the Guestbook

Here at the Hess House we love to have visitors. I often think we should have our house ready at all times so we can have people over at the drop of a hat... but in reality it's the motivation of having people over that usually gets us to run around and clean the house (or taking pictures for the blog...). I'm convinced that my husband suggested hosting a Super Bowl party just so we'd finally clean the after-Christmas clutter...

Anyways, I had been thinking about making a unique little guestbook for our guest room. I wanted a place to have people sign and leave little notes when they come stay with us. And I was at Michael's (the craft store) a while back getting who-knows-what and I saw this cool little notebook section. It's called a Smash Book and the Smash company sells little fun things to put in it... I instantly thought of our guestbook.

So I snagged a book and a few little pads of paper (that I also used for the office board) and I headed home.

Then I waited six months...

And then we were having people over last weekend so I figured it was time to put this plan into action. We got the table setup best we could and this is what we've got. The book, the pads of paper, the camera, and the handy dandy printer all on our little nightstand. (Yep, I know the nightstand needs a paint job...)

Here they are all up close and fancy...

So when we have a guest stay over... there are a few steps. STEP ONE: They take a picture with our little easy-to-use camera. We prefer is the guests are in the pic, but I guess they could take a picture of whatever they want...

STEP TWO: Print the pic. Just slip out the memory card from the camera and stick it into this handy machine. We had one of these printers at camp last summer and it's easy to use, easy to refill, and the cost for prints is about the same as the store... Let's see, I looked it up, it's a Canon Selphy and they sell for about $80-$100 online.

So then STEP THREE: Use the cool pen with a glue stick on the end (yep I said glue stick!)...

...to glue the picture in the guestbook. 

Add the cute little paper and a few notes...

And then all done. See how cute? :)

And the book itself is pretty neat too. It's got different patterns on each page. This is the first page of the book: 

But remember when I said I had the supplies for like six months? So I needed to catch up on our guest list for those who missed their chance to sign their own names. I plan to add a small picture or two from some of the guests, but I did add the names and a little note one of the guests left me this summer :)

And then of course we had the family camp reunion last December. ...still need to print that picture...

Either way, I think it'll be a neat little book as the years go by. Something fun to look back at and see all the 'old' pictures of everyone :) Just a little bit of craftiness I'd been procrastinating for way too long...

What about you? Any projects on your to-do list? Maybe a weekend project? Happy Friday.

Oh, and don't forget: I entered a little DIY contest using the project from Monday's post! Twelve little bloggers will get picked to pair up with the professional bloggers in the contest... so I entered! One of the bloggers picked is due to the amount of "clicks" they get from the contest's main page. So if you have time this weekend, check it out! Scroll down, down, down and I'm number 249 called "As-Is Ikea Door Turned Office Board." Thanks!