Penny Dreadful Tarot Cards

So I saw that there's a wide released version of the Tarot Cards but they don't look quite the same as the prop cards. Is there anything else out there that's done closer to the cards on the show?

Haven't seen the show. Are these the right ones, or the not-right ones, or neither ?

Well, the cards released by Showtime are nice, but the card stock looks to be thinner and very glossy. The cards on the show seem to be of a thicker card stock and are matte. Also, the officially released decks come with Penny Dreadful written across the front on the bottom and top. Not a huge deal, but would rather find something closer to the show for my collection.

Oh yeah, they should NOT say Penny Dreadful on them. The problem with printing tarot cards online, is the copyright issue. They won't print them for you if they realize the cards are copyrighted. That leaves homemade cards.

I ordered me a set of cards from eBay. And I have Hulu Plus, so I think they have the episodes. I'm going to watch at least the first episode.


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You need Hulu Plus AND Showtime.

Guess I'll have to go Netflix and wait.

I actually messaged the artist that did them for the show and she says the only actual sets are the ones still being used on the show. She confirmed what I already was thinking and said that the prop cards are a different size, contain no writing on the front and also are matte with a slight texture to them. She was pretty open to talking about them which was pretty cool.

Good info. But you need to try and find out the exact size if they are "non-standard" tarot cards.

She told me last night that she knows the size used but isn't allowed to give out that information unfortunately.

The Rider-Waite tarot comes in LARGE size. 3.75 x 6.5 inches.

Does that look about right for the cards in this photo ?

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The right is printed at the larger size, 3.75 x 6.5. My hand may be different size, of course.

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If it has texture, then it's probably a LINEN paper, very heavy.

Yeah the size looks spot on in those pics! What'd you print that sample card with? And I think you're right about that, it definitely has a bumpy type texture when you see them on the show and they seem to be quite a thick type of paper as well. I'll try and post some photos tomorrow from my dvd on here of some closeup shots for reference.

My pic is just on 65 lb cardstock printed on my laser printer. I edited out the "Penny Dreadful" and then I realized I should have used the Devil card, same as the other pic. :rolleyes

http://www.thepapermillstore.com/vi...11-in-100-lb-cover-linen-250-per-package.html
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This is some Heavy Linen Cover stock, thickness is 270 gsm. I have access to my commercial grade copier at work that will print up to 300 gsm.

Home printers will often do up to 220 gsm at most.

Maybe you'd like to go halfsies on the paper ?

Man I'll tell ya, it seems that there isn't one thing you can't do on here lol. Did you get a chance to check out any of the episodes yet from Season 1?

I'll send my current Netflix DVD's back tomorrow, so I should get Disk 1 of Penny Dreadful Saturday.

I'll probably be doing a set for myself and Rusty85. Nobody else has posted, so there's probably no point in doing a run.

I think they're just cool and different for Tarot cards.

what do you intend on doing with the cards can have a impact on the paper/card-stock you use. do you plan on using them as a display piece or occasional handling them like cards? playing card stock is designed for heavy use. i would make sure whatever paper you use it passes the bend test (any corner bent to touch any other corner leaves no visible deformation such as creases or dimples to the card after being bent back) and if you want to go a step further get something with a blackout core (so when you hold it to a light you cant see whats on the other side).

you can buy card blanks that meet the criteria for cards that are good to handed

http://www.makeplayingcards.com/design/blank-tarot-cards.html

(i have not used this sight and cannot attest to the quality of there products or customer service)

card blanks are a bit tricky to work with. i do custom magic the gathering full art cards and card alterations on my Epsom inject ns625 using double sided tape and regular paper as a carrier sheet to trick the printer into printing on 300gsm stock without it freaking out/jamming.

you also need some surface prep-products to allow ink to be used on cards without bolting and running

i use a 50/50 mix of golden digital ground and folk art glass and tile medium. you can brush on a base coat wait till it dries and then use a sponge or texture brush to get the texture you want on the cards.clean the brushes after each coat as this mix drys quickly into buggers of goo in the brush (i further mix the "printer gesso" 50/50 with water so i can run it through the air brush and get a very smooth surface with no texture when doing art cards.this is not necessary hand brushing but the liquid wont run through a airbrush unless its watered down)

i also always do a final coat or two of krylon clear matte finish to semi water/oil proof the ink and protect the art from smudging and dirty hands



the left card is printed on medium tooth watercolor paper (3.75x 6.5) and the right is printed on a magic card that was de-inked with acetone then prepped with "printer gesso" and would be a more accurate representation of what you would get with card blanks (minus any texture added with the "printer gesso" as i was to lazy to make a new "textured" blanks and had some full art "smooth" card blanks already done)

im going to make a set of theses some card captor Sukora cards and some final fantasy tipple triad cards as gifts for people so im going to try the card blanks from makeplayingcards.com myself as they are so cheap

side note. it is considered by superstitious people (like people that go to tarot card readings) that buying tarot cards for yourself results in bad luck when using them and any you use should be received as a gift.i am not superstitious but even if i was i wouldn't think this extends to making your own but i could be wrong and big-foot could be real.

Thanks for the education.

They don't offer card blanks in the 3.75 x 6.5 size, so I'll have to print and cut.

And since I'll be using a laser printer that's designed for 300 gsm, should be pretty straight forward printing. (also less banding than your inkjet)

"A final coat or two of krylon clear matte finish" is probably a good idea.

cutting that many cards by had is going to be a pain. if you dont already have access to one i would get a paper cutter and it would be a good idea to go to the scrap booking section of your local fabric/crafting store and get yourself a corner punch so you get nice repeatable corners on all the cards.

i made a poker deck out of standard card-stock a long time ago as an art project back in high school and i remember the corners being the worst part because when you stack 52 cards together any little differences add up and the deck can end up looking off kilter. my solution then was to take the whole deck down to the wood shop and clamp the whole deck together in a vice and sand off the corners then shuffle them and repeat until it came out looking nice

good luck . would love to see a few shoots of the finished decks when your done.now i am off to go run a printer head calibration to see about that banding issue.

Yes, I found a suitable corner punch. And I do have a paper cutter. And most definitely, a set for Me and for Rusty will be a LOT of cutting.

I've had some card decks printed for me with an online service, but this'll be the first one I'm making myself. I believe Rusty and I are in the same boat. We want this for our Prop collections more so than to use them on a daily basis. Will post some pictures when finished.

I'm really curious how they're going to turn out. Jintosh's work has never been anything than stellar so I'm ecstatic! I have two shelves in my display that house all my antiquities and this tarot deck seems like a worthy addition to it. I have the Latin etched on the doors from 13 Ghosts as well to give it that little extra supernatural feel. On that note I've been searching for the box the cards are stored in as well but so far haven't turned up anything : /

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The box is shown in shadow, or by itself without size reference. Is it maybe 6 x 9 ish or 8 x 10?