Pin Trading Bingo

One thing I enjoy is having a little free fun while on vacation. Since I live not too far from Orlando, I visit the theme parks several times per year. I love to go to Disney World with my husband and friends and trade pins at the parks and the hotels.

Pin trading is absolutely free (though the pins you start with are at a cost) and is one of the delights of visiting the parks to me. Since I have several friends who also enjoy pin trading, I put together a friendly competition for us that you are also welcome to use. You could even use it by yourself, if your friends aren't traders, or you're making a solo adventure to the area.

Here are the rules:

1. Save the 3 images below to your cell phone.
2. Bring a set of 10 "trader" pins for each person who will be playing as well as a lanyard.*
3. Have each person pick a number between 1 and 30. Note: If you are playing with children who will need help with the game, have everyone pick a number in the same bracket (1-10 or 11-20 or 21-30) so you are all on the same card and don't have to keep switching between cards to assist them. 
4. To be fair, have someone else choose your number, since you have seen the cards. 
5. With your group, trade away any pins you have that meet your win criteria.
6. Trade pins all day at the parks, hotels, and gift shops! Keep any pins that you love. Track your collection at PinPics.
7. At the end of the day, compare what you have collected against your card and see if you have met your win-condition of all 5 pins. Whomever in your group has done so is the winner! Award a special prize - maybe pick out a pin for them from a shop, gift them with a new lanyard for next time, or the losers buy a round of cocoa for the winners. 

You may play as cut-throat or friendly as you choose. The rules are written in such a way as to be interpretive. For instance, when it says Chip & Dale, will you accept either character, or does it have to be the pair of them? Decide in advance, and cut the kids some slack. After all, it's just for fun.

Share your pictures, if you like. Who won?

*A note on traders & lanyards: You can purchase trading pins on eBay or Amazon for a fair price. You can also buy them at the parks or the Disney Store, but you will spend more this way. Lanyard can be purchased at the parks or Disney Store, or you can buy them where keys are made, such as the Home Depot or Lowe's. To be extra special, you can order custom lanyards from places like Lindsay's Lanyards, but these take a little extra time.

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Weston, Florida. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Sign up for the e-newsletter HERE.

DIY Guess Who IRL Friends Edition

Finished makeover

A group of my friends does "board game nights" which is exactly what you think it is, but for up to 30 people. I decided to make a gift of the game Guess Who with the most common attendees as a gift for the hostess this year. I can tell you that it went over beautifully, beyond my expectations, and that it was played for several hours that night. Everyone was delighted to see themselves and their friends and which pictures I used.

If you'd like to make a Guess Who board such as this, here are the steps I took:

I bought a Guess who game from 1986 off of eBay. It has all the board pieces, all the pegs, and all but one of the guess cards. You might use one of the new ones that still in stores, but I don't think they look as nice. Cost: $26 after shipping, 30 minutes.

Look how Anglo it used to be!

It was a labor of love! Since this was a secret project (I'm not even posting this until after the gift has been given), I had to choose the persons to be featured and find photos of them myself. Facebook was an excellent resource. I used the Game Night group's members list to narrow the featured persons down to 24. This was no easy task as some people attend more often than others, some haven't come in awhile, but used to come often, some just started coming but are coming consistently. I hope no one is offended to have been excluded, but I had to use my best judgment. I went through the profile pictures of each of the 24 persons and looked for one that:  1) showed their face clearly 2) was not too close-up 3) was at least kind of flattering (I wouldn't want anyone embarrassed by the picture I chose, but I figured that if it was their profile picture at one point, it had to be a picture they liked of themselves), and 4) was interesting or humorous. Cost: 2 hours.

New and Improved Guess Who, IRL Friends Edition

Then came resizing the images. I have no skill in this area, so it took me much longer than it should have, poking around in Paint. The final images need to be 1 1/8" wide by 1 3/4" tall, including the name at the bottom. Move the resized images to layout on 3 images that are 4"6" so you can print them like proper photos. I used CVS to print them in seconds, but you might use your photo printer and skip that step. Make 4 copies of each; you only need 3 copies, but you're sure to make at least one error, so get an extra set. Cost: $6, 4 hours.

Cut out the images and adhere to the face cards in the game, aligning the top edge, and to the guess cards covering the existing image as completely as possible. I used scrapbook photo adhesive squares that I already owned. Cost: 1.5 hours.

As an extra precaution to make sure they last a good long time, take all of the cards to Kinkos and get them laminated. My Kinkos took about a day to turn this around, and they would not photocopy a single card so I could replace the one that was missing because of copyright issues, so I chose to just leave one person out; I assume no one will notice, but if they do, that's the reason. Cut the cards out yourself. The cost for cutting is well more than the cost of laminating and isn't worth the expense, in my opinion. Cost: $52, 2 hours.

Place them in their respective boards and provide a copy of the instructions, or make your own.

Total hours spent: 10
Total cost spent: $84

If you make one, please show me in the comments with a link/image! 

Here's how to make one for Doctor Who by @KarenKavett, which inspired this project from the very beginning!

Here's one for Harry Potter using the newer style boards.

If you Google "Guess Who custom" you'll find templates and tutorials for the newer style boards, but I prefer the older style.

*Guess Who is owned by Milton Bradley and this version is not for sale, but is a vanity project for personal use only. No profit is made or attempted based on the original work, retained under copyright, of Milton Bradley.

Autumn Hahn is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist practicing at Clear Mind Group in Weston, Florida. Call 954-612-9553 for a consultation. Follow Autumn on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Sign up for the e-newsletter HERE.