Speaking of autograph books...

[ChrisMouse]

I'm fighting my scrapbooking urges...

Last year for our DLR trip, I made cool homemade autograph books for the kids ahead of time. The characters loved them and the kids got a lot of extra attention from the characters (you should have seen my DD's face when Mary Poppins and Bert were exclaiming over and over again about their lovely "likenesses", etc...)

Anyway, I had a few problems...they were HEAVY, and I had to carry them in my backpack. It was hard to find the "right" page when we saw characters, so it was a bit stressful...

So this time I was going to have the kids use "generic" autograph books so we could just flip to the next page and always be ready, etc. then scrap the books when I got home.

However, the autograph books I bought on Ebay have very thin flimsy disappointing pages that I'm afraid will get bent, etc.

What are YOUR experiences with autograph books? Anyone have any input either way? Is there ANOTHER better way to do this??

Thanks!

 

[amycishere]

I would like to know too.

 

[jaykay]

The last couple of times we have been to the World, I have cut white cardstock before we leave home. I cut them about the size of index cards. I keep them in a ziplock bag in the back pack along with a mini clipboard. My kids use the click Sharpies to have the characters sign the cardstock. Then when we get home, I crop the cardstock around the signature and mount it on colored cardstock to place in a mini scrapbook next to their picture with the character.

 

[Tinkerbelle's Mom]

For the past two years I have made my dd a homemade autograph book. She has recieved tons of attention and even had the Mad Hatter taking her all over to show everyone he had his own page. This went on for about 15 minutes! lol!!!

For our trip this may I have the same delimema - do I make one or use a generic? My dd sumed it up for me by telling me how much those books mean to her and how special they make her feel becuase I made them just for her! So ofcourse I am now making her a new one!

 

[ChrisMouse]

Oh Sheesh.

Tink's mom...

You probably hit the nail on the head. I bet if I asked DD she'd say the same thing. (DS won't care either way LOL)

I probably should just make them...but I imagine we'll see a LOT more characters this trip.

Better get busy! And so some strength training to lug them around the world

 

[rainwatter]

Oh Sheesh.

Tink's mom...

You probably hit the nail on the head. I bet if I asked DD she'd say the same thing. (DS won't care either way LOL)

I probably should just make them...but I imagine we'll see a LOT more characters this trip.

Better get busy! And so some strength training to lug them around the world

What if you did something in between? My plan is to make my DD's autograph book, but to do generic disney so that I don't have to struggle to find the right page. I'm also cutting the pages down, and then having it bound at kinkos so it is small and easy to carry.

 

[Tinkerbelle's Mom]

Oh Sheesh.

Tink's mom...

You probably hit the nail on the head. I bet if I asked DD she'd say the same thing. (DS won't care either way LOL)

I probably should just make them...but I imagine we'll see a LOT more characters this trip.

Better get busy! And so some strength training to lug them around the world

The ironic thing with my dd is that I did not ask her. She does not even know that we are going in May. We just talk about our next diseny trip all the time - we start on the plane ride home! LOL!! I think she knows more than is letting on. She just said it out of the blue one day.

Ofcourse it is easier for me because I only have one!! LOL!

 

[Crystal_27]

I also made a scrapbook autograph book for my DD (and am planning on making another for our September trip). What worked best for us was to pre-plan as much as possible what autographs we were planning on getting at each location. When we knew, for example, that we were going to CRT, we had all of the princess pages (and their corresponding Sharpie color, of course) all out of the page protector and ready to go. That way, as each princess approached us, we had their page and Sharpie ready to go. And, I agree, the characters all made a HUGE deal about how great our pages were, and DD loved that extra bit of attention.

 

[MissStampyPants]

If it's a pain to carry why don't you put ribbon through the binding area, long enough so your child can wear it across their body. Sew the ribbon so it's held together well. Then the kids can carry the books across their body like a purse.

 

[chcmama]

What I did when we went to disneyland was buy one of the autograph books, and then when we came home I scanned all the autographs, printed them and put them in a scrapbook at home, that is probably what I will do again. I don't want to carry my scrapbook around and I don't want to risk the chance of something happening to it.

 

[Alesia]

I'm bringing spiral bound index cards. I will put them in a scrapbook with photos when I get home.

 

[ChrisMouse]

Alesia,

Are they plain index cards or ruled? I had this idea, but have had a hard time finding plain ones.

 

[wildirishrose]

we used the ones from ebay and they held up pretty well my 4 and 5 year old looked through them several times and they held up well enough for me to add them to the scrapbook, I would purchase them again this year except I have 50,000 disney stickers and or embellishements that I better do something productive with or DH may decide they are taking up too much room

 

[Alesia]

Alesia,

Are they plain index cards or ruled? I had this idea, but have had a hard time finding plain ones.

I could only find the ones that are ruled on one side and blank on the other, but the lines don't show through on the back when they are put in a scrapbook.

 

[wildirishrose]

I could only find the ones that are ruled on one side and blank on the other, but the lines don't show through on the back when they are put in a scrapbook.

A suggestion Joanns has these Memory books 30 or so pages of plain white card stock, you could remove the spin and use them. They are pretty cheap and you would not have to worry about if they are archival safe (they come in a couple of sizes 4x5 or 6x8)

 

[ChrisMouse]

Sure enough...

I brought out the autograph books I had bought on ebay to show to DD and DS...

DD said, "What a cute notebook. Can I write stuff in it?" I explained what it was, and I got THE LOOK.

She said, "What?" I explained again, emphasizing how cool it would be, and how easy to use.

She wasn't having any of it. She immediately told me she wanted one like "last time...with the characters already in it, all decorated so the characters have their own page."

Sheesh. So much for easy. I should have known! Oh well...at least she appreciates my efforts.

Oh, and by the way, I was wrong about DS. Apparently he cares, too...

 

[dimomof2]

I'm bringing spiral bound index cards. I will put them in a scrapbook with photos when I get home.

That is exactly what I am doing. I just put some stickers with names on the backside so I know which one belongs to who. I have 2 boys and this May will be our first time in Disney! I loved this idea because the spiral bound index cards were only a little over a dollar at walmart. I am going to scrapbook them after the trip also.

 

[Happyathome]

I got 4x6 spiral bound cardstock memory books from Hobby Lobby last time (and found more for the next trip). I printed off clipart of the kids' fav. characters and mod podged them to the cover, with stickers to spell out their names. The rest of the pages I just let the characters sign. I had initially wanted a blank page in between so I could put a pic with that character next to the name, but after the 2nd day, characters were just signing on whatever empty page. So instead of getting crazy, I rolled with the flow they turned out fine, and there were even pages left for mommy and daddy to sign a note about how much fun we had on the trip.

 

[Dr. M]

I bought a nice 8"x8" scrapbook for autographs. We knew ahead of time which characters we were going to see ( we had adr's for Chef Mickeys, Akershus, 1900 Park Fare and Crystal Palace). We never stood in line and the characters came to us! We saw at least 20 characters! Before our disney trip, I made 8"x8" colorful pages with pictures, quotes and stickers of the characters with enough space for a signature. We used a "thick" clipboard that opens up to store the pages and corresponding colored sharpies for each character. The characters loved seeing their pictures. It was quick and easy to get the right page out for each character because we knew who we would see each day. When we got home, I made more scrap pages of the photographs of my kids with the characters and displayed each next to the corresponding signature page. My kids absolutely love and treasure this scrapbook. It's a lot of work, though, but I had a blast!

 

[Millie12591]

Oh Sheesh.

Tink's mom...

You probably hit the nail on the head. I bet if I asked DD she'd say the same thing. (DS won't care either way LOL)

I probably should just make them...but I imagine we'll see a LOT more characters this trip.

Better get busy! And so some strength training to lug them around the world

No, No! Don't do that, do you have a hobby Lobby there? If you do go and get into the scrap booking section and find the little one's that have spiral at one end, like a spiral notebook but much bigger spiral. I got one that was for my son that was on the smaller size 6x4 and then my daughters was 8 1/2x9, they have the little ones in different solid colors and then the longer one that I got my daughter look like they're already decorated, like for a baby book, blue, pink that sort of thing-only 12 pages, pretty thick too, not card stock thick.
I took the long one and used scrap booking paper (girly pretty kind), and mod-podged it on, I used the sparkly kind of mod-podge, then I took princess scrape booking stickers, Tinker Bell stickers anything that my daughter loved and put them all on the outside, some had crowns in the grouping of stickers, since some of the stickers are raised or 3-D lettering, the mod-podge came in really handy to fill in the gaps underneath. Then at Wal-Mart I got the princess stickers that look like the stamps in all different sizes,I'm sure you know what I'm talking about and put some also on the outside, and some different character stickers on the pages to signify which page was for whom to sign. This worked out well because it gave my daughter an idea what page to turn to for the signature. We had some Marie, Minnie, Tink-(never got that sig), all the different princess, Mickey and who ever else I had. Then I took ribbon, sheer in pink and purple and satin ribbon in light lime green and cut them about four-half inches long and tied them evenly all around the spirals, like eight to each spiral to cover over the metal and to make it look even more girly then it already did. (The ribbon was threaded through one of the spirals and then matched up end to end and then tied in a knot)She loooved it! It was light weight, and it worked really well. The one I did for my son was all black and I just mod-podged Mickey stickers all over it, he just wanted plain so that's pretty much what he got. No ribbon or anything, and we put his extra Mickey stickers on the pages inside to decorate them and make them look a little more finished. So that's it! If you can't find what I'm describing I can get the books for you and send them to you so you can have them, I wish I could send you a pic, but I'm not sure how to get them on here, sorry. If you have any questions just PM me or ask here, and if you want me to get the books for you then PM me your info. and I will send them off to you ASAP.