Autographbooks

[jeleadams]

I am wanting to get the kids some stuff for our trip in Jan for Christmas. Can I get them at the disney store or are they just available at the parks?
I was going to give them some disney dollars, and autograph book a piece maybe a character pen in their stockings. any other ideas?

 

[Ratpack]

Last I checked, no autograph books in DS, but I would make their autograph books instead. It is much more personal. That is what we do each year. We get a memory book from Michael's that is spiral bound 6" X 6". We then put a clip art or sticker of the character on each page. Each character has their own page. This also, helps keep the characters from the same movie or theme together. Most of the characters really make a fuss over seeing their picture already on the page.

 

[DisneyDreams4me]

We bought our autograph books from www.giftsofalifetime.com I think they are a buck or two more than you can get them for at the disney parks and resorts. I like the idea of making your own, you could even leave the opposing page blank and put the picture of your child with the character next to the autograph. They use to have them at our local disney store but I havednt seen them lately. Also, we purchased the big pen they sell but found that it didnt work well at all! After about 3 autographs, it stopped working and we had to borrow pens the rest of the day. The next day, we found large sharpie markers at walmart and they worked great. Several CM's even asked us where we got them because the characters could hold them better and they worked so well. We had many people who had purchased the same pens we had the first day borrow our marker for their autographs.

There are many little things at the Disney store that make great stocking stuffers too!

 

[Ratpack]

Originally posted by DisneyDreams4me
you could even leave the opposing page blank and put the picture of your child with the character next to the autograph.

That is exactly what we did.

And on the pens, if it was bought at WDW, you can carry it into any store on site and they will replace it, even without the receipt. We have ours and it worked through last year's trip and this years.

 

[sln88]

If you want to make your own books, Walgreens has 4x6 spiral bound pooh hard cover notebooks for $1. there are about 80 pages in them.
They also have plain 4x6 notebooks on sale for 10 cents- then you could personalize the front.

Ratpack- did you use a website for yoru clipart?

 

[Ratpack]

I used disneyclipart.com for most and others I found on other sites. If you, or anyone else, wants to PM me with your email address I will email you my files with the pictures already sized. I also have a cool front cover, all you would have to do is change the name.

 

[CK1]

For our last trip, I went into autograph book overkill! I found 3-ring small photo albums at a dollar store (about 2" thick, and 4"x6" in size). I sprayed adhesive on the covers and covered them in disney fabric and paint-penned each child's name on the cover. Inside, there was a "plaque" on the inside cover (laminated and used to cover the fabric edges!). It gave the date and child's name. In the back cover, same thing (showing a backside of Mickey and "the end") Inside the book, I had used clip art to print off pages for each book with the various characters. I also had some pages with character stickers. THen, in the second half of the book, it turned into an EPCOT book... I had a few pages for each country, room for messages in that country's language and their "stamp". Then interspersed with all of this were the photo pages -- gave the kids cheapy cameras and also gave them some reprints of my shots of them.

Granted -- it was a lot of work, but it was a labor of love! And the kids treasure those books dearly. And the character reactions were phenomenal! They would get really excited to sign on "their own page". The CMs took them around to show other CMs. THe kids received special treatment, I think, as a result!

One note -- if you do make your own autograph book -- make EXTRA pages for the main characters (Mickey, Minnie, CHip, Dale, Goofy, etc) You will invariably see them more than once, and the kids like to get them to sign every time! (I thought it was neat, too, that they all sign the same way, every time! I compared the sigs from CHef Mickeys and AK and MK... very cool!)

CK1

 

[cfewell]

Thanks for the great ideas!!!

I was going to just buy him one of those autograph books but now I am going to make him one.

After reading this board last night we took a trip to the Hobby Lobby and bought all kinds of stuff. It also gave my son some imput on how he wanted his book to look.

I was getting ready to start giving each character a page but I am unsure as to which characters I should include.

Of course the fab five
Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Minnie, Mickey
and then there is Daisy, Buzz, Woody (I think buzz and Woody have stamps)
but since my son was only 2 last time we went, we did not do the autograph thing, now that he is 4 I think he would be more into it. I just dont know which ones to prepare for, or should I just leave the pages blank until we get home?

Any help would be great, thanks

 

[kimbac3]

I just sent you a pm.
Thanks,
Kimba

 

[DisneyDreams4me]

Dont forget to have your address on the inside front or back cover. In case you lose it, If found by a CM, they will mail it back to you.

 

[sln88]

what is the final verdict on pens?

I have read that sharpies are great, but then others say they stain the costumes..

what is best, pencil, pen, washable marker?

 

[HPHILBIN]

This thread inspired me...
but, I don't know which characters I should include.

Mickey (how many pages 3?)
Minnie
Pluto
Chip & Dale
Donald
Daisy
Goofy
Buzz & Woody

Plus we're going to CRT, Donald's Breakfastasaurus and maybe Crystal Palace on a MNSSHP night....

Who all do you think we'll see???

 

[bagheeramom]

Well, at CRT you'll see Cinderella, prince charming, the fairy godmother, maybe some of the mice.

At Crystal Palce, you will see all the pooh characters - pooh, eeyore, tigger, piglet...

At the parks you could possibly see anyone...we've seen all the major characters as well as lots of obscure ones...
pinochio, perla, peter pan, brer rabbit, the queen of hearts, snow white witch, cruella, cpt john smith, aladdin, jasmine, meeko, genie...

you never know who you're gonna see... we even saw jiminy cricket once.

 

[CK1]

The best pens are fat ones -- the characters can hold them best.

I found some nice chunky, bright colored pens for cheap at Wal-Mart and Office Depot -- they alos had some Disney ones, too, that were fat (Pooh, Piglet, TIgger, MM, etc.) If you have the characters sign something like a t-shirt or hat, the sharpies are a necessity. (That, or re-trace the signatures with something permanent later, like paint pens or Sharpies, etc.)

HOWEVER -- sharpies and my small kids scare me (I can just SEE their clothing and bodies now, ala Sharpie! Yikes!) So I used ball point pens. I can easily see how Sharpies would be a problem, especially for the furrier characters...end up getting permanently multicolored paws for sure.

 

[Belle041281]

These ideas are really great. Especially about making your own autograph books. I'm going to have to try it on our upcomng trip in Dec.

 

[Memaw2Wm]

...you never know who you're gonna see... we even saw jiminy cricket once. [/B]

Wow! Jiminy Cricket's my favorite character ... will have to look for him next trip!

We did autograph books last summer and again this summer.

Last year I just bought the Disney autograph book available in the park ... the cover is so darn cute ... and we used some fat (Dr. Grip) ballpoint pens. Unfortunately the paper in the Disney autograph books is very thin and I couldn't see mounting photos on it.

This year I went back and forth ... first I was going to use 5x7 CM albums, then I bought some 3x5 spiral bound sketch books from Michaels. I figured we'd get the autographs in the sketch books, then I'd cut them out and mount them in the 5x7 albums.

A couple of people told me they just took the 5x7 albums to the parks, had the characters sign on both sides of the pages, then you add blank pages between the autographed pages to mount the photos on.

I ended up taking the 5x7 albums for my grandkids (ages 6 and 8)while my daughter used the sketch books. We bought CM's round tip black pens for the characters to sign with ... these ended up being very messy ... the kids got black pen on themselves, the pages, the characters and even ME!!!

The kids collected 51 signatures each ... now I need to squeeze 52 pages in an album meant to hold 30 pages — YIKES!!! Also the books got very bulky by the end of the week.

I think the next time we go I will either use sketch books (acid-free) or have multi-colored card stock spiral bound then cut the pages out and mount them in a scrapbook when we get home.

I also went back and forth about pre-decorating the pages ... I thought it would be cute to have predecorated pages, but several people warned my about having to flip thru the books to the proper pages, so I didn't predecorate.

If you decided to pre-decorate I'd suggest making several Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Chip'n Dale pages as we got multiple autographs from these characters and have a few pages that be used for uncommon characters.

This trip we got autographs from: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Daisy Duckosaurus (Dinoland), Rafiki, Chip'n Dale, Chef Mickey, Space Mickey, Gepetto, Pinnochio, Alice and the Mad Hatter, Gov. Ratcliffe, Baloo, Capt. Hook, Tweedle Dee and Dum, Queen of Hearts and White Rabbit, Cinderella, Prince Charming, Fairy Godmother, Suzy and Perla, Peter Pan and Wendy, Max (Goofy's son?), Princess Aurora, Snow White, Belle, Jasmine and Mulan, Pooh, Eeyore, Tiger, Piglet, Buzz and Friar Tuck. The kids didn't want to stand in line for Lilo and Stitch or Ariel and we didn't go to Toontown to see the character either.

 

[cfewell]

thanks for all the great tips - my son and I are working on his autograph book this week. He was only 2 last time we went and was not into the autograph thing, being 4 this year, I know he is going to have a blast!! Thanks again!