Last Saturday I was 1 of 10 bloggers who attended the Holiday Creativity with Canon workshop, courtesy of Omy.sg. I wasn't expecting such a huge turnout, and most of the workshop participants were parents with kids in tow!
We had to use the Canon PIXMA printers to print out 3 photos (mine are of a cat, lavender fields and the Berlin wall, hidden beneath the plaid printed card). The first craft that the emcees taught us to make was a passport holder. As you can see, there's lots of activity at the bloggers' table (mostly people taking pictures of the event to post on Instagram, heh)!
Here's a closer shot of what I was doing. I was mostly admiring how pretty the pictures looked when they were printed using the Canon PIXMA printers. It's quite cool to see photos printed out of a printer, instead of through the usual photo developing that photo printing stores do.
We used the plaid paper to make a passport holder. A number of my friends on Instagram commented that it looked really cool and they wanted to learn how to make it! It's actually quite simple. First we stuck two pieces of paper with the same pattern together using double sided tape (they were printed with special Canon photo paper). Next we folded the paper together, then we punched one hole through the middle of the second page of the holder (see below, where the black elastic is). After that, we tied a knot near the end of a short piece of black elastic band. We put the band through the hole, making sure the loop faces the bottom of the holder. You can then glue on a button on the front of the holder (I didn't) so that you can close your holder by looping the elastic band around the button!
After that, stick on a flap of paper on the insides of the holder. I made a flap for a plane ticket (on the left) and a flap for my passport (on the right). Make sure you've measured the flaps well, and stick them down on two or three sides so that your passport/ticket can go in. After that, I drew on some clouds on the flaps in black pen, just to give a fun vibe. The last step is the most fun - stick on various images (it's really up to you), and voila, it's done!
We also made a luggage tag, which mostly involved wrapping patterned paper around a plastic luggage tag - honestly mine isn't that nice, so I'm not posting pictures of it here, haha. After the workshop, the printer was mine to take home!
I had to take a shot with my printer and the trolley they gave, heh. I love that I received the wine-red Canon PIXMA MG3170 - I've never owned a red printer before, and red *is* a favourite colour of mine! This picture also doubles up as an OOTD picture - I'm wearing a $20 cream-coloured lace and chiffon dress from a random shop in Far East Plaza and a $20 pair of shoes from a shoe sale at Kiyo, a shop at Westmall. Can't remember where I got the earrings from, but I'm sure they were cheaper than $20, and the Longchamp Poney Toile bag was a gift.
And now hold your breath, because I'm about to show you how it looks like in its full glory...
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Glorious, isn't it! I really love the wine-red colour, and it's not as bright in real life as it is in this photo, but I guess my camera went crazy with the red. After setting it up and installing the drivers/software on my MacBook, I had to do some test prints on photo paper and plain paper, of course. We had some 4x6in/10x15mm sized photo paper at home, so I took them out to play.
First, you slot the photo paper face down into the paper input tray and slide the grey slider so that it aligns with the paper size. Next, using the Canon software that comes with the printer, select the photos you want to print. You can choose the size, layout (borders/without borders/multiple photos) and even edit the photos before printing. The last step would be to just click print and wait for the photos to be printed - each 4x6in photo takes slightly more than half a minute to be printed.
It's really not that difficult to print photos with the Canon PIXMA MG3170! I loved the fuss-free printing so much that I printed a number of different photos (I printed 2 on one 4x6in piece of photo paper) - maybe I'll be using them in a craft project in my next post, mmm.
I also tested the quality of printing on plain paper, and once again, it's really good. I printed these four patterns on an A4 sheet and cut them out - I'm really pleased with the colours and the quality of printing. Maybe I'll use them in my upcoming craft project posts hmmm... I suppose you'll have to check back soon to find out ;)
If you already own a Canon PIXMA printer, there are many cool craft ideas on Canon PIXMAtown. I haven't bought the right Canon photo paper so I can't demonstrate yet. Anyway, do stay tuned for my upcoming posts on how to make crafts with the Canon PIXMA MG3170 - there are so many things that I'm thinking up and I'm really excited to share them with you!
