How do you make a homemade ID card?

Introduction: Custom ID Badge

Here's a relatively easy way to make custom ID badges. You can create custom images for the front and back. Optionally add pictures to make photo IDs. The cost works out to less than a dollar per badge, cheaper if you buy the clips in bulk.

Step 1: Materials

-Full-sheet adhesive labels, preferably glossy (I used LD Glossy Inkjet Sticker Photo Paper)
-Heavy card stock or illustration board (I used Elmer's 14-ply white illustration board)
-Hole punch (not absolutely necessary but handy for cutting the slot)
-Knife
-ID badge clips ($5 for a set of 10 from office supply store)
-Color printer

Step 2: Print Front and Back Images

The images should be slightly larger than the badge size. I wanted the badge to be 2.5"x4", so I made the images 3"x4.5", giving .25" excess on all four edges.

Avoid putting anything important too close to the edge of the image. Definitely nothing in the .25" border area and probably an extra .125", just to give yourself a bit of room for error.

On the front image, add an area the size and shape of the slot. The slot should be roughly 1"x.25" (minimum .5"x.25"), with rounded ends.

Print the images on full-sheet label paper.

Step 3: Cut Front Image

Cut the front image down to the size of the badge, preferably with rounded corners. I used a cutting template. Not strictly necessary but handy if you're doing several.

Step 4: Add Cardstock

Peel the backing off the front label and apply to a piece of card stock. trim the card stock to the shape of the label.

Tip: Run a knife lightly across the backing (just enough to cut it) to make it easier to peel off.

Step 5: Add Back

Cut the back label to the shape of the image, leaving the .25" excess border. Peel the backing off and place the label face-down. Place the badge face-up, centered on the label. Trim the label down to the badge shape.

Step 6: Cut the Slot

Use a hole punch to cut out the ends of the slot. Use a knife to join the holes and remove the remaining material.

Step 7: Add Clip

Thread a badge clip through the slot and snap together.

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Introduction: Home Made ID

Before you add a comment about getting thrown in jail, this is not about making FAKE ID, it is about Home Made ID. That is ID that has 100% complete and accurate details, just that you made it.

I have been carrying my home made Personal Identification Card since 2006. I have used it dozens of times - every time I get asked for photo ID.

I've boarded planes, picked up registered mail, collected government documents, all sorts of things without any problems at all. After all, it is "real". The only time it has ever been challenged is when I needed an airport visitor's pass to get "behind the scenes" for something I was doing.

[UPDATE] 2015 State elections in Queensland Australia required ID for the first time. They accepted this so I could vote!

"Why would I do this?" you may ask. Well, I am a bit of a rebel and reckon that most of the security we see is nothing more than a fear campaign. Someone is making a load of money out of it and very few security checks are any good. This is my way of testing the system - and finding it pretty faulty most of the time.

That's the philosophy, here's how...and it isn't hard. In fact, it is so easy we could do it in one step, but where is the fun in that?

Tools:
Computer with some sort of photo editing software e.g. GIMP
Laminator with sheets
Internet connection

Step 1: The Front

Note that this is not cropped or perfect, it was made especially for this instructable.

The most important thing that differentiates this project from fake ID is that all the details need to be 100% real for you.  I have not been able to find any legal problems about using home made ID as long as the details are accurate.  Sure it might not be good enough and you may be asked for a driver's license, but that's really the point isn't it?  How good are these security checks?

Find a photo that would look good on ID.  No sunglasses, not a holiday snap etc.  It has to be believable.

The checkered background is a standard photoshop pattern,  I have put a splash of pink over it to make it look a little like those secure documents that have a splash of pink of them.  It is then made a bit more opaque or you won't be able to read your details.

Find some sort of official looking shield for the background to, it all adds to the authenticity.

I have a smaller version of the same photo.  No idea why, it just looked like something that authentic ID would have.  Same as adding the ID number in white on the main image.  Same as the red stripe.

Of course you can add or remove anything you like, compare it to your drivers license or something for ideas.

How easy was that so far?

Don't forget to save your work.

Step 2: The Back

This was actually more fun than the front as no one ever looks at the back of ID do they?

The black magnetic stripe is a must.  Of course it is nothing more than a printed black line, but my it makes it look real doesn't it?  If only I could insert a chip as well.

The rest of it is pure nonsense, it gives people who I show a laugh.  Sometimes a person will notice that the Emergency Contact space has no room for a number.

The bar code?   There are plenty of places on the web to make your own, copy it and paste into your image editor.  This one says "Instructables" - actually it doesn't really, I wish I had thought of that when I made it though :o)

Again, the ID number for consistency.

Step 3: Finished Product

Laminate it, trim it and put in your wallet on top of your real license.

Flash it whenever you are asked for ID and prepared to be amused at how often you get away with it.  I think it is wise to always have "official" ID as well, just in case.

And you might like to think seriously before using it to try to get into the White House...unless of course you really are Barack Obama.

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