Disney Scrapbook/Autograph Album (Newbie) About This Page:

[Asuka]

Hello!

I'm planning on putting together a scrapbook for Disney that will primarily hold character pictures and autographs. It will have some pictures from around the parks as well. I've never made a scrapbook before.

I've already gotten the album (12x12) and a ton of pages and stickers. I got page protectors as well.

The problem is, I have no idea where to start. I'm not sure how to lay it out. I'm not sure if I'll bring it with me for the characters to sign directly onto the pages or get a small book and paste the pages into my scrapbook.

Can anyone guide me to some tutorials or ideas for beginners.

[chezp]

I'd get the characters to sign something other than your album. I say that only because it gives you control on the page and you can then design it as you want. Taking a book of that size will also weigh a fair bit - I've done my share of lugging those 12 x 12 albums around and they do end up pretty heavy!

As for pointing you in the right direction, what I did when I started out was look at lots of other people's layouts for ideas, then went away and played on my own to see what I could come up with. Then again, I tend to like to do things on my own and make my own discoveries!

Sorry I can't be of more help on that count...

[Tonichelle]

What Cheryl said...

[GingerJ]

Asuka,

One of the best ways to learn about scrapbooking is to see if classes are being held at a scrapbook store near you. Locally owned stores are the best for this, but sadly it seems many many of these are going out of business. Sometimes chain stores like Michaels will have classes, too. Look into what's near you.

A really good place to look at layouts is mousescrappers.com . I go there all the time, and copy layouts that appeal to me (as Word documents), for future "scraplifting". You can see the kinds of layouts other people do and get some ideas of the kinds of things you like.

One thing about that site, though: It appears a whole lot of the posters are doing digital scrapbooking, which (it appears to me, anyway) means they often have really beautiful, intricate layouts that would be humongously time-consuming to work with paper and glue. Don't judge your own layouts by that source, since you're just starting out, but it's a good way to see what kinds of things appeal to you and to get ideas for your own scrapbooking.

Good luck, and welcome to the scrappin' community!

Ginger

PS: aboverubiesstudios.com has some tutorials, maybe a little advanced for you but they may have some for beginners. I'm not aware of any place that has really basic ones. You might just search around on YouTube.

[tcmary]

I agree with Cheryl about having the characters sign something other than a 12 x 12 album. You can buy inexpensive autograph books at home or pay more in the park like I have, only to take the pages out. I have used the autographs on character pages and mounted them on color coordinating paper.

As Cheryl said, carrying a 12 x 12 album around the park will quickly become tiresome. I have seen people use 5 x 7 albums as autograph books. Unewillow's idea of creating something ahead of time on a site like Shutterfly is something I may do for a future trip.

In the park you can buy an autograph book that also holds a photograph. I've come to love these because it is a fast way to create a park/trip memory long before I finish my official vacation album.

Mousescrappers has some fun ideas. I won't allow myself to begin digital scrapping until my paper stash has been used. I have too much invested in supplies to make the switch quite yet. If you are tech savvy and enjoy working on the computer, you might want to consider that option before making a lot of supply purchased.

Have fun planning your layouts.

[TinkerBecki]

I will try to upload pictures of one I made for MinnieJen's little boys. I went onto Snapfish and made the covers personalized for their notebooks and made 4x6 size photo cards of the characters for their character meals and glued them to the front pages in the book, and left the rest blank for the rest of the characters. I also attached a coordinating Disney Kooky Pen for their autographs to the spiral binding. There were over 200 pages in the notebook for Autographs & they had plenty of space for their week trip. I loved how those ones came out too and plan on making those again when I take my next trip(although I also plan to buy my sister & I each a photo album for 4x6 pictures for us to fill with our old Disney pictures as children for the characters to sign for us.

When I took my son nearly 2 years ago for our character meals I made a 5x7 photobook on Snapfish and had only the pages for our character meals and then bought the Parks Official Autograph Book for any other character we saw.

Sorry if I am no help otherwise.

[todyzbud]

When I decided to ask cast members to write a holiday greeting when I went in Dec. 2010, I took 4 x 6 card stock and had them sign those. When I get around to making my scrapbook, I'll have the freedom to place the greeting wherever I want. It was super easy to carry around, I kept them safe in a ziplock bag.

As for layouts, just do what looks and feels right to you. That's the fun and beauty of scrap booking, there is no"right" way, only YOUR way. You can look through magazines & websites for insqpiration, but sometimes they are pretty elaborate and can be intimidating. Good luck!

[rella]

I have printed out "coloring pages" and used these (uncolored) as the background. We had old autograph books (from when my DS was little) and I cut out the signatures and mounted these along with pictures of my DS watching the character signing the book or just with the character and made up the page. It is a wonderful memory page. I have also, had my DGDs color in princess coloring book pages and use these as backgrounds with the "little girls" in it. I think it will be wonderful years from now that they can look at the albums and see their own artistic renderings in it. I never use layouts.....not smart enough/too lazy.....I just find something (either a paper or picture) and play around with it. Have fun

[Carousel96]

I wouldn't want to lug a 12 x 12 book around all day.
I have always hesitated to decorate pages in advance of a trip -- it would be my luck I'd see Sleeping Beauty 6 times and never run across Donald Duck.
A friend of mine took a 7 x7 album that you could add pages to. She had the characters sign the pages in her book. When she got home, she added new pages in between with the photos she took, then embellished the "picture page" and "autograph page" after she knew who'd they'd actually seen.

[TinkerBecki]

Also the 5x7 photo autograph book I made for my DS for our last trip for the character meals was extremely light and didn't weigh down my backpack or his backpack at all. It is actually taped/glued onto one of the pages in my scrapbook from our trip (although my scrapbook looks like it was made by a Pre-schooler, since my DS helped me with it).

[GingerJ]

Originally Posted by TinkerBecki

(although my scrapbook looks like it was made by a Pre-schooler, since my DS helped me with it).

That's wonderful that you worked together on it! My DS12 started a little scrapbook in first grade for Cub Scouts, and later on figured out the sure-fire way to get Mommy time was to work on it with me. He doesn't do it now, but it was a fun thing to do together. I'll bet the fun of working with your DS made great memories that are so much better than having a "perfect" scrapbook!

Ginger

[Kyen]

A few years ago I made an autograph album for my niece. Before leaving I made these special frames for each character

When I was finished I put them in a regular album that carried about 250 pictures and my niece proudly showed each character.

The fairies had the most fun with it! Rosetta "stole" the book and took it to Tink, together they went through the whole book making comments about all the characters. While Tarrence made comments on how our markers smelt