The Disney Family website always has such cute craft ideas for Disney fans, along with the patterns and templates to make them. This month they are showing how to make these Mickey Mouse Snowmen Cards:

Mickey Mouse Christmas Cards

All you need are the template, scissors, paper, ribbon, glue, and markers. Get the full instructions and free template if you want to make your own cards. It’s a great way to have something personal from the kids while sticking to a budget.

Of course, if you are going for something more professional, you can always check out the selection of Disney Christmas cards from Expressionery. They can be personalized and are just adorable. Here are my favorite:

It’s always a Disney holiday at our house, and it can be at yours as well whether you make the cards for free or buy them online.

I’ve been an advocate of Amazon Prime for a long time because it saves me a lot of money in shipping. When they added streaming video, it was like icing on the case for me. The new announcement today has me ecstatic!

Amazon has announced a new agreement with Disney-ABC that will add “800 popular titles from ABC Studios, The Disney Channel, ABC Family, and Marvel.” Series will include Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Phineas & Ferb, Greek, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

Amazon has been adding more titles as Netflix has been announcing more lost titles. Right now I use both and used to use Netflix more but can see myself using Amazon more in the future given how much Disney my family watches.

If you are interested in trying out Amazon Prime, you can get a free one-month trial, which includes the Instant Videos. It’s a great time to try it if you intend on using Amazon for holiday shopping anyway.

Mickey Mouse Pumpkin Pattern

Every year we carve Halloween pumpkins and up until last year they always looked the same–some combination of triangles, circles, and jagged teeth. That changed when I found the Disney character Halloween templates at the grocery store. We bought a package and transformed our pumpkins into adorable Disney jack-o-lanterns. We’re not artists or even artsy, so these were perfect for us!

Yesterday I found out that you do not even need to buy the Disney templates; you can actually print them off for free. They have everything from Jack Skellington to Mickey to Phineas and Ferb to Pooh to Princesses. You simply print them off and then transfer them to your pumpkin and then cut along the lines.

The templates give you a couple of different ways to transfer the patterns. The first is to do copy the image freehand. There is no way anyone in my house could do that. So we did the second, which was to tape the pattern onto the pumpkin and then use a pumpkin carving tool to poke holes along the outline of the shape. Then remove the paper and use the pumpkin carving knife to complete the cutting. It says that you can use a push pin or tack to poke the holes, but we just bought a cheap pumpkin carving kit like this one (Ultimate Pumpkin Carving Kit):

So if you are looking for a little something different this year for your pumpkins and are Disney fans (they also have Muppets), you should definitely consider using the templates. Visit the Disney Family website to see all of the Pumpkin Carving Templates and download them for free.

The time has come again to apply to be a part of the Walt Disney World Moms Panel. Applications will be taken from September 12 through September 16. In addition to Walt Disney World, they will also be choosing for the following panels:

I love gift cards! I use them for so many things. I buy them as gifts, include them in cards, and add them to gift baskets. I buy them in advance to set aside for vacations. I especially love gift cards when I can get them at a discounted rate.

Just this week while in New York I discovered Coupon Trade. I am amazed at the prices! They buy and sell gift cards at below face value. You think it must be too good to be true? The reality is that people do it all the time. Either they buy the cards in bulk directly from the companies and get a discount or they receive gift cards that they are not going to use anyway and figure that they might as well get something out of them.

Right now they have some terrific deals on cards, but the cards do change daily because they are in limited supply. They also have some “daily deals” from places like Groupon where people bought them at the discounted rate but then decided that they don’t want them. So if you missed a Groupon, you might want to check there.

What kinds of brands are we talking about? Places I shop on a monthly basis! Disney (good at the Disney parks and on the Disney resort as well), Home Depot, Starbucks, Best Buy, Amazon, iTunes, Macys, Subway, Tickemaster…I could go on and on. But you get my points.

One of the things that I love about Coupon Trade is that you have to verify your Paypal address to join. That cuts down on fraud and ensures that the site should be around for the long haul. If you want to get an even better deal, you can get cash back on Coupon Trade through Sunshine. But even without the cash back, Coupon Trade is still a great bargain!

For those of you who are Disney fans (or fans of children’s literature in general), I have good news! The 4th book in the Kingdom Keepers series is due to be released on April 5. The official title is Kingdom Keepers IV: Power Play.

If you have never read the Kingdom Keepers books, they are basically a series about some kids who are used as holograms to be tours in the various Disney parks. Things start to go wrong and they find out that there are dark forces working again Disney (and the world!). It’s up to the kids to save Disney, along with some behind-the-scenes help.

One of my favorite reasons to read the books is that it reminds me of the Disney attractions when I can’t be there. It also adds an added dimension to the park with I do go. I’ll never ride It’s a Small World in the dark again without feeling creepy!

The newest book looks to take place at least partially at EPCOT, but it may cross over other parks as well. I am anxious to find out!

You can order Kingdom Keepers IV: Power Play either hardcover, Kindle, or audiobook from Amazon now.

Want to add a little magic to the day in your house? Have a Disney character call and talk to your child (or spouse!). For a limited time, Barilla pasta is sponsoring the calls. The characters available are only those from Playhouse Disney–Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald. Choose from Good Morning, Good Night, Congratulations, and Encouragement. Each of those is then further differentiated and you can add your child’s name.

Click here to send your child a personalized Disney call from Barilla for free! Hurry because the free Disney call offer ends September 20, 2010. Some exclusions apply. (Sorry residents of ID, WA, GA, KY, MS, NE, TN and LA.)

Every now and then when my kids are watching television I scream out “pause the TV”! It’s usually because I happen to catch a commercial for a great contest. Today while they were watching Suite Life on Deck I heard “win a Disney Cruise.” If there were ever a moment to pause, this was one of them.

Here are the details:

One Grand Prize: A 7 night Disney Cruise Line vacation for winner and 3 guests leaving from Los Angeles, CA and taken aboard the Disney Wonder to Disney’s Mexican Riviera itinerary. Includes air fare if you live more than 200 miles from LA. Plus a Toy Story 3: The Video Game for the Wii™ console system.

75 First Prizes of a Toy Story 3: The Video Game for the Wii™ console system. (ARV: $50).

Contest ends August 15, 2010. Click here to get more details and enter.

If you have kids under the age of 10, chances are pretty good that there is talk in your house about the new Toy Story 3 coming out this month. Personally, I loved the Toy Story movies, so I am excited about this one, too. The premise is that Andy is going off to college and the toys are being donated to a day care. Disney has been getting creative with their advertising, even making fake commercials for some of the new characters in the movie. But this new video that features the Toy Story toys using Google is really cute. It’s one of Google’s “Search Stories,” essentially a commercial that tells a story through the use of various Google searches.

Watch the video a few times to catch some of the more nuanced things like the fact that Andy needs extra long twin sheets for his college bed (I remember those days!). The voices are familiar and the video definitely appeals more to adults than kids. I love the end where they toys not-so-subtly encourage Andy by typing “bring your toys to college” into Google! What did you catch in the video that others may not? Does it make you more likely to want to see Toy Story 3?

Disney is giving away music for 50 days starting on May 3 and running through June 21, 2010.The songs will be available via download and will include everything from Bambi to Wizards of Waverly Place to High School Musical. Each day will be a different song, so you need to check back every day.

Visit Walt Disney Records’ Facebook page for today’s music: http://www.facebook.com/disneymusic

Day One: “Squirrels in my Pants” from Phineas & Ferb