3 Back to School Photo Crafts

Celebrate a New School Year With These Fun Photo DIYs

If you’re anything like me, back to school season brings all the emotions. Excitement, a little chaos, and lots of photo-worthy moments. Every year I try to find fun ways to document the first day, those fresh outfits, and my kids’ growing personalities. This year, I wanted to share my favorite 3 Back To School Photo Crafts that will add a special touch to your family’s photos. These are perfect for keeping those milestone moments front and center or even for teacher’s back to school activities. Let’s get crafty.

I did use my Persnickety Box membership to print my photos. Each month, I get a new set of 4x4" prints delivered to my door, and the quality is unreal. These aren’t flimsy drugstore prints. They’re made with old-school darkroom technology and are totally fade proof and archival. I know I’ll be looking back at these memories for years. Download the app and print your photos with Persnickety Box too!

@persnicketybox Back to school already!? Get prepped with these 3 super cute and easy DIYs for your back to school photos! Used my #persnicketybox prints. #BackToSchool #SchoolCraft #BacktoschoolDIY #SchoolPhotos #BackToSchoolPhotos ♬ Back to School - FASSounds

1. CLOTHESPIN PENCIL PHOTO CLIPS

This one is so easy and fun for kids to help with. Paint or color wooden clothespins to look like pencils with yellow, pink and silver. (I used these Amazon acrylic markers for this project) Once dry, use them to clip your 4x4" photos onto string, a cork board, or even your fridge. It’s such a cute way to display those first day of school pics.

2. POPSICLE STICK SCHOOL BUS FRAME

This one is always a hit. Hot glue wide popsicle sticks together to form a bus frame:

Lay three sticks together creating the bottom of the bus, and a fourth stick parallel up above those. This will create the window space for the photo.
Hot glue 2 sticks perpendicular, close to the edges of the original sticks. This will hold them all together and should have enough space for your photo to peek through. There should also be some part of your perpendicular sticks hanging over at the bottom. These will become the bus’ tires.

Once cool, flip the frame over and paint like a school bus! I added little black circles for wheels, red lights, and a 2025 “license plate”. After it has dried, glue your back to school photo to the back. My kids love seeing themselves “riding the bus” and it makes the cutest little keepsake.

3. BACK TO SCHOOL PHOTO CLIP FRAME

Here’s another cute popsicle stick craft! Glue some wide sticks together to be bigger than your 4x4 print. I used 8 sticks. Paint them white and add blue horizontal stripes and one vertical pink stripe on the left to create a “lined paper” look. I then painted one popsicle stick to look like a pencil and hot glued it on.

I also added a gold clip at the top center to clip in your photo. For a finishing touch I added an embossed label sticker using my label maker from Amazon. Personalize it how you would like with your child’s grade or year. It’s simple, personal, and easy to update each year with new prints from your monthly box.

These crafts are not only fun to make but also such a sweet way to celebrate this season of growth. I love how my Persnickety Box photos make each of these projects feel extra special with their beautiful print quality and square shape that fits just right. Print those back to school moments. Save them. Display them. And most importantly, enjoy them.