How to Make a DIY Photo Card

Handmade Stationery

DIY Photo Card

I promise that these DIY photo cards are even quicker and easier than driving to the store, looking at every single Hallmark greeting card on the rack, choosing one, paying for it, and driving home.

These cards are also more personal than that store-bought greeting card doggerel, because you can use your favorite photo for the front. And they’ll be even greener on Monday, when I show you how to make lovely custom envelopes from upcycled paper for them!

To make these cards, all you will need are:

cardstock. You can play around with recycled materials here, such as cereal box cardboard or thick magazine pages, but for a super clean and professional look, choose your favorite brand of 8.5″x11″ colored cardstock.

photo. You can take photos especially for these cards or order reprints of your favorites. I recommend either having your photos printed, but you can print them yourself if you own a laser printer–inkjet photos aren’t typically water-resistant, and sometimes it rains during a piece of mail’s journey.

photo mounting cornersThis is my secret tool for everything photo-related!

DIY Photo Card

1. Make the greeting card. If you’re starting with an 8.5″x11″ piece of cardstock, in order to make a 5″x7″ greeting card you will cut 1.5″ off of the 8.5″ side, and 1″ off of the 11″ side. You can do this by hand, although I think that it looks neater if I use my small paper trimmer.

Fold the cardstock exactly in half so that it’s 5″x7″, then crease that fold with the back of a spoon.

2. Add the photo. Place the photo perfectly centered on the front of your card (you can use rulers to help you line it up, but I tend to just eyeball it because I’m lazy), then hold the photo still with one hand while you lick your photo corners and add them to each corner of the photo.

I especially like using photo corners because they put nothing on the photo itself. They hold the photo steady, but your recipient can easily pop the photo out of the card and put it into a frame.

3. Write your message! You can do this either before or after you add the photo. Just make sure that you’re writing in the same format as your photo–if the photo front is in landscape orientation, you don’t want to write your message in portrait orientation.

DIY Photo Card

The photo cards are lovely just the way that they are, but if you’d like to make them extra fancy, here’s how to embellish them and embroider them.

These homemade greeting cards will fit any pre-made envelopes that are made for 5″x7″ cards, but next time, I’ll show you how to also make your own homemade envelopes using any paper that you want.

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