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Disney Vacation 2008 – Ephemera
Disney Vacation 2008 – Funny Story and Ephemera
So our adventure at Disney World was almost over – but we had one last funny story from the last few minutes we were on the property. If you click on the picture above you should get a bigger version of it and you can zoom in to read what happened. But this Mickey was part of the outcome of the story. Our bags were so full that we had to carry him on to the plane for the trip home!
This set of pages highlights all of the ephemera that we collected on the trip that didn’t make it onto the other pages. I don’t normally do something like this – but my son was so excited about everything that we collected that he didn’t want any of it to be thrown away. The letters in the right hand page above were cut with my Cricut machine and I used the shadow feature to cut a black “shadow” for each of the letters. This very small shadow really helps the letters to stand out on the page.
Disney Vacation 2008 – Ephemera
The left hand page of this spread contains all kinds of things including stickers that we picked up along the way, a Disney stamp on a letter we received, our Disney Photopass, origami from the China Showcase at EPCOT and one of our favorites – a red feather from the Enchanted Tiki Room. Don’t worry we didn’t pull it off of a bird! – during the show some feathers fall from the ceiling and this one fell right into our lap! The right hand page includes digital copies of all of the pictures that we took on the trip as this is a nice way to organize your digital pictures and have backups in case your computer dies. It also includes some fast passes that we never used and the folio with our bill at the end of the vacation.
Disney Vacation 2008 – Ephemera – Park Maps
This is the last page in the album and it is simply extra maps that I picked up from each of the parks. They have no crease marks and are not attached to the paper in anyway. They float freely behind the plastic and are there if we ever want to pull them out and look at them.
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Disney Vacation 2008: EPCOT – Test Track
Disney Vacation 2008 – Test Track
When I was planning our Disney World trip I knew that we would want to ride Test Track and I knew that the lines would be long to get on this ride. So my son and I moved as quickly as we could (without running) to get to Test Track as soon as we were allowed to enter the park. We ended up being the first people in line!
Disney Tip: Get to the Park early and go the most popular rides first – that way you won’t have to spend a lot of time later waiting in line.
At the beginning of the ride Disney took two automated pictures which you can purchase after the ride. Fortunately we had Photopass, so I was able to connect those photos to our account which we purchased later when we were at home.
Disney Tip: Photopass – is a card that you can get that is scanned each time a Disney photographer takes your picture. It allows you to order all of your pictures later from home, and to manipulate and add Disney characters to them. Some select rides also allow the automated pictures from the ride to be added to your photopass.
If you look carefully at these pages you will notice that two of the pictures are the official Test Track photos and they came with a caution border. I wanted to continue these theme to the other pictures on this page so I used a think black marker to draw lines on yellow paper to create these frames. I did it freehand and so some a little crooked. If I were to do this again I would use a ruler to make the lines straight.
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Disney Vacation 2008 – EPCOT
Disney Vacation 2008 – EPCOT
The next park we visited was EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community (or City) of Tomorrow). This was our last day in the Disney World complex and if you have been to EPCOT before you know that it really is two parks in one – Future World and the World Showcase.
Disney Tip: Plan on spending two full days at EPCOT – one to visit Future World and the other to go to the World Showcase. If you try to do both parts you will feel rushed and not really experience the beauty of this park.
For this spread I used the EPCOT paper, patch and coin that I purchased at the hotel gift store. These pages serve as simple maps that help to remind us of the things that we did at each park. On the right hand side I used entrance pictures in front of Spaceship Earth. If you click on the pages above you will get a closer view of the page. Look closely at the date on this page and you will see that the white letters and numbers have a small green border around them. I accomplished this with my Cricut machine. I first cut the white letters and numbers and then chose the “shadow” feature to cut a slightly larger version. After gluing these together I glued them to the page. While this is a time intensive process I think that it really makes the titling look much more professional.
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Disney Vacation 2008: Cirque Du Soleil – La Nouba
Disney Vacation 2008: Cirque Du Soleil – La Nouba
One of the benefits to collecting ephemera and having a philosophy that places importance on ephemera, is that when you go somewhere where you are not allowed to take photographs, you can still create a wonderful scrapbook page.
The first evening we were at Disney World, we went to Downtown Disney and enjoyed watching the Cirque Du Soleil show – La Nouba. Disney tip: Buy show tickets early – we were able to go to this show because I purchased the tickets six months in advance when we booked out Disney World Trip. If you do not do this you may not be able to get seats at the events you were hoping to attend.
The show would not allow us to take pictures inside so I used the shopping bag, the program and our plastic card tickets on this page. The shopping bag is the left hand page and is plastic and see through. The stars that you see on this page are actually the background paper behind the plastic bag which I cut to perfectly fit on the 12×12 page. The two faces were cut from the program using sharp point scissors. Since the plastic bag was fairly stiff I used my Crop-a-dile Big Bite punch to set small gromlets in each corner to affix the plastic to the background paper. (See below for a link to purchase one for yourself – I use mine all the time).
The red acrobat on the right hand side was also cut from the program using sharp point scissors – if you look carefully you can see a light white line which is wear the program was folded. I used a funky corner punch to add movement to the program cover on the left side of the right hand page.
If you look carefully at the journaling block you will see some silver coloring. I added this to the paper using craft paint and a sponge brush. This helped to soften the edges and make it blend into the rest of the page.
View Scrapbook Pages from other Cirque Du Soleil Shows that I have attended:
 Crop-A-Dile II Big Bite Punch – $38.24 The Crop-A-Dile Big Bite boasts a six inch punching and setting depth so you can place eyelets, snaps, gromlets, and other metal embellishments anywhere on your scrapbook page or craft project. It punches holes and sets small (1/8″), large (3/16″) and extra large eyelets and snaps. The Big Bite can punch through paper, leather, fabric, plastic (such as CD’s), thin tin, and chipboard. |
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Disney Vacation 2008: Animal Kingdom – Entrance
Disney Vacation 2008 – Animal Kingdom
Our first day at Disney World we went to the Animal Kingdom. This may not seem like the first choice for many – Disney Tip – but if you stay in a Disney World Hotel there is one park a day that has extended hours in the morning. In other words, hotel guests can get in early. For this date it was the Animal Kingdom and we were in the park before the sun came up. It was cool to be there and hear the animals waking up in the morning – and we had wonderful opportunities to see animals being fed.
Two hours later we were joined by my Aunt, Uncle, and their granddaughter who live in Orlando. We went back outside of the park to give them tickets that we had for them.
Disney Tip: Photopass – Outside of the park we had our first experience with Disney’s Photopass. It is a card that you give each professional photographer and they scan it before taking your picture. When you get home from your trip you can go online and choose the pictures you want, edit them, and add in some fun Disney characters and then have them printed, or sent to you on a CD. My sister and her family had gone to Disney a couple weeks before we did, so we shared a card to help share the cost.
If you look closely at the photos you will notice Disney logos and characters in the pictures. The only downside to these character additions is that they seemed to have washed the pictures out a bit and they all came back much lighter than I would have liked them to.
Disney Tip: Buy Disney Scrapbook kits – At our hotel their was a souvenir store that had several items that I decided to purchase for the scrapbooks. I purchased paper packs, patches, and souvenir coins. While these were expensive I am glad that I bought them because they are impossible to find back at home and when I did find them they were even more expensive. You will notice these items pop up several times on my pages and serve as a nice way to tie all of the different park pages together.
On this spread the left hand page is straight from the Disney paper pack without anything added – I did this as this page serves as a wonderful map of the park as you peruse the following pages. I also used an Animal Kingdom patch on the right hand page.
If you look carefully at the borders of the pictures and the journaling you will notice that I used a corner cutter to cut a design in them, and that I used the cuts that came out as part of the design elements on the page. The date was cut using the Cricut Disney Cartridge.
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Disney Vacation 2008: Disney Magical Express
Disney Vacation 2008: Disney Magical Express
One of the things that I found impressive about booking a stay on the Disney World grounds was the Magical Express. When you get your airplane and park tickets you also get luggage tags that you put on your luggage at your departure airport. When you land in Orlando you don’t have to worry about your luggage – they deliver it right to your Disney World resort hotel room without you having to worry about it at the airport. You just look for the Disney bus area and you will be directed to a bus that will take you right to your hotel and will entertain you with an informative video on the way.
Disney Tip – Pack a swimsuit in your carry on – because when you get to the hotel you might want to take a dip in the pool and your luggage may not arrive for a couple of hours after you do. I learned this the hard way and had a son swimming in the pool in his shorts because he couldn’t wait.
I was so impressed with the Disney Magical Express that I wanted to scrapbook the ephemera from it. Notice that I created side borders with the extra luggage stickers that were provided to us.
Since we were there during the 50 year celebration they were giving all kinds of things away. When we checked in to the hotel they gave my son a pin, which you can see in the picture and on the page. I removed the pin from the back and then glued it to the page. My son was also impressed with the towel arrangement on the bed when we got to our room, and wanted to make sure that I took some pictures of him with it 🙂 . This spread is an excellent example of how you can use ephemera to drive the design of the page, and emphasizes the beauty of collecting it during the trip. I usually only use about one third of the items that I bring home and what doesn’t make the scrapbook usually goes into the recycle bin.
Disney Tip – Magical Express – Sit at the front of the bus – Since so many people will get off the bus at the same time it is important to sit near the front so that you can get off first and get to the front of the hotel check in line. Make sure that you keep your carry on luggage with you (keep your bags small), or they will pack them under the bus and you will have to wait for those before you can go and check in.
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Disney Vacation 2008: Title Page
Disney Vacation 2008: Album Cover
Today we start a new scrapbook series – commemorating our trip to Disney World in 2008. I had adopted my son, Levi, just 3 weeks before, and this was our celebration trip. We spent our entire Spring Break at the Disney World complex and stayed on site the entire time. I usually try and find bargain vacations, but since this was to mark such a special occasion I decided to go all out. We stayed in a Disney hotel and I purchased the Disney Meal Plan and we went to several special meal events using the meal plan. For those that would like an easy and worry free vacation this is the way to go. It will cost you more – but you don’t have to worry about much.
Throughout this series, in addition to showing you Disney Scrapbooking ideas, I will share tips for how to make the most of your Disney World vacation. So lets start now:
Disney Tip: Dining – If you purchase the Disney Meal plan, plan your park visits and meals 6 months in advance. Disney will let you make reservations for restaurants and themed meals six months out and the reservations go quickly. You can use your exchange meals to pay for these special events. Some of them take two exchange meals, and on those days we ate breakfast bars that we had brought from home, so that we could enjoy a special lunch or supper. If you wait until you are at the park you won’t be able to get into any of the special meal events.
I took so
many pictures on this trip that I ended up filling two albums for this trip! I was fortunate enough to find two of the same album at a scrapbook store – you can see a picture of the cover above. Unfortunately I have been unable to find anymore of these albums since I purchased them. But I have found another option that you might consider. Just click on the image to be taken to an online store where you can purchase it.
Below are three pictures of the Title page of Volume 1. I wanted to show that sometimes you can integrate the inside cover of the album right into the spread. I made sure that the background paper matched the color of the inside of the album and used a Disney World laser cut that I bought on Ebay. Notice the brown envelope that I attached to the album cover – I will explain more about that after the pictures:
Disney Vacation 2008: Title Page
I purchased the Cricut Disney Cartridge to cut most of the letters in these two albums. This cartridge also cut the Mickey Mouse silhouette.
Disney Vacation 2008: Title Page – Disney Maps
Disney Tip: Free Maps – The envelope that I glued to the inside album cover is actually a free set of very classy maps that you can order from Disney before your trip. I never take them on the trip because I don’t want for them to get destroyed. I ordered and received these ahead of time and actually gave them to my son at Christmas time as a gift as my way of revealing to him that we were going to go. You can order your own maps at http://customizedmaps.disney.go.com/
Disney Vacation 2008: Title Page – Disney Maps – Open
This is what one of the maps looks like open. They are printed on high quality paper and they look amazing. I wanted to make sure that these made it into the scrapbook, and what better way to do that than to put it right on the front cover!
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Digital Scrapbook – Disney 2010
Disney 2010 – Digital – Cover
I usually prefer handmade scrapbooks over digital scrapbooks because of my philosophy of scrapbooking that relies heavily on the inclusion of ephemera. However, there are occasions when creating a digital scrapbook is best. For me, this is usually when I want to create multiple copies for sharing with friends and family. I usually also create a handmade version to keep at home as well, but a digital scrapbook is a wonderful gift to give to the loved ones who shared an experience with you. In October of 2010 I was able to take my son and parents on a week long trip to Disney World. This was an unexpected trip as I was attending a conference and we decided to go last minute. My son and I had gone to Disney World in 2008 and I had created 2 full scrapbooks of that experience (I will post these soon), and I did not want to create a new set of Disney albums for this trip. So I opted to create a digital album and print an extra copy to give to my parents. I am not going to share all the pages here, but just show you the cover and an inside page so that you can get some idea of the capabilities of digital scrapbooking.
This scrapbook was made using Blurb.com and I was able to create it in about 3 hours. I like that you can print a full color cover with this album and fully manipulate designs and picture placement.
Disney 2010 – Digital – Epcot
Links:
Online Digital Scrapbook Companies
