Print Artist Disney Mickey and Friends Template

In a past Kathy’s Collectible Corner, we’ve talked about how you can theme a collection to a particular character, such as Pluto. Another way to create a collection is by buying products that are released in a series. Over a period of many years, Disney has released a series of print shops (they call them "Print Studios") for home computers, which I have collected.

You can find a Disney print shop for almost every recent animated feature movie and popular Disney characters. Collecting print shops has been a hobby of mine since I got my first one -- a Beauty and the Beast print shop. This print shop came on a set of floppy disks and the images weren’t very sharp. Printing was performed on dot matrix printers so the image quality did not have to be top-notch. There was also a similar Mickey and Crew print shop that was released around the same time.

After these two print shops, the next one I got was Lion King. It had a lot of bugs in it -- and not just the kind that Pumbaa and Timon enjoyed eating. An error message would always come on saying that it, "Cannot divide by 0." After Disney sent me two separate installments of the program, it finally worked. And it was worth the wait. The graphics were far better than Beauty and the Beast or Mickey and Crew. I thought, "Wow! The technology has improved greatly." Little did I know that the next generation of print shops was going to be even better.

The next print shop to come along was 101 Dalmatians. More than just a program that allowed you to design things with Disney graphics, this print shop entertained. There is an animated beginning. And as you choose from one of the many available projects, you can hear the jingling of the dog’s collar. It is a lot of fun. You can choose anything from a growth chart to invitations to disk labels. The graphics, fonts and colors have all come a long way.

One of my favorites is A Bug’s Life print shop. On this one, you can also make photo frames and photo stickers. I also have Mulan. One cool feature is that you can make your own scrapbook paper. Winnie the Pooh, Little Mermaid, Toy Story II and Hercules were great additions to my print shop collection.

The newest Disney print shop is called Print Artist Mickey and Friends by SierraHome. It is awesome. You have a choice of six characters -- Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto -- each with their own set of graphics. You can choose between completed layouts or you can create a new layout of your own. In addition to printing your project, you can save your creations as a website or email them to friends and family. The graphics are wonderful and there are new selections available to create things like clock faces, ornaments, mobiles, pinwheels and more. Print Artist Mickey and Friends retails for $29.95.

Examples of Print Shop Projects - A Door Hanger & Calendar.

Print shops are fun to collect. If making cards, posters, business cards or frames is something that you’d like to do, then print shops might be something you might like to collect too!

-Story by Kathy Walker; Images ©Disney and Pixar.
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