How to turn greeting cards into mosaic designs

Everyone receives greeting cards for their birthday, Christmas, and celebrations. If you are like me, I don’t throw them out. I keep them. Sometimes for many years! But what if you could find another use for these cards? What if you could turn your greeting cards into inspirational mosaic designs?

Mosaics is a very visual experience. Creating your mosaic involves using a visible reference. These can be from online searching (Instagram, Pinterest, Google), photos, artwork, interesting objects, wrapping paper. This list is endless. 

Mosaic design inspiration from greeting cards

I know when it first occurred to me to look at all the cards I had kept over the years, I realised I was suddenly looking at them with fresh new eyes. The broad range of colours and shapes instantly had my mosaic mind thinking.

However what I did need to consider was not ALL card designs were mosaic appropriate. Some designs were simply too complex, too busy, too difficult to transition to a mosaic or they were simply not my cup of tea!

Working out which designs would work well as mosaics

As I was sorting through the cards and deciding which ones appealed to me, I realised there were a few aspects I needed to consider:

• Shape – was the shape going to work well as a mosaic? Were there too many openings/jagged edges making it difficult to understand what your object would look like? (particularly if the original image is a water colour painting)
• Abstract or realistic – how easy or hard would it be to recreate as either a realistic of abstract object
• Elements on card – did you need to use all of the card images or could you separate them and use several or just one
• Colours – would the design work well if you mixed the colours up and used your preference
• Materials – would some parts of the picture look better if you introduced different mediums to highlight different areas (beads, buttons, wire)

Grouping the designs

Once I had decided which greeting cards would work well as mosaic designs, I allocated each design to a group for future reference.

Birds

When I first started, I was really surprised at how popular birds were for creating mosaics! It didn’t take long for me to understand why. Birds make the most adorable mosaic subjects with their lush feathers and brilliant colouring.

As real life or abstract subjects, birds make for beautiful mosaics. There are no rules.

When I first started mosaics, birds had a simple pattern which allowed for freedom of colour and ease of interpretation in creating an interesting design. As I have become more skilled, including the smaller pieces for feathers has been a natural progression.

Animals

Animals which appear on greeting cards make for wonderful mosaic projects, especially when shown in an abstract form. A play on colours, posture, positioning, and facial expressions can work very well. Popular animals include butterflies, cats, dogs, and bears.

It is my ambition to do a mosaic basset hound (we had a basset hound when I was growing up) and have received some great cards over the years with perfect expressions. Watch this space!

Flowers and plants

Always popular on greeting cards, flowers and plants can show up as simple drawings right through to complex arrangements.

There are no hard and fast rules about how flowers and plants should look as a mosaic. Each design is open to interpretation. You can use all of the image, or to simply the section you need.

Flowers can flat, raised, multi coloured and can incorporate a variety of petals.

Christmas cards

A place of great inspiration for creating future mosaic Christmas tree ornaments for baubles, bells, candy sticks and other decorations.

Multi-designs

I love cards which have multiple images of the one subject, in many different colours. A mosaic artists dream as all the hard work has been accomplished as to what the subject would look like with a different colour variation.  

The benefits of using greeting cards for mosaic inspiration

Greeting cards will always be around. Indeed, if you don’t have a card with a design idea you like, you can easily buy (or download) another. The cards don’t need to be expensive. It’s the design you are after, not the quality of the card. Better yet, you can always gift the card to yourself!

When you start appreciating the benefits of turning greeting cards into inspirational mosaic design ideas, it opens up a whole new world. If there is a particular style of picture you would like to do, greeting cards can provide the perfect avenue to gain instant inspiration.