A Photo Guestbook Your Holiday Visitors Can Help Create… In the Moment!

This post is brought to you by Canon. Discover more about PIXMA Printing Solutions here.

When our oldest daughter turned two, we decided that we were going to spend the holidays in our own home going forward. My husband and I had experienced the joy and comfort of at-home holidays growing up and felt this was an important gift to give our own children. I had also recently spent a Christmas snowed in at an airport hotel in Cincinnati, but that’s a story for another day. As you can imagine, our relatives, who mostly live out-of-state, were disappointed but they didn’t pout and they didn’t cry, instead they rallied and bought plane tickets, hooray! Although we want to be together in our own home for the holidays, it just isn’t the same without a crowd of grandparents and cousins so we are lucky that our families are willing to travel. We basically have an open door of comings and goings from Mid-November to Mid-January and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

With three kids under five, I’ve also appreciated the help during this busy time of year. Now that they are a little older, I’m determined to start treating my visitors like guests rather than staff and help to make their stay a little more comfortable and relaxing. Visions of water pitchers and fresh cut flowers dance through my head. I’ve also created this simple Photo Guest Book inspired by the new Canon PIXMA MG7120 cloud-enabled, wireless printer.

I’ve had wireless printers before but the brilliantly simple set-up and no-fail ease of access with the cloud-enabled PIXMA MG7120 have blown me away. A guest can literally walk into our house, take a snapshot with their phone, hit print, and have a gorgeous photo in hand in minutes. While they are at it, they can print out their boarding pass, Aunt Sophie’s famous Snickerdoodle recipe, and the lyrics to Good King Wenceslas. No more promises of emailing that perfect shot of your whole family together (for once,) they can print it right then in the moment! With the cloud capabilities of the PIXMA MG7120, guests can even print photos to your printer once they have given their goodbye hugs and hit the road. It scans and copies too, and can print directly from social media networks. Did I mention that it also comes in four colors? Red, White, Brown and Black, so it’s pretty enough to leave on display.

I simply picked up a pretty EK Success Scrapbook at Target. I used my new Martha Stewart Crafts Scoring Board with Paper Trimmer to easily (and so safely!) trim brown craft paper to the size of the book and replace the plastic sleeves.

I created a simple template for artwork, instructions and note cards, which I also printed on the PIXMA MG7120.

Then I created a simple station next to the printer in everyone’s favorite new Nate Berkus tray, with fine tip markers, a Studio Calico roller stamp and a festive assortment of washi tape.

Inspired to treat your visitors to a wonderful holiday stay? For more ways to make your house guests feel comfortable, and welcome in your home this season, visit our Holiday Houseguest Pinterest Board.

Thank you to Canon for sponsoring this post and for introducing us to this amazing printer. We loved it so much that once we tried it out, we promptly bought a second one for Jaime’s house in California!

This post is brought to you by Canon. Discover more about PIXMA Printing Solutions here.

by Jacinda