Get your children pumped and excited for the upcoming Disney vacation, by having them decorate and make their own autograph books with Disney stickers, coloring, and a photograph of themselves inside the front cover! Save yourself money and the shame of not having bought these must-have items in the park! Please make sure an adult is there to supervise at all times as some elements of these projects include hot glue.
Making the Autograph Book
The first time I was at Disney no one in my family knew about the Autograph books. Most people don’t unless you have been there before or know someone who has. These books are a need to have for any child and you will not regret having them, however they do cost a pretty penny. If you are trying to save money on your vacation, perhaps it has been a dream of yours to go and this is a stretch as it is: use the following steps to make your pocket a little less empty.
1. Buy a small note book or sketch book at a discount store, BigLots, Walmart, Target. The Disney books are a little larger than an index card and are hard bound. Sticking to this size is a good idea as carrying a huge book with you through the park will get old really fast, but a small book that fits in your backpack and has little weight to it will be perfect. 2. Take a small piece of elastic, about an inch in length and one fourth of an inch wide. Make a loop and hot glue it to the top left corner of the front cover. This is to hold your pen! (This feature has been added to the new autograph books in the park. When I was a kid, you had to carry your own pen!) 3. Cut a piece of card stock or thicker paper, perhaps a bright color, to the size of the inside cover and hot glue it, or super glue, to the inside cover. This ensures the place where the elastic attaches will not be visible, but also keeps it from being ripped off. 4. Inside the cover make a line for “This Book Belongs To — ” and “Dates of Visit”. A nice touch is to also add pictures of your child to the inside cover. The characters will sometimes comment on them and make the children feel even more special. 5. Decorate the outside of the book. Plastic like covers are more difficult to decorate as some things like glues may simply slide off. Try and find books that have a paper cover as this will hold your child’s art much better. Have them place stickers, draw pictures, and color the front and back of the book, personalizing them to the fullest. If you want your trip to be a surprise, simply tell your children that although you can not go to Disney right now, you have a special craft for them to make and talk about favorite Disney movies, characters, and cartoons while making them. Then give them back when you arrive at the park. If your children do know you are going, make these a day or two before you go, any earlier may cause sleep deprivation from the excitement! When you get home add the pictures you have taken of your children with the characters to the empty spaces so they can look back and remember the great times they had.
The Autograph Pen
Your book would not be complete without the autograph pen! Also a must have and if your child sees that others have a special pen that the characters are using and you don’t have one, chances are you will be giving out the four dollars plus tax to pay for it in the park. Avoid this by following these instructions to making a one of a kind, Disneyfied pen — approved by the characters themselves! You are sure to get complements from the characters as they sign the home-made books with the pen to match!
A click pen works the best because it stays moist and you don’t have to worry about the lid. Try to find one that does not have the plastic clip on the side as you will otherwise have to break this off of the pen. Go to your local craft supplier and get some colorful pipe cleaner. This costs pennies. They have every color possible, including ones with sparkles! Fashion an outlined shape or design, perhaps a Mickey head*. Use a cookie cutter, wrapping it around the outside, or an outlined drawing on a piece of paper to mold and fashion the shape. Make sure they are not too large as that could make storage in your pen loop difficult. Make sure there is a strait left over piece that is around half the length of the pen. Attach the strait edge of the pipe cleaner to the pen, your design sticking up close to the clicker of the pen and no higher than an inch above that. Anything else could get bent or broken. Attach it to the pen by hot gluing it down the side. Take another pipe cleaner and hot glue it at the top of the pen, setting the first edge on the pen directly next to where the pipe cleaner character has been tacked. Tightly coil the pipe cleaner around the pen, tacking it with a small bit of hot glue to keep it from slipping. Use beads if you like, especially for a princess pen, and thread them onto the pipe cleaner as your wrap it, tacking down to ensure the longevity of your craft. Once this is dried and wrapped you have your very own, one of a kind Disney pen!
*Another version would be a Disney character sticker. Use one or two on a piece of thick card stock. Cut out both stickers either in a shape around the character, or outlining it. If you only have one sticker use a colored paper to make sure the back of the character is still cute. Sandwich a piece of pipe cleaner between the two sides and hot glue them together. Solidify your sticker with numerous coats of liquid cement glue or a home lamination packet. For the pipe cleaner only version, use a starch mixture and let it air dry until hard.