DIY Disney Glitter Ornaments

DIY Disney Glitter Ornaments

I am a Disney Cruise addict, and with that comes my addiction to Fish Extender programs while onboard.  My husband and I are sailing again next week (with no kids!) and while I didn't want to do a full Fish Extender group, I couldn't resist some sort of exchange.  I joined a Magnet Exchange and an Ornament Exchange.  I made glitter ornaments for one of our other cruises, and wanted to make them again this time around.  I have had several people ask how to do them, so I am putting a DIY tutorial together.  They really are easy to do, and they are so pretty.  If you make your own, I'd love to see how they turn out!

Materials Needed

-Disc shaped plastic ornaments

I prefer the disc shaped plastic ornaments.  I don't have to worry about them breaking, and the flat front is much easier to lay a vinyl design on.

- Clear Polycryclic 

I used this and found it at WalMart. You should be able to get it at any hardware store as well.

- Extra Fine Glitter

Make sure you get Extra Fine Glitter because regular won't work well.  I've used brands from WalMart and Hobby Lobby and both have worked great.

-Small funnel (optional)

-Ribbon 

-Oracle 651 Vinyl and a Silhoutte or Cricut type cutting machine

You can also purchase premade designs from Etsy if you don't want to make them yourself.

Step One

Remove the cap from the ornament and pour some of the Polycrylic inside.  Swirl it around until all areas are coated and then allow all excess to drip out (I just pour it back into the can).  I also dab the outside edge with a paper towel to keep glitter from sticking to the top.

Step Two

Using a small funnel, pour glitter into the ornament.  I then swirl the ornament around until I've fully covered everything, lightly tap the sides of the ornament, and then I dump the excess glitter back into the bottle. I leave the ornament cap off and let them dry overnight.

Step Three

Choose what design you'd like for the ornament.  I've created my own in Silhouette Studio, but this time I purchased the SVG files from Etsy and then edited them and cut them with my Silhouette. They are usually $3 or less and it is so nice to not spend forever creating an image. Just search whatever type of image you are looking for and include SVG in the search text. For this project I purchased one pack that had a ton of Disney Cruise options and then bought the Mickey bats from another seller. You can choose how large you'd like the design to be, but there is a slight curve on the disc shaped ornament which can make laying it flat a little difficult.  I sized down the ship for these (around 1"x1.5") and then added the Mickey bats to fill the space.  You can play around with things and see how it works best for you.  Oracle 651 is your best option because it is a permanent vinyl.  

Step Four

Add ribbon to hang the ornament with and you are done!  

Check out my other blog entries for more Disney Cruise DIYs and planning tips! 

Disney Cruise Stateroom Door Decorations

We've taken two Disney Cruise vacations now, and one of the things that my family loved to do was decorate our stateroom door.  It made it easy for the kids to find our room when we went down the hallway and it was really fun to see how others had their doors decorated.

The major rules that you have to follow is that you can't use any type of adhesive stickers on the doors or anything that goes over the top of the door (like over the door closet hooks, etc).  The doors are metal and everything must be hung using magnets.  You need a pretty heavy duty magnet and I've tried two different kinds.  On our first cruise I bought a roll of adhesive backed magnets that were labeled as heavy duty.  They were a little pricey, but I could cut them in the sizes I wanted and stick them on my projects (like these Fish Extender gifts I made here).  They didn't end up being quite strong enough to really hang well on the stateroom doors.  Sometimes we'd come back to our room and we would find a few decorations had slid down the door or were on the floor.  I found some adhesive backed magnetic buttons in the craft section at Walmart (only sold in stores) and used those for our next last cruise.  They worked perfectly and they were cheap at 18 for $1.97.  I added a little E6000 glue along with the adhesive sticker because I wanted them to really stick.  

These are what I used...

 

You can really do anything you want for your door decorations.  I wanted to keep with a Mickey Ears theme, so I found a template (I liked this one) and added my own designs to the inside of the ears in Microsoft Word.  I did one for each member of our family with their name and their favorite Disney character.  I also did a bunch of our favorite sports teams (and a CO flag) to show our Colorado pride.  I made one specific to our cruise for the second trip because I had someone from our cruise group (more on joining a group here) make one for us on our first trip that I loved having.  I had also seen a lot of cute character decorations to put around the round part on your door that has your stateroom number on it.  I found some really great templates on Pinterest and used this one to print a Pirate Mickey.  Really, you can do whatever you want.  I saw people with battery operated lights that they hung on their door, decorations for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  Get creative!

To design my decorations, I used Microsoft Word.  I inserted the picture template, inserted another picture for the design I wanted, added a text box, and then played around with sizes.  I saved one and then kept that size and used it for the rest that I made.  I printed them, cut the design out, and then laminated them.  Make sure you cut the paper to the shape you want it prior to laminating, then laminate, then cut the plastic down to the correct size.  If you cut the paper after you laminate, there won't be anything to hold the seal and it will separate.  I have this Scotch Laminator and absolutely love it.  I got it as a gift and then bought extra 5x7" and 8.9x11.4" sheets from Amazon (much cheaper!)  After laminating, I glued a few magnets on the back and then stuck them all in a ziplock bag to pack in my suitcase.  You can read about my packing tips here. 

I somehow forgot to take a picture of our stateroom door on the first cruise, but managed to remember to do it on the last night of our second trip.  Side note, I let my seven year old daughter arrange the door and had to stop myself from moving things around every time I looked at it.  I thought about moving things around for the picture, but this is how she wanted it so I left it be.  We were also gifted some fun magnets from our Fish Extender group (more info on Fish Extenders here) that we loved adding to our door.

Decorating your door just adds a little more magic to an already magical Disney Cruise vacation.  It can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it, but it adds a fun touch that my family really enjoyed.  If you aren't creative, I'm sure there are Etsy shops that sell pre-made decorations, or you could do simple stuff with Disney scrapbooking paper.  Make whatever you want and have fun with it!

My Top 10 Disney Cruise Planning Tips

We recently went on our first Disney Cruise (actually our first cruise of any kind), and being the compulsive over researcher that I am, I did an insane amount of research.  We booked our trip in August to sail in February, and in that time I read countless blogs, talked to as many people as I could, and planned, planned, planned.  Our trip was incredible, and I almost died of happiness when my husband said "You really nailed this.  I really appreciate the amount of work that you did for this trip."  Totally validated my OCD, folks. :)  I didn't want to blog before the trip, because I wanted to see what was worth my time and what wasn't before I gave any advice to anyone.  I'm not getting compensated in any way for this, I just want to share my thoughts and experience.  So, without further ado, here are my top 10 planning tips.

1. Book Through an Authorized Disney Travel Agent

We were spending a large chunk of money on our trip and I was really hesitant to do that on my own. Through my research, I learned that a lot of agents will give you onboard credit (to use towards anything on the ship...dining, port adventures, spa services, etc) if you book through them.  They charge you the same price as you'd pay if you booked it yourself, but you get the onboard credit, plus someone to help you with planning and questions along the way.  Carrie Johnson at Small World Vacations was fantastic and I'd highly recommend booking through her.

2. Read Blogs and Utilize Pinterest

I found so much helpful information on Pinterest and through other people's blogs.  If you search "Disney Cruise" you'll find countless pins and sites with great information.  I created a Disney Cruise board on Pinterest and added things all the time.  You can check out my board here... Janae's Disney Cruise Pinterest Board

3. Do Fish Extenders!

This was one of my favorite things about our cruise.  My kids loved checking for goodies each time we'd go back to our room, and I loved putting together the gifts that we did.  You don't have to be crafty, we received plenty of gifts that were not handmade and we loved them just as much!  You can read more about Fish Extenders (FE) in my posts for Adult Fish Extender Gifts and Kids Fish Extender Gifts.

4. Stick With an Inside Stateroom

Our stateroom was on the inside, which meant it didn't have a window or balcony.  I thought I might regret this, but I am really glad I didn't spend the money for a different type of room.  We were very rarely in our room, and we didn't miss having a view at all.  Also, we did have a little trouble with motion sickness, and I think it would have been worse if we could have seen the water moving outside the room.  The rooms aren't large, and there is so much to do on the rest of the ship and at the ports, so we really only used our room to change clothes and sleep.

5.  Join an Online Group for Your Sailing Date/Ship

I've used online groups and social media for as long as I can remember, so joining a group for the cruise was a no brainer for me.  The Disney Cruising page on Facebook can help you find groups already made for as far out as you can book a cruise.  That page is full of information and and is a great way to find your exact cruising group.  The Facebook group was incredible.  I got to know a ton of new people, many of which had cruised with Disney several times before, so they were a wealth of knowledge.  We chatted for months leading up to the cruise, had a meet and greet on the ship, and have kept in touch afterwards as well.  I even found a gal who went to the same school as I did, but we had missed each other by a year or so.  We had a ton of stuff in common and it was great to meet her on the ship.  Also, this is how you'll join an FE group as well!

6.  Know What is Included in "All Inclusive" and What Isn't

The ships are "all inclusive", but there are plenty of things that you can pay for if you choose to.  Know what is included in your cruise price and what isn't ahead of time so that you can plan accordingly.  For example, alcoholic beverages aren't included, but I knew that we could bring our own liquor onto the ship.  Do your research and plan ahead.  We had a good idea of what extras we'd be doing so we'd planned ahead for the extra charges we'd be getting at the end of the cruise.  If you didn't know about the extras like gratuity, port adventures, professional photos, specialty drinks, or adult dining, you'd be in for a shock at the end of the trip when they slide the bill under your door. 

7.  You Have to Book Ahead for Princess Meet & Greets

This was one of the things I learned from the Facebook group that was incredibly helpful.  When you are on the ship, there are lots of opportunities for meet and greets with the Disney Characters.  You get a list of the times and locations for each character in your Personal Navigator each night and then just show up (and wait in line) to meet them.  You have to get a ticket (this is free) to meet the Princesses though, and I thought it was brilliant.  No big lines, and you are guaranteed to meet each one.  I knew of this ahead of time and went straight to guest services when we got on the ship to reserve our spots for Anna and Elsa, and the Princess Gathering.  You are now able to book these online when you do your check in for your cruise. I highly recommend reserving them online before hand. I found throughout the week, that a lot of people didn't know about needing the tickets, and there weren't any available by the time they went to get them.  Totally worth doing if you have a little girl.  

8. Dress Up for Pirate Night, Formal, and Semi Formal Night!

This was another really fun part of the trip for me because we got to do things we don't normally do at home.  The theme nights aren't required, but are something I highly recommend!  We loved Pirate Night, and went all out.  There is a Pirate Deck Party that night too which the kids (and the adults) loved.  I loved getting dressed up for Formal and Semi Formal night too and taking pictures all dolled up.  I mean really, how often do you get the chance to be a pirate and take pictures with Captain Jack Sparrow?!?  All the characters were dressed up as pirates that night!

9. Plan on Palo

I went back and forth on whether or not to make a reservation at Palo, the adult only restaurant on the ship, but am so glad that we did!  You can choose either brunch or dinner (or both!) and there is a dress code.  We did brunch on our last sea day and it was amazing!  I've heard the dinner is incredible as well, but that you shouldn't miss the brunch.  Brunch is more my style of food, so that's what we went with.  It is an additional cost (On our trip it was $25 per person, plus gratuity, but I believe it is now $30/person), but it was well worth it.  I made our reservation when I did our online check in, but you can do it at Guest Services on the ship as well.  

10.  Plan on Doing Some Planning

I had seven months to think about and plan our trip, which I loved.  As I mentioned before, I over research everything, and that gave me plenty of time to do that.  I felt like we got to really enjoy our trip because I had planned ahead and could pack accordingly (packing post coming soon), knew what to take advantage of on the ship, and what port adventures were worth while.  Can you hop on a cruise ship with little planning and enjoy it? Sure!  However, I like to get the most out of my money and am glad that I spent time planning everything out.  

I've also added another post with more cruise info here!

Disney Fish Extender Gifts for Kids!

These are the Fish Extender gift bags I put together for our upcoming Disney Cruise!  If you aren't familiar with Fish Extender gifts, you can read more about it in the post I wrote about the gifts I did for the adults in our group here.

We had 25 kids in our group to do gifts for, and their ages ranged from 10 months up to 13 years old.  It was a little tricky trying to come up with something that most everyone would like without having to do a lot of different things.  I also wanted to incorporate each child's favorite character (this was provided in the list for our group), and again wanted something that wouldn't take up a huge amount of space in our suitcase.  In the end, I decided to make some little personalized notebooks for each kid as the main gift, and then throw in a couple little items to go.  

I got 3 packs of spiral notebooks for $1 each at the Dollar Tree store.  The covers were tinted plastic which I knew I'd need to cover.  I cut rectangles out of cardstock paper and attached it to the outside and inside of the plastic cover sheet.  I used spray adhesive to glue the paper on because regular glue won't adhere to plastic.  Once thaMt had dried, I cut out the Mickey Mouse head shape from black cardstock and glued it on with a permanent glue stick.  I made each of the kid's name tags in Microsoft Word by typing their name in the Disney font and then adding an image.  I just printed them, cut them out, and then glued them on top of the Mickey head.  I also added a strip of paper at the bottom that I cut from some Mickey Mouse scrapbook paper.  

For the extra goodies, I did a small sheet of stickers for each kid, and also a little Mickey Mouse ball game that I got at Dollar Tree in packs of four in the party favor aisle.  For the couple of teenage girls in our group, I got itty bitty bottles of nail polish in Mickey colors and then added the Mickey stickers to the top.  My kids wanted to be part of the process (or I may have told them they needed to be...), so they made a Rainbow Loom bracelet for each of the kids using this pattern from Loom Love.  I slipped the bracelet around the notepad, added the stickers and game to the bag, put on a label that I made, and that was that.  

I had so much fun putting the Fish Extender gifts together!  I can't wait to see the gifts we get from our group, and I definitely will do this again when we do another Disney Cruise!

Disney Fish Extender Gifts for Adults

We are going on our first Disney Cruise this week, and I have done a ridiculous amount of research for the trip.  When I read about Fish Extenders, I knew we had to do them.  One, I love to craft, and two I love to give gifts, so it was a win/win for me. 

The first thing you need to do when you decide to to do a Fish Extender (FE) program is join a group.  If you skip this step, you'll end up leaving gifts for other people and not receiving anything.  If you go to the Disney Cruising group on Facebook, you'll be able to locate your specific cruise date/ship and join a group.  I love our group on Facebook where we can all chat, ask questions, and get to know each other.  It has been a very valuable tool for me.  I can't wait to meet everyone on the ship!

You'll also need to have a FE to hang outside your stateroom door.  You can buy them already made (tons on Etsy), or you can make your own.  I sew, but hate making patterns, so I bought a pattern on Etsy for $4.50 from The Rabbit's Hole Shop and it was worth every penny.  

Here is a picture of the one I made...

For our group, I made gifts for the kids and for the adults.  In this post, I'm going to show you the gifts I made for the adults.  Kids FE gift post can be found here.

I wanted to make gifts that were functional, but also could be kept for souvenirs from the trip.  I also wanted something that was light weight and easy to pack.  The doors on the Disney ships are magnetic, so for one gift I made a little dry erase board to hang on the door and added a magnetic dry erase marker with it.  I cut 5x7 sheets of white paper, got the Disney Cruise Line logo online and added the text to it I made these into stickers), and then cut some Mickey Mouse scrapbook paper to add as trim to the bottom.  I got a Scotch Laminator for Christmas (Thanks brother!) and used 5x7 sheets to laminate the boards I'd put together.  

 I bought a roll of adhesive magnets, cut them and attached them to the backs of the boards.  

The other item I decided to make was a Christmas ornament.  I thought it would be a fun thing to hang on the tree each year and to remember the trip by.  I bought some wooden rectangle plaques that  already had holes drilled (ArtMinds brand at Michaels that came in a pack of 8 for $1.99).  I painted them, cut out squares of scrapbooking paper (from the same Mickey Mouse pack I used above),  made the Mickey ear shaped logos with the cruise ship name and date, and used Mod Podge to attach everything.  I then cut ribbon, threaded it through the holes and knotted the ends.  I finished the ends with a fray stopper, but you could use heat to seal the ends as well.  

I got clear bags from the Dollar Tree store and packed the gifts up with some little labels I made.