How I Used Old Credit Cards and Boarding Passes To Make Artwork

Credit cards aren’t just a financial instrument for me, they’ve become a passion. They’ve enabled me to navigate the world of personal finance by getting into the weeds from the start. I grew my credit score to over 800, earned millions of points and miles to enable me to see the world, saved myself thousands of dollars in cash-back during harder financial days, and, most importantly, used credit cards to help me build some of the most meaningful relationships in my life.

I met my mentor through points and miles. My girlfriend and I’s first conversation was bonding over travel earned from credit card rewards. I’ve reported on important news about credit cards and personal finance for millions of readers for outlets like CNBC and Forbes.

It’s not about the apparatus for making everyday purchases but rather the places seen and memories created when using credit cards to your advantage — and that you may have missed out on without them. So for me, these small pieces of plastic and metal in my wallet mean just a bit more, so I’ve saved them over time, along with boarding passes from my travels.

After purchasing my home in 2022, I knew I would find a simple way to incorporate these small mementos into my decor. Here’s how I did it and how other Upgraded Points writers have created similar projects.

Upcycling Travel Tools for Home Decor

The materials I used for this project are:

• Hobby Lobby 18 x 24-inch picture frame
• Premium cards, including the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card, U.S. Bank Altitude^® Reserve Visa Infinite^® Card (closed to new applicants), Platinum Card^® from American Express, and the American Express^® Gold Card
• Hotel room key from Gild Hall, a Thompson Hotel in New York City
• Currencies from other countries
• Boarding passes
• Travel visas from an expired passport

I took the sample image page in the picture frame and used superglue to attach each piece to the page. Once it dried, I placed it back inside the frame and hung it in my room.

When I was putting this together, I discovered my expired passport in a desk drawer. I figured I would never use or need it, so I cut a few pages out from my days as a digital nomad. Note that tampering with the chip inside passport pages is illegal, but I’ll take my chances.

Each of the cards in the frame is metal, which makes them a pain to dispose of once they are inactive. Typically, you can mail them back to the issuer to destroy them, but I’ve kept mine to use for projects like this.

I also habitually save paper boarding passes, even in a world where digital boarding passes are extremely convenient. Additionally, I enjoy using credit cards overseas to avoid foreign transaction fees, but I always try to get local currency to save.

Other Crafting Examples of Credit Cards

I dug into how others have used souvenirs of their adventures for colorful upcycling.

Upgraded Points Senior Finance Contributor Christine Krzyszton saves items from her travels, and her sister has designed a few excellent notebooks for her to journal in. She calls them “junk books,” but I think they are far beyond that.

Even if you want to venture on your own, credit cards are excellent painting tools to get fine lines, and even do acrylic artwork.

Upgraded Points Senior Content Contributor Victoria M. Walker also created her own collages for her home using old boarding passes and currencies, similar to what I did.

Final Thoughts

So much of our world is digitized, and overall, it’s a net positive. I don’t want to fiddle around with printed boarding passes and documents with confirmation numbers during my trips.

However, there is less of a footprint of your trip and less to physically take away. Instead of buying souvenirs in the countries I visit, I buy (and now make) artwork by hand in my home to show where I’ve been throughout the world. Moreover, credit cards have been the gateway to my travels, so I’m proud to show them off as just another conversation starter with people in my home.