Magical Mousetery Tour | September 2016

Welcome to the next 
MAGICAL MOUSETERY TOUR!

Thanks for joining me here on my blog! If you haven't been here before - please take a look around and make sure to download all my Freebies!

Take a look at all of my products in my blogstore HERE.

This month, we are on exploring

A MAGICAL FRONTIER!

Pick up all the fun freebies on the tour to have a great mega kit full of 

papers and embellishments to scrap all of your Disney adventures!

Check out my little contribution:

DOWNLOAD LINK

Welcome aboard the September 2016 Magical Mousetery Tour. If you're following the Tour route from start to finish, you should have arrived here from Triple J Designs and your next stop will be Mad for the Mouse Designs. If you get lost along the way, head on back to the main Magical Mousetery Tour post to view the master list and get back on track.

Be sure to follow the tour through the BLOG and on FACEBOOK!


Have fun and please feel free to leave your comments, questions, and suggestions by leaving a comment! I love to hear from you!

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Magical Mousetery Tour | June 2016

Welcome to the next 
MAGICAL MOUSETERY TOUR!

Thanks for joining me here on my blog! If you haven't been here before - please take a look around and make sure to download all my Freebies!

Take a look at all of my products in my blogstore HERE.

This month, we are on exploring with

A MAGICAL ADVENTURE!

Pick up all the fun freebies on the tour to have a great mega kit full of 

papers and embellishments to scrap all of your Disney adventures!

Check out my little contribution:

DOWNLOAD LINK

Thank you for jumping on board the June 2016 Magical Mousetery Tour! If you're following the Tour route from start to finish, you should have arrived here from FranB Designs and your next stop will be Designs by Romajo. If you get lost along the way, simply head back to the main Magical Mousetery Tour post to view the master list and get back on track. 

 

Be sure to follow the tour through the BLOG and on FACEBOOK!


Have fun and please feel free to leave your comments, questions, and suggestions by leaving a comment! I love to hear from you!

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Magical Mousetery Tour | March 2016

Welcome to the next 
MAGICAL MOUSETERY TOUR!

Thanks for joining me here on my blog! If you haven't been here before - please take a look around and make sure to download all my Freebies!

Take a look at all of my products in my blogstore HERE.

This month, we are on a Disney Bound with

A MAGICAL JOURNEY!

Pick up all the fun freebies on the tour to have a great mega kit full of 

papers and embellishments to scrap all of your Disney Travel!

Check out my little contribution:

DOWNLOAD LINK

Thank you for jumping on board the March 2016 Magical Mousetery Tour! If you're following the Tour route from start to finish, you should have arrived here from Triple J Designs and your next stop will be Designs by Romajo. If you get lost along the way, simply head back to the main Magical Mousetery Tour post to view the master list and get back on track. 

Be sure to follow the tour through the BLOG and on FACEBOOK!


Have fun and please feel free to leave your comments, questions, and suggestions by leaving a comment! I love to hear from you!

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Magical Mousetery Tour | December 2015

Welcome to the very first 
MAGICAL MOUSETERY TOUR!

I was so thrilled to receive a message from the team at Magical Mousetery Tour, inviting me to join in a fun Disney Blogtrain! I jumped at the chance to be creative again and anything Disney is just my favorite thing! In fact, when this post goes live, I will be at DISNEYLAND with my family!

Thanks for joining me here on my blog! If you haven't been here before - please take a look around and make sure to download all my Freebies!

Take a look at all of my products in my blogstore HERE.

This month, we are celebrating Walt's Birthday with 

A MAGICAL CELEBRATION!

Pick up all the fun freebies on the tour to have a great mega kit full of 

papers and embellishments to scrap all of your Disney Celebrations!

Check out my little contribution:

DOWNLOAD LINK

Thank you for jumping on board the inaugural Magical Mousetery Tour! If you're following the Tour route from start to finish, you should have arrived here from Magical Scrapper and your next stop will be Peppermint Creative. If you get lost along the way, simply head back to the main Magical Mousetery Tour post to view the master list and get back on track. 

Be sure to follow the tour through the BLOG and on FACEBOOK!



Have fun and please feel free to leave your comments, questions, and suggestions by leaving a comment! I love to hear from you!

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NEW! Fab 5 Countdown Chain

I'm so excited for my family's upcoming Disneyland trip - we are on countdown.....54 MORE DAYS! One of the fun things we have going are some Disney Countdown Chains. I will have some more templates up soon (think Princess Chains, Pixar Chains, etc.), but today I'm excited to share my 

FAB 5 COUNTDOWN CHAIN TEMPLATES

Planning a Disney trip? Want something fun to countdown until your trip? Well this is it! Get ready to get crafty and create your own countdown chain! 

This template set includes 5 different templates to help you create chains that represent Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, and Pluto! You can use them separately, or combine them for a fabulous look! Your kids will LOVE it- mine sure do!

Check it out in the store HERE.

Aren't they so fun?

FAB 5 COUNTDOWN CHAIN TEMPLATEZ by DesignZ by DeDe (DeDe Smith)

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Character IllustrationZ are here!

I'm so excited to present my new product line - CHARACTER ILLUSTRATIONZ! I can't wait to create more and I have tons of ideas.

But first up is my rendition of the love-volcanoes from the latest Disney-Pixar Short.  My husband and I got a huge kick out of this short movie. We find ourselves singing the "I Lava You" song all the time and it has come to represent us as a couple. I am planning on making some great t-shirts with this illustration for us to wear on our upcoming Disneyland trip! I will have to share pictures of the shirts when I get them finished!

Check it out in the store HERE.

So let me know what you think of this new product and hopefully this means I am on a creative streak and you'll be seeing much more of me on the blog soon!

I LAVA YOU by DesignZ by DeDe (DeDe Smith)

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Monday Magic | Saving on Disney Gift Cards

Are you saving for a Disney trip or 

want to get some Disney gift cards for gifts?

Well, today I have an amazing tip for you.  As you probably know - I am a bit of a Disney geek and I happen to be saving to go to Disneyland AGAIN in December! I'm so excited. Anyways, I love the forums at Disboards.com and I recently came across an awesome tip about saving on Disney Gift Cards. These cards are awesome because - sure you can use them at the Disney Store (online or local store) and you can use them at most places inside the parks for dining, souvenirs, and even your hotel stay, if you are staying at a Disney Hotel. So basically you can pay for your Disney vacation (minus traveling costs and purchases outside the parks) using just gift cards! It's a fabulous way to keep in your budget too! It does take a little extra work, but saving at least 10% (usually more) and getting more for your money is awesome!

* This process can also be used for other kinds of gift cards too.

So to get the most out of the process, you will need:

1.  A Swagbucks account - If you don't have an account already - sign up HERE. Use this site to do searches, surveys, and shopping to earn "money" that you can use on rewards like gift cards. So if you earn enough you can even get a Target Gift Card and then get more Disney Gift Cards as an additional bonus!  :)  I use this site a lot, basically everytime I make an online purchase and am currently using it as my search engine as well to get extra "bucks." I prefer online shopping, when I need something, so this has worked great for me!

2. A Raise.com account - Sign up HERE. Use this link (or referral code dsmith4) when you sign up and get a free $5 to spend at Raise.com. This is the site where you can get discounted gift cards of all kind. Get more for your money!

3. A Target REDcard - You can get approved for a card HERE.  This card will get you 5% off on purchases at Target, including Disney Gift Cards, plus other benefits! So it's a nice card to have. You can do debit or a credit card, so its easy to get approved!

Once you have these 3 accounts you can get started!

1.  Login to Swagbucks.com. Go to the SHOP menu and then use that page's search to find Raise.com. Click on the SHOP NOW under the Raise.com page and you'll be sent to Raise and once you make the purchase you will receive your Swagbucks for that. (currently 1 SB per dollar).

2. On Raise.com, search for Target. It will bring up a list of all the Target gift cards available. The page will show you the value of the gift card, the percent off that you will get, and the total price you will pay.  Check back often because it changes minute by minute! The best Target Gift Card I've gotten so far was 8.6% off.  Choose the gift card(s) that you want and add them to your shopping cart and of course check out.  Raise will process it and you will get an email when your gift card is ready (it's usually really quick, like within an hour of purchasing). You'll login to your account and get the gift card information.

3. Head on over to Target.com.  Once you have your Target gift card number, go to MANAGE MY ACCOUNT. Under Account Information, click the link that says EDIT PAYMENT METHODS. Make sure you add your REDcard and make it the default payment - this will get you the 5% off your purchases. Then in the PAYMENT METHODS, add your gift cards. You can use up to 3 gift cards per order in checkout.  Now you are ready.  Go ahead and go to GIFT CARDS in the Target Menu and find the Disney Gift Cards. They are available in $50 increments, so add as many to the cart as you need (I think the limit is 10 per order). Checkout and use the gift card codes you entered!


Using this process can save quite a bit on your gift cards. You get the 5% off from Target, whatever % off you bought the Raise cards at, PLUS you will earn SwagBucks that can be used for Gift Cards too. It all adds up and any savings that you can do for a Disney Vacation is so worth it! Make sure you use SwagBucks for your other online purchases too, so that your "bucks" will add up and you can earn your rewards!

If you have any questions about the process or if there is 

something I can do to help - please let me know!

Each Monday (that doesn't have a new release), I am going to be offering a little Magic to start your week. It might be a fun idea, some inspiration, a tutorial, or just sharing some 

thoughts - Whatever I feel like! So come back and share your thoughts too!

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Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure | First Magic Moments

FIRST MAGIC MOMENTS

December 6, 2014

After revealing the secret, we all just couldn't wait to get to the hotel. Our shuttle FINALLY arrived and we loaded our bags and ourselves and began our journey.  At this point we let the kids know that not only were we going to Disneyland, but we were actually going to be staying in the DISNEYLAND HOTEL! Ahhh! 

The shuttle driver kept us entertained with Disney music as we drove from Long Beach to Anaheim. Before we knew it, we were pulling up in front of the Disneyland Hotel. We grabbed our bags and excitedly walked in.  The kids immediately gravitated to the cute teacup seats. At the front desk, Joey and I got checked in, amidst a little complication with our credit card (the transaction got flagged, since we don't take a whole lot of trips - but after some calls we got it figured out. The Cast Members at the front desk were really great and helped us get it all figured out.

We were able to get a standard room in the Adventure Tower. It was on the Downtown Disney side, but only the 2nd floor, so our view was trees - but actually I loved it! So easy and fast to get to our room from Downtown Disney and the trees kind of blocked the noise. It was awesome! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Disneyland Hotel rooms. We all loved looking for the Hidden Mickeys and of course the headboard is AMAZING! It was just awesome.

After checking out the room and settling in a bit, we decided it was time to explore!  Everyone was hungry and I also wanted to go redeem my voucher for the Annual Pass and also pick up our Photopass+ Card. (We had decided to get one Annual Pass so that we could get the discounts and such.) So we headed towards Downtown Disney. Joey and the kids grabbed some lunch at Earl of Sandwich and I headed down to the Esplanade. I redeemed my voucher, got my picture taken, and got my new Annual Pass. California Adventure looked less busy, so I went through the gates and headed to the photo shop where I redeemed the voucher to get our Photopass+ card. This all took about an hour and then I met up with my family at Downtown Disney, where we did some exploring in the stores.  We were all fascinated with the Lego Store and all of its awesome characters! The Build-a-Bear Store was amazing too and the kids were definitely starting their lists!

After lots of browsing, we went to Tortilla Joe's for dinner! We LOVED it - it was so good, and we especially loved the guacamole, made for us right at our table!

After dinner, we strolled over to the AMC Theaters to watch BIG HERO 6.  We were AMAZED by this theater. It was HUGE. It was definitely the biggest theater we've ever been to. Plus amazingly there wasn't a whole lot of people taking advantage of it and so in the huge theater, it felt like we were the only ones there.  We LOVED Big Hero 6 - it was such a cute movie.  After the movie, we had to take advantage of a photo-op!

After the movie, we headed back to the hotel and we had a little bit of a Christmas Celebration, complete with a little Mickey Tree, Treats, and gifts.  These were things I brought from home to bring some Christmas to our room.  The kids loved it all, especially the Disney gift cards from Dad and Mom and the money from Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

At this point, we were just so exhausted. It had been a very long, but thrilling and exciting day! We couldn't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

The Adventure Continues in another post. :)

I'm so excited to share my family's magical Christmas adventure of 2014 with you!
To see all the postings in this series go HERE.

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Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure | The Surprise - Part 3

THE SURPRISE - Part 3

December 6, 2014

The kids were so excited about going on a plane. I have to admit that I was pretty excited myself. I've always enjoyed flying and I hadn't been on a plane since before the kids were born!

 A look at our plane before boarding....

The plane was really crowded and there were some other families on board, obviously heading to Disneyland - I was so afraid that the kids would guess where we were going. But we were able to distract them with watching tv and looking out the window! One of my favorite things about flying is seeing the clouds so up and personal!

It was an easy flight and it went by quickly and before I knew it we were landing in Long Beach, CA. 

While we waited for our baggage, we went ahead and started the next part of our storybook:

After getting our baggage, we went out to wait for our shuttle ("Blue"). As we were waiting, we decided it was the perfect time to reveal the secret, so we read the final page of our storybook:

It was an amazing exciting moment. After all of the planning and waiting, we finally got to tell the kids we were going to DISNEYLAND! It couldn't have been more perfect! The kids excitedly chatted about Disneyland and the book and it was so great to see the happiness in their faces! I couldn't stop a few tears of joy from trickling down my face - we did it! It was a dream come true to do this for my kids and for me. 

And it was only the beginning...

The Adventure Continues in another post. :)

I'm so excited to share my family's magical Christmas adventure of 2014 with you!
To see all the postings in this series go HERE.

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