Disney and Diabetes: Crafting a Pin Trading Book

Pin Trading Books via Naturally Sweet Sisters

It's January 4th and already I am ready to tell winter to pack it in.

The wind chill was below zero (BRRRRRR!), the forecast is calling for 6-12 inches over the weekend, the day is dark almost as soon as it is light, and every board game has been played to the point of wishing Monopoly was never created!

Yuck.  I am soooo not a winter person.  Why do I live in the north anyway????

With the big emptiness of not being able to stay outdoors to play, the girls and I are going a bit stir-crazy.  For the first time, we braved a drive in the cold to get to our favorite local craft store.  After a few minutes consideration, we decided to make something fun.  

With happily behaving blood sugars (yay! Because for whatever reason, the cold weather has been GREAT on blood sugars!), we put together two homemade Disney Pin Trading Books for our (hopeful) trip sometime to Disney.  

In the past, the girls have loved wearing their Disney Lanyards with special Disney pins (you can buy the Disney pins virtually anywhere in any of the four Walt Disney World Parks or in Downtown Disney).  The lanyards represent which people visiting the park that are also into pin trading - even adults get in on the pin trading fun.  

The only issue we had was having some of the pin backings - miniature mouse ears made from rubber - dislodging from the pin.  If one was lucky, the pin stayed on and only the backing was lost.  However, a few times, that precious trading pin was also lost with the backing.  

I also noticed that several of the pin traders carried small official Disney binders.  When I checked into the price of these, I figured that unless my kids were going to be PROFESSIONAL pin traders - ha ha!, that I needed a way to make these on my own.  

With medical co-pays deeply cutting into the frivolous mouse spending budget, we try to make these little extras on our own.  

And hey, it pays off!  I find that most things Disney are even better when they are made especially for the person that needs them.

Now, I couldn't find anything like this on Pinterest or through a Google search, so this might just be a one-of-a-kind project and since I haven't tested it in real life, I am hoping that it will work as good as we hope!

Here is a picture of the supplies we gathered:

Supplies:  

1.)  Small CD case (at the dollar store)

2.)  Felt Squares (we found ours at JoAnn Fabrics 4 for $1.00.  I bought 14 to make 2 books.  You may need more or less.

3.)  Disney ear appliques.  JoAnn Fabrics for $4.99.  You could make this as well but I wanted something easy to use.

(not pictured... scissors, glue gun, initial cardstock stickers and ribbon)

Our dollar store had several colors of the CD pouch.  And I think almost any similar style would work,  In fact, if you wanted, you could even recover the front so the design on the outside wouldn't matter.

I also considered adding a crossbody strap but the girls vetoed me and said they would rather keep the books in their backpacks.  

Before I started, I checked the size of my applique against the front and determined a plan for the outer cover.  With two girls, I needed to make sure that each one could recognize the pins as their own and not be confused by accidentally using a sibling's pins.

Oh, can you imagine how that would end up????

I also bought a couple of initial cardboard letters from a bin at Michaels.  These were only a dollar for each package but would be invaluable for identifying each child's pins.

Next, using an actual CD, I measured loosely for size on the felt.  This would be my template for determining how much felt per backing that I needed to hot glue onto each CD layer within the case.  Without the felt, the CD layer would be too flimsy and the heavy pins would tear or fall off.

 Just cut around the edges and glue right on top of each CD page.  I did both sides (not pictured) and it felt more secure when I put the pins on.

Now, your case may be more roomy but mine was not.  After adding the pins, we discovered that we needed to add a hot glued ribbon to close the case.  The kids liked that idea better and said it was easier to get in and out of.

In the picture below, you can see that I used a leftover scrap of felt to give the ribbon more stability.  Believe me, those ties are solid and no matter how hard the kids tug at them, they are staying put!

 Here are the books finished and loaded with pins.  The ones on the floor have been declared to be 'keepers' and will be kept in a special box for each child.  The others will happily be traded for potentially more 'keepers'!

  

And no, I haven't made plans but since it is on my New Year's Resolution list, I figure that part of achieving our goal to vacation with the mouse is to have fun while we wait! ((insert big happy smiles!!!))

Pin Trading Books via Naturally Sweet Sisters