I'm thinking of an effect for which I might want to print on the face of blank playing cards. In this particular case it would be better if what's printed did not look hand written. Before I risk screwing up my ink jet (or the laser at work!), has anyone else tried this? How did it work out? In the case of an ink jet I imagine I'd want to spray on some kind of fixative after printing.

Thanks.

I used my Ink Jet and it worked out fine. I needed a deck of symbol cards and used blank face cards for stock. I used a card stock sheet 8 by 11 inches as a "drone" and a marked off spot that had some two sided tape on it.

Bob

Hi Rocketeer,
I do it quite a bit.
The best thing to do is get Mark Allen's "Versatile Monte and Beyond"
He shows you how to make a template to insure what you print is centered on the card.
Also, clean the surface you will print to with acetone. Let it really dry. Spray the Krylon Workable Fixatff after the printing is completely dry.
Like I said though, the best bet is to get the DVD.

Hope this helps,
Jack

What Jack said. You have to clean the coating off the face of the blank card with acetone (fingernail polish remover works well) before printing. Be gentle - don't let any bleed over onto the back or into the edges. Let the card dry overnight after cleaning before printing. Let the ink set for an hour or two before spraying with your fixative.

Like Bob says, affix a card to a sheet of lite card stock to carry it through the printer. Mess around with it for awhile to make sure you've got the centering down.

I haven't printed magic cards, but I have printed Magic (the Gathering) cards this way, and it works pretty well.

You might do a search. This has been discussed before many times..a search may yield some excellent answers!

For simple designs or numbers I often go to a signwriter and have him laser cut the items I need onto the thinest cast vinyl available, then using transfer tape, place the designs onto blank card stock.

Recently I have been making Three Card Monte sets for various customers. I took sets of Jumbo Side Walk Shuffle cards and glued the designs onto the glossy card stock with an artist's gum. For example you can make up a Spot the Ball Monte set where the "money" card is a soccer ball with a large ball in the centre and a smaller ball as the "pip". Look at the 4 x Side Walk Shuffle cards and you will see how this can be done. The 4th blank card can be made into a duplicate of the money card, and switched in at the end.

Back to printing on cards. Try Mark Allen's DVD, but for small runs I do recommend sign vinyl lettering.

Interesting idea. I never tried that. until today
it worked very well.
I started printing my own deck design

-Matt

How well does the Mark Allen material apply to a Mac user running AppleWorks ?

Just my two cents. If you use Microsoft Publisher (or any other publishing program for that matter) you can make an outline of a card. A card is 2.50" x 3.50". Make a rectangular just slightly larger than this (2.58" x 3.58"). Be sure the rectangle's borders show. Save this. You will use this saved file as a template. Print it out on card stock.
Now you can add any clipart into the rectangle you made. Just don't move the rectangle. Hold the card or cards down with two sided tape, or tape the edges down using just a small amount of tape to hold the card. If you have a pass thru on your inkjet, use that.

I've printed cards with termites on them to do Trost's Fly Cards at tradeshows for wood industries. As others have said, nail polish is used to remove a bit of the plastic surface and the I used cellulosa(spelling?) based fixative. To get the proper alignment put double stick tape (or roll a piece of tape with the sticky side outwards) on the back of the card and affix it in the middle of a A4 paper. Scan the paper then alter the image in any way you like before printing it out on the paper and card you scanned. The positioning is automatically correct then.

I didn't bother to get the air cushion finish back into the card. Anyone tried to do that? Perhaps by putting linnen on top of the card after the fixative is sprayed onto it?

/Tomas

The only problem with using an inkjet printer to print card faces is that (depending on the finish already on the blanks) with excessive handling, sweat, or humidity, the ink will run quite badly. If you can get ahold of a colour laser printer to use, you'd be better off.

Cheers!
Keith

Keith,

The Acetone and Spray fixatif takes care of that problem.

"Versatile Monte..." is priceless information for printing your own cards.

Thank for this - I do this quite a bit - I used to give the card a light snad with fine grade sand paper but could not find a "varnish" to use afterwards - made the cards get dirty and worn very quickly without it