Disney DIY Autograph Book....................... {Disney Series #3}

Happy Hump Day!  Today I have another fun craft to add to my Disney Series. 

It all started with our Disney Ticket Surprise which was followed by some personalized Minnie Mouse shirts.  Once I started crafting for our Disneyland trip, I couldn't stop!  So the next thing was making this awesome autograph book.  

There was a lot of research involved.  In case you didn't know, there are a ton of websites devoted to 100% Disney.  I went on a bunch of sites to figure out which characters were at Disneyland {they vary from park to park} and which ones were actally seen at the park. 

After compiling my list, it was time to find pictures. 

I found a LOT of pictures.  Since I didn't know how I was going to do the layout, I probably saved 2-3 of each character.  You'd think the hard part was over... nope!  I had to find fonts.

"Why didn't you just pick from the list of fonts you already have?"  Great question!

It's becuase I'm a perfectionist.  Of course the font had to match the character.  {Yes, I drive myself crazy!}  Time to search a bazillion fonts...

Now that I had everything downloaded, I started working on the layout.  The point of this project was to create a book that I could turn into a photo album.  One side would be the autograph and the other side would be the pic of my kiddo w/the character.  So I knew I wanted the book to be 8x8 in size.

At the time I didn't own any Photoshop programs, so I just created it in PowerPoint.  After I created my 8x8 template,   I started plugging away... it took awhile.  After getting the book to look exactly how I wanted it, I printed a copy on regular paper {in black & white} just to see how it looked and to make sure everything lined up.

Once I knew everything looked good, it was time to print the final copies {which I printed on white cardstock}.  

After everything was printed I headed to Fedex Office to get the book cut down to size & bound.  They even put this shiny plastic cover over the top.  

It looked fantastic!  My girls were sooo excited to take it to Disneyland {well only Madison, since my little one had no clue what it was}. 

The best part was our practice copy {the black & white one} was the perfect "play" book for my little one.  My daughter was still in the ripping phase, so I didn't really want her playing with the original one, she took the practice copy and colored it, played with it and most importantly, got familiar with all the characters.

Here are just a few of the pages 

 

Do you want to know the best part?  These books were a HUGE hit with the charactors!  Every charactor we met just raved over the book {yes, I know most of them don't talk, but thier expressions said enough, trust me!}.  They spent extra time with my kids and they showed the book off to other people.  {yes, I'm bragging....}  

Here are some pics of the book in action!

Remember how I told you I was kind of a perfectionist?  Well there is one thing that really bugs me about this book... I didn't put any blank pages in the back - UGH - sooooo irritating {for me, my kids don't care at all}.  Our first trip to Disneyland was before we became immersed into Disney Junior, little did I know that those characters also walked around the park.  

Also, in case you didn't catch the date - I made this in 2012 - it's now 2014... have you heard of a little movie called Frozen?  My girls waited in line for 90min and my daughter looked up at me and said "Where is Anna & Elsa's page?" ahhhhhh, I guess they are starting to notice my flub up.... time to make another one :)

This book took quite a bit longer than I actually planned, but it was so worth it.

UPDATE:  I've had a couple of questions asking how I knew what characters would be at the park.  Here is the link to a "cheat sheet" I found.  It shows which characters are at each park and where you can run into them. :)

Disneyland Character List  and  Walt Disney World Character List 

HAPPY CRAFTING!
(to see where I've linked up - click here!!)