Best creative idea for character autographs??

[stobaugh6]

I am planning our 4th trip to Disney World in September. Between our 7 children, we have 13 different autograph books from our last 3 trips. I want to do something different this year. And I really want to only have 1 thing for the characters to sign for our family. It's just takes up too much time having 7 individual items to autograph, and I don't want to have carry all of them around all day. So...anyone want to share something unique that you have done or heard of? Thanks!

 

[SillySallySews]

I've been looking into this too! So far I've found ideas to do autographs on a picture frame mat (LOVE this idea, but don't love the fact I'd have to carry it around all day), pillow cases, vinylmation, a canvas bag or backpack you could designate as your Disney bag and use on your next trip, and a Christmas ornament (probably couldn't get a lot of signatures on that though). We have four kids and I'm totally over autograph books. I always feel terrible holding up the line and asking the characters with big hands to sign four books!

 

[BeachClubBride]

We did a pillowcase and it worked great. An adult will need to pull it right for each character to sign.

 

[mom2rtk]

I did a photobook online with photos from prior trips for the characters to sigh. It was fun walking down memory lane and the characters loved looking back at the old photos.

 

[smitch425]

We did a 9" blank glow in the dark Vinylmation. Turned out great!

 

[buggy2727]

I've been looking into this too! So far I've found ideas to do autographs on a picture frame mat (LOVE this idea, but don't love the fact I'd have to carry it around all day), pillow cases, vinylmation, a canvas bag or backpack you could designate as your Disney bag and use on your next trip, and a Christmas ornament (probably couldn't get a lot of signatures on that though). We have four kids and I'm totally over autograph books. I always feel terrible holding up the line and asking the characters with big hands to sign four books!

I also love the photo mat idea and hate the carrying it around part. A spin on that would be one "book" that you can use to create your own mat? Either by creating a collage with the signatures and pictures? You could cut out the signatures?? The photo book is a good one too.

 

[Soccer and Swim Mom]

My 6 yr old daughter has a very good friend / classmate who has cancer. She had lost all of her hair due to chemotherapy. We brought a blank baseball cap with us on our trip to Disney. My little girl asked all the characters to sign the hat and say a prayer for her friend. Then I took a picture of each character signing the hat and made that into a picture book.

 

[njforumrider18]

I'm planning on bringing my instant camera, and a blank plain paper book. that way I can have the character sign the page and have my polaroid style picture with it

 

[Meech Loves Mickey]

My 6 yr old daughter has a very good friend / classmate who has cancer. She had lost all of her hair due to chemotherapy. We brought a blank baseball cap with us on our trip to Disney. My little girl asked all the characters to sign the hat and say a prayer for her friend. Then I took a picture of each character signing the hat and made that into a picture book.

Kudos to your DD for doing this for her friend. What a sweet gesture.

 

[LMN]

My 14 yr old daughter expressed interest in doing something other than an autograph book for our June trip. I'm interested in seeing what ideas others have in this thread. I love the idea of a pillowcase, but not sure about hauling it around all day?

 

[AmyB2006]

We did this on our cruise. Got it from Pinterest. Bought a large photo frame that holds an 8X10 picture with a large matte around the edge. Like at least 6 inches on all sides. So the actual frame is very large.

We took the matte out and left it at the front desk with sharpies and all the characters signed it. At the end of our trip we picked it up. It was great. We didn't have to carry anything around and we got autographs from characters we would have never even seen.

 

[kimgof]

We have done the baseball cap. It works great. The kids wear the caps and all you have to do is carry a sharpie. Just save the brim of the hat for the characters that have costume hands. It's hard for those characters to sign anywhere else. But the "human" characters can manage to stretch the fabric and sign on the top of the hat. Actually one character signed the hat while it was on my son's head.

 

[williamscm3]

I did a photobook online with photos from prior trips for the characters to sigh. It was fun walking down memory lane and the characters loved looking back at the old photos.

I LOVE this idea!!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I would love to bring some plain squares of fabric to get characters to sign to sew into a quilt after the trip. It would be easier to carry around and be a really nice way to remember the trip. Now if only I could quilt lol

 

[rapunzels]

My kids like hanging a flip calendar in their room.. they like counting down days to special outings/holidays/birthdays ect... so for our next trip I am going to do one of those photo calendars, sort of like the photobook, with photos of previous trips and photos of favorite characters... then have the characters sign the top part of the different months.. while the girls can still do their special countdowns on the bottom parts...

 

[kerriemiller]

I have seen several suggestions to use this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1423116704?pc_redir=1397692965&robot_redir=1 The Disney jr encyclopedia of characters Have the character sign their page. I haven't ordered yet but this my favorite idea yet.

 

[Pinkflmngo]

I would love to bring some plain squares of fabric to get characters to sign to sew into a quilt after the trip. It would be easier to carry around and be a really nice way to remember the trip. Now if only I could quilt lol

I did this and it turned out great!!! Sorry don't have a picture.

I know this is probably not the idea the OP is looking for, but I wanted to give this info for other people reading this thread. It is important to remember that the fabric squares must be cut very accurately and include a seam allowance. For example, if you want a 6" finished block, cut the squares 6 1/2". Use only high quality 100% cotton quilting fabric and think outside of the box. The squares don't have to be solid white. There are many beautifu fabrics that have a tone-on-tone design or a washed look. My squares were mottled-type pink, sort of a cloudy design.

The fabric squares have to be stabilized!!! Very important or they will just squish up when characters try to sign them. For my 6 1/2" squares, I cut 6" squares from freezer paper (the kind you find at the grocery store in rolls. I ironed the freezer paper to the back of the fabric squares, glossy side down. This will stick the to the fabric long enough to provide stability for the fabric when it is signed. It will pull off easily when you get home.

In addition to the paper backing, the squares need a hard surface underneath. I found a small (5x7) plastic clipboard and clipped a new fabric square for each character. I carried the squares and clipboard in a ziploc bag to keep them clean and ready to go.

I'm sure that you could find quilters in your area or online who would be able to provide the constructing and quilting to finish the work of art for you. I say "work of art" because I would only use this as a wall hanging. I would never put this amount of work into something that would require washing. The signatures just don't look as great after washing, especially the colors other than black.

Feel free to ask me any questions,
Lynda

 

[k1koala]

What I have done in the past for my daughter is download clip art of the characters, and then print the photos onto the corner/side of 4x6 photo paper. It depends on the size of the art or character. We would then carry them in a ziploc with colored sharpies for those particular characters to sign. It isn't too much to carry and the characters would always enjoy seeing themselves and interacting with her.
Once we are home they either be put in a scrapbook or a photoalbum with our pictures from the trip. My daughter absolutely loves this idea!! Last night we made some of Anna & Elsa for our FP Meet & Greet, if we eve get to it!

 

[MummyButterfly]

I did this and it turned out great!!! Sorry don't have a picture.

I know this is probably not the idea the OP is looking for, but I wanted to give this info for other people reading this thread. It is important to remember that the fabric squares must be cut very accurately and include a seam allowance. For example, if you want a 6" finished block, cut the squares 6 1/2". Use only high quality 100% cotton quilting fabric and think outside of the box. The squares don't have to be solid white. There are many beautifu fabrics that have a tone-on-tone design or a washed look. My squares were mottled-type pink, sort of a cloudy design.

The fabric squares have to be stabilized!!! Very important or they will just squish up when characters try to sign them. For my 6 1/2" squares, I cut 6" squares from freezer paper (the kind you find at the grocery store in rolls. I ironed the freezer paper to the back of the fabric squares, glossy side down. This will stick the to the fabric long enough to provide stability for the fabric when it is signed. It will pull off easily when you get home.

In addition to the paper backing, the squares need a hard surface underneath. I found a small (5x7) plastic clipboard and clipped a new fabric square for each character. I carried the squares and clipboard in a ziploc bag to keep them clean and ready to go.

I'm sure that you could find quilters in your area or online who would be able to provide the constructing and quilting to finish the work of art for you. I say "work of art" because I would only use this as a wall hanging. I would never put this amount of work into something that would require washing. The signatures just don't look as great after washing, especially the colors other than black.

Feel free to ask me any questions,
Lynda

What our Disney-Fanatic quilters are doing is two slightly different things - but both only require carrying around one piece of fabric.

One quilt will have a large (12 1/2 by 12 1/2 foot square of plain white fabric (stabilized - freezer paper is a great idea) for all the characters to sign, then she is doing a pattern around it with Disney Fabrics (so the signatures are the center square).

The other quilt is two or three different squares - but then she is using all her old Disney T-Shirts to be the rest of the squares, so it's a "Disney T-Shirt Quilt" with signatures.

 

[kkayluvsdis]

I have seen several suggestions to use this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1423116704?pc_redir=1397692965&robot_redir=1 The Disney jr encyclopedia of characters Have the character sign their page. I haven't ordered yet but this my favorite idea yet.

We have this book and I love this idea! Now, if only the book was in better shape and didn't have pages missing!