Disneyland

May 22, 2018 by Sydney Leave a Comment

3 Disney Dollar Store Crafts You Can Make In 3 Minutes Or Less

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These fun crafts are perfect for any Disney lover, or to take on any Disney trip. You can make them in 3 minutes or less and they cost $3 or less too! SWEET!

Planning a trip to Disneyland or Disney World can be one of the most exciting things you do! It can also be one of the most expensive. As we have planned our trips in the past, I’ve decided early on what things I want to splurge on (hello Character Breakfast and all the yummy treats) and what things we can do without or save on (gifts at the park being #1). My go to store for getting supplies for trips is the Dollar Store and today I’m sharing with you 3 easy crafts you can make to save money before AND during your Disney trip!

I got everything for these crafts at my Dollar Tree. Wait, I forgot, the jars came from Target, but they were in the Dollar Spot and were $3 for a 3 pack. To make one each of these for all my kids I spent $10 total. The kids love them and I love that we are able to cut down on costs for our Disneyland Trip this summer.

If you’re looking to book a Disneyland or Disney World trip and money is tight, you can book your vacation for as little as $125 down with Get Away Today’s Layaway Program. You can also save an extra $10 on your vacation package when you use promo code TFRUGAL. There are a ton of great deals going on for the summer too and you can read all about them and Pixar Fest here. Now let’s get on to these crafts.

Mickey and Minnie Tumblers

These tumblers are so fun and perfect to take to the park with you. Disney parks offer free water at several locations throughout the park so these are a fun way to save money and avoid the kids asking for the character cups at the park. You can even customize each cup with names. This font is Walter and you can download it free on Dafont.

SUPPLIES:

Plastic Tumbler

Black and Red Vinyl (I used Adhesive Foil for the red)

Cricut Machine

Mickey and Minnie SVG Files (find the SVGS at the bottom of this post and click the picture you want to download the files)

PS Use code TFRUGAL10 at Cricut.com to save 10% and get FREE shipping!!

DIRECTIONS:

Open your Mickey and/or Minnie head in Design Space and size it for your cup if necessary. They should be 3″ wide and that fit perfectly for our cups.

Send to be cut.

Since these are so big, you don’t need to use transfer tape, just weed design and press on tumbler.

DIY Autograph Books

The last time we went to Disneyland, I looked up how much autograph books were at the park (because that was one of my favorite things as a kid) and I was shocked to see they were $10-$20. I couldn’t be spending $40-$60 on autograph books for my kids! I made these autograph books from IKEA notebooks a few years back and these are just as easy to make!

SUPPLIES:

Notebook and pen set

Disney Scrapbook Paper

Black Vinyl

Scotch Tape

Cricut Machine

Best Day Ever SVG (find the SVGS at the bottom of this post and click the picture you want to download the files)

DIRECTIONS:

Open your SVG file in Design Space and size it for your notebook. These notebooks are 3″ x 4.5″ so I made mine about 2.75″ wide.

Cut a piece of scrapbook paper to fit the cover (3″ x 4.5″).

Glue scrapbook paper to cover.

Cut your design out of vinyl, weed and use Scotch Tape to apply design to scrapbook paper. I use scotch tape for this because the transfer tape is so strong it will tear the paper when you lift it.

DIY Snow Globes

These little snow globes are perfect for the car ride or plane ride and at the park. My kids love to shake these up and look at the glitter over and over and over again. They are really good to hand to your little ones if they are starting to have a melt down – it seems to really calm them down.

SUPPLIES:

Small Jar

Disney Figure

Glitter

Water

Hot Glue Gun

DIRECTIONS:

Hot glue your figure to the inside of the lid.

Fill the jar to the top with water and add glitter.

Run hot glue around the inside rim of the lid and attach to the jar.

Tip up and shake.

If you want to see me make these LIVE, I’ll be on Facebook today, Tuesday May 22nd at 9:30AM with Get Away Today making all three crafts and talking about how to save money on your Disneyland vacation! I hope to see you then!

SVG FILES (click to download):

May 15, 2018 by Sydney Leave a Comment

Disneyland Themed Teacher Appreciation Week

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This post has everything you need to plan your Teacher Appreciation Week including decorations, gifts, activities and more!

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw the craziness that was Teacher Appreciation Week the last few weeks. It was just last week but we started prepping a few months ago and really started getting ready for it a few weeks ago. I’ve had a lot of requests on how we did everything and why we did everything so I thought it would be easiest to put everything in one place.

How To Know What To Do For Teacher Appreciation Week?

When we first started talking about Teacher Appreciation Week we decided on a theme. In the past, the school had done western, decades, favorite things and more but we wanted something different. One of the moms in our PTA meeting suggested Disneyland and we ran with it!

We first decided on the layout for decorations. Our school is a charter school and goes from grades K-9 and we have 4 halls. We assigned each hall a part of the park (Tomorrow Land, Fantasy Land, Frontier Land and Toon Town) and then made our main lobby Main Street USA. We (the PTA board and volunteers) were in charge of the main lobby and the room parents were in charge of decorating the doors for each hall. We sent an email out to the room parents letting them know their theme and when they needed to have their doors decorated by.

In the next meeting, we decided on what activities to do for the teachers, daily themes for gifts and final choices for the Main Street USA decorations.

How Can I Make Teacher Appreciation Week Flow Smoothly and Easily?

The first thing you’ll want to do is get help – lots of help. More help than you think you’ll need because life happens and it’s almost inevitable that you’ll have at least one person cancel for each activity/day.

Secondly, start planning well in advance. Our Teacher Appreciation Week was the first week in May and we started planning in March. By the time May rolled around, we had everything planned and ready to go.

Make getting supplies simple. Ask for donations from parents and make the least amount of trips as possible. We got all the supplies we needed (that weren’t donated) from Dollar Tree, Costco and Zurchers. Zurchers is a great place to get supplies for not only the decorations but for the gifts and activities too!

Now let’s get into the details of what made Teacher Apprecation Week so magical!

Decorations:

Doors:

We don’t have room parents for our Middle School classes so the middle school coordinator and I did the doors for our middle school teachers. We went with Star Wars theme for most of them and they were super easy to make thanks to my Cricut and Zurchers. Did you know Zurchers sells butcher paper?! I just found out and we went in and got several different colors for the doors. They rolled it up for us, then we came home and put together the doors. Then, when it came time to hang the doors, all we had to do was tape them to the doors… easy peasy right?!

I also made a door for our Kindergarten class and a few of the other Toon Town doors since I knew there were some that wouldn’t get decorated (like the aids’ rooms and director’s office).

Main Lobby (Main Street USA):

We designed our lobby just like Disneyland Main Street USA. We made train tracks out of electrical tape on the floor, had railroad crossing signs made out of PVC pipe and wood, a train made out of moving boxes and a HUGE 9 foot Castle.

One of the amazing moms came in and got measurements for our learning center’s doors and windows. She then went home and uploaded the dimensions into Illustrator and added a silhouette of the castle to fit. Then she cast the design with her projector on the wall and used black butcher paper from Zurchers to draw the castle in several smaller sections. We then taped it all together at the school and hung it up with packing tape.

Daily Gift Ideas/Themes:

In one of our meetings we came up with some fun daily themes for teacher gifts to make things a little more fun. We sent out a favorites list (you can download yours here) to all the room parents to give to their teachers and then distribute to all of the parents. We also sent out an email to all the parents with the daily themes. Here’s what we did:

Monday – You’re Teacher Is Incredible – Give Them Something To Power Through The Day

Tuesday – Your Teacher Is A Princess/Prince – Give Them Something Pampering (could be something like lotion/bath bomb, or something like their favorite treat just for them).

Wednesday – Your Teacher Is Goofy – Give Them Something Fun/Funny

Thursday – Mouse-ka-tools – Give Them Something They Can Use In Their Classroom

Friday – Your Teacher Is Out Of This World – Give Them A Stellar Gift.

We made sure the aids got gifts for each day too! Here is a list of what I got our teachers each day as well as what we got the aids.

Monday – I made our teachers these Teacher Fuel Tumblers and added a Sodalicious gift card and their favorite candy. For the aids we gave them a bottle of Gatorade with a granola bar tied to it.

Tuesday – The teachers got nail polish, nail files and $10 Lush gift card. For the aids I made cherry limeade lip scrubs (recipe coming on Thursday). I had some extra lip scrubs so I added them to the teachers gifts last minute.

Wednesday – I found these fun hair ties on Jane.com and got our teachers a set and a $10 Baked Bear gift card (they make AMAZING ice cream sandwiches). The aids got a small popcorn box from the dollar store filled with a bag of popcorn and candy bar.

Thursday – I made our teachers this fun bouquet with EXPO markers from The Happy Scraps. The aids got to pick a few school supplies out of a big basket we filled from the dollar store.

Friday – I went to one of my favorite stores, Lush, and got our teachers Twilight Bath Bombs and EOS lip balms with a gift tag that says You’re The Bomb. For the aids we made Wookie Cookies and gave them Cosmic Brownies.

Activities:

Here is the flyer that we handed out to the teachers. We also included a “punch pass” for the store (I’ll talk about that in a little bit) attached to a lanyard for them to use as their ‘fast pass’. We gave these to the teachers the Friday before Teacher Appreciation Week so they knew what to plan for.

For the breakfast on Monday, we created a sign up and parents brought in everything. We had plenty of extras, we were able to stock their break rooms for the whole week!

On Tuesday we did some of our favorite Disney treats – Churros and Cotton Candy! We ordered a box of frozen churros from Costco for just under $30 and rented a cotton candy machine and bought all the supplies for making cotton candy at Zurchers.

On Wednesday we made Dole Whips. This was my favorite treat of the week and I think it might have been the teachers favorite too!

On Thursday we held our school store. We got supplies from the dollar store (and some of us moms decluttered our house and craft stashes to bring new products for the teachers to buy). They used their punch passes to buy school supplies, beauty supplies, treats, books, movies and more.

Friday was everyone’s favorite day! We started the day by having Star Wars characters from some of the local groups come and welcome the kids into school. You can usually find these groups by searching Facebook and a lot of time they’ll come for free.

Then after school, we had a ‘Luke I’m Nacho Father Bar’ and handed out Jedi Training certificates (download yours FREE here) and candy light sabers.

We made these candy light sabers out of neon test tubes, filled with sixlets and wrapped with light saber wrappers one of our moms made. You can get all the supplies you need for these at Zurchers too.

All in all I would say this week was a total success. Was it a lot of work, yes! But totally worth it! Our teachers take care of our kids 40+ weeks out of the year and do so much for them – the least we could do was spoil them for 5 days.

Does your school go out for Teacher Appreciation Week too? Let me know what you do in the comments!

April 20, 2018 by Sydney Leave a Comment

Disneyland Pixar Fest: What You Should Know Before You Go

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If you’re planning a trip to Disneyland this summer, this post will help you get the most out of your vacation!

Photo Credit: Get Away Today

Have you heard of Pixar Fest yet?! If you’re going to Disneyland this year I’m sure you have! Pixar Fest is a 5 month takeover of the Disneyland parks with all things Pixar. It opened up on April 13th and runs through September 3rd, 2018. While most of Pixar Fest is open already to visitors there are some new additions coming later this year, like Pixar Pier (formally Paradise Pier) opening up the end of June.

What do you need to know about Pixar Fest other than it’s awesome?!

First, if you want to experience all Pixar Fest has to offer you’ll want to go during the summer months, after June 23rd when Pixar Pier opens. If you’re trip is planned before that there’s still lots of fun to be had so don’t fret! Even though the summer months are the busiest you can take advantage of longer park hours, MaxPass and beautiful weather to get the most out of your days.

So what is this Pixar Pier all about?!

Pixar Pier is a takeover of Paradise Pier with all new Pixar themed rides, entertainment and more. California Screamin’ will become The Incredi-Coaster, Triton’s Carousel will turn into Woody’s Roundup and all your favorite treats, games and more will become Pixar themed too. Remember Pixar Pier opens June 23rd.

What about the parades?!

Photo Credit: Get Away Today

Through Pixar Fest, the popular Paint The Night parade will still be happening over at California Adventure. And while the Pixar Play Parade has been at California Adventure in the past, it will take place over at Disneyland with quite a few new upgrades including new characters, routes and more!

The NEW Firework Show!

Yep, there is an all new firework show called Together Forever. You’ll be able to see the fireworks from around the park and there will be projections down Main Street, on Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, the Rivers of America, and It’s a Small World.

So what do I need to do before I go?!

Photo Credit: Get Away Today

You know that Disney doesn’t do anything half way – they go all out on everything! And that’s just what they’ve down with Pixar Fest. From new rides to new entertainment, souvenirs and more! You definitely want to start planning your trip now. And start saving if you can.

There is sure to be lots of fun Pixar themed treats, souvenirs and more that you’ll want to get to remember your trip. If you can plan multiple days at the park, it will be easier for the whole family to enjoy everything.

Many of Pixar’s movies are geared towards younger audiences so this a great time to take the younger kiddos to the parks to meet their favorite characters and experience their favorite movies in real life.

If money is tight, you can book your vacation package through Get Away Today with as little as $125 down and make payments as you can up until your vacation. Their travel agents are specially trained to help you get the most out of your vacation no matter what your budget.

Get Away Today also have deals throughout the summer including Extra Night Free at select hotels and 5th Day Park Hopper Passes for FREE! You can also use code TFRUGAL to save $10 off any hotel and ticket package.

In preparation for you trip, you can make some of your souvenirs ahead of time, like these autograph books that only cost $1! Check out this post for 10 things you can buy before your trip that cost less than $10 too!

So are you excited for Pixar Fest yet?! Our family sure is! Maybe we’ll see you there!

April 11, 2017 by Sydney 1 Comment

10+ Ways To Save Money At Disneyland

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Planning a trip to Disneyland is almost as exciting as going to the park. Here are 12 tips to help you save money before you go and while you’re at the park.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an adult or a kid; Disneyland is one of the funnest, if not THE funnest, place you can go on vacation. There is something magical about walking around the park, riding the rides and meeting the characters. As kids we never really realized how much time and money goes into planning those Disney trips. As a parent taking my kids I now know and appreciate my parents that much more! Here are a few things I’ve learned from our Disney trips that will help make your trip a little easier on your wallet.

FREE GIFT CARDS. You read that right; there is a way to get free Disney gift cards that you can use at the park! Have you noticed those cards that come inside Disney DVDs and Blu-Rays (the ones that have the code on them)? That code not only gives you the digital copy of your movie but it also gives you reward points (100 for DVDs, 150 for Blu-Rays) that you can use to buy merchandise at disneymovierewards.com. You can buy toys, movies and even gift cards that you can use at the Disney store, Disneyland or Disney World.

MAKE YOUR OWN AUTOGRAPH BOOKS. When I was younger one of my favorite things to do at Disneyland was meet the characters and get their autographs. The first time I took our boys I found out how expensive those autograph books were at the park so the next time I decided to make my own. You can check out the super easy tutorial here.

BUY PERSONALIZED SHIRTS BEFORE YOUR TRIP. This one not only saves you money from having to buy shirts at the park but it also helps keep track of everyone and if someone from the group gets separated it’s easy to describe what they have on. There are so many small shops on Etsy and Instagram that make Disney shirts with customization options too. My shop, Mahle’s Market, can do custom shirts for $17 for adults, $13 for kids and we offer FREE shipping!

BUY SOUVENIRS BEFORE GOING TO THE PARK. Just like the clothing and autograph books at Disneyland, toys, books and other souvenirs aren’t cheap. You can get the same official Disney gear at the Disney Store but for a fraction of the price. AND they are almost always running a sale. We got Mahle’s Belle dress for $9 a few months ago (regularly $30). You can either take the kids before your trip and let them pick out their own gift or surprise them with a souvenir once you get back to your hotel.

STAY AT A HOTEL THAT OFFERS FREE BREAKFAST AND EAT A BIG BREAKFAST. Not only does this save money at the park but it also saves time because you won’t have to stop as much to eat. When looking for hotels check to see which ones offer a free continental breakfast. They may be more than the ones who don’t but when you think about how much it costs to feed your family one meal in the park that extra $10-$20/night doesn’t sound too bad.

EAT LUNCH AT THE PARK. If you are going to eat at the park, make your biggest meal lunch. The lunch menus are more affordable and you still get SO much food!

FREE WATER BOTTLE FILLER STATIONS. Throughout the the park there are stations where you can fill water bottles up for free. Bring your own water bottle and have nice cool water to drink all day long.

FREE SPECIAL OCCASION PINS. If you’re going to Disneyland for a special occasion (birthday, honeymoon, anniversary, etc.) stop by City Hall to pick up your special button for FREE.

TAKE A HOTEL SHUTTLE, OR UBER, TO SAVE ON PARKING. Parking at Disneyland can be expensive. Like looking for a hotel that offers continental breakfast, look at the hotels that offer a free shuttle to and from the park too. This will save you $20+ per day.

GO WITH ANOTHER FAMILY AND SPLIT LODGING COSTS. If you have friends, or even family, you’re close with invite them to go to Disneyland with you too. There are a lot of hotels that offer multiple room suites, or condos you can rent, that are close to the park. Not only does it make the cost of the hotel stay less expensive but it makes the park a little more fun too! Who doesn’t want to spend a day with their friends at Disneyland?!

The Best Deals on Spring Break Vacations: If you're planning a vacation for Spring Break this post will give you some great resources of how to save money on some of this year's most popular destinations.

Photo Credit: Get Away Today

GO DURING THE OFF SEASON. Not only will there be less people but the tickets will be less expensive too! This post is a great reference for the the least busy times and lets you know what you can expect during each month.

BOOK WITH A TRAVEL AGENT TO GET THE BEST DEALS. My favorite is Get Away Today. They offer specials all year long, like Extra Night Free Hotel and Extra Day Free Disneyland Park Hopper Passes. When you use code TFRUGAL, or mention Tastefully Frugal when you call, you can save $10 on your vacation package too!

Now that you have a few ways to save money on your trip, it’s time to start planning! Want the chance to win a FREE 4 DAY TRIP TO DISNEYLAND?! Check out Friday’s post and enter for the chance to win a Southern California Vacation.

April 7, 2017 by Sydney 58 Comments

Copycat Disneyland Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Treats

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Make the popular Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Treats from Disneyland with a special ingredient PLUS enter to win a Disneyland Vacation!

Some of my favorite memories from Disneyland as a kid were meeting characters, riding the teacups, and eating all the fun Mickey Mouse shaped treats. I don’t know if it was because the ice cream bars looked like Mickey Mouse or maybe Disney uses a special kind of chocolate but those bars are seriously the best treat ever! We don’t make it to Disneyland as often as I would like so I decided to try to make these tasty ice cream bars at home. AND so you can see how good the real deal is I’ve teamed up with Get Away Today to give one of you a Southern California Vacation! Details will be at the end of the post.

But first let’s talk about these ice cream bars. Not only are these fun to eat, but they are fun to make too. And it’s something the kids can help with. After several failed attempts I learned a few things about making chocolate covered ice cream treats. So to save you the headache of upset kids not getting their treats let me tell you what I learned.

First, use an ice cream that freezes hard. The first two times I tried to make these my ice cream melted quickly and I was left with a puddle of milk where my popsicle should have been. I found Blue Bunny was the best to work with.

Second, you want to let your chocolate cool for a few minutes before pouring them over the ice cream. I also used coconut oil to thin out the chocolate so that it was more runny and so that the chocolate would solidify quicker. I used about 1/2 tbsp of coconut oil for every 1/2 cup of chocolate and it worked perfectly.

You can make as many as 10 bars from one tub of ice cream. But make sure to put your Mickey shaped bars in the freezer right after you take them off your cookie cutter, before you make another, so they don’t melt.

Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Treats

2017-04-06 23:07:45

Yields 10

Write a review

Save Recipe

Prep Time

2 hr 5 min

Cook Time

1 min

Total Time

2 hr 6 min

Prep Time

2 hr 5 min

Cook Time

1 min

Total Time

2 hr 6 min

Ingredients

1 Tub Vanilla Ice Cream
1 Package Melting Chocolates
Coconut Oil
Mickey Mouse Cookie Cutter
1-2" Tall Dish
Cookie Sheet
Parchment Paper
Popsicle Sticks

Instructions

Spread ice cream into a 1-2" tall dish (I used a pie pan).
Cut out Mickey head shaped ice cream bars with cookie cutter.
Place popsicle stick into bottom of mickey shaped ice cream.
Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper and place ice cream treats on paper.
Freeze for 1 hour.
Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between. Continue until chocolate is completely melted.
Stir in coconut oil to make chocolate runny.
Remove ice cream bars from freezer and pour chocolate over them.
Put chocolate covered bars back in the freezer for 1 hour.

By Sydney Andersen

Tastefully Frugal http://tastefullyfrugal.org/

Now that you’ve seen how I make my favorite Disneyland treat at home check out how a few of my blog buddies make their favorites too!

Hand Dipped Corndogs from Dessert Now, Dinner Later

Clam Chowder Bread Bowl from Kleinworth & Co.

Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Treats from Tastefully Frugal

Monte Cristo Sandwich from See Lindsay

Churro Funnel Cake from Artsy Fartsy Mama

Pumpkin Mickey Mouse Beignets from Clarks Condensed

BLT Waffle Fries from Old House To New Home

Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwiches from Love To Be In The Kitchen

Carrot Cake Cookies from Cupcake Diaries

Caramel S’mores from My Latina Table

Mickey Marshmallow Wand from Liz On Call

Dole Whip Popsicles from Bite Of Delight

Dole Whips from Girl Loves Glam

Mint Julep Slush from As The Bunny Hops

Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas from Pretty Providence

Mickey Mouse Cake Pops from Play Party Plan

Mac’n’Cheese Pizza from Over The Big Moon

Mickey Mouse Beignets from Housewife Eclectic

AND enter to win a chance to try all these tasty treats in person at Disneyland yourself! One lucky winner will receive:

4 Day/3 Night Hotel Stay in Anaheim or San Diego (winner’s choice)
2 Adult and 2 Kids Tickets to TWO Southern California Parks (winner’s choice)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway is sponsored by Get Away Today. Open to US Residents only. Giveaway will run from Friday, April 7th to Friday, April 14th. Winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond.

February 25, 2016 by Sydney Leave a Comment

10 Things You Need For Your Disney Trip Under $10

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If you have a trip planned to Disney these 10 items are a must and they are all under $10!

Going to Disneyland (and Disney World) is such an exciting time! When we went 2 years ago I felt there was so much I wanted to do or get before we went that it was a little stressful to say the least. There are so many cute Disney things available these days; unless you have an endless supply of money the choices can be overwhelming. Today I want to share with you 10 super cute, useful Disney musts for any trip and the best part… They are all under $10!

Before the trip:

Disneyland Vacation Planning Stickers 38 for $5.75 Get your planner in the spirit of your trip with these super cute stickers!

Disneyland/World Pre-Trip Planner $5 This is such a great way to stay organized for your trip. There are over 10 pages including room for hotel accommodations, dinner reservations, characters you want to meet and more!

Disney Nail Decals 50 for $2.99 Don’t forget to dress your nails up for your trip too! There’s enough to do your nails and all the girls going with you too!

Personalized Disney Iron On $4.25 Make shirts for your Disney trip! You get to choose the name, color and more!

We’re Going To Disneyland Lucky Penny $5.99 Remember the special time you told the kids about your trip with this Mickey Mouse Lucky Penny

During the trip:

Disneyland Activity Book $4.99 If you are going to Disneyland with little ones you NEED this book. It’s 66 pages full of park info, coloring pages, activities and more. A printed version is coming soon too (and it’s under $10 too)!

Secrets of Disneyland Book $8.95 Learn about secret areas, take fun quizzes and more in this ultimate guide to Disneyland.

Sleeping Beauty Castle Button Earrings $5.50 Cute earrings are a must right?! I just love these fabric button earrings and they will go with almost any outfit!

Personalized Disney Backpack $10 Keep everyone’s things together and have a fun way to carry things around the park in these personalized backpacks.

Make Your Own Disney Autograph Books $1 I created these books for our Disney trip and they were a hit (even with the characters). Autograph books at the park can be upwards of $20 but using a small notebook from IKEA I created my own for just $1.

BONUS:

Mickey Mouse Leggings or Harem Pants $15 I have a super talented friend that makes leggings and she has created these leggings and harm pants for Disney lovers. I personally have bought her products before and they are great quality!!

20″ Elsa Doll $7.99 (Deal expires 2/28) If you have a Frozen fan don’t miss this deal on a HUGE Elsa doll!

For tips on how to travel on a budget check out this post:

10 Tips For Traveling On A Budget

Still planning your Disney trip? Check out Get Away Today for all your vacation needs. They have a ton of great deals going now including Adult Tickets at Kid Prices, Free Nights at select hotels and HUGE savings at Disneyland hotels with the new Star Wars Awakens. Plus you can book your vacation now for just $125 and make payments until you go! Click here to learn more.

I received a copy of the Disneyland Activity Book in exchange for my review. All opinions are mine alone.

October 29, 2014 by Sydney 18 Comments

Make Your Own Disney Autograph Books for $1

Some posts may contain affiliate links. For more information please see the disclosure page.

Going to Disneyland can be such a magical experience. I remember as a kid, the excitement I had walking up to the gates and in through the Disney castle. We lived about 30 minutes from Disneyland until I was 6 so we went quite a bit; but every time I always got just as excited as the last. One thing you don’t realize as a kid, well maybe you do but I never realized it, was how expensive Disneyland can be.

We took our boys their last week during our vacation to California and, though a lot has changed since the last time I went twenty years ago, I still got a giddy feeling in my stomach riding the tram to the gate. But this time I realized how expensive things were. And how kids want EVERYTHING they see! Big Disney Balloon $15, Stuffed Mickey $40, Bottle of water $3. Lucky for us, we went for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party so there was plenty of trick or treating and other activities to keep them distracted from wanting everything they saw.

One of my fondest memories of our Disneyland trips were getting all the characters’ autographs. I remember picking out my soft-covered booking, a special pen and then waiting in line to get Minnie or Daisy’s autograph. I still have that book, packed away in storage somewhere, but it was something I wanted my boys to experience to. Before the trip, being the ~~cheap~~ frugal mom I am, I looked online to see how much those books were. They cost anywhere from $10-$20! And I had to get two!! No thank you, I could find a much better way to spend $40 (like buying 2 slices of pizza, chips and a drink while we were there, but that’s another story). We were doing this trip on a budget and I just couldn’t justify spending that kind of money on something as small as a book.

So I decided to make them! You may remember the spañita I talked about at The Spa Party I went to a few weeks back. Well part of the loot I grabbed were a few of these Farggrann notebooks. They are the perfect size for little hands and would be great to use for the autograph books. The price tag was even better free! If you don’t have any on hand they are only $.99 so they will fit into almost any budget! So I grabbed my Mala pens and set to work creating the books!

Now God blessed me with many talents, art and drawing were not on that list. I pulled up the Disney logo on Google and probably sat there for 45 minutes trying to perfect it. Finally I had enough confidence to try it on the book. The Mala pens were actually not dark enough, which was perfect because I could draw the design and then use a wet cloth to erase any mistakes. So I ended up using a silver Sharpie to finish them. And there you have it. Less than an hour (less than 15 minutes if you can draw) and less than $1 and you have yourself a perfect Disney autograph book!

Even Goofy was a fan!

Do you have any fun Disney traditions? I would love to hear about them!

See how we do Disney on a budget here. And don’t forget to use code TFRUGAL for $10 off your vacation package!

Mickey and Minnie Tumblers

SUPPLIES:

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DIY Autograph Books

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DIY Snow Globes

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SVG FILES (click to download):

How To Know What To Do For Teacher Appreciation Week?

How Can I Make Teacher Appreciation Week Flow Smoothly and Easily?

Decorations:

Doors:

Main Lobby (Main Street USA):

Daily Gift Ideas/Themes:

Activities:

What do you need to know about Pixar Fest other than it’s awesome?!

So what is this Pixar Pier all about?!

What about the parades?!

The NEW Firework Show!

So what do I need to do before I go?!

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