DIY A YouTube Play Button – 10,000 Subscribers

It Has Happened

Oh. My. Goodness! It has finally happened. I have reached the 10,000 subscriber milestone on my YouTube channel! And even though I would like to take the credit for that, I can’t. You see I can’t subscribe to my channel 10,000 times. Believe me, I’ve tried. But even without my own personal 10,000 subscriptions to my channel, 10,000 others have found my videos at least useful enough to subscribe to my channel. And to those 10,000 people, I from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU. Thank you for taking time out of your life to watch a video or two, and then subscribe. Thank you to my truest super fans that gobble up a video as soon as I release it, you know who you are.

I have no idea in real life what 10,000 people really looks like. But I do know that the next milestone I am going for with my YouTube channel is 100,000 subscribers. I am so excited to contemplate what 100,000 people look like! And to give you some perspective on this journey, last May I had just reached 3000 subscribers. So it took me a little over a year to add an additional 7000 to that number to get me where I am today. That is a lot of work. Now, with almost 400 videos under my belt, I feel like I half way know what I am doing with video. I can’t wait to see where I am after 800 videos. I should REALLY be good at that point, right?

YouTube 10,000 Subscriber Play Button – Not

And I really wish YouTube had a 10,000 subscriber award. For me, 10,000 is a big deal, and a goal I have been working toward for sometime now. But, sadly, YouTube does not have a play button award for those of use who have reached 10,000 subscribers.

If you have never heard of a play button award, it is given to YouTube creators who have reached certain milestones. YouTube does have different levels of achievements for their creators. And once you hit certain milestones, you ‘unlock’ new elements of YouTube. I am pretty excited to unlock the community tab. That will give me the opportunity to post random stuff on a portion of my YouTube channel kind of like the original Facebook wall. You know, what it used to look like before Facebook was over run by ads.

And because I am so proud of the milestone I have accomplished, I decided to make my own play button award. Yes, it would be even more special if it came from YouTube, but since they don’t make one, I made my own.

And just in case you wanted to make your own play button award, I am going to show you how I did it.

How To DIY A YouTube Play Button Award

There are a lot of tutorials on YouTube of how to make a play button award, which is where I got the inspiration to make mine. The best one I found was also the easiest way to make this. And if you want to duplicate my process, this is what you will need:

• 8 x 10 Shadow Box Picture Frame
• ColorBox Archival Dye
• Mod Podge High Gloos Clear Acrylic Sealer
• Heavy Duty Cardstock
• Rustoleum Aged Copper Spray Paint
• Rustoleum White Spray Paint
• 8 x 10 Photo of the Words

The highlighted items I bought on Amazon. If you click on them, it will take you directly to Amazon, so you can buy them. And yes, these are affiliate links. I do get a small commission if you purchase these items. It helps to pay for this blog, and the expense of making a YouTube channel, so in advance, thank you!

Making The Play Button

To make the play button, remove the top from the ColorBox dye. Remove the sticker, and wash it off with rubbing alcohol. This will help the spray paint to stick better. If you want to keep the dye, seal it in something. Otherwise toss it out or give it to someone who might use it. I know it’s wasteful, but if you have no use for the dye, why keep it?

Now using the aged copper spray paint, paint the ColorBox cover. I did 2 coats of paint, allowing time in between each coat of paint for dry time. And the hardest part is the next step. After you are happy with how awesome your play button looks, set it aside and leave it alone for at least 24 hours. And even longer is better, especially if you have done multiple coats of paint. You want the play button paint job to have plenty of time to cure before you attach the second part, and then seal it.

Now take the heavy card stock, I used some matt board that I had from an earlier project. And cut out a triangle. You want it to be like an isosceles triangle and the angles are 50 degrees, 65 degrees and 65 degrees.

And you want it to fit onto your copper colored piece. So play with different sizes until you get the size you like. Once you have the correct size triangle, give it a coat of the white spray paint. Again, if you do several layers of paint, be sure to give it at least 24 hours to dry before sealing the play button.

After both pieces have dried, position the triangle where you want it to be in the center of your copper back plate,. Then attach the white triangle to the copper back plate. And once you have given it plenty of time to dry (very, very important) seal the play button with the Mod Podge sealer. Now, if you did not give the play button sufficient dry time you will find out now. If there was not enough dry time for the paint, your paint job will crackle or bubble. This is why it is so important to be patient before applying the sealer!

And once that is dry, you will be gluing the play button to the photograph which will be the background of your award. I used gorilla glue sticks because I didn’t have to use a lot to make sure it was going to stick well.

And then I just positioned the play button where I wanted it to be, and presto! My award is almost complete!

Now all that is left to do is to put the photograph into the shadow box frame. Now my Un-Official YouTube play button award is complete! Then the only thing left to do  was to find the perfect place to hang my unofficial award!

The Finished Product

This was very easy to make. Even though I wish YouTube would have sent me an award, they didn’t totally leave me hanging. They did send me an email telling me way to go, and I’ll take that, for now. I will just have to keep plugging away until I do hit 100,000 subscribers, and get the REAL play button award!

And if you haven’t yet watched any of my videos, or subscribed to my YouTube channel, what are you waiting for?!?!

Most of the blog posts I write are inspired by videos I have made. So if you like to watch videos, and love horses you should subscribe to my YouTube channel, and share this with your budget equestrian friends!