Hi Everyone! The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights on the Streets of America at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is pure magic. I had the pleasure of experiencing it for the first time on its opening evening last month, when new lifelong friends invited me to join them. Seeing the Osborne Lights this way was a perfect start to the holiday season. And it was the inspiration behind this week’s project, a super easy layered photo ornament.

This craft is so quick and simple that you can capture any memory within days of Christmas and have an ornament ready for your tree in minutes. So, grab some of your own favorite photos and let’s get started together!

I used the following (and definitely feel free to do a variation that fits your own theme):

• Photos you don’t mind cutting up
• 1 half sheet of black card stock
• Tape runner or similar adhesive
• Dimensional foam dots
• Precision scissors
• Piece of black embroidery floss or monofilament

Instructions:

Cut out all images you want to use to create your ornament. Then, adhere the images to the black card stock first, before you cut around it. Judge which portions of the cut photos work better with the dimensional foam and/or the tape runner. I did a mix of both. (Use the project photo, if you want, as a guide). Next, cut around the card stock, giving each piece a thin border. Then layer these pieces together, however you like (or as shown). The dimensional foam sets the card stock back from the image itself, adding depth to places you like with minimal effort. Just add a piece of embroidery floss to hang your new ornament.

How fast and easy was that?!

Wishing you all magical moments this holiday season!

A very special thank you to Shelley Benhoff, Jason Benhoff and friends met at The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. I will never forget that evening. (All photos used in this project are from screenshots of a video taken by Shelley Benhoff).

For Fran Cassano, paper crafts have kept the magic of Disney a part of her everyday life. Fran invites us capture our own memories through Practically Perfect DISNEY Crafting… Break out the tools that have been gathering dust. And let’s figure out how, together!

The post Practically Perfect DISNEY Crafting: Easy Layered Photo Ornament appeared first on WDW Radio - Your Walt Disney World Information Station by Lou Mongello.

I was so happy that many of you approached me on the WDW Radio Cruise 2.0 to discuss projects. I’ve covered simple Disney-themed ideas these last few months to get us started crafting together. And now, some projects by others just have to be shared. This week, I invited a friendly face over to Practically Perfect DISNEY Crafting. Please welcome my guest Angie Carriero from Fish Are Friends, Not Food. Angie crafted these amazing gifts for her Fish Extender Group (which I was lucky to be in).

Just in time for the holidays, we thought you’d like to see how she created them.

Hey everyone! It’s Angie….. yo…I have the pleasure of writing a little guest piece on my Fish Extender gift to everyone in our group: a scrapbook! And I’d like to show you all how easy it would be to make one for yourself!

Materials:

-Paper Lunch Bags- (I used 8-10 per scrapbook, keep in mind each bag gives you 4 pages!)

-Hole Punch

-Thick String/ Rope- about 2 ft long

-Glue Stick, Tape Runner, or Preferred Adhesive

-Assorted Patterned Craft Paper

-Stickers and/or Printed Pictures of Disney Characters

-Stickers and/or Printed Words and Phrases

-Scissors and/or Paper Cutter

-Optional: Buttons, Strings, Bottle Caps, etc.- Embellishments to Add Flair

-Optional: Hot Glue- To Glue Embellishments

Step 1- Turning the Bags into a Book:

-Fold each paper lunch bag in half so that it ends up in a square shape.

-Along the fold, punch 2 holes close to the fold, but far away enough that it won’t compromise the integrity of the bag. I punch the holes about 1 inch away from either edge, but this isn’t a strict rule, as long as they aren’t too close to the middle or to each other.

-Repeat with each bag.

-Once this is done to all of your bags, layer them on top of each other and string a thick rope through all of the holes on the bottom of the soon-to-be book, from the front to the back.

-Take that same rope and string it through the top holes of the book, from the back to the front.

-At this point you can tie the two ends of the rope together in the middle any way you would like. Leave a good amount of slack or you won’t be able to turn the pages (test the turning-ability of the book before tying a permanent knot!) For the scrapbooks I made for the FE exchange, I tied the ends of the rope around the strip of the rope that ran through the two end hole punches, made a bow, then knotted it.

-You now have the foundation of the book!

Step 2- Preparing Page Decorations:

-Each page will be about 5”x5” depending on where you punched your holes. Take your patterned craft paper and, with your scissors or paper cutter, cut assorted sizes no larger than 5”x5”. Multiply the amount of bags you used by 4 and that will tell you how many pages you need to cover with craft paper. I like to have enough paper for at least 1 piece of craft paper for each page, so if you used 10 bags, you would need 40 assorted sizes of cut craft paper no larger than 5”x5”. The easiest way to do this is take one sheet of craft paper and do all of your measurements, then stack all of the other craft paper sheets underneath, and cut them all together.

-If you have Disney Stickers, then your other page-decor is all set. In my case, I needed to print my own! I searched for Disney pictures on the internet and printed out about 25 images per 8”x10” sheet of printer paper. You want the images small, because they are just there to accompany the pictures you will be pasting into your scrapbook. I used good quality card stock for my images, but any paper would work for this. Cut out each image. To keep things neat, I only used images with no background and cut out a rectangle around them.

- Create some phrases in a text document that might apply to your vacation. For example, for the Disney Dream Cruise you might have printed out, “WDWRadio Disney Dream Cruise 2.0 Nov. 4-8 2012,” in a 4”x4” format to use for the first page of the scrapbook. You might also print words such as, “Aqua Duck,” “Memories,” “Remember that time when…,” and “Meeting Mickey!” Remember to print these small as well, so your pictures fit alongside the words on each page. Cut these to size.

- Either print out lines on paper or cut up sheets of lined notebook paper to use for funny or interesting memories you may want to record in your scrapbook.

Step 3- Creating Colorful Pages!:

-Take all of the pieces of paper you cut out, stickers, images, and lined paper and start gluing! The best scrapbooks I made had at least one piece of craft paper per page and at least 1 saying or image/sticker as well. Pair some pages with creative themes. For example if your paper looks like bubbles, make sure the word or image has something to do with swimming or a water ride! I also liked to add themed pages with “Dining” and “Funny Moments” with the lined paper, so that the families could later record what they ate, or something funny that happened on the boat. Paste away, just remember you will be adding in photographs from your trip, so don’t take up too much room with the images/stickers and sayings, but please feel free to take up the whole page with your craft paper, as you can just overlay the photographs on top of the paper later!

-Since I made my scrapbooks as a gift, I added a page to the back with my contact information, so feel free to do the same if this is a gift you are making for someone else!

-After the whole book seems done, realize you might want to add more. This is where the “optional” portion comes in. Heat up your glue gun, if you’d like, and go back through each page and add in buttons, strings, and any semi-flat embellishments you’d like to jazz up the book!

Step 4- Adding the Final Touches:

-During your vacation, think of pictures you might want to take to add to your scrapbook once you get home. The openings of the bags also make great places to insert some of the paper keepsakes you may have saved along the way like maps, keycards, and receipts!

-Once you get home from vacation, print out pictures you would like to add to your book! Cut them to the appropriate size and paste or tape them onto each page!

Thank you, Angie! We absolutely love it!

I’ll be inviting some more of our WDW Radio Family on over, so stay tuned.

For Fran Cassano, paper crafts have kept the magic of Disney a part of her everyday life. Fran invites us capture our own memories through Practically Perfect DISNEY Crafting… Break out the tools that have been gathering dust. And let’s figure out how, together!

The post Practically Perfect DISNEY Crafting: Be Our Guest, Angie Carriero appeared first on WDW Radio - Your Walt Disney World Information Station by Lou Mongello.

Hi Everyone! I am so excited about Disney Wreck-It Ralph. I’ve been playing the Fix-It Felix, Jr. app and getting pretty far fixing the windows of Niceland. Then, believe it or not, I actually started thinking about fixing some of my crafts.

We’ve all worked on crafts we have been proud to give as gifts or ones that became keepsakes of beloved memories. But what happens when your crafts don’t go quite as planned? Or if they go very, very wrong? What happens when you loved your end result at the time you finished, but then you look back and want to change it? While it’s not usually necessary, I love the idea of making over completed projects and have them grow into something even better than before.

Now, with Fix-It Felix, Jr. in mind, I looked back on the projects I’ve shared with you and wanted to show you two timely crafting makeover examples of my own:

One evolving the project into an entirely new look…

(click link for the original: Disney Gingerbread Cookie Recipe Page)

And the other with just a slight crafting improvement…

(click link for the original: Advent-style Disney Cruise Countdown Calendar)

I chose to makeover the Disney Gingerbread Cookie project because I personally bake gingerbread from Halloween until Christmas.

I used the following (but definitely feel free to do a variation that fits your own theme):

• 1 piece, 8×8 coordinating solid color Scrapbooking page
• EK Success Honeybee Precision Tip Scissors (an indispensible tool)
• Sharpie Marker
• Glue Lines, tape runner (or similar permanent adhesive)
• All elements of previous project you want to keep

Very carefully remove all elements of the previous project you want to incorporate for the project makeover. Do this by gently peeling the element from the page. It is better to tear the original background than the element itself. You can also just snip around the portion you want to keep. Arrange on your new scrapbook page and affix with adhesive.

I chose to makeover the Advent-style Disney Cruise Countdown project, because I’m counting down the upcoming  WDW Radio Cruise on the Disney Dream. (Are you?)

I used the following (but definitely feel free to do a variation that fits your own theme):

• Strip of 3/8 inch Grosgrain ribbon in coordinating color
• Scraps of decorative Scrapbook paper
• Mickey Head Medium Craft Punch (by EK Success)
• Glue Lines, tape runner (or similar permanent adhesive)
• All elements of previous project you want to keep

Carefully remove envelopes from the original ribbon. This time, I want to keep the envelopes flush with the ribbon. Punch Mickey Heads out of the scrapbook paper. Arrange them in between the envelopes (use photo as a guide). Affix with Glue Lines. Hang underneath your Countdown sign.

I was really happy with my crafting makeovers. It isn’t usually necessary, but it is a lot of fun to revisit your crafts. So, whenever you get some new ideas for old projects, don’t be afraid make them over into new creations. And when you want to, just like Felix, you “CAN FIX IT!”

Enjoy your day and craft away!

Disney Wreck-It Ralph opens on November 2nd.

With thanks to Disney.com.

Like so many of us, Fran Cassano’s life is sprinkled with Mickeys. From collecting Park brochures as a child, to creating ideas for her own Disney Fairy Tale Wedding, paper crafts have kept the magic of Disney a part of her everyday life. Fran invites us capture our own memories through Practically Perfect DISNEY Crafting… Break out the tools that have been gathering dust. And let’s figure out how, together!

The post Practically Perfect DISNEY Crafting: Crafting Makeovers appeared first on WDW Radio - Your Walt Disney World Information Station by Lou Mongello.