How to Turn Birthday Cards into Picture Frames

It happens every year. You invite friends and family to celebrate your kiddo’s birthday and after everything is said and done, you have a pile of thoughtful birthday cards that your child has already forgotten. You don’t want to toss them but you also don’t feel like storing them in a box for years to come. Find out how to turn birthday cards into picture frames that capture your child’s birthday and become a fun piece of decor for your home.

I was compensated by Dollar Tree for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Read the full disclosure here.

Collage of Photos of Avengers Birthday Card Photo Frame inside of Frame Next to Gift Bows with text overlay: How to Turn Birthday Cards into Picture Frames

 

[bctt tweet=”Do you have a stack of birthday cards you feel too guilty to throw out? Find out how to turn birthday cards into picture frames that you’ll want to keep! #ad” username=”diyadulation”]

Let’s face it, when you spend your hard earned money on something, you don’t really want to think about it being carelessly tossed away. Too often this happens with birthday cards.

That’s why I’m so excited about Dollar Tree carrying Expressions from Hallmark for $1 each and Heartline from Hallmark for 2 for $1! Seriously, I am a bit of a Dollar Tree addict. If I can get it at my local store, I probably am.

 

Kindness is Rare Card on Polka Dot Background

Layered Robot Birthday Card on Polka Dot Background

Birthday Cards and Envelopes on Polka Dot Background

Expressions and Heartline Cards by Hallmark

These new cards, available starting today, are absolutely gorgeous and available for a multitude of occasions all without breaking the bank. Even better, they are high quality and sturdy. Some even come with my personal favorite embellishment: glitter!!

 

Ariel and Avengers Birthday Cards on Polka Dot Background

You can also find them with your kid’s favorite characters on them. It makes them the perfect budget-friendly option for all of those birthday parties you get invited to during the school year.

 

Elephant Card on Polka Dot Background

When you aren’t blowing your budget on cards, it makes it so much easier when you think about them getting tossed or shoved in a drawer somewhere. Of course, you can prevent that in your own house now. Keep reading to find out how how to turn birthday cards into picture frames with this easy tutorial.

Materials

Step 1

First, determine where you want your photo to show on your card front.

 

Close Up of Circle Drawn on Avengers Card

Step 2

Then trace a circle in that spot in pencil on the front of the card.

 

Close Up of Circle Drawn on Avengers Card with Hole in the Middle

Step 3

Next, punch a hole in the center of the circle with your awl.

 

Circle Cut Out of Avengers Card

Step 4

After you punch your circle, carefully wedge your scissors in the hole and cut out your traced circle.

Note:

 

School Pictures of Little Boy

Step 5

Then, test your photo behind your cutout to ensure that the opening is sufficient. If not, trim it as needed.

 

Avengers Card with Circle Cut Out on Scrap Paper

Step 6

Remove your photo and place your card open, with the inside facing down, on a scrap piece of paper.

Tip:

 

Avengers Card with Green Puff Paint Next to It

Step 7

Now, add a line of puff paint around the edge of your cut out area to create a “frame”.

 

Painted Avengers Card on Red Serving Tray

Step 8

Carefully lift your painted card from the scrap paper and set the opening over a can or bowl to dry.

Note:

 

Scrap Paper with Green Painted Ring on It

Note:

 

Photo Taped Inside of Birthday Card

Step 9

After your paint is dry, center your photo in the cutout opening and tape into place.

 

Avengers Card Photo Frame next to Glue Runner

Step 10

Then use your glue runner to attach the inside of the card together.

 

Avengers Birthday Card Photo Frame inside of Frame

Step 11 (Optional)

Lastly, place your card in a picture frame and hang it on the wall.

 

Avengers Birthday Card Photo Frame inside of Frame Next to Gift Bows with text overlay: How to Turn Birthday Cards into Picture Frames

Now that you know how to turn birthday cards into picture frames, you can feel better about that stack of cards after every birthday party. Now that you can get amazing, high quality Expressions and Heartline Hallmark cards from Dollar Tree, you can feel good about your budget. It’s a win-win!

Check out the amazing designs now on the Dollar Tree Website and let me know which is your favorite in the comments! (If you can pick just one, that is. I certainly can’t.)

See where I’m linking up!

Don’t Forget to Pin It!

Collage of Photos of Avengers Birthday Card Photo Frame inside of Frame Next to Gift Bows with text overlay: How to Turn Birthday Cards into Picture Frames

 

More Dollar Tree Ideas You’ll Love:

Glittery and Colorful Unicorn Birthday Card

Do you know how you automatically make something a thousand times cooler? You make it mini! Logically, that means when you take something that’s already awesome and make it mini… omgosh! It is coolness overload. That is exactly what this glittery and colorful unicorn birthday card delivers.

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Ordering a product through these links may result in a commission at no extra cost to you. Read the full disclosure here.

Collage of Glittery and Colorful Unicorn Birthday Card with text overlay: Glittery and Colorful Unicorn Birthday Card

 

[bctt tweet=”Know anyone in your life who acts like the little girl from Despicable Me over unicorns? This glittery and colorful unicorn birthday card is for them!” username=”diyadulation”]

For the longest time, I was fairly blase about unicorns. They were fine but not something that pulled out my giddy girl squeal. I blame it on my reservations (borderline down-right fear) of horses.

As they grow in popularity, though, something awesome is happening. They are full of bright rainbow colors and sparkles and pretty much everything that speaks to me on every level.

When something aligns that much with your personality at its core, how can you not get sucked in? If you have a friend, daughter, coworker… pretty much anyone who acts like the little girl from Despicable Me over unicorns, then this is the perfect handmade card for them!

 

Surprise Unicorn Card on Purple Background

Note: This looks like a lot of steps but most of them go by incredibly fast. The longest time commitment is in the coloring phase. Once you finish that, the rest flies by.

Materials

Step 1

First, cut your piece of white cardstock in half, bisecting the 11″ edge. Set 1 half aside. You need it in step 13.

Step 2

Next, take the clear unicorn stamp from your set and mount it to your acrylic block.

 

Stamped Unicorns on White Paper Next to Ink Pad and Stamp

Step 3

Then stamp your unicorn with black pigment ink throughout the entire half sheet of cardstock.

Step 4

Clean your stamp and place it back with your stamp set. Then attach the small star stamp from the set to your acrylic block.

 

Stamped Stars and Unicorns on White Paper Next to Ink Pads

Step 5

Stamp your star throughout your half sheet of cardstock using hot pink pigment ink.

 

Stamped Stars and Unicorns on White Paper Next to Ink Pads and Stamps

Step 6

Again clean your stamp but leave it attached to your acrylic block. Use it to stamp more stars on your cardstock using teal pigment ink.

 

Stamped Stars and Unicorns on White Paper Next to Ink Pads and Stamp Set

Step 7

Finish stamping your stars by cleaning your stamp again and adding the last stars with magenta pigment ink.

Step 8

Next, pull out your colored pencils set and pull out pencil colors that match the stamped stars and also a bright yellow, gold, and silver colored pencils.

 

Colorful Unicorns and Stars on White Paper

Step 9

Use your pencils to color in your stamped unicorns, alternating between colors. I used 1 main color for each unicorn then rotated between combining the main color with bright yellow, gold, or silver on the horns.

 

Black Outlined Colorful Unicorns

Step 10

After you finish coloring your unicorns, go back over the stamped outlines with your black fine tip marker.

 

Colorful Unicorns and Stars on 2 Pieces of White Paper

Step 11

Then cut your stamped and colored cardstock piece in half again.

 

Glitter Stars on Unicorn Card

Step 12

Choose one half (whichever is your favorite) and add Stickles to each of the stamped stars. Set the sheet aside to dry.

Step 13

Pull out the second half of white cardstock and cut a small rectangle from it that is slightly larger than the “Surprise” stamp in your birthday stamp set.

 

Stamped Surprise next to Unicorn Paper and Teal Paper

Step 14

Attach the “Surprise” stamp to your acrylic block and stamp it with black pigment ink in the center of your white piece of cardstock.

Note:

Step 15

Round the corners on the word-stamped piece of cardstock.

 

Colorful Letters of the word Surprise

Step 16

Then color each letter of the word with the same colored pencils you used on your unicorns.

 

Surprise Stamp Matted on Teal Cardstock

Step 17

Next, mat your stamped and colored word onto teal cardstock using a glue runner. Trim any edges so that they look as pictured above.

Step 18

Again, round the edges of the teal cardstock to match the white cardstock.

 

Darkened Outline of Colorful Letters

Step 19

Now, darken the outline on your word “Surprise” with a black fine-tip marker.

 

Stickles on Surprise Stars

Step 20

Add Stickles to the stars on the word “Surprise” as you did on the stars in step 12. Allow them to dry.

 

Yellow Card with Unicorn Cardstock and Surprise Saying

Step 21

After your Stickles have dried, pull out your stamped elements and a bright yellow card form.

Step 22

Use your card form as a measure to determine how much, if any, you need to trim from your unicorn stamped cardstock and trim it.

 

Glue x on White Paper

Colorful Unicorns Cardstock Attached to Yellow Card Next to Glue Runner

Step 23

Now, attach your unicorn stamped cardstock to the front of the yellow card form, centered, with your glue runner.

 

White Foam Dots on the Back of Teal Paper

Step 24

Next, flip over your matted teal cardstock and add an adhesive foam dot to each each corner. Also add one to the center for support.

 

Close Up of Surprise Unicorn Card

Surprise Unicorn Card

Step 25

Lastly, attach it to the center of your unicorn card as pictured above.

 

Glittery and Colorful Unicorn Birthday Card with text overlay: Glittery and Colorful Unicorn Birthday Card

Seriously, how much fun is this glittery and colorful unicorn birthday card?! Plus, since it says “Surprise” you could use it for other occasions outside of birthdays. Give it as thank you card and write, “You’re Awesome!” Pretty much any occasion you can think of to say surprise will absolutely work for this card. By the way, if you aren’t already following my on Instagram head over there now for sneak peeks into upcoming awesome projects like these!

See where I’m linking up!

Don’t Forget to Pin It!

Collage of Glittery and Colorful Unicorn Birthday Card with text overlay: Glittery and Colorful Unicorn Birthday Card

 

More Ideas You’ll Love:

Budget-Friendly Products to Organize Your Pantry

Is your pantry a hot mess? Could you go to it right now and find exactly what you need without a lot of digging and searching? If that sounds familiar it’s time to finally get it under control with these budget-friendly products to organize your pantry.

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Ordering a product through these links may result in a commission at no extra cost to you. Read the full disclosure here.

Collage of organization products with text overlay: Budget-Friendly Products to Organize Your Pantry

 

[bctt tweet=”When you food organization is a mess it is that much harder to prepare meals. These budget-friendly products to organize your pantry make dinners easier!” username=”diyadulation”]

When you food organization is a mess, it makes it that much harder to make yourself cook meals. Nobody wants to do extra work before working and that’s what cooking sometimes feels like.

Luckily, there are tools to help you wrangle it all. The way you make it budget-friendly is by looking at inexpensive products in a new way. Don’t worry, I’ve done the work for you and curated products and ideas to help you organize your pantry once and for all.

Tan over-the-door organizer
Photo Credit: Amazon

4 Pocket Over-the-Door Hanging Organizer

This organizer is actually termed as a nursery over-the-door organizer but it is the perfect size for the back of your pantry door. Use it for storing snacks or other lighter pantry items.

 

Food Canisters with Chalk Labels
Photo Credit: Amazon

Food Storage Containers Set

These are a must not only for organization but also are a great preemptive measure in pest control.

 

Wire under shelf basket with foil
Photo Credit: Amazon

Under Shelf Baskets

Sometimes large shelves are great for storage. Other times, it means a lot of wasted space. The baskets are the perfect way to make use of wasted space.

 

Can organizer with shelf
Photo Credit: Amazon

Can Organizer and Rack

I don’t think I could survive without my can organizer. I use a lot of canned goods for easy weeknight dinners and need quick and organized access to them. These are life savers!

 

Can organizer on shelf
Photo Credit: Amazon

Upright Can Organizer

Depending on what your pantry looks like, the above can organizer might not work for you. That doesn’t mean you don’t need organization. This upright organizer is my second choice for you.

 

Plastic Lidded Storage Container
Photo Credit: Amazon

Plastic Shoe Boxes

I don’t know anyone who actually uses these for shoes. Most moms I know use them for craft supplies but they are also great for organizing your pantry. I use these to organize baking supplies such as cupcake wrappers and decorative picks to sprinkles or candy melts.

 

Plastic Lidded Storage Container
Photo Credit: Amazon

16 Quart Plastic Storage Container

Larger plastic storage containers are perfect for creating snack stations for your kids. Fill them with pre-portioned snacks and place on a shelf within easy reach of tiny hands. It seriously streamlines snack time.

 

small container of push pins
Photo Credit: Amazon

Push Pins

Are you using push pins in your pantry? If not you are missing out. Use them to utilize the empty wall space in your pantry for additional organization. Hang extra keys, coupon organizers, and more on these babies.

 

Small container of binder clips
Photo Credit: Amazon

Binder Clips

Binder clips are perfect to use in conjunction with push pins to help organize items like seasoning packets or other items that are well suited to wall organization.

 

Folded coupon organizer
Photo Credit: Amazon

Grocery Coupon Organizer

Speaking of using binder clips to help with organization, clip one on your coupon organizer for easy access when you need it. You can also use these as your envelope system for budgeting or for gift card organization. Don’t discount them even when you don’t coupon.

 

Collage of organization products with text overlay: Budget-Friendly Products to Organize Your Pantry

There you have my favorite budget-friendly products to organize your pantry. Remember that the best organization finds creative ways to utilize products to fit within your space. My kitchen, and subsequently my pantry, are super tiny. Through effectively utilizing products like these, it is still well organized and space efficient. Do you have any products you use in creative ways to organize your pantry? Help a busy mom out and share them in the comments!

See where I’m linking up!

Don’t Forget to Pin It!

Collage of organization products with text overlay: Budget-Friendly Products to Organize Your Pantry

 

More Ideas You’ll Love: