making your own tarot/oracle cards: ideas & tips 🃏
i made the mistake of settling with all bendy paper only once. this sounds like a total no-brainer, but never underestimate how durable the material has to be. especially since properly and thinly laminating is usually not something you can do by yourself. so, pick rather stable cardboard and your sharpest scissors.
there’s one exception: use regular paper if you want foldable little pieces to ‘draw lots’. e.g., you can write features on them and divinate your future partner’s appearance. you write all sorts of possible hair and eye colors, heights, ethnicities, clothing styles, prominent facial characteristics etc down. be as specific as you like. then draw from an improvised urn (i use a metal tea box) and you get a physical profile already. e.g. wavy hair - blonde - 5′11.
the same works with personality characteristics. drawing lots is a versatile and faster way of making your own oracle. don’t be afraid to create a bunch, 50 and upward. you’ll need 30% more than you planned once you come up with things to write on them.
for more sturdy cards: since you want to have an easy time shuffling and have all of them in equal size, pick a card template. from another deck, if you have. or print one out. or sketch one with a ruler. important: plain rectangles will be a pain in the ass to shuffle, make sure to cut out cards with rounded edges, always.
go creative with other shapes, just make sure they won’t get jammed or creased when you shuffle. e.g., a heart or sun shape might be very weird to handle. i found that making round cards is great. oval, i don’t know, didn’t try it out yet. triangles: maybe, but again with soft edges.
using stickers and gold/silver/bronze colored-pens works well and looks cool. just be careful to let any gel pen ink dry before assembling the cards. silver on black cardboard is particularly nice.
if you fancy making a larger deck — which you will end up wanting as it has more variety — consider saving time while cutting cards out. stack or fold the cardboard double or triple instead of just one sheet at a time. especially if you make like 80 lots, this will be the #1 hack.
how to come up with things you can write onto your cards? i tend to get the best deck when i don’t think ahead. unless you have a 100% knack for planning it out, improvise all the way, automatic writing. you’ll get all sorts of keywords in your mind once you start out. double-check for repetitions regularly.
sometimes, you might also feel like writing quotes or longer (maybe channeled) messages on them, no limits to experimenting.
take it slow when writing onto the cards. nothing have i regretted more than jotting things down quickly. if you don’t mind sloppy go ahead, just know using a nice handwriting and taking your time respects the cards. especially if you might use them for others, you never know, keep the letters clean and decently large.
mind you, you might omit writing altogether and sketch symbols or imagery. animals, plants, antiques, planets, zodiac signs. it can be rudimentary or absolutely artful, anything is possible. and again, stickers can come in handy here. you often get pretty and plenty ones in home decor/DIY/gardening/lifestyle magazines that have them included on an extra page. just make sure they are rather thin so you can shuffle the cards well. and that’s it, you’re good to go!
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