Beanie Baby Wallet

Got too many beanie babies laying around? Never quite had the heart to get rid of them? Well with just a minor amount of surgery you can turn them into a wallet! Give your favorite beaned creature a reason to live!

- 1 Beanie Baby *
- Scissors
- Some fabric (whatever you have laying around is fine)
- Paperboard box
- Glue gun with glue
- Button
- Needle and thread

*Note these instructions are for the flat style beanie baby, but can be adapted to most shapes.

So for me this was the hardest step. Actually hurting a beanie baby. So compose yourself as best you can, we are going to do as little damage as possible. Use scissors, or if you have a seam ripper, cut open the seam along the back of the beanie baby. Then empty out all of the beans inside. Leave the head stuffing. Remember we aren't killing the poor creature just transplanting it's beans with wallet parts.

Using a spare card as a size reference cut out a piece of Paperboard box slightly larger than the card. Then cut out a rectangle of fabric about 1/4 larger on each side than the cardboard. Place the cardboard in the center of the fabric and use the glue gun to glue each corner. Then fold and glue each side over until the fabric is fully secure. Repeat this step twice.

Cut another two peices of cardboard of the same width but short enough you can easily pull a card out (about 1/2 inch shorter than the card). Cut out 4 rectangles of fabric; two 1/4 inch smaller than the cardboard and two 1/4 inch larger than the cardboard. Glue the smaller peice to one side of the Paperboard. Repeat the process from the last step to completely cover the cardboard with the larger fabric rectangle. Once covered glue a small rectangle along the egdes to one of the larger rectangles. Repeat this step twice. At this point it is a good idea to double check you can get a card in and out of your wallet flaps without too much trouble.

Now it's time to replace the beanie babies beans with your new wallet. Put both sides you just made inside the top hole that was cut. Put glue along the top of the wallet linings and pull the egde of the beanie baby opening over it to secure the wallet in place. Do this on both sides. There is no real need to glue the bottom as with most beanie babies there is barely enough room to fit the wallet compoents and this step will require stretching the fabric as far as possible.

Cut out a thin strip of Paperboard about 2 inch by 1/2 inch as well as a fabric rectangle big enough to cover it. Repeat the same process as with the wallet making to glue the fabric on. This time cut a hole in the strip large enough to fit your button through. It is also a good idea to glue the fabric ends in this cut to prevent fraying. Sew the button onto one side of the beanie baby. Then insert your strap through the button and sew the end to the other side of the beanie baby so that it is tight enough to secure the opening. You can use glue for both these steps instead of sewing, but sewing will be much stronger over time.

You have now completed your wallet! Put whatever you want inside and get ready to go out on the town. As I said this was using one of the flat style beanies, but others work too. For example we have peekaboo the turtle here. Some slight modifications for how his surgery happened, and instead of a strap just used extra folds in his fabric, but otherwise exactly the same. Blizzard, also pictureed was my first prototype.