My 2010 Disney Memory book.

[dawnmichele]

I am heading to Disney world in 19 short days! As an arty girl (more of an art journaler and Project Lifer than a scrap booker, but they're close, right?) I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to document this trip when we get back. I took a good look at the book I made after my last trip in 2010 for ideas of what to do and not do, and looking at it made me want to share it! So here goes...

In 2010 I was really in to making mini books. I made one for each season, for any trip we took - I even took an online class about them. So when we were getting ready for our first trip to Disney World in about 15 years, I got super excited about making my own unique mini book to memoralize our trip!

I wanted my book to be unlike anyone else's. And I didn't want to spend a lot of money on paper and stickers made by Disney. So I started buying up kid's Disney books at the thrift stores and slowly I built the backbone of my book.

Some pages I used straight up the way they came out of the book.

Some I altered a little bit.

I also cut out a lot of good images from the used books.

I did buy some Disney stickers and one small package of Disney paper. I also bought an official Mickey head paper punch. I put the basics of the book together packed it, along with a pencil case full of supplies, into my suitcase as we headed out to the happiest place on earth.

I used a tray in our room to lay out all my supplies and things I picked up at the parks during the day and worked on the book a little every night.

Here's my cover. It used to be the cover of a Little Golden Book, but I cut it off and punched holes in it. At the time I intended to add some stuffbtonit sonit was more than just the book cover but I never came up with any brilliant ideas so I left it just like I found it.

On the inside front cover, I added some Mickey/Minnie tape around the edges, a Cinderlla sticker, and wrote in Disney 2010. The first page is from the cover of a VHS I bought that had the wrong version of Cinderalla in it. It was some low budget animated version. Sad. So I just used the cover.

This quote is not from Cinderalla, but it seemed very appropriate as I counted down the days until we left.

On the back of the Cinderella cover I wrote the details of how the trip came to be, and added some 3d Disney stickers from Walmart. The next page was a blank vellum page. I was digging that when I made the book.

A tribute to my favorite part of 101 Dalmatians, The Twilight Bark.

On the back of the Dalmatians page, I added another 3d Mickey. I cut down an official Disney paper to add a bit about our bags and another cheap Mickey sticker.

Hannah waiting at the airportwith an Ariel sticker, and then the waiting is over. It's our first day. I used the Mickey head paper punches on black cardstock and a book page to mark the division between each day. The sticker lets you know which parks we visited that day.

Next? Our first day!

 

[dawnmichele]

Finally we were off! Our first day.

This is one of the Mickey heads I punched out of black cardstock. I wrote on it with a white uniball Signo pen (the best white pen, imho) and glued it on the edge of a book page.

There's the back of the page from Bambi. I tried to cover the text up with a journaling tag. And there's a round Mickey sticker my brother gave us on our first day there! On the right, my boarding pass from the first leg of our flight.

My birthson told us we should definitely try some popcorn at the Chicago airport. We did, and I picked up an extra napkin for the book. The popcorn was so delicious (Hannah got the cheddar cheese and I got carmel), but it was so rich and we ended up eating so much park food on our vacation that we never finished it.

The napkin is right. Love is messy. Then there's my boarding pass for the flight from Chicago to Orlando.

Another blank sheet of vellum and a postcard from a Beauty and the Beast postcard book I picked up years ago.

I added this picture of the 3 of us waiting for the Magical Express to the back of the postcard, along with a cheap Mickey sticker. Then there's a page from an Aladdin but I've added stickers to.

A picture of my brother at the door of our room, and the hotel we stayed in (Bay Lake Tower). A cut out of Ariel on Mickey paper.

I made an envelope out of pages from a Snow White book and slid our Keys to the Kingdom card and our park pass card into it.

We had a lot of these round coasters in our room so I used many in this book. Here I've used them to show pictures of our room.

I used these Guest Checks to document what we ate every day.

I also added some old photos from our first trips to Disney when Hannah was really small. Here's Captain Hook chasing her outside of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Both times we visited before (in 96 & 97) the castle was covered with this giant pink birthday cake.

I was so thrilled to see it all lit up and like a real castle! Our first night there, we had dinner inside the castle. I used this little princess gift card to hold a few photos of us with the princesses.

They gave us this "invitation" while we were waiting to have our name called.

More pictures from dinner. By the time we were done eating, the Magic Kingdom has closed down for the Christmas Party, and we were escorted out. Epcot was open late though, so that's where we headed.

At the end of each day, I made a note of our high points and low points of the day. It's a tradition Hannah started when she was a little girl.

And that was the end of our first day!

 

[dawnmichele]

Day 2 started at Animal Kingdom. It was my first time at that park since I hadn't been to the World since before AK opened. It was a pretty picture heavy day.

You can see the first page from day 2 in the previous post (I am pushing my photo limit for this day!). On the back of the first Ariel page I've added journaling spots to record what a fantastic day I had. I cut out the AK sign from a photo and added it to a sheet of yellow vellum.

To hide the back of the AK sign, I added an elephant sticker on the vellum. On the right side there's a page from the best scene from The Lion King, and a couple stickers on the bottom.

One of the things that made me love the AK so much was how many characters I met there! On the back of the LK page, I made a list of everyone I saw. I added in an AK map.

The map all spread out.

I added some safari pictures to the back of the map. On the right side a picture of the front gate with a couple postcard stickers on the bottom.

The front gate photo is backed with a book page of Triton, a journaling sticker and another 3d Mickey sticker. On the other side, a photo of the magnificent Tree of Life.

The back of the Tree of Life photo shows a close up of my kid and my brother's gf in front of the tree. On the right, another coaster to list some of the best animals I saw. Then a shot of the big daddy gorilla eating.

Elephant, tiger, vultures&

One of my best moments, meeting King Louie and Baloo!

List of what we rode on the back of a coaster and a couple fast passes we didn't use.

On the back of the Dinosaur FP we didn't use, I have our ride photo from one we did use. Love that ride!

On the back of the other FP, it's me and Eeyore, ready for a big hug.

Number one favorite moment of the trip - Meeting Thumper! I did that page up with some official Bambi stickers on a page from a book.

Two shots of the kid and I together on a LK book page, and the guest check for lunch at Flame Tree.

Guest check from dinner that night at San Angel Inn and a picture of the two of us just inside Epcot.

Part of the Epcot map on the back of our photo, and a shot of the drinks at Club Cool.

I meant to add something to that back of Club Cool photo, but I never did. I did sneak in a cup from our tasting and a scent card we were handed in a shop from (I think) Italy.

On the back of our picture with Donald, I added some journaling stickers and some Disney paper, plus a cheap sticker of Donald. On the right I added a photo of the kid in the Mexico pavilion from 1997 with the dancers. I punched a Mickey head on red card stock and wrote on it with my favorite white pen.

We LOVED doing the Kim Possible mission so I added a photo and a description I cut out of a map. On the right, another favorite character meet was with Marie in France. I fancied it up with official Aristocats stickers on a ripped out Aristocats book page.

And then the day was over. I listed our high and low points on the back of the Aristocats page. Day 3 starts on the right, with a Bambi page and a sticker listing the parks we visited on day 3.

 

[Reddy]

oh very cute - different - lots of ideas for me

 

[wbh1964]

very cute! Love it!

 

[pjlla]

Are you KIDDING ME? I LOVE THIS!!!!! Oh my gosh and golly! I can't WAIT to steal.... um.... BORROW some of these ideas! This is amazing! I haven't had time to look closely at it all, as I need to dash right now, but I look forward to checking it all out in detail tonight while I am waiting for DD at the pool! Thank you for sharing this amazing piece of art!...............P

 

[dawnmichele]

WOW you guys! Thanks so much!! I knew I loved my book, but I really had no idea what other people would think about it, so I am so thrilled that you liked it!

pjilla, steal or borrow away! I am supremely flattered either way

I hope to get at least one more day's worth posted today. With our trip just over two weeks away and Thanksgiving on Thursday my to do list is huge, but you gotta have priorities, right?

 

[dawnmichele]

Day 3 started at the Magic Kingdom!

Here's the back of our opening page for day 3, all empty and lonely. Next, a map of the park.

The map unfolded.

There was a blank yellow vellum page that I'm not showing because it's boring, but there's a picture of my kid and I having fun in the teacups on the left side. On the right there's a page made from some Disney paper and a cropped down shot of the girl outside of one of her favorite rides, Space Mountain.

More Disney paper for a list of all the rides we rode that day. I cut out Ariel and her friends from a photo I took of their theatre at HS. On the right, there's a picture of the girl in Adventureland a long time ago.

On the back, There she is in the same spot all these years later! I added the surprise Fast Pass we got (and didn't use) when we got our Pooh passes.

Nothing on the back of the Fast Pass. Too bad. On the right, the girl plays in Ariel's grotto in the olden days. There's a sticker of Ariel with legs and a dress in the bottom right.

And the girl now, outside the wall hiding where they were working on Ariel's new grotto. On the right, it's her on the Carousel.

A close up of her horse, and a record of our meal at Cosmic Ray's. We sat up front by Mr. Eclipse. She loved it.

Our dinner record. In this book, before I left I had stuck the guest checks together back to back. I didn't really like how that worked out though, because it put the meals together which threw off the timeline. This time I'll do it differently. On the right, a map of HS, which we visited when we left the MK after lunch.

Nothing added to the back of the map. The girl loved taking the boat for transportation.

We didn't stay at HS long. I only documented that with one photo. Dinner was at Le Cellier and the girl thought she was in heaven.

Quotes from the girl about dinner on one side. Our day's high point on an Ariel book page on the other.

This picture of Ariel on a book page was perfect for listing the day's low points. Coming up - Day 4!

 

[dawnmichele]

A close up of the day 4 tag. It's all blurry. Why am I including it? I don't know, but there it is.

I added a cut out Pongo & Perdita to the back of the 101 Dalmatians page. On the right, a shot of waiting for the Monorail back in the day.

And waiting on the Monorail now. Another fascinating blank vellum page. I won't be adding any of those in the next book. At all.

This Disney tag came on a Tinkerbelle hoodie I bought for the trip. I added the cute Minnie sticker.

On the back, me wearing the jacket. I was so addicted to Coke at the time I had the girl take a picture of me on top of a fake crate of it in Tomorrowland. I was happy in the knowledge I'd be able to drink it in the future.

When I made this book, I was seriously influenced by the online class I had just taken. I added a lot of kind of contentless pages like the one on the right (Disney paper and a fancy official Aurora sticker) and those crazy vellum pages. I won't be doing those again, either.

I love the Alice topiaries! Here's a picture with a fantastic quote sign. On the right another topiary in Fantasyland on a lovely page from a Snow White book.

This page was a crazy combo. The base is the back of the Snow White page. I don't know why there's a tag there, and then a list of what we rode that day. Taped on, fold out style, is a post card my friend sent me from Disney when she visited a couple months before we did.

On the left, the post card, taped on with some Mickey tape. On the right, a ride photo card from Space Mountain.

A record of what we ate for lunch at Pecos Bill's.

That night we made dinner in our room and watched Wishes from the balcony on top of Bay Lake Tower. Very cold but fantastic. Ariel's sisters showcase the day's high points.

Our low points highlighted by the daughters of Triton. On the right a napkin from the Top of the World lounge.

A note on the back of the napkin, and we're ready for Day 5!

 

[dogcarbon]

This is aweseome!

what size rings did you end up using. They must be at least 3" diameter?

I may just lift some of these ideas to use in my PL type of book...
I, personally, for my bookshelfs, don't like the variation of sizes on this type of book - but I so dig the free-ness and creativity. A job well done!

I can't wait to go back and analyze each picture/page!

 

[amymarie78]

This is truly inspired! what a great way to keep things moving on the go, and keep all those bits and pieces contained! Love it!

 

[tink too]

Very creative! What a great way to relive your vacation memories.

 

[DisneyBelle99]

Incredibly cute and creative! I think I need to go to a thrift store or garage sale when it gets warm......love the idea of using the older Disney books, and not every page has to be perfect, either. Also impressed by the creative use of the guest checks! Well done!

 

[jennyjinx3]

You are so creative...I love this! What a wonderful keepsake.

 

[tefrench]

Love this - I'm going to see if my dd11 will do this to show her class our recent trip to Disneyland. I think she would enjoy doing it.

And I have a thrift shop nice and handy to find some books - love this idea!

 

[dawnmichele]

Thank you all SO Very Much! It was so much fun to do! You should definitely go for it if you're at all thinking about it. Creativity is about freedom so don't think your book (or whatever you want to make) needs to look any certain way. If you love it, then it's done perfectly!

I just did online check in for our upcoming trip (3 days!) and although my mind is full of lists for packing and cleaning and doing - the back of it is already thinking of ways to commemorate this upcoming trip! I've got a plastic bin full of full pages and a bin of smaller cut outs and stickers just waiting.

This 2010 book was so thick (yes, dogcarbon, the rings are 3", the biggest I could find) and this trip is a couple days longer - I'm not sure how I'm going to put it all together. Maybe I'll do it in multiple volumes. Maybe I'll use the Bind-It-All. Maybe I'll look around for larger rings. Whatever I decide, I know it will be a blast to work on, and a great way to relive the trip and make it through the inevitable post Disney blues that will come with returning to real life.

Thanks again guys, and I'll be sure to show you whatever I end making next!

 

[mickey1968]

I just found this thread because someone else in another thread remembered your book. IT IS FABULOUS!!! I have seen some other projects on Pinterest with the old Disney books and have started to pick up a few at the library booksale and Half-price Books. I haven't decided exactly what I want to do with them but this is very inspiring.

Hope your 12/2012 trip went well and can't wait to see what your new book looks like!

 

[MackenzieFL]

Oh, that was just adorable. What a beautiful keepsake. That's awesome.

 

[3AUTigerFans]

I just love your book! You mentioned in one of your post that you had just taken an online class. I would like to hear more about the class.

 

[sue_88]

I enjoyed looking at your memory book!
I also like to keep every little thing from my trip and then add pictures and stickers. It really makes the memories more tangible.
I never thought of keeping a cup from club cool! I think I will be doing that next time.
thank you for sharing!!