Disney Memory Books {2011 Edition}

From what I hear, getting character signatures in Disney is all the rage amongst the littlest of the littles.  I browsed around a bit on etsy and ebay for an appropriately themed book and came up with a couple of options, both costing a pretty penny when multiplied times two.  So, I set to work creating my own little books for my own little Disney tourists.  Our books will serve a dual purpose, both as a signature book for while we’re there and as a memory book for when we get back home.

I personalized a section for each park during our visit, one for the Polynesian Resort and another kind of catchall.

The last pages in the book are for signatures.  I figure we’ll have the characters sign on the page with the Mickey and then paste pictures on the facing pages.

Here’s how I did it:
1. Created the pages in Printing Press and sized them at 5″x7″ to leave room for 4″x6″ pictures.  I created my own mouse head from three black circles.  I used fonts Brady Bunch and Waltograph throughout the book and dotted all the i’s and j’s with a scaled down version of my mouse head.  (Have I mentioned how giddy it made me that both my boys have a dot-able letter in their name?!?!)
2. Printed the pages and organized them in the way I wanted the books laid out.
3. Laminated the front and back covers.  I use Lakeshore Learning for laminating.  It’s self serve and only $0.39 a foot.  So, the grand total for the four cover pages was $0.39.
4. Had them spiral bound with a ring larger than needed to leave room for pictures.  I used Kinkos for this.  They bound both books for $7.

So, at the end of the day, my two signature books ran me a grand total of under eight dollars.  Not too shabby.

While on the topic of character signatures, we will be signing up for Disney World text messaging.   Through this service, you can not only check wait times, fast passes and park hours, but you can also find your favorite characters in the park.  Have those mouseketeers thought of everything or what!?!?

Oh, and I’ll leave you with a picture of the baby in Kinkos.  Ready for a downpour should the roof give on this gorgeous, sunny fall day.

“Pick your battles” is a mantra I find myself repeating hour after hour, day after day.
xoxo

THESE ARE NOW AVAILABLE IN MY ETSY STORE!

| Filed under Uncategorized | Tags: ,

20 thoughts on “Disney Memory Books {2011 Edition}

  1. love your books! very cute… my oldest really loved scouting out the characters and getting autographs when we went last month… I ended up using a red gingham pillowcase for him that I then monogrammed with his name in disney font… y'all will have so much fun!

  2. Disney is the best! Be sure to put your address in the front of the book. Speaking from experience, if you misplace your book on Disney property, they will mail it to you. That's a lot of work to get lost at a dinner table or in a ride.

  3. Your books are darling, but as the wife of a 20-year plus Disney Entertainment manager, I have to offer some gentle advice. Focus on the interactions of the children and the characters, take photos, and make the autographs the least important part of the experience. Be in the moment, and you will have memories far more precious than signatures from hourly cast members.

  4. Love the ideas! We too are going to Disney in a few months (6 and 3 year old boys). Keep all the cute ideas coming! Love your blog!

  5. So cute! Love the books! What a great keepsake!

    We took our then 3 year old twin boys to Disney for the first time last year. We didn't bother getting autographs, but did several character dinners and took lots of pictures. When we got back I printed small little flip books for the boys and they loved looking at all the pictures of themselves and all the things they did. They even insisted that they take them to school for show and tell. :)

  6. I love love love all your Disney stuff! We have done many trips to Disney, but I never get everything done that I want to before I go. These are so precious!

    Heidi@HomemadeBeautiesByHeidi

  7. Where would I find Printing Press? I am not very computer savy. We are taking our 7 year-old quints for the first time in December and I am trying to get everything together for the kiddos. I have "Tinkerbell" gifts for them for each morning too.
    Thanks!

  8. Where would I find Printing Press? I am not very computer savy. We are taking our 7 year-old quints for the first time in December. I have "Tinkerbell" gifts and shirts I made for each day.
    Thanks!

  9. Hi Cherie – Sister and I used to have an invitation business and we used Printing Press professional software. It's not super user friendly, in my opinion. It is sold through Mountain Cow. If you are savvy with photoshop or even microsoft word,I think those would be better options!

  10. I love these books and am recreating them for our first trip to Disney this weekend. As a guess, how many pages did you put in the book? In hindsight, do you think it was enough? Or would you add more/less?
    Thanks!

  11. So glad you like them Michele! For each park/section (I did MK, HS, E, AK plus Downtown Disney and our resort) I had the title page and then 4 pages for pictures of that park. I also did a generic section with 4 more pages. For signatures I had room for 10 characters – that was for a picture on the left and signature on the right when the book is open – so it was 20 pages. I think this was plenty of room. Have a GREAT time!!!

  12. Sacred Saving – When I click on a font to download it, I see it pop up at the bottom of my screen. I then click on that icon to open the font file. The screen that brings up has a button in the upper right that says "install". After I click on that the font then shows up in all of my programs (word, powerpoint, even excel). However, if I already had word open when I installed the font, I have to close it down and reopen it for it to show up. I hope this helps!

  13. Hi! I LOVE these books. We are going with our 4.5 year old son and 2 year old daughter in June, and I have made my own copy cat books like yours using Microsoft Word. But, I was wondering. Did you use cardstock on regular paper to print the pages? I want my pages to be think enought to stand up to the Sharpie markers, but I don't want them to be too thick once the photos get added in. Thanks! Anita T.

  14. Anita – I printed mine all on cardstock. I asked them to put a bigger spiral binding on it that necessary so that it would hold all the pictures. Even with that, it is still stuffed full :-) Amanda

  15. Hello. I really admire your creativity. I'm taking my 5 year old and 3 year old to Disney this summer and would like to re-create your adorable autograph book. I've already downloaded the 2 fonts you mentioned but I'm unable to figure out how you replaced the dots for mickey ears. I've downloaded the ears image also but the "I" is already dotted in the brady bunch font. Please help!!

Comments are closed.