What to do with your Disney Pins after you get home

Pin trading is a fun part of the Disneyland experience.  But what do you do with all those pins, once you get home?  

Ah, Disney pins!  When I took Jack, we poured over the lanyards, selecting a pack that came with some pins to get him started.

This time around, lanyards and a pin came with our travel package, so we mostly bought "mystery" 2 packs for trading.  Because I'm cheap like that!

Little known fact:  When you spend X amount in ANY Disney store in the parks (pretty sure it's $30, but double check!), you can get a "completer" pin for only $2.95, making this your most economical way to get trading pins.  If the store you're shopping at doesn't offer completer pins, take your receipt to another shop that does have them.  One of the cast members told me this, and I'm so glad they did!  We got 4 pins for only $11.80 the day I bought t-shirts for the kids back home.

Oh, and another money saving tip?  I picked up Tinkerbell t-shirts for Hannah and Katie before we left for Disneyland and just brought them out with the rest of the pricey park shirts.

So we're home, and we've got pins.  Let's display them!  You'll need some foam board, a shadowbox, your free Photopass picture (or a printed copy of your favorite picture from the trip), your pins, and either fabric or paper for your background.

I asked the boys to help me pick which fabric to use, but you could also do a background of scrapbook paper, or even construction paper.  (Josiah picked the fabric I would have to iron, of course!)

A tip:  Disney fabric is cute, and you might think it would be fun to use Disney fabric for your Disney trip memories.  BUT, Disney fabric is very busy, and you need something fairly plain so your pins don't get "lost" in the print.

Now, the links above are for an 8x10 shadow box, and 8x10 pieces of foam board, which is borderline brilliant, but I tend to do things the hard way, so we're going to be custom cutting a much larger piece of locally purchased foam board.

I used the back of the frame to trace a guideline to cut on.  You want to cut inside your line a little if you're using fabric, to allow it to fold around the edges of the board.

I made a guide cut with my little blade, and then let Josiah hack through it with a serrated kitchen knife.

Cut your fabric a little larger than your foam board, then place the fabric face down, and place your photo face down on the back side of the fabric.  Use spray adhesive to cover the back of your photo, knowing that any overspray onto the backside of your fabric will help hold it in place on your foam board.

Carefully position your fabric, and then your photo.

You may want to artfully lay out your pins different ways before you poke them through, but having done this once before, I just sort of winged it.

Assemble by putting the loaded up foam board into the shadow box and putting the back on, and voila!

The finished project!  Ready to mount on the wall or set on a shelf and enjoy your Disney memories for years to come.

This was actually a repeat of my original brilliant idea from my trip with the girls in 2007.

And this is our shadowbox from that trip, which is a little dusty from being up on a shelf in Brianna's room.  Wow, my girls have changed a lot since then!


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