Printable Photo Surprise Card for Any Occasion

Today we share with you a lovely Printable Photo Surprise Card! I don’t know about you, but my friends and family LOVE it when I send them photos of kids or us as a family. And we just DON’T do it enough. So I thought we would combine a free printable birthday card with some gorgeous photos printed, straight off my phone. Check out our pop-up card printable shared with you thanks to very.co.uk.

Disclaimer: this post is sponsored by very.co.uk and their fabulous range of mini printers and instant cameras.

With the advent of phone cameras, I think we have all fallen into the trap of creating 1000s and 1000s of photos. We may message them to each other, but we rarely print them off. Long gone are the days of 36 exposure film, that you would then eagerly send off and get printed. One holiday, 36 photo prints later. Now we are looking at 1000s of photos, with no prints at all.

I snapped up the change to have a go at the instax mini Link 2 Smartphone printer that very.co.uk has in it’s stores. And then took up their challenge to get crafty with some of the fabulous photo prints!

My initial thoughts on the instax mini Link 2 printer:

Firstly the photos, I LOVE the size of the prints – 8.6cm x 5.4cm – for those not in “the know” – those are the exact dimensions of a credit card. In other words. The photo prints come in this super cute credit card size, which means, they also perfectly for pop in your wallet – a great photo gift to family and friends.

Secondly, they work like the “old school” polaroids – they have the look and feel of a cool “retro” polaroid, but also develop like one. So I feel the print quality is better than on some of the shoot & print cameras we have seen around.

Next – I am not normally a gadget person, but the mini printer is wonderfully tactile to hold and work with! I just want to stroke it all day. Ha.

The app – the app is super fun! The basics are pretty self explanatory. So once charged you can literally print and go. And if you want to explore it further, it has lots of add ons and drawing features for you to experiment and work with.

Finally – I reckon the photo print quality is best for “people” vs scenery. Which is what this fun little gadget was designed for – to have fun with friends! This also makes it perfect for using as part of our Pop Up Photo Surprise Card! Read on!

Here is a great overview of this little printer on YouTube!

Creative ways to use your instax prints

So my favourite ways for you to use these mini prints would be:

• Notice board or fridge photo displays – yes, this is super simple, but to be honest, it is – especially my daughter’s – favourite way to print and see photos. Whenever she has friends over, she likes to take at least one new photo with her friends and add it to her notice board.
• Make your own postcards/ cards – this is a fun way to create your post cards to make and send – especially around celebrations – think scrap booking – with embellishments such as washi tape, torn paper and cute stickers.. add a photo or two and you are sorted!
• Adding it to a make your own Pop-Up card – any regular Red Ted Art reader knows how much I love a pop-up card – they are simply super fun to make. And as part o fthis wonderful campaign with very.co.uk, I had the resources to provide you with a fantastic printable that combines a pop up AND your special instax mini Link 2 prints. The best bit? The recipient can easily remove the photo (without damaging the card) and pop it in their wallet! Woohoo.

Let’s make this lovely printable pop-up Birthday Card or even Mother’s Day Card….

Printable Photo Surprise Card – Supplies

• printer paper – please note – you need to get the printer settings right and use the correct format so that the card prints out with the right size for your photo- A4 for the UK and Letter head for the US – please download the correct version
• colouring pencils, markers, pens, watercolours – whatever you choose!
• a pair of scissors
• glue stick
• your printable (hosted on gumroad for easy of accessibility – click the big red button below – choose from A4 or Letter size or the single freebie (Happy Birthday) and enter $0 at check out)

NOTE: if you would like to make the card a little more stable/ stiff, you can glue the two halves together. Just take care not to glue the photo slots and the pop up down by accident.

.. AND… please note, there are 14 different front covers (yes, we got a little carried away!!) to suit all sorts of occasions – there is Happy Birthday (my freebie to Red Ted Art readers!), Happy Mother’s Day, Best Mum! Graduation Day!, Happy Anniversary, Welcome. Thank You (perfect for Teacher Appreciation week).. and MORE! Something to suit any occasion!

The link to the “single freebie” contains BOTH the US and A4 formats. Please take care when printing and click the correct version of the main card. The explaination sheet can be used for both sizes, as the size not senstive. As the Happy Birthday version is FREE – please enter $0 at “check out”. Gumroad makes hosting these kind of files really easy for me.

Prepare your instax photo first

As mentioned, you can print and go with the mini printer, you can have playing with the apps. As our birthday card printable is based around the gift of flowers (making it suitable for many other occasions too – we have varied the messages on the front of the card), you could have fun adding flowers or similar to your photo print in the app!

How to make your pop up birthday card surprise

Print out your pop up card printable. As mentioned previously – make sure use the correct version – be it A4 or Letter Head format and print to 100% scale. Check your print fits the your photo print properly, before proceeding, if necessary, adjust your printer settings, you may want to increase or decrease by 5% depending on your printers accuracy when printing. We have design the pop up card to perfectly fit the credit card sized photos.

Make three cuts – for the photo holder & the pop up flower pot

You can also watch the video tutorial on auto play – this really shows how wonderfully easy this card is to make!

You will need to make three cuts. The top left flowers, the flowers on the bottom right of the frame, as well as long the flower pot top. You can poke in a small pair of scissors (adults only) and carefully cut out the pop up flower pot element of the card. Or use a craft knife!

Folding the card

Fold the card across the middle width.

Turn and fold the card again,

Make super neat creases!

Make the pop up & colour

Pull the pop up out. Crease both sides.

Shut the card and really make sure the creases are neat!

Unfold the card again. Cut out the extra flowers and now colour everything in. I like to colour it in at this stage, so you don’t “waste” any colouring effort if you accidentally misfold or miscut something.

Glue the three additional flowers in place for the pop up element.

And done!

Now add you favourite instax mini photo to your card, write your message and make someone very happy. We love that you can easily remove the photos and pop them into a frame. A lovely way to gift a photo to a loved one.

As the instax mini photos are credit card sized, you can also add gift cards to the holder if you wish. Perfect as Graduation Gifts or Birthday Gifts!

So.. what do you think? Isn’t this the cutest printable pop up card? You simply HAVE to get yourself the instax mini printer and give it a go. So fun! Thank you to very.co.uk for sponsoring this adorable personalised photo pop up card craft!