D-ring hanger and picture wire, you just have to screw the d-ring hangers on the left and right sides of the back of the plaque.  You don't have to worry about them being even because when you add the picture wire, it will help keep the plaque even when hanging.  You want to clip a little extra on each end of the wire to allow yourself some room to twist it around on itself like this...

Don't do like I did and allow yourself at least an inch on each side of the hangers so you have plenty to twist around on itself.

And now you're done!  Congrats :)  If you decide to try my tutorial let me know what you thought and I would love to see pictures of your work!  Also feel free to ask questions if I'm not clear about something.