need advice for autographs

[PolyndianPrincessJes]

Here's ours (copied and pasted from another thread):

I didn't physically make DS's, but I digitally created it...

I made a photo book from pictures from DS's previous trip. He got ridiculous amounts of character interaction. I started to feel sorry for the people in line behind us because each character was enthralled with his autograph book. I tried to hurry things along, but the characters, handlers and even those poor people behind us were crazy about the idea! Meeko at AK took the book and walked away from the handler!!

So, each character had his/her own page, and I made generic pages in the back for characters DS hadn't met. I already had books made for DS and DNiece for our September trip. DS loves to show off his book, and has taken it to show and tell a couple of times.

Here are a few characters perusing the book...Meeko loved the pic of Pocahontas, Alice pointed out all of her friends and Mary Poppins told DS how excited she was to be in the next book (since this was the first time he met her).

 

[PollyannaMom]

LOVE..LOVE...LOVE the idea about the autographs on the photo mat. THANK YOU!! Hope you don't mind if I "borrow" that for our next trip. Would the characters mind signing that?? I've only used the autograph books so just want to make sure I don't run into any troubles. Many thanks again.

We didn't have any problems. Here's how ours turned out:

You want to find a mat that isn't too big to carry around, but with a lot of "white space". We lucked out with this one - it was an 8x10, with two wallet-sized openings.

 

[PixiePlanner]

We did the photo mat too. I must say that I am the mean mom that wouldn't lug the things to all of the parks and we only took the mats to 2 character meals. Honestly, I didn't want them getting bent in my backpack. (FYI characters do not sign small: 10 sigs filled them.) I bought an assortment pack of permanent markers and let the kids pick which colors to take (one per character). I then placed both mats and the markers in a gallon ziploc and headed to our destination. In hindsight, I think a mat in all one color (say red) marker would look great with a black & white photo. Or all black sigs w/ a color photo.

Donald wrote "Donald Duck #1" and I mentioned that that must mean Mickey was #2. I received a kiss & hug from Donald. My kids thought that was GREAT! The only problem was that Donald signed in a spot where Daisy couldn't sign next to him on one of the mats. She wasn't very happy. We enjoyed a nice "conversation" about "isn't that just like a man" that DS10 still talks about.

 

[monorailsilver]

LOVE..LOVE...LOVE the idea about the autographs on the photo mat. THANK YOU!! Hope you don't mind if I "borrow" that for our next trip. Would the characters mind signing that?? I've only used the autograph books so just want to make sure I don't run into any troubles. Many thanks again.

We did the photo mat too. I must say that I am the mean mom that wouldn't lug the things to all of the parks and we only took the mats to 2 character meals. Honestly, I didn't want them getting bent in my backpack. (FYI characters do not sign small: 10 sigs filled them.) I bought an assortment pack of permanent markers and let the kids pick which colors to take (one per character). I then placed both mats and the markers in a gallon ziploc and headed to our destination. In hindsight, I think a mat in all one color (say red) marker would look great with a black & white photo. Or all black sigs w/ a color photo.

Donald wrote "Donald Duck #1" and I mentioned that that must mean Mickey was #2. I received a kiss & hug from Donald. My kids thought that was GREAT! The only problem was that Donald signed in a spot where Daisy couldn't sign next to him on one of the mats. She wasn't very happy. We enjoyed a nice "conversation" about "isn't that just like a man" that DS10 still talks about.

I did a photo mat last year & I will do one again when we go in many, many, many...days from now, actually that should read years not days.

I had planned on taking it to the parks too but after that first night at Chef Mickeys just putting it in my bag was enough for me. I would of had a stroller for the parks but my dh didn't want to chance ruining it.

I would get a few mats for the next time we go.

We flew so my dh cut up some heavy duty cardboard & rubber banded it so it wouldn't get bent & I had to place it in a specific spot in our checked luggage.

Then my kids got hats & they had some characters in Epcot sign them as well as Ohana's.

I do have a book from my kids visit in 2005 but it sits in the closet.

 

[smkiya]

On my dd's b-day we'll also be doing the princess breakfast so for that day will have a picture frame mat (size is 8x10, holds a 5x7 picture) and will have it signed by all of the princesses we see and put her favorite princess picture from the day inside.

We're also debating on bringing plain 4x6 index cards (or generic themed 4x6 cards) to have signed to slip into a photo album afterward, but haven't decided for sure if we'll do that yet.

These are great ideas! Especially the frame mat, I will be using that, as my dd will be having dinner w/ the princesses on her birthday too!

With the index cards, say Mickey signs one... well you could have the autographed card under the pic of "you" and Mickey in a photo album. Much more interesting to look through, than a book solely of autographs... although we will be doing the autograph book too, this first go-round.

 

[thewesterberg]

DS4's pillow:

DS saw this and we decided this is the route to go this year! Love it!! What markers did you use??

 

[thebeesknees]

After seeing this, we are definitely doing pillowcases. I had been throwing around different ideas, but then remembered that my sister had embroidered the kids' names on pillowcases with a Disney character. The rest of the pillowcase is blank and will be perfect for autographing. Small enough to pack and I don't need to worry about it getting bent. May I ask what brand of fabric marker you used? I saw Crayola fabric markers at JoAnn Fabric, but didn't know if anyone had experience with them. Do they run and are they really permanent?

 

[aprilmommy0205]

I did a photo mat last year & I will do one again when we go in many, many, many...days from now, actually that should read years not days.

I had planned on taking it to the parks too but after that first night at Chef Mickeys just putting it in my bag was enough for me. I would of had a stroller for the parks but my dh didn't want to chance ruining it.

I would get a few mats for the next time we go.

We flew so my dh cut up some heavy duty cardboard & rubber banded it so it wouldn't get bent & I had to place it in a specific spot in our checked luggage.

Then my kids got hats & they had some characters in Epcot sign them as well as Ohana's.

I do have a book from my kids visit in 2005 but it sits in the closet.

I LOVE the photo mat idea. So much so that tonight I bought 2 8X10 picture frames with lots of matting (I think the photo opening is 4X6). My DH doesn't usually get too excited about these things, but I just showed him your pictures and he said, "looks like someone had a great idea." My only concern is that our character meals are all breakfasts so I'll be stuck carrying these around at the park.

 

[2poohbears]

Polyndianprincessjess---I LOVE that photobook idea. I'm going to check prices/deals...I may do those for our OCT trip. The kiddos would love it! Thanks for sharing.

 

[PolyndianPrincessJes]

Polyndianprincessjess---I LOVE that photobook idea. I'm going to check prices/deals...I may do those for our OCT trip. The kiddos would love it! Thanks for sharing.

No problem! I think Walgreens has them on sale right now.

 

[j3momma]

Love the pillowcase idea. How did you do the iron-on in the middle of the pillow? (I'm not a very arts-craftsy kind of gal).
Thanks!

 

[j3momma]

Would love to know about the fabric pens too. It's our first trip to WDW... and I'm a newbie.... so much to learn, so little time left to troll the DIS boards!

 

[jackets9]

We just returned from Disney. We brought a pillow sham for the characters to sign. We bought fabric markers from Michael's. The markers will not wash off if you have to wash the pillow case. We also brought a clip board to keep the sham in place. None of the characters had any trouble signing it and my daughter has a wonderful keepsake from her trip on her bed!