| |

DIY Disney Trading Pins Display Idea

Do you love to collect Disney Trading Pins as much as we do? Get those pins out of a box and onto your walls with this fun DIY Disney Trading Pins display idea!

A Great Way to Display your Disney Trading Pins!

When we first went to Disneyworld several years ago, I kept wondering what all those pin trading stands were.  You see them all over the park.  Feeling overwhelmed at the time I didn’t pay too much attention.  

Why We Love Disney Pin Trading

After our first visit to Disney World, we went back again. This time our Disney package came with a  free pin trading starter kit for each of the kids (those genius marketing minds at Disney).  Soon we learned that as you went around the park, any employee with a pin HAD to trade with you for any pin you wanted.  So my super shy kids decided to give it a try.  

They ended up loving it. Not only did it help my kids to get used to talking to people, but it gave us something to do when we were waiting in line.  After a while, the kids all started to collect their “favorites”.

Disney Collectible Pins Display Idea

What do you do With Disney Trading Pins?

Each time we came home I’d think “what are we supposed to do with these pins???” I know that there are some die-hard pin collectors out there, but we are not them.

I have no idea why one pin would be more valuable than another pin.  We were just doing it as a fun side activity for my kids. We didn’t spend a lot of money on pins, and the kids were able to collect most of the ones they wanted.

How to display your Disney Trading Pins

We’ve been to Disneyworld a few times now and go back every few years.  Recently, I decided it’s time to go through the pins, decide which ones we want to keep and put the rest in a pile for our next visit.

DIY Disney Pin Display

I decided that a canvas would be a great way to display the images. I didn’t want a shadow box, and I thought the canvas would look great hanging in our Movie Room. (since that’s the room I contain all the Disney stuff to).

I ended up making 2 canvases.  If you want to make your own here’s how to do it:

DIY Trading Pin Display Supplies

  • Thick edge (2″) canvas. Mine are 12×12.
  • Spray Paint
  • Burlap
  • 2 pieces 12×12 scrapbook paper for each canvas (if your canvas is larger than 12×12, you’ll need something else to cover it with)
  • Staple Gun
  • Poker (piercing tool)
  • Large Brads
  • Paint

Note: You can also do this and leave the canvas plain. I liked the idea of using the Disney Scrapbook paper and decided to incorporate it into my design.

How to Make a Trading Pin Wall Display; Construction Steps

DIY Disney Pin Display- a great way to display your Disney Trading Pins after you are home from your trip!

Step One: Spray Paint the Canvas

First, you need to paint your canvas.  I’m lazy so I spray painted mine. Most of the canvas won’t show, but some of it will (since the burlap is a bit see-through).

DIY Disney Pin Display- a great way to display your Disney Trading Pins after you are home from your trip!

Step Two: Attach the Burlap

Next using a staple gun, staple the burlap to the canvas, mitering the corners.

DIY Disney Pin Display- a great way to display your Disney Trading Pins after you are home from your trip!

You will now have a covered canvas.

Step Three: Add the Paper

If using a 12×12 canvas, cut one piece of card stock to 11.5×11.5 and one piece of pattern paper to 10.5×10.5.

Layer them on top of each other and glue (just use scrapbooking tape adhesive) to the top of the canvas (before I glued my down, I inked the edges of the top scrapbook paper).

DIY Disney Pin Display- a great way to display your Disney Trading Pins after you are home from your trip!

Step Four: Attach with Brads

Next, on the back of the canvas, in the corners — where the wood meets, poke 4 holes.  Set 4 brads through your scrapbook paper into the canvas and set the brads.   This will help you with positioning the pins so that you don’t try to place a pin into the wood, and it will help keep the scrapbooking paper on the canvas.

DIY Disney Pin Display- a great way to display your Disney Trading Pins after you are home from your trip!

poor iPhone photo- late night crafting  = bad lighting

Step Five: Add your Pins!

Next layout your pins how you’d like on your canvas. This is the hard part!! Once you get them where you want them, I HIGHLY recommend taking a photo of them with your phone (so you can remember where they go).

DIY Disney Pin Display- a great way to display your Disney Trading Pins after you are home from your trip!

With a pen, mark where each pin prong is.  Then take your poker and pierce a hole through the canvas for each pin.

Put the pins back on the canvas and adhere to using the rubber stoppers that came with them.

More Fun Disney DIY Projects!

15 Simple Tips & Tricks to help make your Vacation a Little Bit Better

Disney Villains Party (with free printables!!)

You can also find a lot of fun Disney DIY’s on the Disney Parks Blog!

If you’d like to see some of my other Disney Crafts just click here

A fun way to display your Disney Trading Pins when you get home from your vacation!

Similar Posts

18 Comments

  1. Melissa, this is so clever! What a really great idea. Our pins have been in the plastic Disney bag they put them in when we bought them a year ago. Now I know what to do with them!

    Are y’all a Disney family like us? We are obsessed! Hubby’s new job left us with very few vacation days this year, so we just booked a 4 night Disney cruise that sails out of our home port. So excited.

  2. LOVE this! My dad is a big kid at heart and loves to collect Disney pins. I was going to buy him one of the bags from Disney, but I like this idea so much better so I’m going to make him a set for Christmas. He’s going to be so excited!

  3. Totally clever! I have ours in shadowboxes from Michaels, but will totally have to steal this idea for displaying them in the kids rooms. Thanks for the great idea!

  4. Do I have to do the burlap or scrapbook paper? I like the idea of just painting the canvas and then putting my pins onto it.

  5. Great idea for the disney pins! I tried using shadow boxes, but they are just not working out. I got burlap boards and I am trying to figure out the the black frame. How did you make the frame?

  6. I am so thrilled to have found this! I hope to get them finished this week! We just got back from our first Disneyland vacation and I had THE BEST time trading pins! All of us ended up with some that we REALLY love and I’ve been looking for a fun/cute way to display them. Thanks for your awesome idea!

    1. We are going again for Spring Break this year and even though my kids are older now, they still LOVE trading pins! It’s always so hard to decide which ones to trade and which to keep. So glad that you can use the idea!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.