Display Your Collection – Skottie Young Pins

Are you a collector of things… and stuff? Cards, pins, tickets, patches….?

We’re collectors and we are always finding cool, new Must Haves to add to our growing collection. But then what? Where does the collection go? Surely you’d like to display your awesome finds & complete sets. But how?

I finally took the plunge and worked on a little project I have been putting off for far too long and I thought it would be fun to share the process and the results.

SKOTTIE YOUNG PINS – SHADOWBOX

Like many, I am obsessed with Skottie Young’s artwork. His Marvel variant comic book covers and exclusive Pins (found at SDCC 2015, NYCC 2015 & SDCC 2016) have become a huge part of my collection.

 

Instead of hiding the pins away in a cardboard box somewhere, I decided I wanted to get them out in the open, for all to see. I headed to my local Michaels (arts and crafts store) and combed the aisles until I found some materials to get me started.

• Studio Decor Shadowbox – 11″x14″ – 2 Pack (just $10.99)
• Elmer’s Black Foam Boards – 11″x14″ – 4-pack (just $9.99)

I thought finding the foam boards at the exact size of the frames was a pretty amazing find, but it turns out they were just a bit too big to fit. Using a level as a straight edge and a razor blade, I was able to trim off just enough to fit the boards into the shadowboxes. An old cutting board from the kitchen made a great workspace.

Before punching holes in the board, I tried several layouts with the pins. I finally landed on one that featured the lanyard and allowed extra space for additional pins. There are several I still don’t have and hope to get soon.

And while it would have been easy enough to simply press the pins in place, I didn’t want to risk messing up the foam board. Using a silver sharpie, I marked the location of each pin and “pre-drilled” holes using a push pin.

Excelsior! With the pins in place and the board inserted into the frame – we are done. The finished product looks awesome and the cost to make it was cheaper than I could have imagined.

DISPLAY YOUR COLLECTION – WHAT’S NEXT?

Since that project was so simple, and inexpensive, I plan on using these shadowboxes for some other projects, including my patches & pins from the various Funko subscription boxes and maybe even some trading cards.

What do you think? Will you be creating something like this for your collectibles?