WDW 2011 – Crafts and things…

For the trip – mom and I were absolutely smitten with about 1000 ideas from the DISboards for planning, and crafts, and all sorts of fun extras.

Sadly, many had to fall by the wayside. Some I got halfway done… All source images ©Disney where applicable.

Penny tubes – I DID get a mini m&m tube for keeping my clean pennies and quarters for the machines. This was a GREAT tip. It was always handy, and made it a lot more fun to stop at every machine. I didn’t however manage to get a custom label printed out for it.

Vintage pennies – I read to make sure to collect all pre-1980 pennies as these had the most copper and press better. We had seen before when using presses that randomly they would have a smeared look to them. I never considered it was the mix of metals being used in current pennies that was causing this. I can attest that the older pennies are gorgeous out of the press!

Clean penny tip – Use ketchup. This worked perfect, and I only managed to get to it last minute. Just as we headed out the door, I snatched a ziplock bag, the collection of pennies I’d set aside, and covered them in Muer Glen organic ketchup. Since it’s an organic mix, I figured the acidity would be a bit higher from the greater tomato concentration. After an hour of sitting in the bag while we drove to drop off the car, I gave them a rinse and whoo-weee, they were CLEAN! A quick baking soda paste buff to get some shine, and I had the best pennies ever for Disney.

Luggage tags – this was partly for fun, and partly for necessity. There was a great deal on carry-on sized luggage and both my parents and we all got the same make, model, and color of luggage. To have an easy way to identify them, and have a fun Disney themed accessory, I made up luggage tags. I looked up what the average size tag was, then in photoshop put together 4 different tags. Each had a chosen Disney character to represent us, along with contact info.

This worked out REALLY well – as it only took a second to see what picture was on which bag to know whose was whose! Luckily – Chris has connections at Office Depot and what we did was get two of each image printed, and then laminated back to back with the heaviest plastic they had. This meant no matter which way the card got flipped, you could see the details. Lastly, I used a hole punch and some hair bands to attach them to a zipper pull. (It was what I had handy… )

Things I TRIED to get done:

An autograph book: There are seriously some adorable templates/ideas on the boards for this. Sadly, I forgot about putting it together and ended up buying one at the first park.

Passport: I actually didn’t remember this until I saw someone getting a stamp in Germany… doh!

“Mousekeeping” envelopes: This I was going to make for mom, as really, I don’t tip housekeeping (and doubt it’s expected) anywhere else I stay for one thing. For another, I never GET housekeeping anywhere either. I’d much rather just grab some extra towels mid-week as needed. I don’t need my bed made for me, nor want other people touching my stuff. I bring all my essentials such as shampoo so… no point. >.< Just how I am.

Mouse bokeh kit: Ok quick explanation – the cool blurred out orbs of light you see in the background of some photos is referred to as bokeh. There are ways to make that light conform to a shape by adding a cutout to your camera lens.

So what I tried to do is make one in the shape of Mickey’s head but kind of put it a little too last minute and I didn’t have something durable to use in the parks.

A quick shot of my Christmas tree lights: