Opinions needed

OK, you guys are the experts and I need some help deciding what to do about storing my pins. I'm near the 4,000 pin mark and have way too many bags of pins. They are big and heavy and take up a ton of space. I'm thinking about displaying them on corkboards and just leaning them against the walls. My concern is safety. Do you lose many pins off the boards? Will they get scratched or marred from being outside the pin bag? On the other hand, I need the space that they pins bags occupy. Oh, what to do, what to do?????

So, would you keep the pins in bags and just deal with the space issue or put them on cork boards and display them?

Thanks.

Hi Margaret
I was thinking of doing that too..display my Jack Sparrow ones
I was thinking of getting shadow boxes for them...I have no idea really what to do with them
I have so many of them,you could display with a postcard from the parks,and add the pins to it
I really have no clue,if you come up with how to display them,definetly share your idea with us
We are always looking for new ones


Have a great day
Judy

I get the pin sheets (8.95 for 5 at WDW) and use binders. I find I can do 5-6 sheets per binder, so I theme each binder. It also lets me sort easily within the binder. Like my Disney Star Wars has a page of Mystery pins, a page of Star Tours, a page of Weekend logos, etc

For one of my new collections, the TDS Sketch Cards, I get the photo sheets from Staples where I can display card and pin together.

I think they would be amazing displayed!

There was a time you could buy cork board in the size of dry wall, but I haven't seen it that size in a while. I do have one wall as a cork board wall and enjoy having them display. BUT, they can get dusty and of course I have >^..^<'s and they use their paws and teeth to pry them off the wall. I don't know why? That is the disadvantage I have

My Pooh pins are on corkboards. I love to be able to see them. Wall space and dust are the 2 big problems. I've never really had a problem with them falling off or becoming damaged.

I am trying to decide what to do with the Sleeping beauty pins I have. I was thinking of grouping them by "theme" and putting in shadow boxes....

I agree with Gillian, corkboards are great and Ive not had any pins fall off it. Im looking at trying to get a frame to size of my corkboards so I can then frame them but not found one just yet lol

wow 4k thats a lot of pins. i cant wait to have a few hundo. guess i better get to work. we got abot 60 so far. lol

i have what i call a cork board wall, they're basically tiles of cork (BIG like floor tiles) which are attached to one of the walls in the house by special cement that came with them, i put all my pins on there to display them along with pictures and notes etc

I have just over a thousand pins and already have 10 pin bags (1 is not full - 2 are full up - the rest are in the middle) - I display each pin bag by Princess. So I have 2 for Jasmine, 2 for Lion King, 1 for Aristocats, 1 for Cinderella, 1 for the other Princesses' and I am finding it difficult to find room for them now and I have a big cupboard where I keep them in! I love the idea of the cork boards but don't they take up a lot of room, too? Ringbinders might be an option but what do you mount on?

I've used corkboards, and the pins don't fall off of them, but sometimes the pins get stuck in so tight that when I pull a pin out to rearrange the display, the pin back breaks off and remains stuck in the cork. For expensive LE pins, shadow boxes are safer than corkboards, because the pin backs don't get stuck and break.

Here is what I'd do/have somewhat done:

1) Take a good look at your collection and see if there is anything that you really don't NEED anymore. Over time pins that one once thought you had to have just don't mean that much anymore. If you start finding these pins I'd pull them out, move them to your traders, or possibly sell them.

2) Once you have your your "no way - no how am I ever getting of these pins" pile, start work on displaying them. You can't enjoy them when they are stuffed away in books all the time!

3) I have found cork boards to work best. Individual frames take up way too much space and with 4,000 pins you are going to need all the wall space you can get. Make sure you choose boards with soft cork. Some of them are really hard and like Carolyn said, they can break your posts. I'd also get the biggest boards you can find and buy several of them so that they are uniform. I would not prop them against a wall because they could get knocked into or kicked easily there. I'd put them on the wall. To make them prettier, since the color of cork isn't too apealing, you can spray paint the cork or cover it with cloth or colored contact paper or something. Then, figure out a plan and arrange the pins however you see fit! But don't space them out too much....you'll need all the space you can get!

4) I've never tried to do this, but if you are concerned about dust you could look into covering the boards with a plexiglass cover somehow.

Hi, we have organized several cork boards with individual characters. I also keep all of my other pins in 3 inch d ring binders. I buy the clear page sheets that go into the binders and add construction paper into the sleeves. It gives me a nice sturdy page to put my pins into. If you have any questions feel free to PM me and I can send you one of the pages I make.

Swin2Sea,
This may seem like more trouble than it's worth, but here's one thing that helps out with the dilemma of storing and displaying pins.
1. Follow Erudolf's #1 & 2 suggestion.
2. If you have pins you really want to display, hit many cheap sources for frames for your collection. Go to local thrift stores and get something that would house the 'they're going with me to the grave' pins. IKEA's discount corner also is a good place to look as well.
3. Get black foam-core board. It holds pretty well for weight ratios and can be reused plenty of times. There's a selection of colors, but black seems to really class-up the shiny buggers pretty well. Cut the board to the dimensions of the frame. Can be found at Target or any art/school/ craft store.
4. If you have glass, that's fine. you may want to turn to plexiglass, as it is a safe and relatively cheap way of protecting your pins while protecting any shattering if the frame should fall. Measure the inside dimension of the frame (that holds the glass pane) twice, score the plexiglass, and bend to cut straight lines; use a Dremel tool for all other shapes (all houses should have one!).
5. For dimensional pins, such as diorama-style pins or multi-level pins, get cheap faux shadow box frames from Michael's Craft Store; use the standard 40% off one item coupon for a multi-pack, if they have them. Those usually have a plastic pane to them, but you can swap them for a thicker grade of plastic material; you may want to put foam-core board as the back plate to the box frame as the original ones are thick cardboard, which does not hold up well to weight.

It all requires some effort, but this has proven to be most effective with wanting to avoid from having multiple bags of pins and/or the desire to display your metallic addiction.

Hope this helps and good luck!

One more colorful trick for the backing is corregated plastic (aka Coreplast). It holds the pins well and is more colorful than normal cork boards. For large projects you can get poster sized sheets for about $5 at the retail outlets. It can be tricky to cut to size, but once you master the technique it is very easy. After that as shadow box frame will work better than a standard picture frame.

One other advantage of the deeper frames is that you can store other pins/sheets in the background. Then you can easily change the display when the mood strikes you. (Not to mention store about 2 or 3 times the pins in the same size space on the wall.

I have over 60 frames that are in my Alice in Wonderland room, and 22+ pin bags. I frame them, put them in bags and boxes, but I just can't yet bring myself to let go of them. That's my biggest problem. I have big frames, little frames, and a closet full of unused frames. I have a mirror box full of foam board, mats and paper. I'm just being overwhelmed by pins. I wonder if there is a service I can hire to come in and help me clean them out? Anyone up for the task?

I feel ya sister. My entire collection is currently in boxes...even the stuff already framed. Even though I do have a plan for a lot of them, I still feel like there are more pins then space. I have a feeling my favorites will go up, and the rest will have to be happy in bags...

swim2sea said:

I have over 60 frames that are in my Alice in Wonderland room, and 22+ pin bags. I frame them, put them in bags and boxes, but I just can't yet bring myself to let go of them. That's my biggest problem. I have big frames, little frames, and a closet full of unused frames. I have a mirror box full of foam board, mats and paper. I'm just being overwhelmed by pins. I wonder if there is a service I can hire to come in and help me clean them out? Anyone up for the task?

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ME!! Just looking through your Alice collection would be too cool!

Definitely get you some cork boards and pull some of your favorite pins for those boards. I much prefer my pins be on boards. I hate putting them in books but I don't have enough space to put everything on cork. That is why it is best to pull your faves, the ones that would look great together on boards and use them. Then maybe you can organize and downsize the bags. I have hung my smaller boards on the wall with the hardware they come with and then I lean the larger ones against the wall as I worry they are too heavy to hang. You can find great boards (the really nice ones with the thick darker stained frames) at Target and Michael's. I had not seen them at Michael's for a while (they always sold the smaller ones that I really love) but I was in there this past weekend and found them. I had a 50% off coupon and snagged one for $6.50.

It looks like this one...




and this is the larger one from Target (they are about $16 I think). This is the size I had rather just lean against the wall.





They are a lot of fun to play around with and it is so great having your collection out where you can see more of it. I was really thinking how cool your pins would look on boards when I saw your books in your share thread. They would ROCK!

Hi. I know this is off subject but I was looking at your pictures with the boards and I just fell in love with the set of "game cards" that you have! What are those pinpics id?? I gotta have that set!!!

Instead of cork boards that tend to bend the pin post I use Foam Boards they are cheaper than cork and can be found at any hobby store I have my pin room walls completely covered in them and my pins dont fall off and since the foam is softer than cork my pin post do not get bent

fluffycat1 said:

... and of course I have >^..^<'s and they use their paws and teeth to pry them off the wall. I don't know why? That is the disadvantage I have

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Me too... lol

DumboLover21 said:

Hi. I know this is off subject but I was looking at your pictures with the boards and I just fell in love with the set of "game cards" that you have! What are those pinpics id?? I gotta have that set!!!

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Pin 79567: DisneyStore.com - Card Game Set (6 Pins)

They are just about my favorite set of pins I own. I have loved this set from the day I saw the preview of it. They are so gorgeous in person!

heyyouwannatrade said:

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Thanks, Heyyouwannatrade!

Because of that picture, I found a new pin to add to the "Mickey Head Balloons" PinPics group! :hsd:

I got a cheap and cheerful cork board and painted it pink to match my walls, the pink also showed my pins off better. I just used bog standard emulsion paint, you can get tester pots from any diy store and paint your boards all different colours, I did 'prep' the board with white acrylic, just so the pink would go on faster. You have so many pins, it would look awesome to have a rainbow of boards displaying different sets / collections.



Thats my board, it's only a small-ish one, big enough for my little collection but I have about 160 pins on my board (this isn't the updated version of it) and it's only a small board, the next size up I think is double the size of this and would easily hold about 400 medium sized pins I recon! Good luck sorting your collection out! If I lived near you I would so volunteer to come and help out in the sorting I bet it would be an awesome day(week..month..year?)