How to Use an Altered Playing Card to Create an Artist Trading Card

Have you ever wondered why anyone would use an altered playing card for their next mixed media art card, atc or miniature art project?

What’s so special about using playing cards?

Here are some thoughts about using a standard playing card as a base for your artwork:

playing cards are a different surface to work on
they are nice and thick, some are even heavier than cardstock
cards are coated
the back is already decorated
if you’re creating an atc (artist trading card) or aceos (art cards, editions & originals), they are the perfect size at 2.5″ x 3.5″
you can buy a really good quality deck of cards for $5 or so and you have 52 cards to alter into your next project

This all started when I was brainstorming ideas for the next ATC swap to host and I wanted to use the theme of “52 pickup” with playing cards as the base. I called out to my friend Carol to give me a hand with narrowing down some ideas and she came back with some really good ones.

Thanks Carol!

The first theme was “things I loved doing this year” and for the altered playing card I was working on, that was “texture”. I’ve already explored texture in all forms and pushed them pretty far so I created a set of three art cards, this one is the first, the other two will be posted over the next two weeks.

When I was thinking how I would work with my altered playing card as the first video lesson, I started with the following textures:

gel skin
crackle paint
buttons

The thing to note is when you work with an altered playing card, it just needs a bit of extra prep work with gesso, since the cards are coated. A tip: gesso a bunch of cards at once to save time.

Working with an altered playing card did have its challenges when I didn’t quite use enough gesso and that’s instantly fixed with a layer of medium.

Running my fingers over the card, I felt the texture that was there and where I could add even more.

curling the heart so it lifts off the card
the slight wrinkle of the gel skin
the buttons
the crackle paint
the gesso brush strokes
and even the quote

The only thing left to do on the card is to apply a label on the back with the title, date and my name.

As with all the projects, if you want to adapt this to something else, such as a greeting card, postcard or large art, you only need to adjust the size of the elements and even that is totally up to you.

Altered Playing Card as an ATC

Ready to Make This?

What did you think?

Thinking of this project as an idea hub, what other ways could you use this altered playing card? Please share your comments below.

← How to Paint a Tree in a Winter Scene with Colourful Snowflakes and Cracked Snow How to Create Three Inspirational Artist Trading Cards with Metal Embellishments →

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Altered Playing Card Tutorial for Mixed Media Artist Trading Cards

4 years ago

[…] first tutorial where you learned about altered playing cards, the focus was on crackle paint and buttons. In this altered playing card tutorial, the focus […]