"Mom! Her camera prints magic pictures!"

A fun thing happened this week....I finally got a FujiFilm Instax Camera! (amazon link)
Well, I guess "we" got a camera.
It sort of belongs to Lucy, and me.

And we've gone crazy taking pictures.
Cause it's a whole new art, and adventurous way of taking pictures!  INSTANT photos you can actually hold and share with a friend?...like it was in the good old days?? Yes! But improved, with more features, a tripod mount, selfie options, a cute rectangle shape. 
It totally blew my kids' minds.  And I'd forgotten how fun it was to HOLD a real picture. And to have that instant fun. 

You see, Lucy's friend got an Instax Mini 8 Camera (amazon link) for Christmas (which comes in the cutest colors, omg---Yellow, Pink, Raspberry (amazon links) Ahhh!)...and it sort of started the whole conversation.  She hung out at her house one afternoon and they took all sorts of cute pics together and wrote little notes to each other on the bottom.  And when she got in the car, she kept telling me about this cool camera Kaytlin had.   It was a camera that could take pictures and print them RIGHT away!  I had to chuckle.  What a different age she's growing up in.
Then she said, oh Mom, I would totally love one for my birthday!

And then another fun thing happened.
That very week I was contacted by FuijiFilm to see if I'd like to try out their Instax Mini 70 Camera.
Haha. Timing is everything.

Why YES Fujifilm.  In white or yellow please!
A week later this showed up on my door:

....which just made me smile.  A cute little white camera!  Mmmm.  It's so small and lightweight; it's such a great size and fits right in one of my zipper pouches.  Of course we may need to get a cute case (amazon link) for it too.  But I like how this pouch can hold the camera and some packs of film (amazon link)

So the day it arrived I wrapped it up in a box, and Lucy was super surprised on her birthday that I actually remembered our conversation about the camera.  Heh Heh.

And then I informed her that I might need to use the camera at times as well, which she was cool with.  And then we started taking pics and figuring out the settings, and flash vs no flash, AND...taking selfies.
First try, we only got Owen's eye.  Second try, we noticed the "selfie mirror" on the front.  DUH.
And we got both eyes in.

You see, a whole new exciting art to explore: the Instax Selfie.
I mean look at the cute little mirror on the lens!  Brilliant.

I honestly wasn't expecting to have as much with the photos as we've been having.  We all love watching the "magic" happen as the film develops.  And whenever a friend comes over, it's time to take a pic and give them a souvenir when they leave.



There are so many ways you can display the photos:
• on a cute rope with clothespins
• on a magnet board
• taped to the wall
• you can trade them with friends and writes notes on the white space
• mail one to your grandma
• use your Instax for a photobooth!  Instant photos to pass around.

But here's what I'm doing with ours.....

Last year I started a guest book for our new house, and I wanted it to be more than just names.  I thought it would be fun to take a picture of each person that stayed, paste it in the book along with their personal note, and then it would be a Guest scrapbook thing.

But it just wasn't working.
Since I couldn't print the photo right away, I'd ask them to leave room on the page for a photo (which I planned to insert later)...and I never knew exactly what the size of the photo would be.  So instead I have blank pages waiting for photos.  Or pages with photos and no messages.
Bascially---Fail.

So instead I bought a normal Guest Book and we started using that, which has been fine. 

But when the Instax mini showed up, the whole vision came together!
Ahhhh.
INSTANT photos is what I was missing!

I mean, seriously.  How perfect??

Now a guest can take a photo, or two, or three, whenever they want.  They can tape it into the book, write a little message, and the scrapbook will start working!  They can even draw pictures or doodle or whatever sparks their interest.  I can totally picture my Dad getting into this.

I know it sounds silly, but I'm so happy I figured this out.  And how convenient that I left a blank page at the beginning of the book to get the party started.   The kids and I snapped a photo of each person in our family and wrote our own message on the first page:

Now whenever a guest comes....I'll (ask Lucy if we can borrow the camera) and set the supplies and some welcome goodies out in the room.
Instant happiness in the works.
Yay!

Okay. Have you ever wanted an Instax camera?
Now's your chance.  Today FujiFilm is giving away a $100 VISA card that you can use toward the purchase of your own camera and film.....