Well, I've made a shadow box to commemorate my time in the Navy. It took me quite some time, but it's finally finished. Obvious choices of things to put in there were my dolohins, ribbons and crow from my dress blues, but I've also acquired some other submarine related patches and such over the years that I added to that as well.
As far as construction that took a bit of time. First I had to take everthying I had a find out how big I needed the frame to be. My wife and I found a 16" x 20" shadow box at a local craft store that ended up working perfectly. I stained the frame american cherry and then sprayed a clear finish over it to protect the frame.
The next day I kept my wife company at the embroidery shop she works at and took the felt we had bought and laid everything out how it would fit and how I liked. I pinned all the patches and she sewed them all down for me. I took this home and we stitched the felt to the carboard backing. I put in black cording (not pictured) with hot glue in the borders to hide the stitching.