The Begins belt was one of the first belts I ever made. I first tried spray painting the foam directly but it came out very textured and dull instead of metallic as I did not yet know how to smooth the foam first with a primer coat. I also experimented with making the pieces out of rubber sheeting instead of foam. Rubber initially looks great after painting, but it starts to crack and chip off once bent, and I quickly found out that there is apparently no glue known to man that will adhere smooth rubber to itself. I eventually settled on the method of gluing a layer of card-stock on top of the foam pieces and spray painting that. I used a paint pen and masking tape to draw on the silver striping, a hole punch to cut the holes, and pieces of metallic silver gift wrapping ribbon sandwiched between the top pieces and the back layer of black foam to show through behind the holes. Everything was glued to a length of nylon webbing and velcro was glued onto the back for fastening.
The template is available here.
