Create a garden journal with the Polaroid Zip printer
Create a fun garden travel journal to document your adventures in succulent gardens. Use the Polaroid Zip printer to print your own photos on the go!
Succulents and Sunshine is reader supported. We may earn a commission, if you purchase through links on our site, such as Mountain Crest Gardens, Amazon, or Etsy. We only promote products we use and trust.
This year for my birthday I decided to take a day trip to San Diego. Since I was flying from Utah I didn't have a lot of time there but I made good use of it. I arrived at 9:05 in the morning and left at 5:15.
My mom thought it would be fun to come a long and I'm glad she did. Not only did it make the trip more fun, but we came up with this fun idea to share with you: a Succulent Garden Travel Journal.
We went on a big trip every year when I was growing up, and often we would create a travel journal as we went. Anytime we were in the car or on a plane we'd cut out parts of brochures, flyers, maps, postcards, etc. and glue them in our journal. We'd write about what we did along with the collage. I decided to create one to document this trip.
Here are the supplies I used to create my Succulent Garden Travel Journal:
- Polaroid Zip Printer
- Zink Paper (for the printer)
- Moleskine Journal (I used the 3.5×5.5″ Kraft Squared Journals)
- Sharpie Pen (these are so awesome!)
- Scissors (make sure they are airplane safe if you're flying)
- Double Stick Tape or Glue Sticks
Just before this San Diego trip my mom bought the Polaroid Zip printer. It is amazing and so much fun! The Polaroid Zip is a pocket printer. It is shorter than my iPhone 6 plus but about twice the thickness. The printer prints 2×3″ prints on Zink paper has the “ink” built in to the paper so you don't have to worry about cartridges or running out of ink, just running out of paper. It's actually sticker paper too so you can peel and stick the pictures on anything you want!
In true Polaroid fashion, the colors in the pictures aren't especially accurate. There is a bit of a color shift, but the quality is still impressive for such a small device. I came to love the look of the pictures as I printed more and more.
This printer is a little addicting 🙂 We were able to print pictures anywhere we were: on the plane, at the garden, in the car, at the air port. It syncs via Bluetooth with you phone and you print the pictures through the Polaroid Zip app. It is so easy! Plus, we could print about 30 pictures before it needed to be charged again. The printer has a rechargeable battery built in and uses a single USB cord to charge the printer, but otherwise it's cord free. It doesn't need to be plugged in to a wall or your phone to print!
Putting the travel journal together was a lot of fun and so easy! After I printed off the pictures I took at Waterwise and Old Town I cut out a few other bits from the brochures we got. I wrote about what we did at Waterwise and labeled some of the plants we had seen. I'm really excited to have a little memoir from the trip.
My plan is to create one of these garden journals for each succulent garden or nursery I visit over time. With the Polaroid Zip it's so easy to use my own photos. The 2×3″ stickers are the perfect size for a journal. If you want to join in the fun, please do! Also, I found out that Craftsy offers a mobile photography class. Since the Polaroid Zip prints from your phone, it's a great excuse to improve your phone photography skills!
There are so many fun things you could do with this little pocket printer, succulent garden journal or otherwise. I was thinking it could be fun to do a daily journal of my personal succulent garden. It could be a fun way to keep a watering journal too: take a picture each day you water, stick it in your garden journal, and write down the date plus anything else you want. It's so portable that it works extremely well for a travel journal. You can fit all the supplies you need in a small cosmetic case.
This printer would make a great gift for teens too. I know I would have loved something like this when I was younger… well I love it now too… I'm taking it with me to our Thanksgiving dinner next week and I'm pretty sure my nieces and nephews will have a lot of fun with it.
You can bet that you'll see more projects over time with this awesome little portable photo printer. I'd love for you to join in and see what you do too!