Creative Ways to Give Thanks (You Could Win a Canon Camera & Printer!)

Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday of the year. In our opinion, it’s got all the best food with none of the stress and expense of the December Holidays. What we love most though, is that it’s simply about sharing a special meal, taking a timeout to enjoy each other, and giving thanks for all the blessings in our lives. As one of life’s greatest blessing, we should pay special attention to giving thanks for the loved ones in our lives. A perfect way to do this is to use pictures - whether they are the kind you take or the kind you make, they add a personal touch to the holidays.

Below we share three fun and festive ways to show your ‘Attitude of Gratitude’ with a personal touch this year. Enjoy the holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving,
Elizabeth and Dawn

Let Canon show you their thanks and enter to win $250 in weekly prizes and a grand prize of $2,000, a Canon PIXMA MG8120 printer, and a Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS! Click here for rules.

1. Make a DIY Picture Board To GIVE THANKS:
Decorate for Thanksgiving by displaying what you are most thankful for - it’s easy with this DIY craft. Cover a wooden board (the size of your liking) in scrapbook paper that you have around the house or purchase some in a color or pattern that makes you feel good. Use Mod Podge to glue down the paper and seal it. At the craft store purchase wooden or chipboard letters that spell out “THANKS” and attached these to the board with a hot glue gun or Weld Bond. Using 2 matching thumb tacks, attach each end of a pretty cord to either side of the board. Leave slack so that the cord hangs in an arch below the board. Clip on as many clothespins as the length of the cord will allow and hang your favorite pictures of family members and/or their artwork. (You can use the Canon PIXMA MG8120 printer, and Canon PowerShot SD4500 to create pictures from your Thanksgiving celebration, see Tip #3 below).

2. Host a Thanksgiving Art Auction To SHARE THANKS:
Invite the children to create some Thanksgiving artwork. The kids can color while the adults finish the meal (kids are always done in half the time anyway). Then have the adult guests bid on the masterpieces. Donate the proceeds from the auction to a pre-designated charity.

3. Personalize Favors To SHOW THANKS:
Take movies during your celebration and then print out pictures from the footage to use for favors. This is a really simple way to create a special keepsake of the day - the Canon PIXMA MG8120 printer, and Canon PowerShot SD4500 make it so easy. A picture of Grandpa carving the turkey or of Nana with all the grandkids will make a treasured token of gratitude. To make these favors even more personal, have pre-cut cardstock paper ready to mount each picture on. At the bottom of the card, handwrite “We are Thankful For ‘XXXX’ – Thanksgiving 2010”. Have some fun with it!


Notes from Dawn:
I tried this out at a recent family celebration and it’s perfect for the holidays (birthdays, baby showers, or any milestone event). Using the Canon PowerShot SD4500, I invited the guests at my house to take pictures and video throughout the day. I made sure to give the kids a turn, it made them feel important and involved. The Canon PowerShot SD4500 is small and so easy to use, everyone only needed a little guidance in order to make magnificent movies that were later turned into terrific pictures. The Canon PowerShot SD4500 is easy for adults and perfect for kids too. By taking pictures with a movie, you don’t need to set up a still shot or have the kids in the shot keep still. Amen! I loved watching how everyone at the party used their creativity and how excited they all were about the end product.

Before my guests left, I easily loaded the pictures and video with the USB cable to the Canon PIXMA MG8120 printer. The printer is the first and only product on the market to feature "HD Movie Print" technology. This technology enables you to easily pinpoint and print your preferred shot from video footage shot on HD Canon PowerShot and EOS cameras. This may sound like you need a degree in engineering, but seriously it’s as easy as Thanksgiving pie and the favors were a hit with the family!