How To Make A Photo Card

Nothing quite compares to sending out heartfelt and personalized photo cards to friends and family. Learn to make a photo card at home in four simple steps — choose your favorite photos, pick a theme, personalize, and lastly, print your photo cards. There’s no shortage of sweet sentiments you can send by making your own photo cards at home. Perfect for any season and accomplishment, making photo cards online to send to your loved ones is a great way to let them know you’re thinking of them.

From unique holiday photo cards to wedding thank you cards, the options are endless to customize your card design. With all these options, you will be sure to find or create a photo card theme that best suits your needs and style. Don’t forget to throw in matching address labels to complete your entire package. Browse our photo card ideas below to get started on your custom photo card today!

How To Make Your Own Photo Cards Online

Designing a photo card at home is the perfect solo activity or a fun project to tackle with a family member. Options to create custom photo cards range from holiday cards and birthday cards to baby shower invitations or birth announcements.

Happy new year photo card hanging on fridge

For those everyday occasions or more important milestones, you can bring your ideas to life. Get started with these four easy steps!

Step 1: Upload Your Favorite Photos

Choosing your favorite photos to upload is the most exciting part of creating custom cards. It’s the perfect time to relive your favorite memories, from travel adventures to family reunions and more. From zero to four or more photos, you have the freedom to share as many or as few memories with your recipients as you’d like.

Keep your theme in mind when deciding the number of photos and their respective orientations. For optimal results, use the recommended specifications for uploading images.

Step 2: Pick A Card Theme

The best photo cards are the ones with inspired designs that showcase your personality. First, find the category of the card you’d like to create, whether it’s graduation announcements, wedding save the dates, or greeting cards.

When choosing your design, browse through the themes using the card templates provided. Do you prefer minimal and simple, floral and whimsical, or glitter and glam? Your personal style and preference is a good place to start to decide the direction of your photo cards. From there, you can choose your favorite layout. If you’d rather create your own theme, you can also upload your own design.

Girl writing on a colorful photo holiday card

By choosing the number of photos you want to include in your photo card early on, it’ll make selecting the design simpler. The more photos you use can change the overall orientation of your card, along with the size of the text and any personalized elements.

Step 3: Personalize Your Photo Card

Consider your trim options—regular, rounded, bracket, scalloped, or ticket. You can also choose between folded smooth cardstock or pearl shimmer cardstock for your paper. Writing a heartfelt greeting is yet another fun way to personalize your photo cards for your recipients. Make a statement with a simple one-liner, or share your most recent memory.

Once your layout is nearly complete, add any other personalization details to your photo cards. Make those memories stand out with personalized foil or glitter to add some extra flair.

Save the date cards of young couple with stationery

If you’d like an extra set of eyes on your final design, Shutterfly offers two design review options: Basic Review for elements like spelling and grammar, print legibility, and photo resolution or Plus Review which includes all of the basic features plus photo retouching.

Step 4: Order Your Photo Cards

After you’ve completed these steps, you’re almost ready to print your photo cards in just a few simple clicks. Depending on the number of people you’d like to send cards to, decide the quantity and if you need envelopes. If you’d like to save time, you can order pre-addressed envelopes or opt for Shutterfly to stamp and mail the cards for you.

View your final product in preview mode for an accurate representation of how your design will be printed. Double-check your design and save the project. Once you’re happy with your design, you’re ready to order your stunning personalized photo cards!

Types Of Photo Cards

You can print your greeting cards as a folded photo card or a flat photo card. To create photo cards easily, decide which orientation is right for the design as you begin the process of how to make photo cards. Choose between a landscape orientation or portrait orientation for your photos before moving on to select the layout, card size, and theme.

Folded photo card of two young boys kissing newborn boy

Folded Photo Cards

For an elegant option, print cards like your baptism thank you photo cards, custom holiday photo cards, or Easter photo cards on a folded design. You can further personalize your folded photo cards by adjusting the layout, orientation, size, and theme.

  • Layouts: Decide if you want your folded card to have a single fold, tri-fold, or gate fold.
  • Card Sizes: Choose between a 5×5, 5×7, or 6×8 card.
  • Themes: Add an elegant touch with a floral, minimal, or monogrammed theme. Keep it natural with a botanical, tropical, or outdoor theme. To add a flair to your photo cards, choose a theme like sparkle and shine.

Flat Photo Cards

Save the date photo cards, happy new year photo cards, and graduation photo cards are great options for a flat card. Make your flat photo card your own by designing your keepsake with a special layout, orientation, size, and theme.

  • Layouts: The orientation of your card size will determine the layout of your design.
  • Card Sizes: Choose between a 4×8, 5×5, 5×7, or 6×8 card.
  • Themes: You have endless themed options to make the design your own. Create your holiday photo cards with Feliz Navidad, first Christmas, or merry and bright themes. Or, add texture to your Thanksgiving photo cards with rustic wood or plaid patterns.

Additional Resources

A refrigerator full of unique photo card designs adds a personal touch to any home. Whether you’re looking to create the best holiday photo cards, wedding thank you photo cards, or Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards, designing your very own is a unique way to look back on your memories. If you have to change the date of your event or celebration, custom photo cards come with a reprint promise so you can update your designs with ease. For inspiration on how to create custom photo cards, browse our additional resources: