Wondering what to do with all of the holiday greeting cards you’ve received? Upcycle those family photo cards into a simple and stylish Valentine’s Day banner!

I’m one of those people that hates to throw family photo cards away. I feel incredibly guilty about tossing beautiful pictures of my beloved family and friends in the trash can or recycling bin. For years I’ve dealt with my guilt by collecting the cards in a pile and storing them with my Christmas decorations, only to unpack them the following year and shamefully toss them in the trash.

Until this year.

While scrolling through social media, I came across a post from Everyday Reading founder Janssen Bradshaw about using your holiday greeting cards to make a banner for Valentine’s Day. It was as if a giant light bulb went on in my brain. Why hadn’t I thought of turning my old greeting cards into a banner to honor the family and friends that I loved?

I immediately ran to my kitchen to grab my scissors and string and went to work upcycling my greeting cards into an adorable heart-shaped banner.

Materials Used to Make a Greeting Card Valentine’s Day Banner

Here are the supplies I used to build an upcycled Valentine’s Day banner from holiday greeting cards. I shopped at my house for the materials needed for this project. I’ve included some alternative supplies that could be used instead of what I had on hand, to encourage you to use what you have.

To build an upcycled Valentine’s Day banner, you will need:

a stack of photo greeting cards
scissors
pencil
free printable heart template or different sized heart cookie cutters*
hole punch
string or ribbon

*I had various sized heart cookie cutters in my kitchen, which worked perfectly for tracing heart shapes onto my holiday greeting cards, but aren’t necessary to make this simple Valentine’s day craft. Instead of cookie cutters, you can create various sized heart cutouts from pieces of paper, or simply download my free multi-sized heart printable template below!

Instructions to Make a Greeting Card Valentine’s Day Banner

Once you’ve gathered your supplies, follow these instructions to construct your upcycled greeting card Valentine’s Day banner. This took me approximately 20 minutes to complete.

Choose which images you would like to use from each greeting card.
Using the free heart template (or heart-shaped cookie cutters), trace a heart shape around your selected images on each card.
Cut out each heart shape.
Use a hole punch to cut two holes in each heart, one on each side.
Lay out the hearts in the order you would like them to appear on your Valentine’s Day banner.
Thread a string through the holes of each heart, making sure that the string passes behind each of the hearts to avoid blocking any of the images.
Once all of the hearts are strung together, cut the string to the length desired.
Your banner is ready to be displayed!

The weight of the greeting card Valentine’s Day banner is minimal, so I was able to use push pins to attach each end of the string to the wall. The finished banner looked lovely hanging above my kitchen cabinets!

Where to Display Your Valentine’s Day Greeting Card Banner

I chose to hang my Valentine’s Day greeting card banner in my kitchen because that is the room my family spends the most time in when we are home. Here are a few suggestions for where you may want to display your heart-shaped greeting card banner:

On a fireplace mantle
Above a doorway
Between bookshelves
Suspended from a curtain rod
Draped around a table centerpiece

Wherever you choose to display your upcycled greeting card banner, make sure to take time to admire your beautiful creation!

How to Sustainably Dispose of Your Upcycled Valentine’s Day Banner

Once Valentine’s Day is over and your upcycled photo card banner has delighted your family, it’s time to clean up. Here are some simple instructions to sustainably dispose of your Valentine’s Day banner.

Unthread the string from the cards and save it for another project
Sort the cards based on their material. If they are made of regular paper, chuck them in the recycling bin. If any of your cards are constructed out of photo paper, you’ll have to toss them in the trash.
Alternatively, if you own a paper shredding machine, you can shred the cards to make colorful package filling or, depending on the type of paper they are made of, dispose of the shredded paper in a compost bin.

How to Repurpose Your Greeting Cards into a Family Game

Are you still struggling with tossing those photo greeting cards in the trash? Give them yet another life by turning them into a family game! Follow these simple steps to repurpose your Valentine’s Day greeting card banner into a family challenge.

Unthread the string from the heart-shaped cards and place them in a box or an opaque bag.
Gather your family members and pull a card from the box.
Without the other players seeing the details of your card, provide clues about the people pictured on your card.
The first person to correctly guess the people on the card wins the round.
Take turns pulling cards from the box until no cards remain.
The person with the most correctly guessed cards wins the game!

Looking for even more ways to reuse those holiday cards? My friend Jen of Honestly Modern has more suggestions to repurpose holiday cards.

More Simple and Sustainable Valentine’s Day Crafts

Looking for more simple and sustainable Valentine’s Day crafts for your kids to create? Discover four of my family’s favorite eco-friendly Valentine’s Day activities to make with supplies you probably already have at home.