Shuffled Ink is proud to announce that it has been awarded several accolades from the Florida Print Awards. This year also marks our 24th anniversary in the printing business. Over the years, we have had the pleasure of working with numerous creative clients, bringing their ideas to life!
We are grateful to the Florida Print Awards for recognizing our efforts, which include:
– 5 Judges Awards
– 5 Best of Category Awards
– 5 Awards of Excellence
We are thankful for the 24 years of support and look forward to more collaborative opportunities for the 2024 year!
Experienced card handlers will often talk about the benefits of “breaking in” a brand new deck of playing cards, to make it perform and handle optimally. So suppose we do want to break in our deck, how should we go ahead doing that? Let’s imagine that our deck is still staring at us from the kitchen table, grinning at us from within its cellophane. Starting with the very beginning, we’ll run through a whole process of things we can do to get our new deck working as smoothly as possible.
Step 1: Preparation
So what do we need to get started?
● Be clean. You didn’t see that coming did you? There you were, with your grimy hands, all ready to rip into your brand new deck, and you almost forgot this important step! The oil on your hands, and any unwanted grime that might be invisibly clinging to it, will quickly transfer to your brand new cards, and before you know it they will start looking grimy as well. So it’s important to get rid of any sweat, dust and dirt that your hands might be carrying, and give your new deck the very best start it can, rather than throwing mud at it on its first test drive! So before going any further, go ahead and wash your hands. Oh, and also be sure to dry them. Thoroughly – because we don’t want to add any moisture to our paper cards either.
● Get your tools. Don’t worry, you won’t need a hammer or any heavy equipment! But a sharp knife will come in handy shortly, in order to do a neat and tidy job of opening the seal.
Step 2: Opening the Tuck Box
You didn’t really think that the cards magically pop out of that wrapped box, do you? This process involves several steps:
● Cellophane. We begin by opening the cellophane, or shrink-wrap as it’s sometimes also called. Rather than ripping this from the top or bottom, I usually like to pull the tab provided for this around the deck. What this does is divide the wrapper into two halves. I typically remove the smaller top half, but leave the larger lower half on the deck. This provides additional protection to the tuck box, helping it stay in shape, and preventing the corners from becoming dinged up or tearing. Fortunately not too much can go wrong when removing the cellophane – unless you’re using a knife, in which case be careful that the sharp blade doesn’t slip and leave an unplanned but permanent tattoo on your skin or on the tuck box!
● Seal. Now for the seal itself, which is the adhesive sticker on most decks that keeps the deck closed, and which needs to be cut or removed in order to open the top flap. Again, there are wrong ways to do this. Rather than just tear this in any fashion, I like to preserve the seal as best as possible. With a custom deck, the seal has often been thoughtfully and deliberately designed with unique artwork to suit with the rest of the deck, so it’s nice to preserve as much of that as possible. Cutting it parallel with the top of the deck along the upper flap is less than ideal, because it means you’ll invariably have part of the sticky side of the seal facing inwards, where it will occasionally attach itself to a playing card, and over time accumulate dust and dirt. Instead, it’s often best to get a sharp knife, and cut the seal right along the semi-circle shape. In a pinch, you can use a thumb nail to do this. The result of breaking the seal along the semi-circle shape will be very neat and tidy, because when the tuck box flap is closed, you’ll see the two parts of the seal come together in entirety. And there’s the added advantage that you won’t be leaving any sticky surfaces around to attract grime.
● Top flap. Ideally you want to bend the top flap backwards. There is usually a line about 1cm below the top flap, which has been pressed into the deck during production, and that’s where you want to bend the top flap backwards – not at the very top of the deck itself. What this does is reveal the top centimeter of the cards, making them easy to grab. If you don’t do this, and the cards are somewhat of a tight fit in the tuck box, you may find yourself butchering the top of the case trying to get the deck out.
Step 3: Removing the Cards
Wait, do we really need a whole step that explains how to remove the cards from the tuck box, and do I really think you have an IQ lower than an Ace of Spades? I’m sure you’re bright enough – after all you’re reading this! – but the truth is that you can butcher this part of the process as well.
● Take out the cards. If you have pushed back the top flap at the line described in the previous step, you should be able to get your fingers on both sides of the top of the deck. The most natural way to do this is to have your thumb on one side of the deck in the semi-circular thumb tab (another reason for not cutting the seal directly across the top!), while your forefinger grabs the other side of the deck along the top centimeter of the cards that has been revealed when you bent the top flap of the tuck box backwards. Now you can just pull the cards out, but even that can be a little tight at times. Get gravity to help, and tip the box over, so that the cards fall naturally into your hand. Don’t forget to inhale that new deck smell – that’s not something you want to miss is it? Breathe in deeply, and smell those new cards – you know you want to! This is also a good time to remove the ad cards, so that what you’re handling is a 54 card deck without unnecessary extras.
● Smooth the edges. In the case of a USPCC produced decks, the edges of the playing cards of a brand new deck will feel noticeably rough. While this can improve over time, you might want to take your deck and rub all four sides a number of times against some fabric – denim jeans are perfect. This will remove any loose bits and can help reduce some of the roughness.
Step 4: Conditioning the Cards for Optimal Friction
Some swear that there’s a particular order of steps that must be followed when breaking in a deck in terms of how you handle the cards for the first time once they’re outside the box. Personally I fail to see how the order of what follows matters too much – although I wouldn’t begin with a riffle shuffle or spring for reasons I’ll explain in a moment. So here are the moves you should consider doing to make your cards perform better than when you have them in your hands for the first time.
First of all, you want to give your cards a workout to help ensure optimal friction. These first moves are geared to ensure that the cards slide smoothly over each other. Cards have a coating that is designed to optimize how they glide over each other. But in the factory the cards have just been produced, and have never actually rubbed over each other yet, so there may be some small imperfections. We want to make sure that with the help of some warmth, wear, and pressure, everything is in good order and sliding smoothly and evenly. A helpful way to think of this is that you are polishing the cards by rubbing them against each other.
● Overhand shuffle. Shuffle off all the cards one at a time, to ensure that all the cards move freely, and there are no clumps of cards sticking together. It’s important to make sure that all the cards are properly separated.
● Wash. At this point some people recommend “washing” your cards. No, don’t get out the soapy water! A wash refers to spreading all the cards on the table, crudely overlapping each other, and shuffling them around over each other. The term “granny shuffle” is also used for this method. Personally I think that a systematic series of overhand shuffles accomplishes the same thing, is neater, and does a better job of looking after your cards, but you might find it more satisfying and effective to give your cards a “wash” as just described.
● Fan. A few fans are now the order of the day, in both directions. The idea of this and the previous step is that you get the cards sliding over each other every which way.
If you did the above steps face up, now repeat them face down. This ensures that each card has gone through its paces in each and every direction, from both sides.
Step 5: Conditioning the Cards for Optimal Flexibility
But cards don’t only need to slide over each other smoothly, they also need to be able to flex in different directions. If they were stiff and rigid like wooden boards, there’s no way you could handle them at all, so we want to make sure that they are malleable and soft. That’s something that the printing process won’t do for us by bending them in different directions to soften them up, but fortunately it’s something we can easily do, by giving the cards a workout to help ensure optimal flexibility.
These next moves are geared to ensuring that the cards flex properly, and return back to their natural shape easily and quickly. I strongly suggest doing these steps after the ones just described to get optimal friction, because when sliding the cards across each other, you don’t want them to be previously bent as a result of riffle shuffles or springs. Although if you find that your deck is warped out of the box, these flexibility routines will help straighten it out, so you may need to adjust the order of things.
● Aeration. This is a simple and interesting “flex-ercise” in which you hold the deck similar to the beginning of a spring, squeezing both ends towards each other. This causes the deck to bend into a C shape, and you’ll notice the cards all separating from each other with a layer of air between them. This helps separate the cards, and helps prevent the oil or coating causing them to stick together. Do this in both directions.
● Riffle shuffle. Now it’s time for a good riffle shuffle, since not only do you want the cards sliding smoothly over each other, but you also want them flexing nicely. Do this both face up and face down, completing each shuffle with a bridge, so you don’t end up with bent or warped cards, and so that the cards are flexed in both directions.
● Faro shuffle. Another good move to do at this point is a faro shuffle. Given the new deck order, the central place that splits the deck exactly should be even easier than usual to find – for most standard decks it will be right between the King of Clubs and King of Diamonds. You can complete the shuffle by bridging the cards, or by cascading the cards together if you know how to perform that flourish. A faro shuffle will also tell you immediately whether or not a deck has a traditional cut or a modern cut, depending on which way you need to weave the cards together for the faro shuffle.
● Spring. Just like a riffle shuffle, a couple of good springs will help, and be sure to do these in both directions (face up and face down).
To round things off, you might want to conclude with another series of overhand shuffles, just to make sure that the factory coating has had another pleasant polish and final warm up, so that it can behave optimally.
Closing Thoughts
In most cases, for the average person anyway, there’s no real need to artificially “break in” a deck. Just go ahead and use it! How it will handle and feel will change naturally over time, and as long as it’s a good quality deck, often this may make the handling smoother and better.
But if you’re a performing professional, it may be important to make sure that a deck is in optimal handling condition ahead of a performance. In that case you will want to put a new deck through its paces before using it for the first time on the stage. Usually the best way to do this is by a systematic series of shuffles, fans, spreads, and springs, as described above, to break the cards in faster, and to ensure that they have optimal friction and flexibility ahead of your performance. It’s not a complex process, and simply spending five or ten minutes with your deck in this way should do the trick.
For most of us, none of this really matters enough, and wearing in a deck is what happens automatically as we use it. Even so, it is good to be aware of how to treat a deck well, and to be familiar with some of the things you can do to help give your playing cards that familiar feel, and ensure that they won’t let you down. Treat your cards right, and they’ll treat you right!
About the writer: EndersGame is a well-known reviewer of board games and playing cards. He loves card games, card magic, and collecting playing cards. This article first appeared on PlayingCardDecks.com here.
Many spiritualists love using tarot cards as a great tool to gain insight into the past, present, and future. With each card having a specific meaning for interpretation, this has inspired artists to create their own custom tarot card decks to become more significant and sentimental to them while also helping provide others with guidance and clarity. Today we are sharing the story behind one of many artists we have worked with who went above and beyond creating her own custom tarot card deck called “Northern Animal Tarot” by Linda.
“Look, Listen to the Nature Around You. Nature Is a Free Show. It Takes a Bit of Time to Enjoy It.”
When we asked Linda about her creative process behind the “Northern Animal Tarot” deck, she shared with us that it was her first deck. She mentioned that she faced a nice challenge in making the entire deck feel cohesive. Linda also talked about how she drew inspiration from the forest creatures she observes in nature every day while creating these beautiful cards!
Advice for Artist
Great advice from Linda for those who are interested in creating custom tarot cards is to sketch them out on paper as mini cards to see the overall theme of the deck. This is a great tip for artists who are looking for new ways to take cohesive themes to the next level!
Why Shuffled Ink?
Finally, we asked Linda why she chose to bring her wonderful project to life with us. Here is what she had to say, “Some deck creators get their decks made by you, and I had tried a few other places closer to home with mixed results. So, I thought I would give you a try since other deck creators were happy with your work. And now I see why – you listen, care, and have great communication throughout the whole process.”
We are grateful to Linda for giving us the opportunity to collaborate with her on this project. We hope her journey in creating custom tarot cards will inspire future artists!
The Artist
If you are interested in purchasing your very one Norther Animal Tarot card deck, visit her online shop here and be sure to check out her Instagram for daily updates!
Visit her Kickstarter for the next upcoming project!
At some point you are almost certain to come across the often-repeated claim that the first playing cards were in China. It is a particularly common assertion that you will find online in basic and simplified articles about the origin of playing cards. And we all know that everything on the internet is true, right?
Certainly there is some historical evidence that points in the direction of supporting this claim. China is where paper and printing was first invented, and it’s also where we find games like dominoes and mahjong, which bear some resemblance to playing cards. So it’s not surprising to discover that an early ancestor of playing cards did exist in China. But were playing cards actually invented there?
Fact: Uncertain
The reality is that we can’t be sure. Certainly it appears to be a real possibility that playing cards were invented in China during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD, as some believe. There is some evidence that games involving cards in some way were used in this time, although we can’t be sure whether these cards functioned as currency for other games, as stakes for gambling, or whether they served as the game itself. But if playing cards did originate during this time, possibly from or alongside tile games like dominoes and mahjong, it would mean that they have their first beginnings prior to 1000AD. From China, playing cards would have proceeded west via India and Egypt, and eventually made their way to Europe.
But it is also possible that playing cards were invented in Persia, and from there spread east to places like China and Korea, and only then west to Europe. Historians really can’t be sure, because paper is a very fragile product, so there’s very little evidence that has survived the centuries and which we can reliably go by.
Playing cards unique to the native Americans of the 18th and 19th century also exist, with colours, suits, and icons that are derived from their own culture, and manufactured on rawhide and horse skins. Does that mean that they also invented playing cards? Not at all, because it is obvious that they just adapted an existing concept that was brought over to America from Europe by the early settlers. In most cases these native American decks were simply adaptations of existing Spanish decks they had already been introduced to. It is not impossible that the same happened with Chinese decks, which may actually have originated elsewhere.
What does appear to be certain is the striking resemblance between the first playing cards that emerged in Europe in the late 14th century and those used in Egypt prior to this. Playing cards first appeared in Italy in the late 1300s, and the four suits used there (cups, coins, swords, and clubs) are a close match to the goblets (cups), gold coins, swords, and polo-sticks found on playing cards used in Egypt during the Mamluk period.
But while playing cards appear to have made their way into Europe via Mamluk Egypt, this still doesn’t establish their origin. In fact, in his book about the history of playing cards, Roger Tilley argues that it is even possible that playing cards in Europe had an altogether independent development. Perhaps we will never know where they first emerged on the pages of history, although once we get to the 14th century onwards in Europe, there is ample evidence about their function in society and culture.
With the absence of solid historical evidence, we may never be entirely certain about the precise origin of playing cards, although it does seem likely to have been in somewhere in the East, with China being at best a strong candidate. Unfortunately inaccurate information can easily acquire a life of its own in our internet age, and the oft-repeated claim that playing cards originated in China reflects a rather simplistic interpretation of the facts, that while undoubtedly well-intentioned and having some basis, remains to be proven. While we can’t thank the unidentified ancestors that bequeathed us with playing cards today, we certainly can thank the many modern designers, publishers, retailers that are building on the foundation inherited from the past, and are giving us wonderful playing cards to enjoy today!
About the writer: EndersGame is a well-known reviewer of board games and playing cards. He loves card games, card magic, and collecting playing cards. This article first appeared on PlayingCardDecks.com here.
Oracle cards have become a popular tool for people seeking guidance and clarity while navigating difficult situations in their lives. Unlike tarot cards, which allow for more interpretation, Oracle cards offer a specific message on each card. In this article, we’ll share the story of Dana Whitby, one of our clients who created the Inner Compass Oracle Deck. We’ll dive into the details of her mission and the meaning behind her oracle deck.
How It All Started
We have all been stuck on a project where we overthought every detail, practically becoming paralyzed by overwhelming thoughts of “what, when, where, and how.” Dana shares a similar instance, which she learned how to overcome, “This is my first card project! I originally thought that I was meant to write a book, and so I began putting pen to paper about the idea of how to use your inner compass (aka intuition) in a tangible way. Once I had written several thousands of words, I experienced writer’s block and truly didn’t know what else to say. I had to step away from the project for a while to clear my head and understand what it was that I was supposed to do with this idea. One day I had the divine download that this project was an oracle deck. Once I had this realization and committed to the new idea, the writing began to flow easily again as I dismantled the book and turned it into an oracle card guidebook.”
A Divine Mission
The Inner Compass Oracle deck was created to “teach readers in a tangible way how to open and follow their intuition”. Which is intriguing to new Oracle card users who are looking for guidance within spiritual work. Dana goes on to explain, ” The concept of listening to an “inner compass” is widely known, yet the process of how to do so is made difficult in our modern society. The Inner Compass Oracle is a tool which can be used to initiate or deepen one’s relationship with their higher self in order to receive clarity and guidance on their life journey.”
How It Was Created
Dana mentions that she collaborated with artist Jennifer Birge who owns Coral Antler. “I originally asked her to create 4 pieces of art for 4 of my cards as a trial, and I was blown away by her ability to take the mundane and make it absolutely magical. She took the visions I had for my card artwork and elevated it!”
“You’ve always had the power, my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself.” – Glinda The Good Witch
As all projects come with a bump in the road, Dana describes her toughest battle/ lesson. “For me, the largest hurdle I had to overcome was patience! I began writing the guidebook several years ago, and never would have dreamed it would take this long to come to fruition. But I have learned through this process that oftentimes, the best things in life are worth waiting for, and taking your time to complete in a way that honors the depth and breadth of the project.”
Why Shuffled Ink
Here is what Dana has to say about her experience printing her cards here at Shuffled Ink, ” I chose Shuffled Ink because I love that it is a family-owned business located here in the United States. So many Oracle deck printers are found overseas, and I preferred to support an American business, and especially one with such an amazing reputation. While I haven’t received a final copy of my deck yet, the samples I received were gorgeous, and I am so impressed with other decks I own that have been printed by Shuffled Ink”. We thank Dana for the opportunity to be a part of this insightful project! It’s always interesting to hear how these creative card decks come about and we hope this story helps inspire those who are looking to create their own custom cards!
Despite the fact that the world of solitaire card games features a rich diversity of different types of games, most people are only familiar with the classic Klondike, and similar games of its kind like Spider, and FreeCell. Consider yourself more experienced with solitaire than most if you’ve ever played games like Baker’s Dozen, Beleaguered Castle, Canfield, Fan Games, Yukon, or Forty Thieves. But all of these games – and the many related ones that belong to their families – have one thing in common: they share the same basic formula for game-play, since they are all examples of builder games.
Builder games represent the largest slice of the solitaire pie, and are typically what the average person imagines a game of solitaire to be. With builder games, the aim typically is to arrange all the cards by suit in ascending order from Ace through to King. The way this usually works is by allowing players to manipulate cards within a tableau consisting of columns of cards. While rules can vary, the usual pattern sees players permitted to arrange cards within this tableau in descending order, often in alternating colours. Anyone who has ever played the classic Klondike will immediately recognize the style of game-play, and the above mentioned games are all excellent representatives of this genre.
But while builder games are the most popular archetype within the larger world of solitaire card games, there are many terrific solitaire games that don’t operate at all according to this formula. The good news for those who like variety is that there are several non-builder solitaire card games that work entirely differently from the typical builder games you’ve probably played. In this article I’ll cover some of the best and more well-known ones. I’ve used and recommend the excellent software from BVS Solitaire to play most of these.
== Classics ==
Accordion
Overview: Accordion is a classic solitaire game that you will find mentioned in most books that contain one-player card games. The name is very appropriate, since the gameplay has the sense of ironing out accordion pleats, and you’ll be moving cards together much like an accordion is played, with the goal of compressing the entire deck into a single pile.
Cards are dealt one at a time in a row, as many as space allows. If you wish, you can even deal the entire deck at the outset of the game. If a card has the same suit or value as the card immediately to its left, or the same suit or value as the card three to its left, it can be placed on that card. The aim of Accordion is to end up with the entire deck of cards in a single pile.
Thoughts: Accordion has a very different feel from the traditional building type of solitaire game, so it’s a good game if you are looking to try something different from builder games. While at first you’ll make good progress, you’ll quickly discover that it’s extremely difficult to win, with success estimated to be around 1 in 50 at best. But if you can get the entire deck down to just five cards or less, you can consider yourself to have accomplished a minor victory. The trick to winning is to find four cards of the same value that are grouped together near the end of the layout, and slowly move these four “sweepers” towards the start, eventually placing them on each other to get to a single pile.
If you enjoy this kind of game, also try Royal Marriage, which is also an eliminator solitaire game in the style of Accordion. There are slightly different rules for moving piles in this game, but a key element of game-play is that a King and Queen of the same suit are placed at the start and the end of the layout at the beginning of the game. Your goal is to get them to meet up and be the only two cards left. Push-Pin is similar to Royal Marriage, but comes with the additional challenge of using two decks. Other variants inspired by Accordion include Decade (Ten-Twenty-Thirty), where you remove adjacent cards that total 10, 20, or 30; similarly in Seven Up cards totalling multiples of seven (7, 14, 21 etc) are removed.
Montana (Gaps)
Overview: Gaps is the name this game is listed as in older books, but it’s also commonly described as Montana. Sometimes the name Montana instead refers to a variant way of playing Gaps, as do alternate names like Spaces and Addiction.
The basic concept involves a set-up where a single deck is dealt into four rows of thirteen cards, after which the Aces are removed to create four gaps (hence the alternate name). You can move into the gap a card that is one rank higher and the same suit as the card on its immediate left. Twos can be placed in spaces at the start of each row, while cards cannot be placed to the right of a King. The goal is to arrange each row with cards in the same suit from Two through King. Whenever you get stuck, you can collect the cards that are not in a suited sequence and deal these out again; usually only two such redeals are allowed.
Thoughts: There’s more skill to this wonderful solitaire game than first meets the eye, because the order in which cards are moved can make all the difference. Rather than just move any possible card, it is better to identify a card that you want to become a space, and then figure out backwards the sequence of cards that need to be played in order to achieve that.
Variant options are numerous, and include adjustments to the rules such as: allowing more redeals; shuffling or leaving unshuffled the cards before redealing; leaving a space immediately following the remaining sequences when redealing or determining such spaces randomly using Aces; allowing a space to be filled in sequence with the card on its immediate right and not just on its immediate left (Free Parking); or using a stripped deck of just 36 cards (Four Ways). Double Montana and Paganini are two-deck versions, while Maze Solitaire is a closely related single-deck game also well worth playing.
== Inspired By Other Games ==
Bowling
Overview: Bowling was created by Warren Schwader, and has been popularized by its inclusion in the Hoyle Solitaire Collection software package from Sierra Online in 1988. It has subsequently been implemented digitally on several websites and other software programs. Cards are dealt one at a time onto a layout with ten pin spaces (numbered 1 to 10). They can be placed onto any empty space, as long as the cards are in order of increasing value within these spaces. Any card that can’t be placed according to these rules is set aside onto a ball pile.
Successfully playing cards onto all ten pin spaces before needing to discard three cards onto the first ball pile counts as a strike. Achieving this before discarding another three cards onto a second ball pile counts as a spare. Otherwise at the moment when a third card is discarded to the second ball pile you score points for however many pins you’ve knocked over (i.e. cards placed). Scoring works the same as regular bowling, and a score of more than 150 points over ten such frames is considered a win.
Thoughts: This is an enormously fun game, and is really all about judging the probabilities as cards are turned up and placed one at a time. Your placement options become more limited as cards are placed, but you also have an increasing sense of which cards are more likely to turn up. It is addictive and enjoyable due to the strong push-your-luck element, and the opportunity to use a basic sense of probability to play the odds. The use of standard bowling scoring helps add a real sense of thematic flavour. Getting strikes or spares is very achievable, which leads to realistic scores.
This isn’t the only solitaire game with an excellent bowling theme. If you’re a fan of real life bowling, you’ll also enjoy Sid Sackson’s Bowling Solitaire, which is described next.
Bowling Solitaire
Overview: Despite the similar name, Bowling Solitaire is a very different game from the previous one. It was created by famous American game designer Sid Sackson, and published in his 1969 book A Gamut of Games. Only 20 cards are used, with the Ace through 10 in two suits. Ten cards are randomly placed face-up in the configuration familiar from ten pin bowling. The goal is to remove as many pins as possible in each of ten frames, with scoring working the same as actual bowling. Three piles of face-down cards (five, three, and two cards each) represent your bowling balls. There are a few special restrictions involved in the game-play that I won’t explain in detail, but what follows describes the general gist of the flow of play.
You roll a ball by turning over the top cards in these three piles, which you then use one at a time to “bowl” at the pins. Each card played can remove one, two, or three pin cards adding up to its value. Only the last digit of their total is used, and suits are irrelevant in this game. You keep using cards from the ball piles in this way until you get stuck, at which point you move onto your second ball by discarding the top card in each of the three piles and continuing to play. Getting rid of all ten pins with your first ball counts as a strike, while using a second ball to do so counts as a spare; otherwise you score however many pins you have knocked over.
Thoughts: Sid Sackson developed Bowling Solitaire in part as a result of his distaste for traditional builder solitaire games. He certainly succeeded in coming up with a very interesting and original that feels worlds apart from Klondike, and the result is a very clever solitaire game with a lot of thematic flavour. Each frame will play out differently due to the random draw, and the fact that some ball cards are unknown ensures good replayability and adds an element of suspense.
Yet you can make informed decisions, and the luck-of-the-draw is more than mitigated by strategic choices. There’s a lot of decisions within the 20 minutes or so that Bowling Solitaire takes to play, and there’s scope for real skill and calculated play, to the point that this is very much a game you can actually become good at. To play well it is especially important to keep track of what cards have been used, and to combine this with some basic probability and risk management. A score of anything over 150 can be considered a very good effort, while the rare achievement of reaching 200 is a real success.
Cribbage Squares
Overview: I’m a huge fan of the card game Cribbage, which originates in the 19th century but remains a popular two-player game today. So it won’t come as a surprise that Cribbage Squares had an instant appeal for me. I’m not about to explain the intricacies of regular Cribbage here, aside from saying that this is a classic game well worth learning in its own right. But you’ll have to be familiar with Cribbage scoring to play this solitaire game, which does mean that Cribbage Squares won’t be accessible to everyone.
Scoring in this game is borrowed directly from standard Cribbage, but the actual mechanics and flow of play are quite different and much simpler. Basically it just involves you dealing cards one at a time and placing them into a 4×4 grid. The seventeenth card functions as the “starter” card, and you score points according to the standard conventions of Cribbage (e.g. for combinations that make up fifteens, pairs, runs, and flushes) for each of the four rows and for each of the four columns in the grid. A score of 61 or higher is usually considered a win.
Thoughts: Fans of Cribbage will find much to like about this clever solitaire game. The fact that the “starter” card is turned up last means that your final score depends a lot on what card is revealed at the end. This can make your final score feel somewhat dependent on a lucky draw, although to be fair the same can be said about the starter card in a regular game of Cribbage.
There are variations that give some options for more skill and choice. To increase the level of strategy, one variation allows you to discard up to ten cards into two reserve piles, giving you more choice of which cards to use. An “open” variant lets you see all the cards before playing any of them.
Cribbage Solitaire
Overview: Closely related to Cribbage Squares is the game Cribbage Solitaire. This plays much more like standard Cribbage, although neither Cribbage Squares or Cribbage Solitaire incorporates any of the pegging from the original two-player game.
In Cribbage Solitaire you are given a hand of six cards, and discard two to the crib, after which you are given a second hand of six cards, again discarding two to the crib. The next card becomes the starter and usual Cribbage scoring is applied to both hands and to the crib. Players keep a running total of four such deals, and a cumulative score of 101 or higher is considered a win.
Thoughts: There are a number of different ways of playing Cribbage Solitaire that vary things slightly. The most common variation is that besides the two cards that you discard to the crib from your hand of six cards, the crib also receives two random cards. Scoring happens for the hand and the crib after dealing a starter, which is then placed at the bottom of the deck. Six such hands are played, plus a final hand without a crib and starter. When playing this way, an average cumulative total tends to be around 85.
Regardless of which of the above variants you are playing with, there’s no doubt that Cribbage Solitaire has a very different feel from Cribbage Squares. Cribbage Squares has more of a positional and spatial aspect to the game-play, where arrangement of the cards is all-important – something not present in traditional Cribbage. Cribbage Solitaire is more about creating the best scoring combinations, and the fact that the crib is given two random cards adds an element of luck and suspense that matches some of the excitement of actual Cribbage scoring.
Poker Squares
Overview: If you enjoy playing the odds to try to produce good scoring Poker hands, you’ll love Poker Solitaire. Since the game-play is quite similar to Cribbage Squares, it is also commonly called Poker Squares. You play 25 cards from a shuffled deck one at a time into a 5×5 grid. Points are then scored for each of the five hands in the rows, and the five hands in the columns. There are two different scoring systems in common use: American and English. The American system awards points as follows: Royal flush 100, Straight flush 75, Four-of-a-kind 50, Full house 25, Flush 20, Straight 15, Three-of-a-kind 10, Two pairs 5, One pair 2.
Unlike the American scoring system, the ranking of the hands in the English system is different, and reflects the relative difficulty of achieving the hands in this solitaire game rather than in a regular game of Poker. The English system awards points as follows: Royal flush 30, Straight flush 30, Four-of-a-kind 16, Straight 12, Full house 10, Flush 5, Three-of-a-kind 6, Two pairs 3, One pair 1.
Thoughts: Flushes are quite easy to make in this game, which immediately gives it a somewhat different feel than regular Poker. A typical strategy involves using the columns to get flushes, and using the rows to get multiples of the same valued card (e.g. pairs, full house, four-of-a-kind). Achieving a specific minimum score of 200 with American scoring and 70 with English scoring is considered a win.
A common variant is to deal all 25 cards face-up and allowing players to move the cards as desired after placing them, in an effort to find the ten best scoring poker hands. Due to the need to calculate scores for every game, Poker Squares lends itself especially well to digital versions, which automate the scoring.
Tower of Pisa
Overview: Tower of Pisa often goes by the name Tower of Hanoi, since it is inspired by the classic solo puzzle of that name. The original Tower of Hanoi puzzle consists of three pegs, and a number of different sized round discs that fit onto the pegs. The goal is to transfer discs of increasing size one at a time from one peg to another, and end up with all the discs on a different peg, once again in order of increasing size. A key restriction on movement is that you can never place a larger disc on top of a smaller disc. With just three discs, it’s possible to solve the puzzle in just seven moves. More moves are required when there are more discs, but through pure logic a solution is always possible.
The solitaire card game based on this traditional puzzle uses the same principles, but starts out differently. You use nine cards (Ace through 9) from one suit, and begin with a starting arrangement of three columns of three cards each, in random order. The goal is to get all nine cards into a single column, arranged upwards in order 9 through Ace. When moving cards from one column to another, you may only move the top card of a column, and you can never place a higher valued card on top of a lower valued one.
Thoughts: The gameplay is effectively the same as a nine disc version of the traditional Towers of Hanoi puzzle. Since the starting set-up of that puzzle is fixed, solving it is a matter of pure recursive logic, and using optimal moves a nine disc puzzle can be solved in exactly 511 moves. In theory the Tower of Pisa solitaire puzzle takes less moves to solve than the classic logical puzzle, since you don’t begin with a starting arrangement that takes the largest number of moves to solve. But because you begin with a random arrangement, the path forward is rarely obvious. I find that this actually makes it more interesting and challenging than the classic puzzle, because no game begins the same, and you can’t simply use the same pre-set sequence of moves to solve it.
Somewhat surprisingly, this solitaire game seems to be most often found with the unusual spelling Tower of Hanoy (with a Y at the end, rather than with an I at the end like the classic puzzle). The origin of this unexpected spelling seems to be somewhat of a mystery. But you will sometimes find it spelled with an I at the end as well, or with alternate names like Tower of Pisa.
== Adding and Pairing Games ==
Adding and pairing games are a common archetype for solitaire games in the non-builder genre, and I have covered more than a dozen of these in a separate article about popular adding and pairing games. They rightly form a subclass of their own, and are easily the most common type of non-builder solitaire card game that you will come across. Many of them are quite luck dependent, making them well-suited for casual play. The simpler ones in this genre are especially good for children.
Pairing Games
Overview: Pairing games require you to remove pairs of cards that have a matching value. I’ll use Nestor as the representative for this genre, but there are many games of this sort. The majority of them are very simple to learn and play, and pairing games like Simple Pairs and The Wish rely entirely or almost entirely on luck. Others like Concentration (Memory) require you to use your memory skills, while Nestor at least offers some decision making.
With Nestor you deal all the cards into a tableau consisting of eight columns of five cards each, along with a reserve of four cards. The aim of the game is simple: clear the entire tableau, by removing available pairs of cards that have a matching value. Nestor is an open information game, and while luck of the draw can sometimes thwart you, the layout does give room for some planning. There are also several good variations of Nestor worth trying, like Vertical and Doublets.
Related: For a fun pairing game with an interesting spatial element, I recommend Monte Carlo, which involves a moving layout consisting of 25 cards. Beehive and Pile Up (Fifteen Puzzle) are also pairing games that deserve a look, and can be very satisfying to play.
Although it is not a pairing game in the strict sense, Golf is a very popular non-builder game. The basic mechanic is similar to pairing games, but rather than removing matching cards of the same value, you remove pairs that are one higher or lower in value. Golf is an excellent and straight-forward game that I highly recommend for casual gamers wanting to try a simple solitaire game that is very different from the usual builder genre. There are many variants, with the Tri-Peaks variation being especially well-known because it’s part of the Microsoft Windows Solitaire Collection. Other excellent solitaire games that use the Golf mechanic of removing cards one higher or lower in value are Black Hole and Eliminator.
Adding Games
Overview: Adding games require you to remove cards with a combined value of a particular total such as 13. Pyramid is the most common game of this sort, and is widely known as a result of its inclusion in the Microsoft Solitaire Collection. It’s a good representative of the adding genre, and is easy to learn.
To play Pyramid, you deal 28 cards in the shape of a pyramid. The idea is to remove cards that make up a pair adding to 13, with Jacks, Queens, and Kings counting as 11, 12, and 13. Kings don’t need to be paired with another card. Any card that is uncovered can be used, and you also deal through the deck one at a time, and can pair the face-up card to remove an available card from the pyramid if those two cards add to 13. You win the game if you clear the entire pyramid. Pyramid has a lot of common variations to increase the chances of winning.
Related: While Pyramid is the natural poster-child for the genre of adding games, there are many other excellent games of this sort. Thirteens (also called Simple Addition) uses the same concept of removing cards that add up to 13 but has an entirely different layout. Other basic adding games involve pairs of cards that add to different totals, such as ten, eleven, fourteen, fifteen, and even as much as eighteen. Some of these are open information games, which allow you more planning.
Adding games with some more interesting aspects to the game-play include Ninety One, which as the name suggests requires you to make an arrangement of cards adding to 91. Arguably the best in the genre is David Parlett’s terrific Exit (alternative name Gay Gordons), which gives a lot of room for planning ahead and decision making.
Conclusion
There is a good reason why builder games are so popular, one being that a deck of cards naturally lends itself to collecting sets according to suit in order from Ace through King. But one disadvantage of the genre of builder games is that they can feel somewhat alike, and despite all the many variations in game play, ultimately you are trying to achieve the same kind of thing.
In contrast, non-builder solitaire card games offer something completely fresh and different. With games like the ones featured in this article, you are guaranteed to find yourself with a solitaire challenge that will require you to think quite differently than with the traditional Klondike. These are great games that will have you thinking outside of the box, and exploring completely new and interesting ways of game-play.
Since these non-builder solitaire games typically take you somewhat outside of the realm of the familiar, I recommend finding a good digital implementation of them, because it will make it much easier to learn the rules correctly. The excellent solitaire software and apps created by BVS Solitaire make an excellent choice. In the case of the non-builder games based on existing games like Cribbage or Poker, you’ll likely already be familiar with the basic mechanics, and many of these lend themselves well to be played with an actual deck in hand.
If ever you’ve wondered if there’s more to solitaire than the version found on most desktop computers, then you really owe it to yourself to try some of these fantastic non-builder games, to see how different and rewarding solitaire really can be!
About the writer: EndersGame is a well-known reviewer of board games and playing cards. He loves card games, card magic, and collecting playing cards. This article first appeared on PlayingCardDecks.com here.
If you have a deck of playing cards, and are completely new to card magic, the first tricks you should learn are self-working tricks. No trick works completely automatically, of course, but this is a term that refer to tricks that don’t rely on sleight of hand. That makes them super easy to learn and perform, so you’ll be having fun showing these to your family and friends in no time!
Many magic teachers recommend starting with self-workers, because then you can focus entirely on your presentation, which is essential to make card magic entertaining. We’ll kickstart your magic career by introducing you to several popular and simple self-working card tricks, and we’ll even provide a direct link to a video performance and tutorial for each, to help get you going immediately!
10 Simple Card Tricks
These classics of card magic are easy tricks that almost every magician has learned early in their career. They will also introduce you to some important principles of card magic, like the “key card”, and the “one ahead principle”. There’s one “classic” which I haven’t included, and that’s the “21 Card Trick”. It’s one that most people know already, and although there are ways to make this card trick interesting, the method primarily involves mindless dealing, and it can be quite boring for your spectators. You’re more likely to have fun with the card tricks in the list below:
● Quick Two Card Catch
The effect: Your spectator inserts a black 9 and a black 10 anywhere into the middle of the deck. You toss the deck from one hand to another, rapidly pulling two cards out while doing so. Amazingly, the two cards that you’ve pulled out from the deck are your spectator’s black 9s and 10s!
What’s good about it: This requires a small set-up, but it’s worth it for the big pay-off. It relies on the fact that because there are two cards that are quite similar, spectators will remember only the color and the value of the cards, and they won’t remember the suits other than that they were both black. It’s a very simple method, and yet the impact can be very strong, because it is a remarkable feat that you appear to accomplish, by pulling out two cards that have been placed into the middle of the deck by a spectator!
Background: This trick is also known under other names including “Friction Toss”, “Friction Production”, or “Two Card Catch”. If you use a simple cross-cut force (described later in this article) at the start of this trick, this trick can seem even more amazing. Any two cards will work, but it’s best to use cards with a similar appearance of values, like black 9s and 10s, or black 9s and 6s, and refer to them as “black 9s and 6s” rather than mention the actual suits. You can also use this method to produce all four Aces, two at a time.
The effect: You show the four Jacks, which you introduce as four robbers. You then tell a story about how they attempt to burgle a bank, doing their dirty work at different locations in the building. You place the Jacks in various parts of the deck while telling the story, corresponding to different floors of the building. When the police arrive unexpectedly, the four Jacks can escape in a helicopter, by magically appearing together at the top of the deck!
What’s good about it: The strength of this trick is that it has a fun story to go with it. You aren’t following the same-old story of having a card selected and finding it, but you are simply describing a story, and then something magical and impossible happens. The method is very simple, and how entertaining this trick turns out will depend entirely on how good you are at dramatizing the story, which you can have a lot of fun with!
Background: This is another common trick that many young magicians will start out with and has been around since the 1850s. After a simple secret set-up, it’s very easy to perform. It might not fool thoughtful adults, but it’s an ideal trick for children to learn, and they can really fool others of their own age with it.
The effect: From two piles of cards, you magically make a card move from one to another. A common way to do it is to get your spectator to stretch out both hands like he’s playing the piano – hence the name of the trick – and place pairs of cards between his fingers, plus an “odd” card. These are distributed into two piles (e.g. between you and your spectator). Remarkably, although everything is shared out evenly, the odd card moves from one pile to the other pile!
What’s good about it: Once again, how you present this makes all the difference. Nothing physically moves, and yet by clever misdirection and proper scripting, it will really seem to your spectator’s mind that a card has been transferred from one pile to another.
Background: This trick is more than a hundred years old, but it can easily be given a modern twist – I’ve heard of magicians performing this with knives and forks, with different kinds of fruit, and even with socks! See a great variation by Alan Hudson performing the piano trick with cutlery here
The effect: The spectator does all the work in cutting the deck into four piles. Amazingly, at the end of this process, the top card in each of the piles turns out to be an Ace!
What’s good about it: It’s always a good idea to turn the spectator into a magician, and that’s what happens here. They are the ones doing the cutting, so the magic apparently happens right in their hands. It is important to find a way to perform this trick in a way that makes things entertaining, however. Like many self-working tricks, since there’s a small set-up involved, the effect can be strengthened if you can precede the trick with a simple false cut or false shuffle.
Background: Numerous versions of this trick exist, including more complicated variations, but the basic version is very easy and can be performed by a complete beginner. It goes under various names, including “Poker Player’s Picnic” (The Royal Road to Card Magic) and “Belchou Aces” (Roberto Giobbi’s Introduction to Card Magic). One of the finest versions of this trick is Chad Long’s “Shuffling Lesson”. This takes it to the next level, as both you and the spectator use half the deck, and you deal four Kings while the spectator deals four Aces – an apparently impossible finish! Chad’s version is so good that some magicians even use it as a closer in their professional magic act.
The effect: After your spectator has selected and remembered a card from a shuffled deck, and returned it to the deck, you start dealing through the deck, claiming that you can find it. You deal several cards past their chosen card, and then propose a bet that the next card you turn over will be their card. Thinking that this is a safe bet since you’ve already gone past their card, most spectators will agree – at which you point you proceed to turn over the already-dealt card that is theirs!
What’s good about it: Usually a trick presented as a “challenge” for your spectator isn’t the best idea, because it can turn magic into a contest rather than something entertaining and magical. This trick is a good exception to that rule, because it’s super light and quick, and is ideal for a casual setting. Don’t use it to actually swindle people of anything valuable, but when performing it as a fun gag effect, you’ll usually have the whole room laughing at the result – even the person who has become the butt of the joke.
Background: This trick relies on a common method known as the “key card” principle, and you’ll find a variation of it in almost every introductory card magic book. The basic principle can be used for many other tricks, like the next one in this list. The real appeal of the Circus Card Trick is the humorous presentation; it also goes under many other names, and is often presented as a bar bet or con.
The effect: Your spectator selects a random card which is returned to the deck. But can you find it? Of course, you’re a magician! You feel their pulse while they move their hand across a face-up spread, and by the picking up subtle changes to their heart beat as their finger moves over their selected card, you’re able to identify it!
What’s good about it: What makes card magic interesting is when it has a good presentation, and while this is a very easy trick to perform, it has a very entertaining presentation. You just need to do a lot of acting to make it convincing, and since the method is so straight-forward, you can really focus on your showmanship. The method here is basically the same as the Circus Card Trick, but with a different presentation it feels like an entirely different trick.
Background: Another interesting presentation that relies on the same secret, is to have your spectator put their fingerprint on their card, and you then identify their chosen card by `finding’ the card which has their matching fingerprint. Yet another presentation is to frame it as a lie-detector test, getting your spectator to point at each card one at a time while saying “That’s not my card”, while you `detect’ when they are lying by looking into their eyes or identifying subtle signals from their body language. Pick whatever presentation suits you best – either way it can be quite impressive and believable, especially for children witnessing this trick.
The effect: Both you and your spectator each have a deck. After shuffling your decks, you both select a card, which you remember, and return to your deck. You then trade decks, and each find your selected card in the other person’s deck. Because you’ve been in sync with each other, the two cards are revealed to be … exactly the same!
What’s good about it: This trick appears completely baffling to someone who has never seen it, because the odds of two people selecting exactly the same card is 1 in 52. The method is easy, yet well-disguised by the concept of “Do As I Do”, where you and the spectator have to synchronize your moves and do exactly the same thing. This also gives opportunity to have some fun as well, so it lends itself to enjoying the presentation. Because the spectator is part of the magic, it is engaging for them as well.
Background: Early versions of this trick were already performed in the mid-1800s, under titles like “The Sympathetic Cards” and “Marvellous Coincidence”. This now common trick has been around in its current form since the early 1900s.
The effect: The cards are all laid face-down on the table in a spread or in a shuffled mess. In a demonstration of x-ray vision, three people (including you) point to a random face-down card, and you correctly identify all of the selected cards.
What’s good about it: There are various ways of presenting this trick, and you can also perform it by naming a card that your spectator then has to try to find at random. But it packs a punch far greater than you might think, because to actually be able to correctly identify three face-down cards – some of which are genuinely selected by your spectators at random – would be a true miracle!
Background: This trick is found in many books with beginner card tricks, and goes under names like “Seeing Through the Deck” (Scarne on Card Tricks), “The Three-Card Pick by Touch Test” (Magic for Dummies) and “One Ahead” (Joshua Jay’s Amazing Book of Cards). It’s a good introduction to the one ahead principle which is used more often in card magic.
The effect: Twenty random cards are divided into pairs, and several spectators secretly select and remember any pair of their choice, which are then put together in any order. You lay out the cards in grid with four rows of five cards. Each spectator merely tells you the row(s) that their two cards are in, and you can miraculously identify their chosen cards!
What’s good about it: This trick becomes most entertaining when you incorporate a fun presentation, for example when you pretend to use muscle-reading to identify the chosen cards (as described in “The Pulse Trick”), or use a lie detector presentation. Naturally the true method is much simpler, and although you’ll need to memorize some words (only four!) to make it work, the effect seems truly impossible! Involving multiple spectators makes it even more engaging and seem more astounding!
Background: This is a very old trick that goes under various titles, like “Houdini’s Double-Talk Card Trick” (Scarne on Card Tricks). and fortunately you don’t have to use the Latin words in the title used here, because there are simpler English-language mnemonic aids that do the same thing.
The effect: The deck is mixed up completely in small packets of face-up and face-down cards. After a final cut, all the cards are magically corrected, and now face the same way!
What’s good about it: This is a nice change from the usual “pick-a-card” type of trick, since the magic happens with the entire deck. Even though it is basically self-working, the illusion is very natural and convincing, and the deck really does seem to instantly change from something that is completely mixed up, with cards haphazardly face-up and face-down, into all the cards being the right way.
Background: This trick is a common beginner trick that can be found in many magic videos and videos, and while most commonly known as “The Slop Shuffle” (Complete Idiot’s Guide to Magic), it’s also called other names like “Self-Reversing Pack” (Mark Wilson’s Complete Course in Magic). There are ways to take this trick to the next level by having a card selected by a spectator, and all the cards are face-down after the “slop shuffle” except the chosen card.
The concept of a “forced card” is a very useful technique in magic. Once you master it, you can perform all sorts of miracles very easily, with many options for how you reveal the card that you have `forced’. There are ways to force a card with sleight of hand, but here are two very simple ways to accomplish this in a self-working manner.
● The Ten-Twenty Force
The effect: You write a prediction for a card to be selected, then get your spectator to freely choose any number between ten and twenty. They deal some cards based on their chosen number, thereby selecting a random card which they reveal. Then your prediction is shown, and it matches the selected card perfectly!
What’s good about it: Being able to correctly predict a card apparently chosen at random by a spectator is a very powerful technique in magic. In fact, the selected card has been predetermined in advance, but by presenting it as a feat of prediction, you really give the impression of being able to tell the future. You can even give the paper with your prediction to a spectator to look after, to prove that nothing is written after the fact, making the prediction feat seem even more convincing.
Background: The principle underlying this is a simple mathematical one, and yet it can be surprisingly deceptive, especially for the average person who has never come across this before. Besides using a card force as a prediction, magician Jay Sankey offers various ways to reveal a forced card in his video here.
The effect: You write a prediction for a card to be selected, and get your spectator to cut anywhere in the center of the deck that they like. The prediction is revealed, and remarkably it turns out that the spectator has cut to exactly the card that was predicted!
What’s good about it: Having a `hands off’ approach where you put the cards in the hands of your spectator always makes a magic trick seem more convincing. You couldn’t have possibly done anything to the cards, because you didn’t even touch them! This makes your magic seem like a real miracle. And yet this trick will work every single time to produce the predicted card!
Background: The “Cross Cut Force” is sometimes underestimated by magicians, but it can be extremely effective when done well. It works best when you pay attention to subtle details, especially by introducing some time delay before revealing the cut card. You’ll find some excellent tips for using this force, and some great tricks that utilize it, in John Bannon’s excellent “Move Zero” series of DVDs. A related and similar method that takes the Cross Cut Force a step further is the “Cut Deeper Force”. You will easily find information about it online, and it can be used as an alternative way to accomplish the same effect.
There you go: ten simple card tricks, and two simple forces! So what are you waiting for? Grab some playing cards, check out some of the videos, and you’ll be amazing people in no time! And no matter how much they ask, keep the secret to yourself, and don’t repeat a trick to the same audience!
About the writer: EndersGame is a well-known reviewer of board games and playing cards. He loves card games, card magic, and collecting playing cards. This article first appeared on PlayingCardDecks.com here.
April and her sister Jenn are the sister bees behind the card deck called “Busy Bee Savings Challenge Cards.” They created these cards to help promote smart financial savings. “This all started out last year as just a way for my sister and I to track our own finances and hold ourselves accountable.” They even have a Youtube channel called @2sisterbeesstudio where they take part in a budgeting community that practices the “cash stuffing method” A method where after each paycheck, a person will start portioning the cash into labeled slots whether it’s for bills, personal use, etc. Many viewers love to tune in to cash-stuffing videos to help better their financial habits as this method helps you become more mindful about spending. “In just over a year our channel has grown to over 7k subscribers. Every day it continues to grow. It’s overwhelming and amazing all at once.”
Their Busy Bee Journey & Design Process
April shares how her sister helped inspire the idea behind the savings cards, “Watching her play the savings games with random objects she had on hand made me think how fun it would be to roll that into a card game.” With many creative ways to design custom cards, some creators are able to illustrate their own, work with designers, or both. We asked how the 2 Sister Bees designed their cards and how the experience went. April explains her design process by sharing ” I used lots of bees. Lots and lots of bees. And that all stemmed from our brand name, 2 Sister Bees.”
“Although I am a designer, I wanted a professional artist and a professional company to help me with the cards. I enlisted the help of an amazing artist I found on Fiverr and then the search for the card manufacturer began. I really wanted a US-based company, so I was so happy to find Shuffled Ink!” A project can also involve troubleshooting many different solutions until the design or product comes out just right. April mentioned how her passion for her card deck made it difficult to be patient while waiting for the final product result. “Being patient was rough. But the artist and the whole team at Shuffled Ink were amazing through the whole process”.
Working With Shuffled Ink
We wanted to know April’s experience working with Shuffled Ink and this is what she had to share.
“I came into this with zero experience doing anything like this before. I really wanted to work with a US-based company and when I did the initial inquiry with Shuffled Ink, the staff was so extremely helpful and insightful that I knew I found my place.
The card quality is outstanding. The holographic details and crisp printing really brought everything to life. I could not be happier with the quality and service I received throughout the manufacturing process.”
Advice to help Those Looking To Custom Print
We receive many questions on how people can get started creating their own custom cards as there are so many different paths to take. April had wonderful advice to help guide aspiring custom card designers who are navigating this journey for the first time. “Find an artist who can really bring your idea to life. And trust the process of both the artist and the card manufacturer. You just focus on being ready to launch your idea and taking care of your customers.”
We’re in bees-ness now!
If you are interested in following up on the 2 Sister Bees, they have listed below their main channels & websites where you can also find the cards for purchase! They ship within 3 business days of purchase!
We had the opportunity to interview Jan Shandera to hear about the creative process behind her card deck called “Mnemonic Letter Flashcards”. The title is pronounced: ne-mon-ic and was inspired by a third-grade student, let’s call him Sandy, who had a difficult time learning most of the alphabet sounds. Jan shares about the first time meeting Sandy, “When I met him he stood before me with his head hung, unable to look me in the eye. I was a special education teacher at the time and was not allowed access to his special education records. The staff were puzzled about how to help him. He looked so sad, so embarrassed, and had so little self-esteem.”
About The Design
Jan had read about how the “mnemonic alphabet” had been discovered to be the best method to help kids learn letter sounds. “In a mnemonic alphabet, the letter is an integral part of the picture and this is supposed to make it more memorable. I concluded this was the way to start helping Sandy, but I couldn’t find such an alphabet anywhere. So I started making one for him.” Jan was able to create the card design using the Adobe Illustrator program. “Using it, I could change shapes easily, dragging points. I don’t consider myself to be an artist, don’t feel I can easily visualize and then draw. The computer frees me to design and ‘fix’ until it looks right. I’m not a graphic designer. I did a lot of color sampling to come up with the brightest, most attractive colors I could.”
Helping Develop Important Skills With Creativity
“I began working with Sandy in late September, it seems like it was just three days a week for 30 minutes and later 60 minutes. As he learned letter sounds, he learned to sound out words and begin reading. By Thanksgiving, he was not only a beginning reader but accomplished his first-ever independent writing. His classroom teacher shared with me a copy of his written response to an assignment, and said he had carefully sounded out his words! I still have it. When I left, Sandy could proudly look me in the eye. It was so rewarding to help this child.”
Issues Faced During The Design Process
Jan first faced issues during the creation process, as she explained “Creating a mnemonic alphabet is a challenge because letters just don’t magically look like an object you can illustrate while keeping the letter as part of the picture. When it comes to vowels, there’s only a limited number of words that start with a pure short vowel sound. Many vowels are slightly altered by the following consonant.” She also had to figure out how to design the “X” card as “I had to put the x at the end of that picture. Think about it, a xylophone starts with a z sound. X-ray doesn’t work, either (it starts with the short e sound ‘eks’).”
The next issue she faced was with the printing process. “At first I printed and laminated my cards myself. Printing at home is fraught with frustrations since I’m a perfectionist. If the printing went well, then there were the bubbles and such with the lamination to deal with. I wanted them to look professional so I could share them with others. Getting the colors right was a challenge too, as was making sure that all parts kept their proper size in relation to the other parts. The letters all had to be traced. Now I don’t have to worry about all that!
Introducing The Deck To Others
“My granddaughter was only 2 or 3 years old when I gave her a deck of my letters. It was such a delight to watch her play with them. She had her favorites, especially p-pig, and m-mouse, and would exclaim their names when she found them in the deck. She was just so tickled with them! It was playing for her, but she was learning letter names and sounds at a very early age. I love the photos I took of her playing with them.”
We asked Jan about her experience working with Shuffled Ink and here is what she had to say, “I researched a variety of companies online and asked for samples. I liked the quality of the samples from Shuffled Ink. It was a big step for me, but everyone at Shuffled Ink treated me like I was one of the family. When the first order came, they were perfect. Now I’m on my third order!”
Let’s say you’ve got a nice deck of playing cards. Naturally you want to enjoy it, and you want to look after it to ensure that it lasts as long as possible. So how should you look after your deck?
First of all, it’s important to realize that it’s not an inherently bad thing to have a deck that shows signs of wear, because that usually means you are enjoying your deck and using it! But obviously you don’t want to accelerate this process of wear any more than necessary. So is there anything you can do to preserve your deck, and make it last as long as possible? As it turns out, there most certainly is, and you can start by considering the suggestions made in this article.
Here are two dozen tips about how to care for a deck of playing cards, gleaned from the world of hard knocks, worn out decks, and experience.
Good Storage
No rubber bands, please! We’ve all seen it: a deck of playing cards, secured tightly with a rubber band. Don’t do it. Why not? Well first of all, over time that rubber band is going to become brittle and break. Worse, when you add some heat it’s going to melt, and you’ll have bits of rubber actually stuck to your cards. Yuck! Furthermore, there’s a real risk that the rubber band will damage the cards at the top and bottom of the deck, because it puts pressure at those points. A rubber band does help keep your deck together, but it offers zero protection for the cards themselves – and we can do better than that!
No pants pocket, please! Sure, it’s nice and warm in there, and it seems to be a safe spot to put your cards. And sometimes you’ll have no option but to put a deck inside your pocket. But think about it: a deck that’s pressed tightly against your body is going to warm up. It may feel romantic, but when romance is in the air, things can start getting sweaty and hot, and that’s a sure-fire way to make your deck start warping. Pants pockets also tend to put pressure on the deck when you walk around or even when you sit, and this can quickly cause damage to the tuck box, or cause the whole deck to bend. If you do need to carry your deck inside an item of clothing, try putting it in a jacket pocket instead. And if you really have to resort to using a pants pocket, try putting your deck inside a card clip or some other deck case or protector first.
Use the tuck box. There’s a reason why playing cards usually come in a tuck box. Tuck boxes are certainly important for marketing and branding, and especially in the case of more classy decks that feature embossing and foil accents on the tuck box, they make an immediate statement of style. But they also serve a very important and practical function in protecting your cards. If you leave your cards out in the open, they are vulnerable to moisture, and will also attract dust – and perhaps even some spider-webs or other nasties that really don’t belong in your deck! So use the tuck box, and look after it! You can always patch it up with duct tape if you really need to! Remember that your tuck box is your first line of defence against playing card enemies like dust, dirt, and even against sunlight and moisture.
Store your decks flat. You’ll find that opinions on this subject do vary. But it can make a difference whether or not a deck of cards is stored in an upright position or flat. When stored flat, gravity is on your side, pressing the cards flat against each other in a natural way. When stored upright or at an angle, there is a greater possibility that your playing cards will warp over time. Whether or not this is an issue for you can depend a lot on your environmental conditions, like the temperature and humidity of the place where your cards are being stored, but you can help combat those other playing card enemies by storing your deck in a flat position.
Good Environment
Avoid humidity. Sometimes you really can’t do anything about the environmental conditions where your deck is stored. But humidity is particularly known to have quite an impact on a deck of playing cards, so if there are ways to store your deck in a cool and dry place, away from sunlight and humidity, and with a relatively stable temperature, definitely that’s the preferred option. Wait a moment, does that sound like your fridge?! I have heard of people who swear that putting a deck in a fridge overnight is the best way to improve the condition of a warped deck, and that it’s also an unorthodox fix for cards that have that undesirable “click”. I haven’t tried the fridge treatment myself, because there can be a lot of moisture lurking there too, so it sounds like a bad idea to me, and I can’t speak from experience. But if you’re really desperate, have exhausted all other options, and are willing to experiment with a particularly rebellious deck, you may want to give that a shot as a last resort! But generally speaking, try to avoid storing your deck in a high moisture area that encourages your cards to curl and warp. Fluctuating humidity is even worse, because cards will expand and shrink, and quickly become damaged. A cool, dry, well-ventilated area is always the best. If you live in a climate with high humidity you might want to put your decks in the same room as your household dehumidifier if you have one.
Avoid sunlight. Sunlight has a tendency to bleach, and if something is left in direct sunlight for extended periods of time, it will inevitably get damaged. You can’t buy sunscreen for cards, but you can keep them away from the sun, by ensuring your cards are stored safely in the tuck case when they’re not being used. This also applies when your playing cards are inside the tuck case – don’t leave it on the ledge of your bedroom window or on the dashboard of your car, where the tuck case is going to sit for hours in the full sun.
Avoid heat. Direct sunlight also invites another enemy of playing cards: heat. And of course there are other sources of heat besides the sun, and adding heat is another sure-fire way to damage your playing cards. This isn’t rocket science, obviously, but I wouldn’t want to be standing underneath the burning flames of rocket engines, would you? Similarly, it’s hardly ideal for your playing cards to be exposed to significant amounts of heat. Heat can accelerate chemical reactions, and changes in temperature will cause things to expand and contract. Inevitably, this will lead to problems like warping, which you really want to avoid. The solution is simple: if you can, try to keep your cards at a constant temperature, and don’t store your deck right beside your fireplace or on the window-sill.
Good Hands
Wash your hands. Now it’s time to open your deck and use it. Go wash your hands please! Yes, really – just like your mother taught you! She probably didn’t have playing cards in mind, but was more concerned about your hygiene. But the reality is that one of the biggest enemies of playing cards is all that dirt and grime that quickly attaches itself to our skin in the course of normal life. When you handle a deck of playing cards, this filth has a habit of unattaching itself, and along with the oils from your skin, finding a new home on your playing cards. Before you know it, those crisp and clean white edges start to look yellowed, or have flecks of grime mysteriously appearing on them. So before doing an intense session of cardistry or practicing your card magic, take a moment to wash your hands carefully.
Dry your hands. You know that guy that you always see leaving the bathroom, shaking his hands dry? Make sure that’s not you, and don’t be that guy! Your hands can easily become sweaty and clammy at the best of times, and while a good wash of your hands before using your cards is always a good idea, it’s equally important to dry your hands. Because playing cards are made out of paper, they love moisture – but for all the wrong reasons! Your cards will inevitably find a way to transfer that sweat or soapy water onto your deck, which is bad news for their longevity. They won’t suddenly swell up or immediately look like they have been damaged, but over time this will cause damage to your cards, and affect their performance, particularly the consistency of the handling.
Good Handling
Handle with care. Maybe this goes without saying, but it’s possible to be rough with your cards. We’ve probably all seen people shuffle cards so crudely that we visibly grimace! If your hands are tense, and you grip the cards too tightly, or bend them excessively while shuffling, you can cause unnecessary damage. Of course it’s equally possible (and perhaps even likely!) that you know how to handle cards carefully, but your friends or family don’t! As a result, if you give them your beloved deck to shuffle, they might be very rough with your cards, and that could simply be because they have never learned the proper techniques for shuffling or handling a deck. Be gracious, of course – but you might want to offer to be the designated shuffler or dealer for the card game.
Spring the cards. Not only is springing cards an impressive visual flourish, but it can also play a very practical purpose of actually helping your cards stay in shape. A card that is being used positively is a happy card. Cards that just sit there and are never used can run the risk of being warped, just like being laid up in bed for weeks will make you stiff and out of shape. In contrast, a good workout with the help of a spring or shuffle can assist in making the playing cards keep shape, by clearing out all the cobwebs or dust (literally!), air them out, and give them some valuable restorative exercise.
Be bi-directional. If you do springs and riffle shuffles, make sure that you don’t just do them the same way all the time, e.g. only face up or only face down. Spring and shuffle them in both directions from time to time, otherwise the cards will always be under pressure to bend the same way. This constant pressure from the same direction will affect the fibres of the cards, and can cause them to be permanently bowed in the long run.
Don’t drop them! This may sound obvious, but dropping your cards is asking for trouble. The first casualty of a dropped deck will usually be the corners of the cards, which risk becoming bent in the process. If you want to fast-track your deck to becoming one of those dog-eared items, throwing your cards around is definitely going to speed up that process. Furthermore, any time your cards spend on the floor means that they’re likely to come into contact with dirt that has been tracked in on the carpet, linoleum, concrete, or grass, or wherever you happen to be using your deck of cards. Getting sand in between your cards is especially something to avoid, because this will cause extra friction in the wrong places, and will speed up the wearing process when you shuffle the cards.
Practice above carpet. If you are a cardist attempting a range of new moves of fancy aerial moves, you don’t want to be doing this above a filthy ground or a hard wooden floor or concrete. You are going to drop cards. Yes, I know that this conflicts with a previous suggestion where I said that you shouldn’t drop the cards. But dropping cards occasionally is part of the cost of progression in cardistry or magic. Every good cardist will drop cards in the course of learning and attempting new and challenging moves. If you never drop cards, then you obviously aren’t challenging yourself or pushing yourself to new heights. And if you know that you are going to drop cards, then it makes sense to have them fall on a surface that is going to be as friendly to them as possible. A clean and soft carpet is best. A hard and dirty wooden floor, or a muddy puddle outdoors most definitely isn’t!
Do nothing. There’s an old saying that “time is a great healer”, and it can apply to playing cards as well. Of course, if your two year old nephew has chewed off the corner of your favourite Ace of Spades, no amount of time is going to make that corner grow back – not even your best Torn and Restored magic routine! But sometimes when a deck of playing cards is starting to feel clumpy or spread unevenly, it just needs a break. Just like a car can overheat, sometimes a deck that has been handled for a long period of time simply needs a breather. So put it back in the box, and maybe in a card clip if you have one, store it in a cool and dry place, and give it a chance to dry out and get back to normal. You may find that in an hour, a day, or a week, the cards handle better again. Just like a holiday can do a stressed person a world of good, an overworked deck can benefit from having an occasional break, so give it a well-deserved and therapeutic rest from time to time!
Good Accessories
Use a deck protector. Don’t have your deck rattling around in the glove-box of your car or in your pocket without any form of protection. That’s not what you’d do with your pet gerbil either is it? No, you’d give him a nice carrying case, or put him inside some kind of container. Well as it turns out, you can get protective containers for playing cards as well. One option is a card clip, but it is important to realize that this tends only to protect a couple of sides of the deck, leaving the other sides unprotected. We’ll cover the benefits of a card clip later – they are best used for a different function. A plastic carrying case is probably a better option to use for transporting a deck, and there are products available like clear plastic playing card storage boxes that work well. Whatever you do, don’t just let those tuck boxes fly around loosely while you are travelling, because they are sure to get dinged and dented, potentially damaging the cards in the process.
Use a card clip. So you’ve given your cards a good workout, and you’ve noticed that they have a slight bend or are warping? A card clip is a utility item, often made of stainless steel metal or alloy, that fits around your tuck box to help with this. Once again, opinions can vary on the benefits and advantages of a card clip, and whether they really make any difference. These are typically claimed to increase the longevity of your playing cards, by providing extra protection and thus ensuring greater durability. A quality card clip typically doesn’t come cheap, but the quality is usually evident immediately. They should have a strong natural spring that ensures that your deck is wedged firmly between two pressure points. In practice, because playing cards can have different thicknesses depending on the stock used, you may need to take some cards out in order to fit a deck inside a card clip – there’s even potential for the tuck box to be damaged if you find yourself trying to squash the deck inside. As far as protection goes, card clips typically only protect a deck from a couple of sides. They certainly offer some protection for a deck that’s in your pocket, but don’t expect them to be bullet proof, because your tuck box will still get banged around and somewhat damaged. In my experience, a card clip is particularly useful for straightening out a deck that has become warped. You could try the more primitive method of placing a deck under a heavy book or table, but placing a deck in a good card clip overnight can work wonders. Besides that, card clips are great accessories, and can make their own statement of style and class.
Use a play mat. I may be starting to sound like an overprotective mother here, but a play mat can really make a difference to the health of your playing cards. Of course a good plain-coloured table cloth might do the trick, but there are better options. Whenever we play card games in my family, we use a very large table sized neoprene mat that we purchased specifically for this purpose. Not only does this protect the table, but more importantly it protects the cards. It makes them stay in position nicely on the table, and it also makes them very easy to pick up. Many of our visitors who have played card games or enjoyed card magic at our dining table have been super impressed with this neoprene mat and wanted to get their own! Magicians have been using close-up mats for card magic for a long time, and the principle is the same. There’s a good reason why poker tables at casinos are typically made of a felt-like material. Even a tablecloth is a better option than playing on a hard wooden table, because invariably cards can be hard to pick up on a hard wooden surface, and have a much higher risk of being damaged that way. You can even purchase a roll of thick felt from a fabric shop, which will do the trick too.
Use fanning powder. All good quality playing cards are given a coating at the end of the production process, and what that does is helps cards fan and spread evenly, and promotes their longevity. Depending on the publisher or creator, this coating can be called things like Magic Finish or Performance Coating. But over time this coating will wear, and as a result the cards will no longer slide over each other as smoothly, and the deck will start to become “clumpy”. One solution to this is to use fanning powder or talcum powder, which can help minimize the extent to which the cards stick together, and restore some of the smoothness to your fans and spreads. For black cards you can’t use white powder, because it will leave a noticeable white residue behind, but it’s definitely an option for non-black cards. Fanning powder is probably much less necessary today than it was in the previous centuries, given the advances of technology and the improved quality of cards today, particularly the coating used. So you’ll likely only need to give this a shot with a cheaper deck of cards, or with one that is very worn.
Good Decks
Get quality decks. When you buy, choose your decks carefully. The writing is on the wall for some decks before you even use them, and a shorter life expectancy for them is almost guaranteed before you use them! This is almost always true of a cheap papery deck from your corner store. In contrast to a quality deck of Bicycle playing cards from USPCC, such a deck is doomed to wear out quickly. So it is worth the time to research the publisher of your deck before making a purchase. A more expensive deck will still wear out in the end, but you will get more mileage out of it due to the quality of the playing cards and the technology used in the production process.
Avoid black decks. This is a bit of a sneaky tip, because playing cards with black bordered backs or faces actually don’t wear out any quicker than playing cards with white borders or faces. I have read that the black ink can pick up dust and absorb moisture more quickly than white cards, but I’m not aware of scientific evidence that backs that up. But what I do know is that the signs of wear will be much more noticeable with black cards. Why? Like most playing cards, cards with black borders/faces are made of paper, and as the cards are used with any kind of frequency, the edges tend to chip and show signs of wear, because these are the parts of the cards that are handled the most and have the most contact. Unfortunately, that means that with black cards the white underneath will naturally show up more quickly. White bordered cards wear in the same way, of course, but since the wear usually shows up as white, it is far less obvious. There are techniques you can use to breathe new life into a deck with black cards, and a simple fix can be to use a black permanent marker on the edge of the cards. You’ll find other tips for extending the life of decks with black cards in the Black Deck Book from Ellusionist, which you’ll find here. But if you are going to choose a deck with black borders, just realize that it won’t look pristine for as long as a deck with white borders.
Save your custom decks. One thing you might want to consider is reserving your higher end custom decks with fancy artwork for special occasions. If you are practicing some new cardistry moves, or trying to learn some new card sleights that you know are going to be hard on your cards, then it’s probably not the best idea to use your prettiest deck. You may want to have a ready supply of cheaper decks for “training” purposes. These decks still offer quality handling and performance, but don’t cost as much money. Sure, they won’t win a Miss America contest for playing cards any time soon, but if you are going to wear out a deck through some rough handling during practice, it might as well be a budget deck like this. Save your custom decks for that special performance, that special games night, or when you want to treat yourself to something special.
Rotate your decks. Someone I know has a fairly large collection of different decks, and has a self-devised system that ensures he “rotates” through his decks, to give them all a chance of hitting the table. Many cardists tend to work with a rotational system of some kind. Not only does this help ensure that all of your decks get “air time”, but it can help extend the life of certain decks that might otherwise get used constantly.
Final Thoughts
Accept the inevitable. The bad news is that a deck of playing cards will wear out. Most playing cards are made out of paper, and paper wears when it gets used. It’s just a fact of life, so you need to accept it. If you plan to use that beautiful deck of playing cards, whether for card magic or for playing card games, it is inevitable that your prized deck is eventually going to show signs of wear. There’s a good reason that finding a century old deck of cards in pristine condition is a rare thing – not that we don’t have many decks from that time period, but it’s just that most decks that go the distance have been played and used, and you can tell at a quick glance that the cards look worn. The same will be true of your decks of playing cards – at least if you actually take the cards out of the box and actually use them.
Not that a deck which shows signs of wear is cause for sadness or grief. A deck that is being used and enjoyed is a happy deck! So actually signs of wear are usually evidence that you are using a deck of playing cards for its intended purpose, and enjoying it for what it is – and that’s often better than leaving it untouched in the fear that it might get hurt. By all means go ahead and use those decks!
Retire the irrepairable. Magicians and cardists are known to use a brand new deck for each performance, and can often wear out a deck of playing cards quite quickly. Most of us will find that we won’t go through decks at quite that level of frequency – especially if you keep the above tips in mind. But eventually a deck will have overstayed its welcome, and you know that it’s time to put it into retirement when cards are sticking together, when fans turn into ugly and clumpy messes, when individual cards look dog-eared or bent, or perhaps when you’ve had spectators sign cards (which they’ve kept as a souvenir) and it’s no longer complete.
Enjoy the perishable. Playing cards are perishable, but don’t let that stop you enjoying them. But hopefully if you keep some of these ideas in mind, you can make your decks last a little longer than they otherwise would. Who knows, perhaps someone will be admiring one of your decks a hundred years from now, silently thanking you for the good care you took of it. But more importantly, with a bit of loving care and attention, you can get extra enjoyment and mileage out of those playing cards already!
About the writer: EndersGame is a well-known reviewer of board games and playing cards. He loves card games, card magic, and collecting playing cards. This article first appeared on PlayingCardDecks.com here.
