Autograph books for character interaction

[Mouse Skywalker]

Greetings Everyone: For our past few trips we've made our own autograph books. My kids, DD7 and DD10 , really enjoy making them with me, and they seem to get a lot of responses from the characters. Because I've gotten so many good ideas from these boards, I thought I would share my autograph books here. I hope they help someone.

Here's a picture of the finished books.

I start with 5x7 paper that you can buy at a craft store. It's really thick paper, and holds up well to Sharpie's, etc. I can usually find it near the scrapbooking items. You can get it in all different colors, and it usually comes in a pack of 50 pieces. I get a pack of "white assorted" and a pack of "pastel assorted".

OK, more to come.

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Next, I go to a Disney clip art site, and get images from the characters we're going to see, places we're going to stay, and parks we're going to go to. You can find lots of clip art sites on the web. Below is one, but you can google "disney clip art" and find a lot of them.
http://clipart.disneysites.com/

Then, in Microsoft Powerpoint, I format a page like the one below. I set the page size to 5x7, insert my clip art, and usually have some sort of header on the page as well. I then form feed the pages through my printer.

 

[Supermom3]

Very cute. I'd love to see more.

 

[MickeyNikiNaka]

Very cool!

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Next, we make pages for characters we think we're going to see, and parks we're planning on going to. My girls, DD7 and DD10 , really like sitting with me and picking the pictures from the clip art we're going to use. If we're going to character meals, I'll make sure I have pages for all the characters that will be at that meal, and I'll group all those pages at the same place in the book so we can find them easily.

Here an example page:

Once we get all the pages we want together, I print them out on my home printer, put them in the order we want, and take them to my local Kinko's (or any copy center). I ask them to put a plastic cover on the front and back to protect it a little bit, bind it with a spiral binding, and drill a whole in the corner. The hole is so we can put a carabiner clip through it if we want, and the girls can clip it to their fanny packs.

Here's what the book looks like when it is all done. My girls, DD7 and DD10 usually get stickers from the craft store to decorate the cover.

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Here are some more example pages.

We went to Goofy's Beach Party breakfast at Cape May Cafe.
Here's DD10's page for Chip and Dale.

Here are the books in action. We get a lot of response from the characters when they see their pictures. Sometimes they write little notes, or show the pages to their handlers, etc.

Here's the signed page in DD7's book

 

[WeatherbySwann]

How creative!

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Some more examples:

I think we freaked Prince Caspian out. He saw the picture, and was visibly taken aback. He finally says, "well, you were certainly prepared weren't you?"

Ron Stoppable, couldn't stop looking through the book. He went through every page to see all the pictures, and talk to the girls about who's autographs they were getting.

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Well, I think that about covers it. Again, I have a lot of fun with the project with my princesses, DD7 and DD10 , making the autograph books. And we get a ton of interaction from the characters with them. It really seems to "break the ice", and give my kids something to talk to the characters about.

If anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask or send me a PM.

 

[rosiejo]

Personalised autograph books are definitely the way to go for extra character interaction. Thanks for sharing how you made yours

 

[MariDisney]

Your books are adorable. We've thought of doing something similar. I've wondered, though about how you handle characters you didn't plan on seeing. Do you put in some blank pages? How about some you thought you'd see but didn't? Do you ultimately take those pages out or leave them in there blank?

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Your books are adorable. We've thought of doing something similar. I've wondered, though about how you handle characters you didn't plan on seeing. Do you put in some blank pages? How about some you thought you'd see but didn't? Do you ultimately take those pages out or leave them in there blank?

Yes, we put in blank pages along the way for characters we didn't plan on seeing, and there are always some. We also end up having a lot more pages for characters that we don't end up finding (still don't have Daisy Duck for one). We just end up leaving those pages in there. DD7 likes have a book to draw in, and will sometimes use it as a sketch book. It's nice for her to have the book in restaurants as she's waiting for Disney meals.

 

[Joanna71985]

I agree, personalized books are the way to go. I had a blast making mine. Great job on yours!

 

[MickeyMomTo2]

These are GREAT!

 

[schwoomp]

So the thicker paper feeds through your printer OK? I have never tried that, but I have a new printer, so maybe it would be OK. I think your books look great and I like the idea of having the kids work on them with me. DD loves projects. Can I ask approx the cost of having it covered and bound at Kinkos?

The trick for me will be that this is our first trip and I really have no idea what are the common characters, other than we will be going to 2 character meals so I have an idea of who will be there. Anyone have a list / thread somewhere of the characters you will probably see without trying too hard and in which park?

Thanks so much for the great idea! I am not creative, but I can follow a "recipe". I think I might use the back of the pages to attach a picture once we get home.

 

[Joanna71985]

The trick for me will be that this is our first trip and I really have no idea what are the common characters, other than we will be going to 2 character meals so I have an idea of who will be there. Anyone have a list / thread somewhere of the characters you will probably see without trying too hard and in which park?

Unfortunately there really is no current list out there right now that has all the characters (most of the lists available online are outdated).

If you'd like, I can tell you which characters are commonly out and available (for the most part).

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

So the thicker paper feeds through your printer OK? I have never tried that, but I have a new printer, so maybe it would be OK. I think your books look great and I like the idea of having the kids work on them with me. DD loves projects. Can I ask approx the cost of having it covered and bound at Kinkos?

The trick for me will be that this is our first trip and I really have no idea what are the common characters, other than we will be going to 2 character meals so I have an idea of who will be there. Anyone have a list / thread somewhere of the characters you will probably see without trying too hard and in which park?

Thanks so much for the great idea! I am not creative, but I can follow a "recipe". I think I might use the back of the pages to attach a picture once we get home.

Thanks for your kind words. I never had any trouble getting the heavier paper to feed through my printer. So that wasn't an issue. I think it cost maybe $17 to get both of the books bound and covered at Kinkos. It does start to add up when you buy the paper and everything, but it's a good memory for us.

As far as where the characters are. There are some good resources on the internet. Deb's All Ears site has a couple of good sources. That should start to give you an idea of what characters are where. Nothing's ever a guarantee though.

http://allears.net/tp/fur.htm
http://allears.net/tp/ep/ep_char.htm

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Another resource I use for where to find characters is Steve Soares Walt Disney World Live Entertainment site. You can click on each park at the top of the screen, and you can find the character greetings that are found in the park. The lists are updated for each week.

http://pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/index.htm

 

[Joanna71985]

Thanks for your kind words. I never had any trouble getting the heavier paper to feed through my printer. So that wasn't an issue. I think it cost maybe $17 to get both of the books bound and covered at Kinkos. It does start to add up when you buy the paper and everything, but it's a good memory for us.

As far as where the characters are. There are some good resources on the internet. Deb's All Ears site has a couple of good sources. That should start to give you an idea of what characters are where. Nothing's ever a guarantee though.

http://allears.net/tp/fur.htm
http://allears.net/tp/ep/ep_char.htm

Unfortunately these sites are outdated.

 

[Mom2Punkin]

I just finished our autograph books tonight. The kids are very excited to see how it works having something unique