If you’re a crafty Tarot enthusiast who’s interested in making your own deck, you might want to check out the video below by Isis Chandler from The Do-It-Yourself Pagan.
Chandler has put together a very detailed step-by-step description of the process, from gathering your supplies through to the final lamination.
She’s inspired me to get myself a laminator. I’ve been holding off for a while now, but I think it’s finally time. It really makes the cards look great.
And if you want to try making a deck yourself, but don’t have any designs to work with, feel free to download the images from my Georgie’s Tarot.
If you’re looking for something to craft over the holidays, why not try making yourself a personal Tarot deck.
There are so many ways to do it. You can draw your own images, use photos from your own collection, or stock images from the net.
You can take a box of art cards and organize them into a Major Arcana, or you can try what I’m doing now, a magazine collage deck.
All you need is a pile of magazines and access to a scanner. Any magazines you have on hand will do, as long as they have a wide enough variety of images.
I chose tabloids because they’ve got good pictures, and embarrassingly enough, I had a number of them around.
In most cases, the Major cards are the easiest to find, but depending on the type of magazines you’re using, some archetypes might be more common than others.
In the tabloids, there are plenty of High Priestesses, Empresses, Lovers, and Fools. But it’s harder to find examples of Judgment or the Hierophant. They’re all in there though, you just have to look.
I scanned all my pictures into the computer, and then chopped them up in Photoshop. I added titles and the odd symbol from the Rider Waite Smith deck, and played around with the background colours.
So far, I’ve got rough drafts of eighteen of the twenty-two Majors, and a lot of raw material for the Court Cards and many of the Minors. And my deck has a name – it’s The Tabloid Tarot.
The cards I’ve posted here are first drafts and will definitely change. But as soon as I get all the majors to at least this stage, I’ll be printing out a practice copy and throwing some spreads.
Looking for a New Year’s Tarot crafting project? Why not make your very own Georgie’s Tarot!
What you’ll need:
•13 letter size pages of sticker paper – Avery makes the kind I’ve always used
•2 packs of standard playing cards with the same back design and colour – I usually get used casino decks from the dollar store
•a printer
•a decent pair of scissors
What to do:
•on your sticker paper, print out Georgie’s Tarot from the PDF below (try a test run first on regular paper)
•cut out each of the cards using the outer borders as your guide
•adhere each stickered image to a playing card
And that’s it. Your new deck is ready to go.
Have fun!! I’d love to hear from anyone who makes one.
Please Note: Georgie’s Tarot is free to download, but it’s meant for your personal use only. Georgianna reserves all rights to this deck.