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!