Saturday, March 30, 2013

DIY Disney Tote Bags











Breaking up is hard to do, and it's always hardest when we have to say goodbye to Walt Disney World. We all tend to be tired and cranky, and we usually like to maximize our time there, so we are leaving on the last plane home - our friends like to call it the Disney Express. It's a plane filled with other tired, cranky, bloody stumps of people. I think it's incredibly important to have a little something special for the ride home.


I decided to make these cute little tote bags for each kid for "leaving day." I filled them with homemade Rice Krispie treats, a game to pass the time, and a few other little treats I found along the way. If you have a dining plan with snacks left on it, this is a great way to use them up. Stop by any gift shop and pick up bags of pretzels or other packaged goodies that fit within the plan.

For the tote bags I used Transfer MAGIC's Inkjet Transfer Paper for Light Colored, Light Weight Fabrics. I still got a plasticy finish to the transfer, but on the canvas bags, it was fine. The images are from the same series of vintage Disney poster images through Nukes at Etsy. These are top quality and big, so at a dollar an image, you can't go wrong. I used Photoshop to size and reverse the image for transfer. If you have text on your image, DON'T FORGET TO REVERSE your design before you print!

I found these tote bags fairly inexpensively at Hobby Lobby. I found a 4 pack for $8.00. (If you use your 40% off coupon, they are really a steal!) They are 100% cotton canvas, and the iron-on paper worked beautifully on them. Since I already had the transfer paper they were only $3.00 a bag. That's a price I can live with!

Leaving The Mouse is never easy, but a little goodie bag can help ease the transition home. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!



Thursday, March 28, 2013

DIY Mickey Mouse Chocolates

 This project is sinfully easy. I tend to make these for our trips, but they could easily be used as party favors, holiday treats, or simple every day magic makers.

We have a couple food allergies to deal with in the Cottage: nuts and food dyes cause a major inconvenience when it comes to sweets. Halloween and Easter provide particular challenges. Of course one of our elves can't have nuts, another can't have synthetic dyes - so most manufactured candy is out. Our first Easter of restrictions at the Cottage I was panicky. What sort of sweets could I put in their baskets? I decided to try making my own chocolates, as I could be certain it was completely nut-free. (One caveat: the Wilton candy is made on machines that also make products with nuts. Our nut allergy is not severe enough to warrant avoiding this. As always, use your best judgement when selecting your base chocolate.) I was shocked to find how easy this is. Seriously, if you haven't tried it, you really should. And the payoff is awesome! Innocent bystanders are always really impressed with them. No one has to know it's this simple; I won't say anything if you don't.



Here's what you'll need:

  • 1 bag of Wilton Candy Melts (Dark Cocoa, Chocolate and White are all dye-free) - you could 
  • also use a bag of chocolate chips, but they are a tad harder to melt without going too far
  • a microwave safe container for melting candy
  • a spoon
  • a candy mold - think outside the box with this, they don't have to be Mickey, they could be crowns, or castles, or stars, or anything that invokes a bit of Disney magic for your family
Follow the directions on the back of the package for melting the chocolate, usually 1 minute on 50% power, stir, and then 30 second increments, stirring in between, until chocolate is throughly melted. Spoon into molds, rap molds on counter to make sure chocolate gets into all the crevasses and all air bubbles are released, and cool. That's it! Once cool remove carefully. I often put mine in the refrigerator (even though the package says not to) so they will come out of the mold more easily. I've never met a kid that wouldn't eat the candy because it was too cloudy.

I used candy bags that you can find in the Wilton aisle of your local craft store for package these up. And for those who are curious, I found this candy mold on Ebay months and months ago. Have fun whipping up all sorts of sweet goodies for your little elves, or you next trip! Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

DIY Hollywood Brown Derby Grapefruit Cake

This is my go-to cake recipe. I know, the grapefruit sounds really weird. I hear that you either love it, or you hate it. I happen to love it. And at every event I've taken it to or served it for, it has been a roaring success. I first ran across it in a copy of Flour, Butter, Sugar, Eggs (which appears to be out of print, but still available through Amazon). I didn't even realize you could get it at Disney until a few years ago. This is a photograph of the slice I had during our lunch with an Imagineer in October 2012. THAT was as amazing as this cake. (If you've never done this and your family is full of Disney geeks, this is SO the event for you. We were with 10 others who were just as geeked out as we were. Squee!)

The Grapefruit Cake very dense and the frosting is of the cream cheese variety. I also tend to like my sweets a little less sweet and a little more savory or tangy. So there you have it. If you like a dense cake with cream cheese frosting, give this recipe a try. It could really surprise you. I think it's the perfect thing for Easter brunch. Oh, and I make two cakes so my layers aren't super thin. Here's the recipe:

Disney's Hollywood Studios Grapefruit Cake:

Ingredients:
1-1/2 C sifted cake flour
3/4 C sugar
1-1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 C water
1/4 C vegetable oil
3 eggs separated
3 T grapefruit juice
1/2 t grapefruit zest
1/4 t cream of tartar

Prepare:
Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into mixing bowl. Make a well in center of dry ingredients. Add water, oil, egg yolks, grapefruit juice, and lemon rind. Beat until smooth. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar separately, until whites are stiff but not dry. Gradually pour egg yolk mixture over whites, folding gently with a rubber spatula until just blended. Do no stir the mixture. Pour into an ungreased pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 min., or until cake springs back when lightly touched with a finger. Invert pan on cake rack until cool. Run spatula around edge of cake. Carefully remove from pan.

Yield 4-6 portions

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:
2 6-oz packages of cream cheese
2 t lemon juice
1 t lemon zest
3/4 C powdered sugar
1 16 oz can grapefruit sections (or one grapefruit, sectioned)

Prepare:
Let cream cheese soften at room temperature. Beat cheese until fluffy. Add lemon juice and zest. Gradually blend in sugar. Beat until well blended. Crush several grapefruit sections to measure 2 T. Blend into frosting (this makes it so pretty!). Spread frosting on bottom half of cake, cover with second layer of cake. Frost top and sides. Garnish with grapefruit sections.

It's a bit of work, but SO worth it! Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Saturday, March 23, 2013

DIY Finding Nemo Outfit

For our last trip, Happy had completely outgrown all the pants and Ts from the year before. I decided he needed a pair of Nemo pants and a matching shirt for our day in Epcot. One should look his best when he meets Crush for the first time!

As before, and because I love, love, love, this pattern, I made Anna Marie Horner's Quick Change Trousers (size 18 mos. this time). I love how all the seaming gets hidden with the reversible design. And all is not lost if, say, a Mickey Ice Cream Bar gets dropped on them. Just wipe 'em up as best you can, flip 'em in-side-out and carry on: a momma's dream. I found both fabric's at JoAnn's. I think they are both the store brand.

To make the T-shirt, I imported clip art of Dory I found on-line into a Silhouette SD file. The font is Findet Nemo. If you decide to do something similar, remember to reverse the image in the Object > Transform menu (I used "flip horizontally"). I then printed it onto Print 'n Press Iron-on Transfer paper for Inkjet Printers (by june tailor) - don't love the shiny quality of the iron-on, but the transfer was perfect. Next time I would have the Silhouette cut out Dory and I would cut out the text myself before transferring. Live and learn, right? Also, after one washing the image was cracked and wrinkly. If you want the t-shirt to last I highly recommend using Lesley Riley's TAP Transfer Artist Paper. The results of this are far superior to anything else I've tried.

Again, I can't say enough about the Quick Change Trousers. I wash the dickens out of them and they have lasted through two kids! And the more pairs I make, the faster I can whip them up. Definitely a nap time friendly project. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!



Thursday, March 21, 2013

Disneyland Snickerdoodle Knockoff Recipe

Sometimes it seems like a really long time between visits; that's when a little kitchen magic can really come in handy. I found this Disneyland Main Street Bakery Snickerdoodle knock-off recipe on Pinterest and decided a rainy afternoon was the perfect time for a little Disney pick-me-up. The family was happy to oblige!

It was simple to make them into Mickey heads. Instead of rolling only one ball, I rolled one larger and two smaller balls and laid them out on the cookie sheet as such. I tried not to smash the ears on too much, as they do spread in the oven.

They took a little longer to assemble than regular snickerdoodles would, so I was able to assemble one pan while the other was baking. It was just about the perfect amount of time. Be sure to let the cookies cool just a bit on the pan before moving them to the cooling racks - we lost a couple ears by being impatient! (Although, it was a good excuse for an early taste!) My apprentice chef became quite good at rolling and pressing out the Mickeys.

One small deviation from the recipe - I like a lot of cinnamon sugar on my snickerdoodles, so we employed the Joy of Cooking technique of rolling each ball of cookie dough in a bowl of cinnamon sugar, instead of sprinkling the tops as the original recipe suggests. A personal preference, but worth it, in my humble opinion.

And because someone will ask, the WDW serving tray was one of my parents' first souvenirs. It lived in our motor home until it died and now it comes out whenever we need a little shot of Disney magic! Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Disney DIY Flip Book: Spinner Page


As I have mentioned before, one of my tactics for enjoying Walt Disney World is curtailing the complaining when it comes to waiting. Our kids seem to be particularly adept at complaining in "the happiest place on earth." Of course, there is a direct link from tired to whiny. Something to thoughtful consider when planning your fun. In my vigilant attempt to keep the whining at bay, I created a flip book for our kids to use in the parks this year. It was a time-consuming project, but the prospect of happy children made it worth the effort. (You could always skip the flip book and just make one of these to have on hand, if you wanted to make it easier on yourself!)

For this page, I created a waiting game spinner. It was incredibly simple using Photoshop, card stock, cardboard, and some spinner arrows I found here, but you could just google "4-inch arrow spinners" and see what you come up with; I like to shop around for the best deal.

I made this the last page of the flip book, so it could adhere to the sturdy cardboard cover. Once I had created my spinner in Photoshop, I sized it to my flip book (5x7) and printed as many copies as I needed (8). May I humbly recommend that you make at least one extra? These tend to have a way of falling out monorail window vents, over balconies, and the like. (Not that those things happened to us.)

Inserting the spinner was a little tricky. I would recommend punching a hole in the paper and then cutting extra slits around the hole to get the large base flat against the back of the paper. This way, your spinner will spin freely. (If you look closely at the photo on the left you can see the slits.) You can always practice this on a scrap piece of paper first.

Ta-da! You now have a boredom buster at your fingertips - just don't forget it in the room! And if you'd like to use my spinner page, you can download it here for free.


Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Saturday, March 16, 2013

A Disney St. Patrick's Day

We love to celebrate St. Patrick's Day here in the cottage; with several birthdays falling on the 17th, it's become a big celebration! But when it comes to Disney, it's a little trickier to find some Irish magic; however, not impossible. Now some of you may be tempted to go in the direction of Brave, the new pixar movie. And for those of us not familiar with the politics of the UK, we might get away with it. But let us not forget that Brave takes place in Scotland. And there is NO celebration of St. Patrick and his roots anywhere in Scotland. They have their own patron saint to celebrate.

That being said, there is an old and dare we say, obscure, Disney movie that IS quite Irish: Darby O-Gill and the Little People. This is a live action film from 1959, and a regular part of my childhood movie viewing. It was just the slightest bit scary (there is a banshee and a death wagon) and still full of enchantment. Exactly the sort of thing Disney was known for in our house. (Think Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.) If you are interested in this little known, and often disregarded, part of Disney history, this is just the right thing for your St. Patrick's Day celebrations. It is available through Amazon, as well as on Netflix, but only as a DVD. And if the obscurity of it in not enough to convince you, this little gem has the added benefit of starring Sean Connery as a young man. You just never know what you're gonna get when the Walt Disney Studios gets involved!

Tomorrow we'll raise a glass to St. Patrick as we sing along with Sean Connery, Darby O'Gill, & the Little People. Perhaps you will too. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

DIY Disney Monorail Scavenger Hunt Cards

I've always had a love-affair with the monorail system in Walt Disney World. It's magical in it's own right, and such a cool way to travel! As a kid I longed to stay in the Contemporary Resort so we could see the monorail swishing through the concourse on a regular basis.

And as a kid, we always played a monorail version of the license plate game, keeping track of the different colors we'd seen. Today there are twelve monorails operating in WDW. Rarely are they all on-line at once. But if you are lucky, you could see most of the following: Red, Orange, Yellow, Gold, Peach, Coral, Green, Lime, Blue, Teal, Silver and Black.

In the spirit of making the most of our wait time (there can be A LOT of wait time in Disney, depending on your travel dates), I created these scratch-off cards for the kids in our party. I used a heavy card stock to print these, and I would recommend making several extras as you may need them for those adults kids who tend to lose theirs in the parks, or for a learning curve with the scratch-off paint.

Then, I used this tutorial from Artmind to make scratch-off paint. A couple of tips regarding the scratch-off paint: 1.) It bubbled up when I applied it, but most of the bubbles went away as it dried. The more you agitate the paint, the more bubbles you will get. 2.) A lighter color of paint is recommended. I used copper and it didn't scratch off cleanly - as you can see in the photo below. The gold was much better.

To create the actual card, I used a scanned image of the monorail from a promotional Disney flyer. You may want to clean up the edges of the image in Photoshop. To create the different colored monorails, I selected the color stripe so it could be changed to the different colors I needed. Due to copyright laws, I can do this for my own personal use, but not, I am sorry to say, to distribute it to others. Therefore, I cannot offer you a PDF as I would like to. I can, however, refer you to my March 5th post about how to select an image and create a PNG from your own photo, & this tutorial on how to select an area of a scanned image in Photoshop and change its color. It was much easier than it sounds. Give it a try. And remember that if you are scaling down your image significantly, you will not have to be so worried about little detail areas that don't look right on a larger scale. Some of them just disappear. Don't stress yourself out about the little things.

Of course, it was only logical that each kid got a pressed penny to use as a scratch-off tool! The edge was perfect for removing the paint. I hope you give this scavenger hunt a try. We had a blast using them. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Disney DIY Invitation to Cinderella's Royal Table

We love a good character meal and nothing beats Cinderella's Royal Table for us. Snagging a reservation can be tricky, but with some planning and flexibility (two essential items when Disney-ing), a good time can still be had by all. If you're trying to book for a large party, be sure to call exactly 180 days before your reservation. You can book for anytime during your reservation, but you have to wait until 180 days before the first day of your stay. Also, start calling a few minutes before 7 a.m. We also try and have at least two people calling at the same time. It's worked for us several times.

We are also fond of surprises and like to keep a few things from the kids until we are at the resort. This year, we managed to get a breakfast reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table for 14! But we kept the kids in the dark until the morning of our character meal. That morning Tinkerbell delivered special invitations to join Cinderella & her Fairy Godmother for breakfast. You should have seen how motivated they were to get out the door!

This castle card from Silhouette (design id #9356) was perfect for the invitation. It didn't take long at all to whip out one for each villa (there were 3 families on this trip). And those of us who are a scrapbookers have a cute, unique embellishment for our Royal Table spreads! (Quick tip about cutting very thick card stock - use the double cut option on the cut settings page. SOO much easier to pop out the pieces!)

If you are planning a trip to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, this would also be a fabulous way to invite your child to their magical experience, a la Tiffini Porter. Read her article over at Passporter.com on how she surprised her boys (yes, BOYS) with a special invitation to be knighted. So cool!

Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Saturday, March 9, 2013

DIY Disney Laugh Floor Props

This is a fun little project that you can accomplish during your little one's nap time. (Around this cottage, we appreciate what little time we have!) We usually travel with a large group of people to the parks. This makes for a lot of fun when you wind up on the Laugh Floor in Tomorrowland. Our people are camera junkies, so naturally they all want to end up with their jokes being told and their mugs on the screen. The "monsters" who operate the Laugh Floor are looking for anything just a bit unusual - or easy to make fun of. We tend to cater to that esthetic.

If your crew wants to get noticed on the Laugh Floor, try making these adorable Monster Mouths. And if you happen to need a Monsters Inc. font, check out Font Meme. You can type in your text and save it as a png. Love it!

I used my Silhouette SD for this project, and design id #29673 (4 Monster Mouths). One thing I love about the Silhouette is that each image is only $0.99. And bonus: this image id actually includes 4 images for the same price. It's SO much more affordable than other systems that require you to buy a package of images even when you are only interested in one or two. 

Tutorial

You will need:

white card stock
Silhouette design #29673
Popsicle sticks
Double-sided tape
Silhouette SD (or Cameo)

1. Download your image; it should already be sized appropriately. Ungroup the image and layer all the pieces so you have them assembled as in the download image.


2. Fill in the colors you want your mouths to be by selecting the paint bucket tool. I used the same color scheme that was used in the image, but have fun with it. Maybe your crew is more Sully than Mike.


3. Use the group tool to group each mouth once you have the colors the way you want them. 

4. Select the scissor tool at the top of the page and select cut edge. This will ensure that you're cutting around the mouth instead of cutting out all the pieces of the mouth.


5. You are ready to print and cut! I always like to use the registration marks, because I know my machine with cut it exactly the way I want it to.

6. Once your mouths are cut out, use a little bit of double-sided tape on the back to hold the popsicle stick in place. I would actually recommend leaving one side of the tape covered and assembling these the morning you are going to the parks. Not only will it be fun for the kiddos, but you'll have some fun photo ops on the way there and back.


We hope you enjoy these funny little faces, and thanks to Doc for humoring me with these photos. As always, may your days be filled with fairy dust!


Thursday, March 7, 2013

Disney DIY Flip Books: Ideas

One of my tactics for enjoying Walt Disney World is curtailing the complaining when it comes to waiting. Our kids seem to be particularly adept at complaining in "the happiest place on earth." Of course, there is a direct link from tired to whiny. (Something to thoughtfully consider when planning your fun.) In my vigilant attempt to keep the whining at bay, I created a flip book for our kids to use in the parks this year. It was a time-consuming project, but the prospect of happy children made it worth the effort.
Rapunzel at Cinderella's Castle declaring,
"These are awesome. Let's do one of these!"

When making these, there are several ways to use what is already out there on the Internet. I used these ideas to create pages for our trip. I simply made sure to print any images at the size I wanted (in my case, 5x7).

  • Customized Bingo Cards - Use MAGIC instead of BINGO. I made a Bingo game for our Character Meal, but you could use it for anything you can dream up.
  • Customized Word Search - put all your names in it plus your favorite characters, parks, etc.
  • Coloring Pages - simply google "Disney coloring pages" and you'll have plenty to choose from.
  • Puzzle Pages - my kids were always more interested in puzzles than coloring. If this is the case for your mouseketeers, google "Disney puzzle pages" for a huge selection.
  • Sticker Sheets - keep an eye out in the dollar section of your favorite store for these.
  • Mad Libs - you can make your own or find a related book. We happened to find a Star Wars book that was perfect for us.
  • Jokes for the Laugh Floor & Monster Mouths - to be mentioned next time!
  • Monorail Scratch-Off Scavenger Hunt - coming soon to this very blog!
  • Boredom Buster Spinners - coming soon!
  • Blank Pages - even my non-autograph-seeker was happy to use this book for autographs at character meals; anything to keep those characters around just a bit longer!
There are all sorts of things you can do to make these books special. I like to personalize them as much as possible for our travel crew and our trip. Since we were traveling in October, I tried to make these look a little like spell books, and of course, I included many Halloween-y pictures and activities.

When it came to binding them, I used a Zutter machine (which I already had), but you could just as easily take the elementary teacher's route and use 2 or 3 binder rings. It doesn't have to be expensive, just chock full of fun! And for the curious, my cover design was made using the Silhouette Fancy Label Set, design id #20334 and the font Beyond Wonderland. I created the Mickey head using the circle tool.

Many kids carry around autograph books; these are simply another way to stay occupied in-between the big fun. One last suggestion: these should in no way encumber you further as you comb the parks. Make it the responsibility of your child to carry (or find a safe place in the stroller) for his/her book.

Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

DIY Disney Digital Scrapbook Embellishments

There seems to be a wealth of Disney related scrapbooking products on the market, that is, until you start looking for something for your digital scrapbook. Perhaps it's the fear of copyright infringement, or the small market. Whatever the cause, I have difficulty finding new Disney embellishments for our annual trips. I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I happen to live with an incredible Disney photographer, who is well aware of my passion for scrapping. For years, he has been taking photos for his awesome blog, Photos From The Parks. (You should follow his blog. It'll get you through till your next trip.) I have been the lucky beneficiary of said photos for some amazing scrapbook pages. And when I was looking for something special for my Polynesian spread, I realized he had taken exactly the photo I needed to create my own page embellishment. 

If you're a digital scrapbooker, chances are you are somewhat familiar with Photoshop (or Elements). I realize "familiar" has a wide spectrum. I'll try to make this as simple as I can. This tutorial uses CS5 on a Mac.

Tutorial:

I would recommend starting with a copy of a digital photo of an icon or sign that has very simple edges. Cleaning up an intricate image can be time consuming and a bit frustrating. Simple shapes are easier to use. I suggest a copy so that if the worst happens and you have to just delete and start over, you haven't lost your original. I speak from experience. And remember, you can always hit [Command+Z] to undo.

1. Open your image in Photoshop. Check to see if the image is locked (there will be a small padlock icon next to your image in the layers palette if it is). If it is locked, click on the image in the layers palette and drag it onto the paper icon (create a new layer) - circled in yellow in the picture below. This should create a duplicate image with no lock. You can now drag the locked layer into the trash (circled in red).

2. Using your quick selection tool (circled in red in the picture below), click on the image you want to use. You should see "marching ants" - a dotted moving line - around the image. If it didn't select all that you wanted, just continue clicking on the areas it should select until everything you want has been enclosed. 

You will notice that the tool didn't select it perfectly and added a bit of white space I don't want (circled in yellow in the image above). That's fine. It will easily be edited out later. Don't worry about it.

3. To get rid of the rest of the image, use the shortcut [Command+Shift+I] - this will invert the marching ants and you should now see them around your selected image and the perimeter of the original image. Hit delete. You should now see just your selected image and a transparent background.

4. To get rid of the marching ants, click on the Marqee tool (circled in red below) and then click on your image. The marching ants should now be gone.


5. Now we need to clean up the edge of this image, specifically the part I've circled in yellow above.

6. Zoom in on your image until it reads 100% (in the image below, it's circled in yellow in the bottom left corner). Then select your eraser tool (circled in red in the image below). You may need to adjust the size of the eraser tool. To do this, pull down the menu circled in green. The number refers to pixels. If you want a larger eraser, slide the size slider to the right. For a smaller eraser, slide it to the left. Now you can begin erasing the part of your image you do not want. I recommend a smaller eraser near the edge of your image. It gives you more control.


7. Once you have an image you are happy with, go to "Save As" in your File menu and save as PNG. I like to reopen the PNG once I've saved it to make sure it looks like I want it to. When reopened it should look like this:


The bounding box shows you exactly what will come up when you are scrapbooking. And you're all set! The image is ready to be used as a scrapbooking embellishment.

Photoshop can be confusing, so let me know if you have any questions about this tutorial and I will try and clear things up as best I can. For those of you who need to know: this image was taken in the Polynesian room of It's A Small World. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!



Saturday, March 2, 2013

Disney DIY Directional Sign T-shirt

The idea for this T-shirt sprung from a fantastic garden sign I spied on Pinterest just days before. I thought it would be great to have signs pointing to my favorite Disney places, and especially appropriate for our Fantasyland aficionados (our young ones & their moms). Alternatively, I could see this design being easily adapted for Disney Cruise destinations.

Once again, I used the Silhouette SD image library and their heat transfer paper. This image is Directional Wooden Sign, design id #16471. It did not have any wording on it originally, so I altered it by adding my own text using the font Artistamp Medium. It's a free download here. Remember, if you are doing an iron-on with text on it, it's essential to read the directions of the media you are using carefully! Some require you to reverse the image before printing. If you don't it will look like you are reading it in a mirror. I may have a bit of experience with this.

I liked this design so much, I decided to make an adult shirt for myself. I was very happy with the way the image showed up on a darker shirt. I used the Silhouette heat transfer paper for dark fabrics. Again I will mention that this medium wants to peel off the T-shirt after the 4th or 5th washing. I did send it through the dryer - it would probably help it last longer if you didn't. Even so, it lasted plenty long for me to wear it a couple times while we were at Disney, and get several comments on it as well. And it's not often that I have the chance to wear matching Ts with my boys. I'll take it whenever I can get it!

Have fun dreaming up all the Disney places you'd put on your sign. Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust.