Thursday, 14 June 2012

Have More Fun With Custom Playing Cards

Are you one of those people who enjoy a game of playing cards? Maybe you are one of those who spend your evenings or after-dinner drinks playing card games with your family in the living room. You could forget all the problems and stresses you had to deal with during the day and just spend some quiet time with your loved ones. The games themselves and the company you share it with makes the whole experience fun and enjoyable.

There is a way to make it more fun and enjoyable, and that is by personalizing your playing cards. You can now have a deck of custom playing card customized for you and your exacting tastes and preferences. Do you have a talent for drawing or painting? Let your playing cards be the outlet of all that artistic zeal and creativity by drawing or painting designs.

You can still have custom playing cards even if you can't draw or paint, and that is through the many ready designs available. If you are a huge fan of sports, you can choose pictures of sports events or even the athletes or players as designs. If you follow celebrities, you can have a deck of custom playing cards with your favorite actors, singers or actresses. If you like old films, such as Casanova or Ben Hur, you can get screen captures of the most famous scenes and put them on the cards.

If you want something closer to home, you can also make use of personal photos from your trips and travels, or simple everyday photographs of your family and your kids. That would be a good design for playing cards of one who always travels away from family. It is a way of keeping them close, even in pictures.

If you are looking for the perfect gift for a card game lover, look no further. Just give them a deck of custom playing cards. You can decide on the design you will put on them once you have ascertained their likes and preferences. Not only is this a unique present, its personalization also makes the gift more memorable since it is obvious you put a lot of thought into it.

Even companies and firms use custom playing cards as corporate giveaways or gifts to their employees in parties or other special events. The design could have their company logo or some other image the represents the company as a whole.

Bring these design ideas to any of the specialty printing shops around you. Digital printing is definitely the best way to go about it. If you go on the internet, there are also many websites who are dedicated to making custom playing cards for you. They also offer many options for those who do not have their own designs. Just browse through their offerings and pick the one you like best. They will even provide you with playing card template packs for free so you can test your designs on the cards and make sure the designs you made fit with the size and layout.

You will also be given options on the quality of printing and material that will be used in making the final deck of cards. Aside from the Bicycle card paper, you can choose other materials as long as you are sure you like them, they will last a long time, and you can afford them.

Wednesday, 6 June 2012

The Playing Cards We Love And Enjoy So Much

There is more to playing cards than meets the eye. It is something that will take people out of boredom or maybe get to bond with others. Let us try to get to know more about these playing cards.

The playing cards now a days could either be made from special heavy paper that is like a thin cardboard, or with a plastic coating. Some are even made from pure plastic. The back of the cards have an identical design while their faces, or the front part, have unique marks. They are usually made to fit the size of one's palm. One deck of playing cards is composed of 52 playing cards, in four different suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs.

According to historical accounts, the first playing cards were seen during the Tang Dynasty in the 9th century in ancient China. The first card games were also originated by the Chinese during that same time. The faces of the cards were soon designed with characters from popular novels during the Ming dynasty.

It wasn't until the 14th century when playing cards finally made its way to Europe, particularly from 1377. Instead of book characters, the designs were abstract and the names were that of military officers. There were 52 cards in each deck of these so-called Mameluke decks. Each deck had four suits, namely: polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups.

The technology involving the manufacture of these playing cards also evolved. It wasn't until the 15th century when printed woodcut decks were used to decorate fabric and transfer to printing paper. When engraving became popular in the 1430s, it was also used.

In 1480, the four suits that are now widely used all over the world - spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs - started in France. The design made use of images of members of the European royalty. It's a design styling that is clearly apparent in today's modern playing cards.

It is a fact that in some places, their card games are unique and all their own. As a result, they need decks of cards that fit those games. Instead of 52 cards, Italian playing cards only have 40 cards, designed for playing Italian regional games such as Scopa or Briscola. There are other countries who remain traditional even in their playing cards and the designs. As an example, you will find Latin suit symbols in the traditional deck of playing cards in Spain.

Thanks to modern technology, anyone can also have their own personalized deck of playing cards. Customized designs such as personal photograph or any other image we fancy can be printed on the cards. That will only increase your enjoyment of the game.

You should definitely have your own deck of these versatile cards. There are a lot of card games that you can play so you will never be bored. If you have a customized design, you will definitely enjoy the card games even more.