Happy Friday: Homemade Disney Autograph Books
Sent from reader, Melanie:
My family and I are taking our first trip to Disney this February and I decided to make my own autograph books instead of purchasing books from Disney ranging from $12-$25 for 12 picture inserts or less. I printed out images of autograph pages found on a yahoo search onto cardstock and placed them into a larger photo book from Walmart for $5 each. One side is for autographs and the other side will be a place for a pic of my kids with that character that I took at Disney. I was able to save money and have more space for autographs and photos.
HAPPY FRIDAY!
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Wow very smart idea. Theme parks sell expensive stuff like autograph books or even a pen like that in the pic can cost up to 10 bucks. Thank you for sharing 🙂
I got the pens at the dollar store. Characters with big hands will be able to sign them easier 🙂
Melanie do
U have the autograph images in a email able file .. I’d love to do this for my daughter
Do you happen to have the files for the pages?
Adoreable! Keep up the good work 🙂 Safe travels
Thankyou
Do you by chance still have this file?
Hello Hip2savers!
Off topic, but my daughter is doing a 100 days of school project, where she needs to collect and display 100 small items. My husband and I thought it would be a good way to teach her to give back so we are collecting 100 BOX TOPS. So far we have 70, but we need 30 more . If anyone is willing to donate any number of box tops to our project, please email me at csufgrad@ymail.com
Sent you and email:)
*an
Good idea.
..now if only I had that many box tops. Still trying to figure out what to do for my son’s 100 days of school project
Brandice, I asked friends and family and was able to get 70 in a few days. After going onto the BOX TOPS website and getting a product list I looked in our home and found 20 that were in my closet or pantry. Its possible to accumulate quite a few in just a matter of days! It was fun to go “hunting” for BOX TOPS with my daughter 🙂
My kids had done push pins which they later used in school. Also, 100 index cards and other supplies that could be later used in class or school. Hope that gives you ideas.
Great idea with the push puns, gonna have to remember that for next year… We were not allowed to use food or coins.
My son drew a big cookie on a poster board and glued on 100 chocolate chips. He probably ate 100 more!
I do 100 days in my classroom- 100 pennies (teach money skills). Also Cheerios, raisins, toothpicks, candy valentines conversation hearts, and Fruit Loops are also ideas.
We drew a giant fish bowl on a poster board and glue 100 goldfish crackers to it.
We did a poster board 100 topping pizza
10 toppings and cut on ten of each
Then glued the whole thing on a cheap circle pizza pan from Walmart
Came out really cute
We are gonna do 100 fingerprints nothing to fall off the board or have to glue!
Great idea!!! Have a great trip!
Thankyou
There is a show on tonight at seven on the food network about one of their chefs who takes his family to Disney world. Might be worth watching if you are going.
These are great! I hope you have a fabulous trip! With all the wonders that Disney has to offer, getting the autographs (and hugs) from the characters was my daughter’s very favorite part.
We love Disney. The press a penny machines are what my kids go for. Instead of always digging for change each kid gets an m&m minis tube empty of course and you fill it with 2 quarters and 1 penny. It’s in order so no searching for change and when it’s gone it’s gone.
Great idea, Amy! 🙂
My kids also like the press a penny machines. Great idea on the m&m tube for perfect change. When we get home, my kids earn those coins by doing chores. When they earn 5, they get to have “screen time”. That way the Disney coins are useful and not just more STUFF cluttering the house.
This is awesome, do you pull the card out?
Yes and put it on the outside pf book for them to have a solid surface then just put it back in the sleeve
Just curious…was this easy to pull them out and put them away? Seems stressful but worth the finished product.
I love this idea too but worry about the extra step of having to have my child pull out the sheet and not have it fall on the ground, etc. A small clip board might be helpful. Would love to hear how it works out with your beautiful autograph book
Did the autograph cards last month. Carried them in a small waterproof pouch. Once we got home, they went into the photo/autograph book, and we will never to take them out again. We look at them but no one is allowed to take them out. Worked great for me.
FYI, you can buy some at Walmart or Target there for only a few bucks, but I still like the idea a lot, since you can put the pictures there later!!! (plus not everyone has a car/time to go to the stores while at Disney).
Very clever!
Off topic but I was wondering if any of you ladies are american eagle/aerie members and had a 25% off code they emailed a while ago that you don’t plan on using? Please email it to me at
star22.ae@gmail.com
Whoever needs top boxes- pls let me know. I am collecting them for a while so have planty to share and my kids dont go to school yet.
Pls email me and let me know how many you need.
Zakret@yahoo.com
Melanie, thank you for the idea. Going to Disney in March so will still it :)))
Your very welcome, im going to universal too and you can do these for despicable me,spongebob,dora,and other characters
We just went at Christmas time 🙂 I couldn’t believe that my daughter’s were both wearing tennis shoes without socks! Ugh! Couldn’t find them in the AM…$17.50 for 3 pairs of socks @ Disney! Ugh!
My best advice is to download the Disney app. It was very accurate on waiting times. Also, we stayed at the hilton and got into the park early. This is so worth it! My kids went on space mountain 3 times before 7:30! In the afternoon there was a 110min wait for SM!
Now that is awesome!!! I’m curious what other ways this person was able to save money at Disney. Do tell! 🙂
I am not the person who originally posted, but our family of 7 went to Disney 2 years ago. We did not stay on Disney property. We flew Southwest (bags were free to check in) and I filled two duffel bags with snacks, poptarts, pb, anything that I could. It saved us a lot of money. Food was very expensive at the grocery stores in Orlando. My kids also liked the fact that we could eat our lunch while waiting in line. I also signed up for a Disney Visa and got $200 to spend at Disney.
We got our tickets from undercovertourists.com and I signed up for tourguidemike.com. That website was right on! It told us what park to visit which day and also what rides to ride and when! It was great!
If you bank at Chase, they have disney debit cards that are free… I don’t know the exact perks, but I know you get a % off discount at the disney store, some food locations, and there is some kind of character photo perk. hth
I agree undercover tourist is the cheapest way to purchase tickets for this year or next. My husband and I have both received the Chase Disney $200.00 disney gift card afer spending $500.00 offer. We will both get the cards and use the gift cards to purchase tickets now to use in 4 or 5 years when our grandbaby is old enough to go. Tickets are good for 14 days after first use. I also plan to pick up a few more Disney gift cards when my local grocery store offers extra gas perks for gift card purchases.
You can visit any Disney hotel for free for 3 hours to check out the resort. There are many free activities you can enjoy without puchasing a park ticket. You can attend the campfire at Fort Wilderness for free. Bring you own s’mores to cook. Chip and Dale appear at this one and there are pony rides for small children. You can view some of the animals from Animal Kingdom Lodge. Dusk is a great time to see them. Enjoy the Sassagoula river Cruise at Port Orleans. If you have the time I would plan at least 1 down day where you can enjoy all the free stuff.
Also, if you don’t want to use your park time for a character meal then schedule your character meal at one of the resorts. This way your aren’t in a rush. This could be the start to your cheap day.
I just book Disneyland today for june. yuck at the price! however, how do you see/get character autographs???? when we went 7 years ago I was so surprised that the characters aren’t everywhere or seemingly anywhere. We were there for 9 days and only saw pooh except for characters in the parade. I did book one character breakfast this time…so we will at least see ariel
You can do a search to find where the characters are to meet them at special locations at certain times.
You should check out the blog couponingtodisney.com, she has tons of tips and advice on how to see the different characters and lots of tips on saving money while you’re there.
At Disney World in FL (including EPCOT) a lot of times they are inside buildings with meet and greet times due to heat. Those costumes are not air conditioned.
Each park each day has a “times guide” that will tell you where to find different characters. You can also ask a cast member. We got to adventure land and I wasn’t sure where to find Jasmine and asked somebody and it turned out it was her cameraman. He told us she was coming in about 10 minutes, so we beat the long line! 🙂
When we went 2 years ago, we took plain colored pillow cases for character autographs. They were fairly inexpensive and it is a nice thing for the kids to be able to use on their beds when they get back! I liked that better than the autograph books because it was something that wouldn’t just get tossed in a box, but this is definitely a way to save on the autograph books!
I like that idea!!
At Disney now! as a matter of fact…… We did buy the autograph books at the Disney Store just prior to coming for $9 each (and they came with pens). Not a bad deal. We are using different colored Sharpies, though. The characters are all out and about in the parks plus we booked a couple of princess/character meals. After 4 days so far – our books are FULL. Whatever kind of book you choose, go with Sharpies, not a ball point. 🙂
Keep in mind too that if you are a USAA member you can get huge discounts at local resorts with buses that will pick you up and drop you off at Disney. We stayed at caylospo cay resort (sorry about spelling) last May for 335.00 four days three nights it had kid actives and three pools it was awesome plus if something happens and you need to cancel you up to 24 hours before you check in then you only get charged one night fee.
Soo cute, Melanie! Bravo 🙂
Thankyou
Military discounts rocks, it was free for my husband and half off the rest of us!
My husband is military too, but I think think they were free…just got the discounted pass??
I love your books! We went last July. I used the same images but put them in a photobook from Snapfish. I needed two for my girls. I put 4 images on each 8×10 page. And made some generic pages for characters i hadnt thought of. I loaded the images into snapfish and waited for the best deal. I think i paid $15 for each book but i really liked that they were hard bound and i customized the first page with their names. Have fun!!
Those are adorable! I definitely want to make some for my kids! I want to take them to Disneyland this year, and these would be perfect!
Cute! Here’s another tip…We go to Disney often (we’re Passholders) and my kids love Pin Trading. The pins range from about $6 – $12 each, but you can buy lots of them on eBay super cheap! I buy lots of 30 pins for $16 shipped! You won’t know what pins you’re getting until they arrive and you likely will only like a few. But, you can trade them at the Parks with any cast member wearing Pins. My kids love doing this and end up with some pretty cool pins. Just search “Disney pin lot” on eBay and buy from a seller with good ratings. You can read all about Pin Trading on the Disney site.
How cute! I’m sure that creating these are helping to build excitement and anticipation!
Hi, I am a Disney fan, So have fun. If you want Disney souvenirs or autograph books head over to Publix food market. they have Disney pins and other stuff for 1/4 to 1/2 the Disney price. Also try their outlet store for clothes instead onsite.
So cute!!! We went in August and each kid got a notebook from the dollar store and put pictures on the front (cut outs from online disney pictures, disney stickers, decorated it with their name, whatever they wanted). I then modge podged it and they had a great autograph book for $1. I had the modge podge on hand. I would recommend you keep all of your autograph books with a pen in a ziplock bag and so when you see the characters, all of your autograph stuff is in one place. We were often running to see a character I needed it close by to grab from the stroller 🙂
Have fun!!!
I used the same pictures as posted above, but took all the photos to Office Max and they spiral bound it for me for $3. The kids love their books and it was a great way for them to flip through the pages as we waited in line :). Have a great time!
Um I don’t know I’ll see any of these characters at disney world…they are hardly walking around when I was there!
Love this idea. Going in Feb. 2015 and would love to do this. Where did you get the insert cards with the characters?
Great idea. How hard was it to pull out the page for the character to sign it? Or did they sign over the plastic?
Where were you able to print the pages from. I leave in 6 day snap wanted to make a book for my son
I love the book tried to print the cards but dint know what I am doing wrong
Do you have the images you printed for you autograph/photo album. If so could you send them to me or tell me where to find them. Thanks
Do you still have the images? We head to Disney World soon and I would love to do this for my kids.
It is years later. I was wondering if you still had the images and if you updated them since.
I was also wondering if you had those images and if you have updated them?