How do you assemble the Autograph Books??

[wildernesswookies]

Since my DD is getting older and recognizing more characters, I would love to make her an autograph book with some of the premade pages some fellow Disers disigned. For example the Disigns by Chaos1Cent. Just a few questions for any of you who have made one...

What size do you make the autograph page?
Do you have a cover and an ending page?
What type of paper did you print it on?
How did you bind it or do you tie it with ribbons?

Any pics would be great.
Thanks!

 

[jtanddolly]

I make mine into 4x6 cards and put them in photograph books that you can slide pictures into...that way you can pull them out for characters to sign and them slide them back into a sleeve when they are done.

I was recently at WDW and we had the best time getting autographs! Some helpful hints...

1. The characters love to hold bigger pens but be careful of sharpies. I took sharpie pens and sometimes the characters would give us hugs before giving the sharpies back and we ended up with sharpie marks on our clothes. Not a big deal on t-shirts but my niece ended up with a big black sharpie mark on her bibity bobbity boo outfit...not what you want after paying big bucks for a makeover! You can find oversize pens at the parks that you can buy if you don't find one before hand and they are less likely to write on your clothes.
2. One of the DISigners on this site recommended getting a butterfly clip and clipping it to the top of the picture album to hold the pictures onto it so they don't slip while the character is signing the page and it helps give the character something hard to write on. I took a small clipboard that I found at Wal-mart but it was just another thing to carry around WDW in addition to the autograph book.
3. It is better to get autographs during the week (unless it is spring break) when there are less people visiting the parks. I recently went during the second week of December and got 34 autographs in 3 days (tues-thurs). I went again on a Saturday in January and all of the lines for autographs were sooooo long that I only got 2.
4. The lines are the shortest if you get to the parks just before they are open and when they open the park...go to where the characters are immediately. You can always find them just inside the entrance of each park. We did that at Hollywood and got 6 autographs in less that 30 minutes.
5. If you have two adults and there are several lines for characters in the same area...have the adults stand in different lines. My mom was with me and would get in the longer line and I got in the shorter line and would get an autograph and then my two year old would go get in line with her and would never have to wait very long for an autograph.

 

[jtanddolly]

More answers...

I made several autograph books for family members on the trip so when I purchased the photo albums, I bought ones that you could slide a picture into the cover of the album. I made individual name cards for each child using one of DISigners ideas so that we wouldn't get the books confused.

On the inside...I had a list of every character in alphabetical order in the parks and hints for where you can typically find them. I also had the characters autograph cards in alphabetical order so that they could be found easily when we would see a character.

You will have to reformat the picture size to fit it on a 4x6 card. I made mine 3.55 by 5.33 inches which leaves some white around the autograph page and will save a little bit on ink. If you are printing at home...it will require a good bit of ink to print all of the cards depending on how many character pages you are going to make. I think I had somewhere around 250 4x6 cards in my picture album. But remember I only got around 35 autographs...

Some people will get their autograph pages printed at Wal-mart (wherever you go to get pictures developed) so they don't have to print them at home. If you do this...get them developed on matte paper and you will probably need a sharpie for the characters to sign their autographs.

A fun autograph that you can get and most people do not know this...but you can ride in the front of the monorail with the driver if you ask. They will allow 4 people in the front with the driver and he/she will let you take pictures and will give a quick autograph at the end of the ride. I haven't seen an autograph card for the monorail but I bet Penny (Chaoscent) or one of the other great DISigners would make one for you if you ask.

Hope this helps!

 

[jtanddolly]

Here is a thread with pictures that will help:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2026049