These DIY photo strips are the perfect way to decorate for a milestone birthday, shower, wedding or anniversary. We have a tradition of decorating the house the night before to celebrate birthdays and first days of school. My daughter’s 13th birthday was a week before Christmas which meant a little extra sparkle in the decorating department. She had requested a coquette bow theme and I knew I wanted to incorporate some of her baby pictures into the decorations.
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Creating Your DIY Photo Strips
I wanted to make sure the photos made a big impact. If you have followed me for awhile you know how we like to do things here (remember the big head cutouts I taught you to make for sports and graduations?). So I edited a template and sized them so that you can print oversized DIY photo strips same-day using Walgreens. I tried to size the template so that it would fit their largest poster and based on that I stretched to see how many strips I could squeeze into one. I realized I could fit three per 24 x 36 poster. So when you are choosing your poster size make sure you choose the 24 x 36 size so you don’t have any resolution issues. If you get a resolution error it might be because Walgreens starts their posters out in landscape and you need to reorient to portrait. Once you do that, the error should go away (but make sure you are okay with any pixelation- not all of my photos were crisp and I was okay with that). I also choose to pay when I pick up in case I am not happy with the print job.
I also gray-scaled the photos because it went with our vintage coquette/bow theme. To grayscale your photos; add them onto the template in Canva. Once you upload and add your photos, start editing. Click the edit button on the tool bar and go to filters. I chose the film filter under mono and turned down the intensity a bit.
Now, you also know to scour the internet for a coupon code for these prints. I used a 50 percent one that brought it down to $15 a sheet.
The hardest part about this project was deciding which pictures to print- 13 years in a handful of photo strips?! Also so many tears shed. How did 13 years go by so fast?! But really my husband would say the hardest part was cutting the strips so that they would be straight. I let him do that because I can’t cut a 3×5 index card (WITH lines) straight. I know my limits.
Now for the decorations; I kept it simple with bow balloons, a 13 balloon, florals and a card that said what was happening in the world 13 years ago.
Here is a template for the DIY photo strips. You will need a Canva account to login, but it should be free to do. Let me know if there are any issues. Also these are for personal use only. Please do not sell these, otherwise you will be punished by legal action. I do this for fun and keep it free for everyone but when people steal the files and charge for them it ruins it for everyone else.
Have fun celebrating your loved ones!
With love,
Shahla
Love them. Can’t wait to make it for my twin daughters
Yay! So glad you love them!
I saw this on tik tok it was meant to be my daughter turns 13 this week!! Hoping i can create as beautiful as you did!
Happy early birthday to your daughter! I’m sure it will be gorgeous!!
Thank you for sharing! My daughter turns 13 on Saturday! Definitely will be doing this
Yay! Happy early birthday to your daughter!
Awesome! Thank you for sharing!
Of course!
My daughter turns 16 soon and we are surprising her with tickets to Wicked so not having a big party like usual. We ALWAYS decorate and 16 is a big milestone so this is perfect! She loves bows & the card is fun so I ordered all using your links. Thanks so much for sharing.
That sounds like the PERFECT birthday! Thank you so much for your support!
This is so creative and thoughtful! Can’t wait to do this for my daughter in two weeks. I used the Walgreens Coupon and got 70% off, cant beat it. Thanks for not gatekeeping and making this so enjoyable.
Thank you so much for the kind words! Glad to hear this worked out and yay for the big coupon!!
Hi Can you explain a little more on the process of getting in printed at Walgreens ? There are many printing options on the Walgreen site. Which type of poster did you choose?
Thank you
Hi there! I choose the regular poster on satin paper in 24×36 size. Let me know if that answers your question 🙂
Thank you! Used it and got the 70% off discount at Walgreens and surprising my daughter on Friday also her 13th birthday
That makes me so happy to hear! And happy birthday to your daughter!
I can’t get the error message to go away. Keeps saying too small even tho I’ve changed the orientation. Help! I LOVE this idea and want to do it for my daughters 21st next week!
Can you email me a screenshot of what is going on and I can try to see if I can troubleshoot? hello@treehousethreads.com or message me on Instagram
Are these printed on 8x 11 paper? Appreciate the insight
Thank you so much for this! My baby girl will be 13 in August and this is a beautiful idea to show 13 yrs of memories ❤️
Just used this last night. I can’t wait to pick them up! Thank you so much for sharing!
I followed your directions and I was able to execute flawlessly (and I’m not crafty)! Thank you for helping me make my daughter’s 18th birthday perfect!
Yay! This makes me so happy to hear! Happy 18th to your daughter!
Omg thank you for this tutorial! I’m doing this for Valentine’s Day. I have one question. You said you get 3 pics per row of the 24×36 poster but your picture shows 4 per strip. So when I use the template I put four pics but when I send it to print at Walgreens on the large poster size they don’t fit properly. I can do three and perhaps those would fit but the template is for four. Do I just drag corners to enlarge photos in Canvas to fit the Walgreens print? Does this template enable me to print four per row or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks for your help!
Hi there! This would be adorable for Valentine’s Day! So there are three strips with 4 pics per strip. If you are only seeing three- the orientation might be on landscape instead of portrait when you are in the Walgreens app. You shouldn’t have to drag or enlarge since it is sized to 24×36 already 🙂 If you have Instagram, I shared a more detailed video with step-by-steps. I am a visual learner and it helps me to see what people are explaining! LMK if you have any other questions!
Oh perfect!! I see now, I just watched it. I kept thinking I had to be within the boundaries of the Walgreens lines.. lol. I see now, thank you so much and for such a quick response! You’re awesome!
Thank you so much for these easy-to-follow instructions! I’m going to use them at a graduation party for my granddaughter in the spring!
My pleasure! And congratulations to your granddaughter!!
Hi thank you for this amazing idea, Im going to do it for my neices 1 year memorial and her heavenly birthday. For some reason I don’t have the option on Canva to edit the color and also when I go to Walgreens to print photo it only allows me to use the landscape not the portrait. Do you have any tips to help me?
I am so sorry for the delay in my response! What a special tribute. Happy heavenly birthday to her. I just a detailed how-to video with troubleshooting on Instagram (walking through the landscape and portrait). Do you have access to Instagram?
Yes I will look at your Instagram. I get anxious and I ended up changing the color with my phone and figured out how to switch the landscape. Already printed it out as well. Thank you so much for your response. Have a great day.
Love this!! Is it possible to make the strips horizontal to hang them banner style? Can’t figure out how to do this with my photos but I only have horizontal not vertical :/
Where can i print them?