As I have previously discussed in this post, it is an established Rotary Youth Exchange tradition for students to collect and swap pins with other exchange students while abroad. Therefore, I eventually needed to source a good collection of a variety of pins representing Australia to trade with the other the Rotary exchange students I am bound to meet.

After some investigation, I discovered that buying individual gold pins would soon become very expensive, considering the quantity of pins I will need. As it is also not unusual for students to make their own pins, I soon decided to construct my own unique variety of Australian pins.

While shopping for gifts for my host family, I spotted a small packet of 100 Australian stamps which I thought would make very unique pins, for just $6.

Using a very simple method, I constructed the pins by first laminating the stamps and then individually cutting out each stamp. I then attached safety pins to the back using a hot glue gun. I made additional pins using free Australian clip art found on the internet.

I now have around 180 uniquely Australian pins to trade with other exchange students in Germany, and I’m very pleased with that I could produce such a quantity of pins at such a low cost. My blazer is now well on its way to being covered with an abundance of pins from all over the world.