Homemade Autograph Books Increase Character Interaction: Includes Pix of John/Kevin

[Mouse Skywalker]

Greetings Everyone: During our family vacation in July, we were able to have dinner with John and Kevin as our prize for being one of the winners of the dining review contest. 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. John was really taken with the books, and suggested I post them on the boards. Well, I thought his idea was a good one. 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. Keep reading because I'm going to have pictures of John and Kevin...

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[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.

Oh, wait, I forgot about the pictures of John and Kevin...

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

OK, here's the page the girls made for our dinner with Kevin and John. They had made ADRs at Cindy's Royal Table for dinner as part of our prize.

We had a great dinner with John and Kevin. The food left a little to be desired, but the company couldn't be beat.

So here is a picture of John and Kevin's






AUTOGRAPHS

OK, I know where my bread is buttered, and I'm not going to anger the DIS Unplugged gods. Have a good night all.

 

[Becx N Gav]

Wow these are so cool, very inventive

It's so nice when the characters stop for a while - even as an adult

I will definately have a look at the clipart site - thanks so much for sharing

 

[Annette_VA]

Those are fabulous!!

Hmm...I think I have a project for the next couple of months...

(Darn you! )

 

[miss missy]

Love it!! Thanks for sharing!!! Great stuff here!

 

[Alztybrn]

Those are AWESOME!

Our kids will have something similar this June!
Thanks for the inspiration!

 

[Jennygt]

Thanks for the info! I had asked Kevin about this but somehow we never were able to get connected! I love it and I think I am goin to start on my Ds now!Such a wonderful idea!

 

[MenashaCorp]

Very cool. I notice Kevin used the BIG FONT, of course...

I wonder if John and Kevin made any comments about the books to their handlers??

 

[Cyrano]

Excellent handy work

 

[Stacy's a freak]

You're such a tease!

 

[BRobson]

They are fantastic

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.

Very cool. I notice Kevin used the BIG FONT, of course...

I wonder if John and Kevin made any comments about the books to their handlers??

Kevin does have people you know... even if only he can "see" them.

 

[froggy5657]

OK, I know where my bread is buttered, and I'm not going to anger the DIS Unplugged gods. Have a good night all.

I like buttered bread!

If a cat always lands on it's feet and bread always lands on the buttered side, then what happens if you strap a piece of buttered bread to a cat????

 

[lttlmc3]

These are so cute! Great job!

 

[DisDarling]

As a scrapper.. I am VERY impressed!! GREAT job!!!

Ames