Keeping birth announcement cards: how to store, frame and display them
To keep birth announcement cards, display the ones you received while the baby is new, then put the originals away flat in an acid-free box, somewhere cool and dark. Your own announcement is the exception: frame a spare copy, or have its design printed as a poster, so the original can stay in the box too.
Which birth cards are you keeping?
Two piles land on the table after a birth. One is the stack of cards that came through the letterbox from family and friends. The other is your own announcement, the card you chose and sent.
The Dutch magazine Ouders van Nu treats them separately in its guide to keeping a birth card: in the first weeks after the birth, it says, it is festive to put the cards on display, for example on a cupboard, in a photo rack or on a homemade garland, and once you want calm back in the house, they go into a storage box, bag or bundle. Your own card gets a different treatment there: a frame, or a reprint on another material.
That order works for both piles. Show the cards while the visits are still coming, then store them. Your own design can stay on the wall for good.
How do you display the cards in the first weeks?
Hang them so you can take them down again in one piece. The Dutch card shop Kaartje2go collects 14 ideas for keeping birth cards, and several of them put cards on show, among them these four:
| Idea | How Kaartje2go describes it |
|---|---|
| Garland | Favourite cards cut out, or hung from a cord with mini pegs, above the cot or on a nursery wall |
| Card hanger | The most special cards hung from the nursery ceiling; a mobile works too |
| Wall rack | Small hooks or a wall rack on the wall, cards hung on strings or pegs |
| Wall collage | Cards fixed to the wall with masking tape; magnetic boards and pinboards also work |
Pegs and strings hold a card by its edge and leave it whole. Scissors and tape change the card itself, so save them for cards you will not keep. A card that is too precious for any of this can skip the display and go straight into the box.
How do you store birth cards so they last?
Store them flat, in the dark, in a cool room that keeps an even climate. The Library of Congress's care advice for works on paper covers flat paper such as documents, prints and posters, and a greeting card is flat paper too. It asks for a cool (room temperature or below), relatively dry (about 35% relative humidity), clean and stable place, and tells you to avoid attics and basements.
Its other points translate directly to a box of cards:
- Light: minimal exposure to all kinds of light, and none that is direct or intense. A closed box in a cupboard does this for you.
- Enclosure: acid- and lignin-free folders and document boxes. When you buy a box, look for both words on the label.
- No fasteners or adhesives: the same page advises against rubber bands, self-adhesive tape, glue, paper clips and other fasteners on paper.
That last point is where the craft ideas and the archive part ways. Kaartje2go's first idea is a scrapbook, and its wooden keepsake book has you punch holes in the cards. Its own case for a storage bag is that you don't have to stick cards into a scrapbook or punch them. If the cards are meant to last until your child is grown, a box or bag keeps them whole; a scrapbook keeps them together.
Display the cards while the baby is new, then store the originals flat in a dark box, without tape or glue.
How do you frame your own birth announcement?
Frame a spare, not the only copy. Kaartje2go suggests framing as a way to keep the original card from damage or discolouring, and ordering an extra announcement card to put in the frame. With a spare you get the same split as before: one card goes into the box, the other goes on the wall.
The Library of Congress's light rule matters here too. A frame in direct sunlight gives the card the very light that advice wants kept away from paper, so a wall out of direct sun is the better place for it.
Ouders van Nu suggests framing the card if you like photos around the house, and for something that stands out more, having it printed on canvas, acrylic glass, forex or aluminium. One of its examples has a size catch: ceramic tiles from Tadaaz measure 15 by 15 centimetres, so the magazine says they only work for a square card.
Can you turn your birth announcement into a poster?
Yes, if you still have the design. Kaartje2go's last idea is turning the card into a birth poster or tile, and for a card ordered from another company, its first step is to ask the maker for the card's digital file.
If your cards came from us, you skip that step. Every design style on our cards is offered for every product, so the poster editor has the style you chose for the cards. Fill in the name and the birth date, choose that style, and pick the format:
- a framed birth poster of 30 × 40 cm or 45 × 60 cm, in a wood frame of black, white or natural with acrylic glazing,
- or a birth print on canvas of 30 × 40 cm, stretched on a wooden frame.
What else goes on a poster is in our birth poster ideas, and our nursery wall decor guide covers how high to hang it and how to group it with other frames.
One more idea from Kaartje2go puts the received cards to work: photograph all of them together and print that photo on your thank-you card. Our guide to birth thank-you cards covers who gets one and what to write.
To see your announcement's style at wall size, open the poster editor and pick the style from your cards.