When my kids were little and we took them to Walt Disney World for the first time, we bought those autograph books that they sell at the parks for the characters to sign for them. They quickly filled up those books with character signatures.
Two years ago, we went on our first Disney cruise and I read a tip to bring a photo matte onboard and have the characters sign the matte. When you go home you can place a photo from the cruise in the frame and it’s a beautiful souvenir that you can hang on your wall for everyone to see. I did it and I loved the results so much, that I did the exact same thing for our second cruise. But this time we got different character signatures from the first one.
When I was preparing our trip to Disneyland, my kids and I were already thinking about the character meet and greets because they had different ones that we had never met before in Orlando. I wanted to do something different than the book & photo frame. While I was on the internet, I came across the blank vinylmation figures. 
That was perfect! It’s cute, Disney themed, can be displayed and it was different. But when I went searching for a 9″ figure, I couldn’t find one under $40. That was way too much money for what I wanted to spend on a fun souvenir. Then one day, my daughter and I were in the Disney store and we came across a black Mickey Mouse pencil case which looked A LOT like the vinylmation figure except it couldn’t stand up. I decided to buy it as it was perfectly priced at only $13. After staring at it a bit, I came up with a simple idea of making it a standup figure. Stuffing it with paper! Below you can find a video of how I created the souvenir figure.
When we gave the figure to the characters to sign, they were all amazed by it. The cast members 
who were working with the characters all asked me where did I buy it and how did I make it. They said they never saw it before and thought it was a great idea. Wow!
Aladdin and Jasmine were particularly taken by our figure. So much that they were coloring in the details of the figure with the marker we gave them : )
I only wish I didn’t have video camera issues and were able to record that moment as it was too cute for words.
The Finished Signed Figure 
Materials:
1) Pencil case – from Disney store $13
2) Crumbled newspaper
3) Metallic colored Sharpie markers
