Alternative to the generic autograph books sold in the parks

[Mic]

I'm not sure this is really a "budget" idea,(please move if more appropriate elsewhere), but I thought it may interest a few people. Two years ago I made an autograph book for my youngest daughter out of cardstock, using a Disney art program I purchased to decorate the pages. The book was large enough(5 x 6.5) to put photos on the pages opposite the characters' signatures. I had the cover laminated, and the entire book wire-bound at Staples. The total cost was not any less than buying one at the parks, but we received lots of compliments on our book from castmembers. Throughout the last year, I made several more of these books for kids of friends who were going to WDW, and they all liked them. I even made some really cute passport books for Epcot for my neices and nephews this past December(these were smaller, and had comb-binding, which I did not like as much). I am giving a friend and her family enough of my DVC points to spend the week of Thanksgiving(2005) at WDW, and started making her 5-year-old daughter an autograph book a few months ago(over Christmas break). Since this friend is a "scrapper", I wanted to make a scrapbook/autograph book for her daughter. I searched the internet for some ideas, and spent the next 2 months working on it in my spare time. To my husband's dismay, I think I have a new hobby! Anyway, my family(who does not share or even understand my love of all things Disney) is not impressed with my little book, but I knew my DIS friends would understand my enthusiasm. I created an album on Yahoo of the pictures...I hope I posted the link right!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mic64...=&.done=http://photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

 

[polkadotladybug]

Wow that looks great! (and very labor intensive!)

Aren't you a wonderful, thoughtful and giving friend!! I'm sure the little girl who receives this will be thrilled!

Carol

 

[TINKTWINS]

You are very talented!!! They are really adorable!! Your fellow Disney finatics appreciate your hard work!! How sweet, I wish I had the time and patience to do that kind of thing. I buy scrapping stuff and it all just sits in bags oh well..... someday

 

[JoannaOhio]

When we went in 2000, it was my then 9-year-old granddaughter's first trip to WDW. She has ADHD, so I didn't want to invest a lot of money in supplies to gather character autographs, when I knew she might possibly lose interest. As it turned out, she pursued it throughout our visit. Here's what I did:

I bought a spiral bound package of brightly colored 3"x5" cards - along with a cheap ($1 store) photo album - and a black sharpie - (large barrel - recommended because it's easier for the characters to hold in their oversized hands). She would open the spiral "booklet" to her choice of color, and have the character sign on that card. At the end of that day, her mother or I would remove the signed cards (they were perforated) and set them aside for safe keeping. We also made notes on the back as to which character it was (some of the signatures aren't all that recognizable - ) - and the date and where we saw them. We took a picture each time she got an autograph - and when we had them developed, I added each picture to the photo album, next to the autograph.

My granddaughter did maintain her interest in collecting autographs, and she has a cool photo album as a souvenir. However, if she hadn't kept it up, I would still have had a useful batch of 3"x5" cards, a cheap photo album, and a sharpie that could be used for other projects.

 

[alliecats]

Wow, Mic, you are an artist! I am so impressed. I can tell that took a lot of hours, not just in making it, but in finding the right materials for each page. Your DH may not "get it" but of course, we do. It's just gorgeous!

 

[momto2inKC]

Wow!! You did an awesome job!!! My daughter would absolutely love something like that! You have inspired me to try to come up with a 'unique' autograph book for her for our trip!

 

[anitame]

That is just AMAZING! Hmmm, you've got me thinking now.

 

[Ozymoe]

I echo Alliecats...you are awesome, darlin'...

My only question is ... do you know the 5 year old well enough to explain to her what she will be seeing and doing? If she "knows the drill" (lol) ahead of time she will be really thrilled to find the characters and get their autographs/pictures when she sees them!

...I only ask this because when people are going for the first time sometimes they don't have time for autographs...but in this case, if she doesn't get them the first time...well then, she'll just have to go back, eh? Have her parents date the autograph/pictures...

You ROCK!

 

[kkana]

what an awsome job and an awesome idea about the coloured 3 x 5 cards -- definately got me thinking for my DGD and our trip in July.

 

[maddiesmum]

Very nice!! You did a great job with the books. What a thoughtful memento.

I had also read about the autograph books but I wanted to do something more personal for my dd since this will be her (and ours) very first trip.
I went out and bought a scrapbook and some Disney stickers and letters at the dollar store and came up with this

 

[PaulaSue]

Very Cool!

I SB and I found nice, cheap ($4 each and extra pages only $3 a set) SBing albums that are 6 by 6 inches for each DD. They have different covers (I use a color for each child for everything to organize my and thier life) with a plastic covering on top of the fabic cover. I am going to get Disney stickers for them to personalize each book cover as a getting ready for disney craft.

For our trip I am going to take the pages out of the plastic sleeves and put them together in a water proof small folder to take up less bulk and weight. Once we are home I was going to SB each child's picture, having the sign. on one page and thier picture on the other. I am going to borrow your ideas once I get the pictures since I hate to pre-do the pages.

 

[4fordisney]

Oh, that is beautiful!

That is such a coincidence because this is a project we will be starting soon. We homeschool and our son wants to make an autograph book for art. So we have it planned to begin April 1st. His probably won't be as nice as yours...well, actually I KNOW it won't, but it will be special because he made it himself.

 

[sweet maxine]

Mic, how beautiful you're book is! I'm definitely impressed with the work you've done, as are many of the folks here. I also love the ideas about using the notecards too! You really should post your pics over on the Crafting/Scrapbooking board for everyone to see! You've inspired us all!

 

[canwegosoon]

Great job...I recognize some of those stickers!

 

[bigsis1970]

Wow -- simply amazing !! Michelle

 

[christinadei]

Very nice!! You did a great job with the books. What a thoughtful memento.

I had also read about the autograph books but I wanted to do something more personal for my dd since this will be her (and ours) very first trip.
I went out and bought a scrapbook and some Disney stickers and letters at the dollar store and came up with this

I made one VERY similar for DS last year. It was smaller and used mickey stickers, but it was also his first trip an dI wanted it to be personalized and speical. We did autographs on one page, a picture of him and the character on the other and then used the rest of the pages to scrap the rest of our trip. It's his own mini scrapbook. I can't decide whether or not to do something like that again this year.

 

[4fordisney]

How many pages will we need when we make our autograph book? Thanks in advance!

 

[luxfirsttrip]

What A great Book! I may even attempt to try something like this. How easy/hard is it to get each character's autograph? Is it very time consuming? Should we just focus on getting some autographs that they might like or put a lot in the book?
Thanks

 

[Mic]

THANK YOU to everyone who told me what a good job I did on the scrapbook/autograph book! The mother of the little girl I made it for is an avid scrapper, and she says her daughter will love it(I hope she is not just being kind!) My original plan was to make the scrapbook out of materials I already had: cardstock, some stickers from WalMart and the Dollar Tree, and ribbon. But once I got started, I found myself going all over the "World"(literally, Downtown Disney at Walt Disney World), looking for particular stickers and ribbon. I even spent $35 on scrappacks from Creative Memories to finish this book, and $80 at Downtown Disney on stickers, hole punches(that castle punch is too cute), and scissors(the ones that make the sihouette of Mickey's head). But I had a good time doing it. I did end up with a lot of things I simply could not use, like those "tags"(found in the scrap aisle at any craft store or WalMart). I bought 2 different sizes, and neither looked like the ideal size for character signatures, so I ended up making my own. Not only were my homemade tags better suited for signatures, but I could use colored cardstock to make them and add Disney touches to them to coordinate them to the pages. Every tag is removable except 2: the ones on the Goofy page and the Jungle Book page are sticker/tags that just coordinated well, so I used them. There are 30 removable tags in the book, and all can be signed on both sides. I know that this child likes princesses, so I feel they will seek most of them out. If they do not get the autograph of one, she or her mother can simply journal on the tag for that page. I know she has a Cinderella costume (from Halloween)that she will wear while there, so I made the "Every Princess is Beautiful" page with that in mind, leaving room for a picture of her. I really like the flip pages, because they have room to put pictures everywhere, and I made little pockets on them to hold the signature tags. I made 4 tags for the Pooh page,the Snow White page, and the Alice in Wonderland page in case she ran into Tigger, Piglet, the Mad Hatter,Tweedle-Dee or Tweedle Dum, or a few dwarfs. Hopefully, I've planned for many of the most common ones.

luxfirsttrip--I did a combination of the princesses(because she likes them), and pages for common characters(like Mickey,Minnie,Goofy, Pooh and friends,etc.) It is time-consuming getting a lot of autographs, particularly certain ones, but the most common characters are everywhere. If she doesn't get an autograph from anyone from a particular movie(say Alice in Wonderland), a picture of herself on the Teacups in Fantasyland would look good on that page. And since most of the tags can be removed, she can put them on other pages if she wants, or journal on them. I also added 4 cards on 1 page(the "MAGIC" page) that can be written on or signed.

4fordisney---I made 22 pages total(counting the inside of the cover), and made 32 tags for autograph(30 can be signed on both sides).

 

[Bambi5826]

Wow. It looks beautiful and so much FUN!

Everyones ideas are SOOOOOOO great!