My family spent last week at Disney World with a group of friends.  The first night we were there, I spotted a large Disney trading pin shop at Downtown Disney. I had noticed the pins before on previous Disney trips, but never really paid much attention to them. This time, I decided to take a closer look because I thought it might be something Little Jo would enjoy doing on this trip. I was right — she absolutely loved it!

I let her pick out a lanyard and a few pins to start. Each day we were there, I promised her I would buy her one new pin. She enjoyed picking out the new pin each day and trading them with her friends and the park workers. It was a win-win for me because I spent a lot less money on souvenirs overall than I would have normally, and the Disney trading pins are small and really nice, and not typical “junk” to bring home! When we return again to Disney, she will most certainly enjoy taking her pins back and doing more trading. In the meantime, what would she do with the pins?

These pins are well made and are actually quite pretty. I didn’t want them to end up shoved in a drawer somewhere or even worse, lost, so I decided to make a display for them. The easiest solution was to use a cork board, but I didn’t want to be quite so boring. I knew I had to jazz that cork up a bit!

To start, I took some Mickey Mouse themed fabric that I happened to have on hand and coated it in fabric Mod Podge so that it would be sealed and not fray when I cut it.

I happened to have some really cool patchwork Mickey fabric on hand, but I can’t find it online to give you a source. I did find a few others that would work just as well, though. Check out the Minnie Dot Dress, Mickey Mod Argyle, and Mickey Vintage Dots patterns.

I decided to try using my Cricut Expression with the Mickey and Friends cartridge to cut the fabric into the famous Mickey silhouette. I set my speed to slow, my depth to high and my blade was on 5. I was pleased as punch when it actually worked!

Let me digress a moment and tell you that after this fabric-cutting success, I tried cutting out smaller letters with some left over fabric, but it did not work. I was curious so I went searching for information on cutting fabric with the Cricut and found this great tip sheet. It will tell you all you need to know to make great cuts with your machine and fabric, if that’s something you want to do!

My next step was to paint my 12×12 cork tile red. You can, of course, use any size of cork you want and coordinate the paint with your fabric choice.  I found that the cork that I had on hand wasn’t quite thick enough for the pins. To easily solve this, I adhered pieces of scrap foam to the back of the cork. This provided the tiny bit of extra depth I needed to accommodate the pins.

I used some more fabric Mod Podge to adhere the fabric Mickey ears to the middle of my cork board.

To finish the board off, I decorated the corners of the cork with some Pakor Japanese decor tape.  The gingham pattern matched my fabric perfectly!

Little Jo loves having her finished pin display hang on her wall. I put the cork tile into a 12×12 white metal frame (with the glass removed) to make it easier to hang on the wall.

If you are a Disney pin trader or would like to get a few at a discounted rate before hitting the parks, make sure you check out the semi-annual Pin Event at Disney Store. Shop now for up to 60% Off!

They have really adorable pins available, like the Disney Heroines Carriage Pin Set, the 2011 Disney Parks Hip Lanyard Pin Set, and the Toddler Disney Princess Mini-Pin Set.